2009.09.12 07:00 - Watching the Boundary

The Guardian for this meeting was Eliza Madrigal. The comments are by Eliza Madrigal.

I arrived to Bertram, Eos, and Doug at the pavillion, later to be joined by Pema. We begin with weather patterns, then practice patterns, then jump into very nice 90 second explorations...

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Bert!
Bertram Jacobus: whaow - "alone" ! - hi eos :-)
Bertram Jacobus: just had heavy lag ...
Bertram Jacobus: ah. "the next one" - hi doug :-)
Eos Amaterasu: yes, laggy
Eos Amaterasu: hi doug
doug Sosa: moring, so to speak.
Bertram Jacobus: ups - he couldn´t read me yet : 21 m away ... ;-)
doug Sosa: morning..
Eos Amaterasu: brb
Bertram Jacobus: so i copy and paste : ah. "the next one" - hi doug :-)
doug Sosa: hi.
Bertram Jacobus: morning ... 9 o clock at you doug ?
Eos Amaterasu: brb
Bertram Jacobus: helllo eliza ... :-)

I situate myself so that we each have two cushions between... 

Eliza Madrigal: Hello :)
Bertram Jacobus: perfect symmetrie ... ;-)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
doug Sosa: no, 7.
Bertram Jacobus: uh. early ! west or east coast doug please ?
doug Sosa: we had a huge thujderstorm last night, very unusual this time ofyear.
Bertram Jacobus: must be west ...
Eliza Madrigal: We've been in storms every day for a few weeks now
doug Sosa: west coast north ofsan francisco on a river, nearthe sea.
Bertram Jacobus: wheather is mixed up. climate troubles ...
Bertram Jacobus: for a few weeks !? whaow ...
doug Sosa: hard to separate statistics from trends.
Eliza Madrigal: Yes, We have a pattern of storms always, but usually in July
doug Sosa: eliza where?
Eliza Madrigal: South Florida
Bertram Jacobus: yes doug, but i find it too obvious : when we burn the stuff of million of years in only some over 100 ...
Bertram Jacobus: millions
Eliza Madrigal: One July it stormed every single day. I had neighbors in canoes...
Eliza Madrigal: :)
doug Sosa: with the aligators :)
Eliza Madrigal: hehe, yes and crocodiles and boa constrictors
Eliza Madrigal: but no hurricanes (this year) thus far :)
Eliza Madrigal: Is someone filling in for Sophia? Or shall I claim the log today?
Bertram Jacobus: in germany it´s to me as we got tropical wheather now slowly ... :-)
Bertram Jacobus: would be nice if you do so i guess eliza (?) ...
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Pema :)
Bertram Jacobus: and hello pema ... :-)
Pema Pera: Hi Bert, Eliza, Eos, Doug!
doug Sosa: hi.

Pema has arrived, and Bert expresses noticing a lack of continuity when it comes to the pauses day to day...

Bertram Jacobus: again and again i try to configure my regardfulness reminder new, but i fail until now because of a big lack of continuity . a great problem to me as long as i can think ...
--BELL--
Eliza Madrigal: Bert, you mean the timer?
Bertram Jacobus: yes
Bertram Jacobus: and not the one "in the computer"
Bertram Jacobus: and i´m a technical dummy with some things
Eliza Madrigal nods... sometimes the wanting to be too structured gets in the way of doing any practice at all
Bertram Jacobus: so the first programming of my mobile for this was completely wrong
Eliza Madrigal: Did you figure it out?
Bertram Jacobus: and a reminder every hour is enough for me at the moment i noticed ...
Bertram Jacobus: yes. it´s much better now. but still some wrong signals yet. i work on it
Eliza Madrigal: :)
doug Sosa: I've a basic question for some friends, how doyou do right click on a mac to sit in SL?
Pema Pera: command-click
doug Sosa: its a koan. got em stumped :)
Eos Amaterasu: ctrl-click
Bertram Jacobus: sry. no experiences with mac ... :-/
doug Sosa: thanks eos.

Pema suggests an exploration, and asks for ideas...

Pema Pera: Would you be interested in doing some kind of exercise/exploration during the next 90 sec break?

Didn't mean to step on Pema's question...

Eliza Madrigal: Years ago I tried to keep a habit of writing every day... something called 'morning pages'... I'd get so hung up on missing days that it dried up completely until I decided only to do it when I felt moved. The desire was there but it didn't actually happen til I did that... then found myself writing a lot.

And I'd almost always rather do an exploration than ramble on like that... hah... 

Eliza Madrigal: Ah, sorry Pema...yes :)
Bertram Jacobus: and when i´ve all the reminders, from 9 am to 8 pm at the moment - i try to write also some notices . very good training for me
Pema Pera: good point, Eliza!
Pema Pera: always important to be flexible
Bertram Jacobus: yes. interested ! :-)
Pema Pera: and yes, Bert, I have always found writing very helpful too
Pema Pera: any suggestion for an exploration?
Bertram Jacobus: no ? i thought you had one ? :-)
Pema Pera: I have many :-)
Bertram Jacobus: uh ! whaow ! great ! astonishing ... :-)
Pema Pera: but perhaps others have a preference?
Bertram Jacobus: seems not (?)
Eliza Madrigal: Maybe with you and Eos here... there might be something
Eliza Madrigal: you did at retreat?
Pema Pera: Eos?
Pema Pera: Doug was there too, Doug?
Eliza Madrigal: And Doug :)

Doug has a great idea and begins to frame it...

doug Sosa: I've been thinking about transitions, like from watching a movie to RL.
doug Sosa: going from RL through 9 sec is like a transition for me.
doug Sosa: the way we hold on and let go of the experience we are moving out of.
Eliza Madrigal: Hmm
doug Sosa: i watched a movie last night filmed in washington, where i used to live.
Pema Pera: can you translate that in an exploration we can do in the next 90 seconds, Doug?
doug Sosa: roused memories, and when the film was over
doug Sosa: i had a harder time letting go of the assumption i was in washington.
doug Sosa: watch the boundary, how we tranlate from one to the other, in to and out.
Pema Pera: in general?
Pema Pera: or in and out of the 90 seconds?
doug Sosa: now intothe 90 sec :)
Pema Pera: okay!
Eliza Madrigal: okay
--BELL--
doug Sosa: wow.
doug Sosa: first thin, the bell was not the beginning of the90 but the end of nomal.
doug Sosa: because as it faded i was arriving in the 90 sec.
doug Sosa: thing..
doug Sosa: then almost disembodied.
doug Sosa: i was one among a bunch of things all equal, the dark sky (rain) gravity, the floating computer screen..
doug Sosa: the equality of things was most intersting.
Eliza Madrigal: yes that is fascinating, doug
Bertram Jacobus: for me, there was no big difference. because my head kept on producing thought after thought. a big later i noticed : okay, the body acts less while the 90 secs ...
doug Sosa: i has "assumed" the bell was in the 90 sec. but in reality it was not, it was part of normal SL, as it faded it was replaed by theexperience of being in the 90 sec.
Bertram Jacobus: a bit*
doug Sosa: has - had
Eliza Madrigal: what about transitioning 'out' when the seconds were over?
Pema Pera: interesting, Doug, yes, boundaries also have their own width
doug Sosa: much clower tha going in. in is like a doorway, out is more like ...??
doug Sosa: slower
doug Sosa: well, i think i never quite get out. "you can't go home again..:)
Eos Amaterasu: no reason to "go" out
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Pema Pera: :)

Inspiring descriptions...

doug Sosa: the 9 (or 90) is like through a door into bigger nature and then, civilization slowly comes back, then, through the door into the bigger nature again.
doug Sosa: instead of a step funtionis is a saw tooth.
Pema Pera: what I noticed strongly this time was how entering a 90 sec time zone felt more like entering a different place . . . . as many of us have remarked at times; this time it was more vivid
Pema Pera: space and time are intertwined in interesting ways here
doug Sosa: incredible pleasure in it.
Eliza Madrigal nods and listens...really nice descriptions
Bertram Jacobus: in which ways pema please ?

Doug describes how the 90 second practice helped him to shift into awakeness...

doug Sosa: it is early and we had severe thundershowers so my sleep was not normal.
doug Sosa: when i started the session i felt slightly groggy.
doug Sosa: whn we started the 90 sec i was completeely awake..
doug Sosa: because my relationship wth things shfted from slight hostility
doug Sosa: on my part not theirs..
doug Sosa: to open peerdom.

The 'offering up' may sound confusing. To me this is a new approach toward 'appreciating', which is to allow all things/distractions to be given up into openness... Sorry if the explanation is even more confusing...hah. :)

Eliza Madrigal: I think I was more practical in this... that I entered into the bell and found that I was holding 'plans for the day' so I wiped them away to enter into 'mind dwelling nowhere' and then a distraction which I offered up, in a way.... then didn't hear the second bell

A different place...

Pema Pera: I meant, Bert, that entering a time interval felt also like a space interval, a different place
Bertram Jacobus: ah. i see pema. ty
Pema Pera: lovely, Eliza!
Eos Amaterasu: time/space/how-ness
doug Sosa: i find trying to have no thoughts not good for me. t is openness to experiencing what is in a fresh way, not to avoid it.
Eliza Madrigal: I can't say that is a no-thought place.. it feels like a substance sort of
Eliza Madrigal: and definitely a sense of 'place'
Eos Amaterasu: the slight xtra effort at 9, 90 secs time is indeed "extra", itself a phenomenal intention, but it perks you up
Eos Amaterasu: I feel that accepting that is part of the playfulness
--BELL--
doug Sosa: i must leave at the next bell. bye
Eliza Madrigal: that time went quickly... I even imagined I heard the end bell and opened my eyes to see doug's note
Bertram Jacobus: :-)

Eos's description of the second 90 second 'stop'...

Eos Amaterasu: I was feeling a bit more clarity/softness within stuff (thoughts, soiunds) happening
Eos Amaterasu: with tolerances/less-attachment to the details of the stuff, bit more able to be within their space
Eos Amaterasu: *tolerance of
Eliza Madrigal: Eos, that sounds a bit like Doug's equality of everything?
Eos Amaterasu: Yes, I think it's in that direction
Pema Pera: yes, tolerance is one of the simple hallmarks of PaB, I'm beginning to see that more and more
Bertram Jacobus: for me, it seems to be a bit difficult, to get used with this short time, because i usually do longer meditation periods ... so the awareness comes only somtimes in the 9 / 90 secs. slowly often, too ...
Pema Pera: it may be just a matter of practice, Bert
Eos Amaterasu: With that kind of equality comes sense of resting
Pema Pera: getting used to doing it for shorter times
Eos Amaterasu: Also (re Bert) finding the short periods inside the long periods of meditating
Eliza Madrigal: the shorter periods are good practice for building a different kind of precision maybe? toward immediacy.. very helpful
Eos Amaterasu: But as I think happened in the RL retreat having a longer sustained time also has its effect, power
Bertram Jacobus: "but" i like the longer periods so much (!) ... ;-)
Eliza Madrigal smiles.... can do those too! :D

Life is playing with you...

Eos Amaterasu: Also with many short periods you find yourself sometimes not just entering the short period
Eos Amaterasu: but also coming from that short period (to your surprise :-)
Eos Amaterasu: in the midst of life
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eos Amaterasu: life is playing with you :-)
Eos Amaterasu: and your "you-ness"
Pema Pera: yes, very recognizable, all that, Eos, thanks for a nice summary!

The discussion of dwelling, place, openness, and rest, seems really helpful when turning over recent wu-wei conversations... 

Eliza Madrigal: The 'rest' seems to be significant to the wu-wei discussion also...
Eliza Madrigal: a sense of not needing to 'do'...of all being accomplished already somehow
Eliza Madrigal: and that playing out
Eos Amaterasu: and also less hesitation when it comes to doing: you're coming from openness rather than from arguing this vs that
Eos Amaterasu: and maybe less attached to outcome

Time to go...

Bertram Jacobus: "okay" - i´d like to go, move, leave for now ... ty all for the as ever very nice meeting and talks
Pema Pera: yes, ideally it is all spontaneous, with minimal thinking
Pema Pera: bye Bert
Pema Pera: I'll have to go too
Eos Amaterasu: Bye Bert, Pema
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Bert and Pema :)
Pema Pera: almost midnight for me
Eliza Madrigal: Night :)
Pema Pera: bfn
Bertram Jacobus: have a nice time and may all beings be happy
Eos Amaterasu: :-)
Eos Amaterasu: Bye, Eliza!
Eliza Madrigal: Bye for now Eos :)