2009.06.21 07:00 - Emptiness and Love Together

The Guardian for this meeting was Adams Rubble--. The comments are by Adams Rubble--.

I sat for a little while alone until joined by Udge and then briefly by Eliza who arrived with her dog avatar still wearing its party hat from last night's session.

Adams Rubble: Hello Udge :)
Udge Watanabe: hello adams, nice to see you again
Adams Rubble: Yes, very nice to see you :)
Adams Rubble: I just got done posting the log from last night :)
Adams Rubble: We had a very silly session
Udge Watanabe grins. Good, I approve of that.
Adams Rubble: I am afraid it was my fault
Udge Watanabe: ha, now I shall have to read it.
Adams Rubble: I think it is the brunette hair
Udge Watanabe: must be.
Udge Watanabe: very nice, btw.
Adams Rubble: seems to make me a bit flighty
Adams Rubble giggles at using last night's material
Adams Rubble needs a new writer
Udge Watanabe: recycling is good.
Adams Rubble: different audience :)
Udge Watanabe: right.
Adams Rubble: until you read the log
Udge Watanabe: :)
Udge Watanabe: well, I'll do that later, then. You can reuse your material on me and I will laugh at its freshness :)
Adams Rubble: hehe
Adams Rubble thinks maybe she should change to a more serious outfit :)
Udge Watanabe: naah
Udge Watanabe: unless you are uncomfortable
Adams Rubble: Hello Eliza :)
Udge Watanabe: wow! eliza, what a lovely av
Adams Rubble giggles
Adams Rubble: I just got the log posted Eliza :)
Eliza Madrigal: Thanks Udge...someone seems to have had some fun last night
Udge Watanabe: heheh
Adams Rubble looks at her feet
Udge Watanabe chuckles
Eliza Madrigal: Adams you look very pretty
Adams Rubble: Thanks, I had to get out of the brown hair before something happened :)
Adams Rubble: I am afraid I still do not feel too serious
Adams Rubble: but running out of props
Eliza Madrigal: hehe probably a very good thing
Adams Rubble: only about 17,000 left
Udge Watanabe is getting very curious.
Eliza Madrigal: ahhaha
Eliza Madrigal: Yikes...shouldn't have signed on...chaos here this morning :)
Eliza Madrigal: Hopefully will beback in a little while *hugs*
Adams Rubble: :)
Udge Watanabe: bye fr now, eliza
Adams Rubble: oh, I musudnerstood her
Adams Rubble: hope everything is OK
Udge Watanabe: yeah...

Eliza left quickly and I recounted parts of a dream; we were soon joined by Pema who was still at the airport

Adams Rubble: I had a dream last night in which people were extremely argumentative
Adams Rubble: one of the issues was whether to call the afternoon break a coffee break or spot of tea
Adams Rubble: Hello Pema :)
Udge Watanabe chortles
Udge Watanabe: hello pema
Adams Rubble: surprised to see you Pema :)
Pema Pera: Hi Adams and Udge!
Udge Watanabe: what time is this for you?
Pema Pera: yes, my plane is late . . . so here I am, waiting at JFK
Udge Watanabe: ha
Pema Pera: so that gave me a chance to join you both!
Adams Rubble: oh, good to see you but sorry for the reason
Udge Watanabe smiles.
Pema Pera: oh, no problem, on a 14 hour flight to Japan, a few hours delay doesn't make that much of a difference
Adams Rubble: I am afraid I turned your session last night into a free for all
Pema Pera: what happened?
Adams Rubble: I put on brunette hair and seemed to get a bit flighty
Pema Pera: :-)
Adams Rubble: it became a very silly session
Pema Pera: sounds like fun!
Udge Watanabe: :)
Adams Rubble: I took pictures
Udge Watanabe laughs. You are teasing us.

Udge was wearing a tag "Token Dull Person"

Adams Rubble: Udge, that tag does not fit you at all :)
Adams Rubble: Hello Eos :)
Udge Watanabe: oh, that depends on the context, adams :)

Eos arrives follwed by Avastu while I am still telling my dream

Pema Pera: Hi Eos!
Udge Watanabe: hello eos
Adams Rubble: I was telling Udge that I woke up from dreaming about everyone arguing over what things are called
Eos Amaterasu: HI Pema, Udge
Adams Rubble: the last example was a coffee break vs. a spot of tea
Pema Pera: perhaps no need to dream -- that happens in RL too!
Udge Watanabe: yeah
Adams Rubble: hehe
Adams Rubble: People in my dream were very, very anngry about it
Adams Rubble: Hello Avastu :)
Pema Pera: Hi Avastu!
Pema Pera: Great seeing you again!
Udge Watanabe: hello Avastu.
Avastu Maruti: hello my friends - love to you
Adams Rubble: Love to you too Avastu :)
Pema Pera: How are things with you, Avastu?
Avastu Maruti: perfect as always - and you?
Pema Pera: I'm fine too, thank you!

Sophia joins us

Adams Rubble: Hello Sophia :)
Pema Pera: Hi Sophia!
Udge Watanabe: hello sophia
sophia Placebo: hi pema :) all
Eos Amaterasu: :-)
Avastu Maruti: hello my friend

Pema starts a thread by recounting a wonderful quote of Nisargadatta

Pema Pera: Avastu, the other day I looked up the Nisargadatta entry on wikipedia -- I was curious what had been written about him, and what quotes were used. I was happy to see quite a good entry. The quotes were great too.
Pema Pera: for example:
Pema Pera: "When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I see I am everything, that is love. My life is a movement between these two."
Avastu Maruti: yes
Pema Pera: (background: Nisargadatta was a Hindu teacher, who also inspired Avastu, as the teacher of his teacher -- I greatly enjoy reading Nisargadatta)
Adams Rubble: I have an entirely different understanding of the quote than I would have last summer when I was reading Nisargadatta
Udge Watanabe: say more, adams?
Adams Rubble: Maybe I am learning to love in a new way
Udge Watanabe smiles
Pema Pera 's turn to ask: can you say more, Adams?
Adams Rubble: :)
Adams Rubble: It doesn't seem to be words. I felt the statement
Adams Rubble: I don;t rememebr reading anything about Love in Nisargadatta last summer :)
Adams Rubble: I am a bit curious now to look back and see what I may have missed
Udge Watanabe nods. Any book worth reading needs to be read at least twice IMHO
Pema Pera: at least!
Udge Watanabe: you need one or more reading just to get over it being new and strange.
Pema Pera: yes, like a great dish that you learn to appreciate in more and more detail
Eos Amaterasu: RE "When I see I am everything, that is love.", slightly shifting that to "I am not separate from anything" => empathy, compassion
Eos Amaterasu: That pain is my pain is open presentation of pain

Openess of emptiness

Pema Pera: yes, the openness of emptiness . . .
Pema Pera: the more we taste that, the more it becomes possible, and in fact very natural, to let everything just present itself . . . .
Eos Amaterasu: openness going along with precision of emptiness: every little detail
Pema Pera: no struggle, hence no reason to gloss over any detail
Pema Pera: no agenda, so no reason to iron out or simplify any "inconvenient truth"
Eos Amaterasu: :-)
Adams Rubble: what is the emptiness?
Pema Pera: you mean in Eos' statement, Adams?
Adams Rubble: I thought you used the term first Pema
Adams Rubble: [7:42] Pema Pera: yes, the openness of emptiness . . .
Pema Pera: I quoted Nisargadatta :-)
Adams Rubble looks back
Pema Pera: ah yes, and then I took it from there
Eos Amaterasu: This morning, cutting potato into slices, momentary gap/rest after each slice
Eos Amaterasu: tiny break in pre-occupation of my activity

Explanation of emptiness in this context

Pema Pera: each moment a new opening . . . .
Pema Pera: each moment empty . . . . ready for something totally new and different
Pema Pera: or seemingly the same :-)
Pema Pera: so emptiness is no judgment, no expectation, open for whatever may come
Adams Rubble is beginning to understand
Adams Rubble: no need to continue what we think has to be continued...we are just filling the emptiness with more of the same
Pema Pera: and when we continue, then that too is fully new and fresh
sophia Placebo: see you later :) bye
Pema Pera: even though it may look the same

Sophia leaves quickly before we can say goodbye

Adams Rubble: bye Sophia :)
Pema Pera: bye Sophia!
Eos Amaterasu: bye Sophia
Eos Amaterasu: I think that also applies to motivation, whatever personal motivation we have going, which can drop for a moment, and then what motivation comes next might come from ....?
Eos Amaterasu: someplace "else"

Back to Love

Eos Amaterasu: which maybe brings it back to love (?)
Adams Rubble: :)
Pema Pera: yes, motivation needs to be renewed -- we can't just let it run on autopilot
Pema Pera: and each time we look, the motivation becomes richer
Pema Pera: fuller and simpler
Pema Pera: starting from trying to reach something, to improve ourselves, and then shifting more and more to celebrating, to just being

Dull? really?

Pema Pera: which may sound rather dull :-)
Udge Watanabe: on the contrary, it sounds delightful.
Adams Rubble looks again at Udge's tag with new respect
Udge Watanabe: it ties in with a book I was reading, "The art of travel" by Alain de Botton
Pema Pera was thinking just that
Udge Watanabe: he talks about the timportance of travelling without preconceptions, and especially without guide books
Udge Watanabe: because the things they point out distract you from what else is really there for you to see
Udge Watanabe: and they seem to devalue the things that _do_ catch your eye. "That windowbox of geraniums is lovely, but how many Michelin stars did it get?"
Pema Pera: hehehe
Pema Pera: When visiting a new city, I always prefer not to go to any museum or landmark the first day, but rather just to saunter around
Udge Watanabe nods

Pema leaves

Pema Pera: well, I'll check my delayed flight again, talking about traveling :-)
Pema Pera: great seeing you all here!
Udge Watanabe smiles. Bon voyage, Pema, I hope you get away soon
Eos Amaterasu: bye - I also must leave, thanks for the great dialogue
Avastu Maruti: good bye my friend
Udge Watanabe: bye eos, take care
Adams Rubble: bye Pema. Have a good flight
Adams Rubble: by Eos
Adams Rubble: bye
Pema Pera: bye everybody!
Udge Watanabe: I can recommend "the art of travel", its conclusions are very PaB-like :)
Adams Rubble: Thanks Udge :)
Udge Watanabe: and the style is good, de Botton has that typically English wistful, thoughtful, gentle melancholy tone
Adams Rubble: It does depend a bit on what you look for in a guidebook though :)
Udge Watanabe: well, yes :)
Udge Watanabe: and it is easy to say "you're doing it wrong" to people who take guidebooks on their six-day tour of all Italy :)
Adams Rubble nods
Udge Watanabe: but they are not you, they dont have your possibilities or your interests.
Adams Rubble: I would want the 1908 Baedeker's
Udge Watanabe smiles.
Adams Rubble is a bit wierd :)
Udge Watanabe: well, many of the places I most want to see are in the past anyway :)
Udge Watanabe: Saigon before WW2, when it was called the Paris of the Orient.
Udge Watanabe: Los Angeles in the early 70's, when there was cheap gas and full employment and the Beach Boys were singing in the club by the shore
Adams Rubble: Little old lady from pasadena.........
Udge Watanabe: mmhmm
Adams Rubble: go granny, go granny, go granny, go
Udge Watanabe: the soundtrack to my childhood :)
Udge Watanabe: though I never actually bought an album until about 2 years ago
Adams Rubble: that's the way of it :)
Udge Watanabe: I didn't have to, they were all around. You don't buy air.
Adams Rubble: now we have YouTube
Adams Rubble: My Baedeker's would not work in Asia
Adams Rubble: only in Europe
Udge Watanabe nods.
Adams Rubble saw Los Angeles in the early 1980s and feels she has seen quite enough
Udge Watanabe: yeah :)
Adams Rubble giggles
Udge Watanabe: only the Getty would interest me there today.
Adams Rubble: me too
Udge Watanabe: but I could probably spend a week in the Getty
Adams Rubble: hmmmm
Adams Rubble thinks it is a case where the collections may not be up to the building
Udge Watanabe: oh dear, that would be a terrible disappointment.
Udge Watanabe: there! you see?
Udge Watanabe: expectation in action.
Udge Watanabe: setting up a disapointment
Adams Rubble: It is a relatively new collection
Adams Rubble hangs her head for spoiling Udge's view of the Getty
Udge Watanabe: nonono, me not you.
Adams Rubble promises not to write a guidebook
Udge Watanabe: :)

Then Udge and I depart too and the session ends

Adams Rubble: I am afraid I am going to have to go
Adams Rubble: Have a good rest of the day everyone :)
Udge Watanabe: it was great to see you again, Adams. Take care, enjoy the day.
Adams Rubble: or night
Avastu Maruti: good bye my friend
Adams Rubble: bye everyone :)
Udge Watanabe: I should go too, places to do, things to see.