2009.12.08 01:00 - Island Life

The Guardian for this meeting was Calvino Rabeni, substituting for Wester.  Comments by Calvino.

I showed up just on the hour, and very shortly after, Repose Lionheart showed up.  I think this is about the fifth time. I recognized him, and after a while, some additional brain cells started to kick in while we chatted.

Calvino Rabeni: Hello Repose, how is it going?
Repose Lionheart: Hi Calvino
Repose Lionheart: pretty good
Repose Lionheart: no moderator tonight
Repose Lionheart: or this morning, i guess
Calvino Rabeni: I'm the substitute moderator :)
Repose Lionheart: oh, ok
Repose Lionheart: not much of a turnout :)
Repose Lionheart: odd hour i suppose
Calvino Rabeni: Middle of the night in USA. Sometimes we have Europeans here at this time. It varies - there have been some 2-3 hour rap sessions
Calvino Rabeni: What area of the world are you in?
Repose Lionheart: oh
Repose Lionheart: i'm in southern california
Repose Lionheart: sl time
Calvino Rabeni: I don't always remember - maybe we talked about that another time.
Repose Lionheart: perhaps
Calvino Rabeni: Yes,it comes back to me now...
Calvino Rabeni: Night Owls.
Repose Lionheart: my memory is not always the best either
Repose Lionheart: oh, right
Repose Lionheart: now i too remember
Calvino Rabeni: SO much goes on here - I think my memory is getting a bit better, but still.
Repose Lionheart: yes
Repose Lionheart: i have a question
Calvino Rabeni: So what interests you about this group, if I may ask?
Repose Lionheart: new way of interacting
Repose Lionheart: group process
Repose Lionheart: to reinforce individual mindfullness

And then Wester shows up unexpectedly for her guardian slot, and even stayed to the bitter end (as you will see later)!

Wester Kiranov: hi - i made it after all!
Repose Lionheart: must have wider application too
PaB Listener Master: Calvino Rabeni has just claimed the session and will receive link to the log after the session is done. This replaces any previous claim.

Repose Lionheart: ahhh...good

The listener script burped just about then, distracting me with some technical error statuses.  Repose's question gets ignored.

Calvino Rabeni: Group process can be fascinating. Do you study it?
Repose Lionheart: another av
Repose Lionheart: study?
Calvino Rabeni: Hi, Wester. I have the log
Repose Lionheart: well i'm interesting in it
Wester Kiranov: i noticed. do you want me to take it instead?
Calvino Rabeni: Same here, for a long time.
Calvino Rabeni: Not necessary unless you want it, Wester.
Wester Kiranov: ty then
Wester Kiranov: hi repose
Repose Lionheart: hi wester
Repose Lionheart: ummm...i don't misbehave, wester
Calvino Rabeni: We might be talking about group dynamics :)
Repose Lionheart: yes
Calvino Rabeni: I think, you know some things, Wester?
 

This time I actually responded to the question, after getting distracted earlier.  It turned out to be an excellent question, given that I like revisiting the basics. You can't have too much "basic", according to my old Tai Chi instructor.

Repose Lionheart: though i have a question
Calvino Rabeni: Yes?
Repose Lionheart: what counts as play in Play as Being?
Calvino Rabeni: Greate question.
Calvino Rabeni: I think, it is an idea that we can do this with a light feeling, have fun, not carry a seriousness.
Wester Kiranov: I think any definition would restrict it unnecessarily
Calvino Rabeni: Anything can be meaningful in th study of life and being.
Repose Lionheart: true
Calvino Rabeni: RIght, it couldn't be defined
Wester Kiranov: but how you feel doing it is important
Calvino Rabeni: It means, relax and stay open.
Calvino Rabeni: Curiousity is a good thing too!
Calvino Rabeni: That is what comes to me about it.
Repose Lionheart: ok
Repose Lionheart: thanks
Wester Kiranov: you can play an "official" game in a very grim way, that would not count as playing
Repose Lionheart: yes
Calvino Rabeni: You know, the definition of "play" in a dictionary has todo with "freedom of movement"
Repose Lionheart: i'll continue to think about it
Calvino Rabeni: Kids play, they kind of make stuf up as they go along.
Wester Kiranov: ah - degrees of freedom
Repose Lionheart: yes
Calvino Rabeni: They don't know ahead of time.
Play as Being 15 minute bell: Conversations here are recorded when ON AIR. Please see http://playasbeing.wik.is/
Play as Being 15 minute bell: Please observe 90 seconds of silence.
Calvino Rabeni: Creatuve and engaged intelligence
Repose Lionheart: yes, that's why a tried a kid av at the last PaB session i attended :)
Play as Being 15 minute bell: Thank you.

Calvino Rabeni: How was that to be a kid again in SL?
Calvino Rabeni: Did u feel different?
Repose Lionheart: av identification is an interesting thing
Calvino Rabeni: Yes
Repose Lionheart: but i don't think it added anything to a pab session
Repose Lionheart: play is too internal here
Repose Lionheart: no pies in the face
Wester Kiranov: just snow ;)
Repose Lionheart: hehehe

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a pregnant pause, mindful sitting, and waiting for a new topic. 

Calvino Rabeni: Anyone want to say what happened during the pause?
Repose Lionheart: play as freedom from internal constraint perhaps
Wester Kiranov: and the pond is freezing over - someone has been seriously playful there as well
Calvino Rabeni: Storm I think
Repose Lionheart: yes!
Wester Kiranov: hi arch
Calvino Rabeni: Good eve / day, arch and koya

(Koya is  a white tiger cub avatar that accompanies Archmage.)

Archmage Atlantis: Hi, Wester, Repose, Calvino
Repose Lionheart: hello, Archmage

No one volunteered, so I ventured a comment on the experience during the pause.  Dutifully perhaps?

Calvino Rabeni: Sometimes during the timeout my mind returns to freedoms I felt during the day, to kind of get more of them
Calvino Rabeni: If they passed too quickly
Wester Kiranov: can you give an example?
Repose Lionheart: i sit quietly, the monkey mind stills...
Calvino Rabeni: Sure. I had dinner with my mother, and it was a "normal" conversation
Calvino Rabeni: But I had an image of her suddenly not as a human, but as a natural animal. We were talking animals at another PAB session
Calvino Rabeni: Then reflecting, I realize it loosens my idea of her and there is more room in my concept, to be natural with her
Calvino Rabeni: It was a good feeling
Calvino Rabeni: And the pause helped it kind of settle in.

This percolated a bit, and then:

Archmage Atlantis: Nice story, Cal....ties experience to the practice....plus it's kind of sweet :)
Repose Lionheart: yes :)
Calvino Rabeni: Does it make any sense, that experiences can pass into concept, and get stuck there. For instance, what to do during the pause - I somethmes think it will get to be always the same.
Calvino Rabeni: Thus I want play in it.
Repose Lionheart: hmmm...
Wester Kiranov: I just realized this is one of the reasons it feels good to be here - there's room for pause, for silence
Repose Lionheart: oh...yes!
Calvino Rabeni: that is great :)
Archmage Atlantis: For me, for experience to pass into concept and/or meditation is the best times, pause or not
Wester Kiranov: but what you just said calvino, that is something to stay aware of. because it's so easy to get stuck
Calvino Rabeni: sure is
Calvino Rabeni: in groups, there's often or usually I think, the expectation you have t say something fast in order to look smart, or conneted, etc. But it ends up shallower or more automatic than it could be.
Repose Lionheart: yes
Play as Being 15 minute bell: Conversations here are recorded when ON AIR. Please see http://playasbeing.wik.is/
Play as Being 15 minute bell: Please observe 90 seconds of silence.
Archmage Atlantis: For me, it is a letting go of analysis, letting the thoughts come forward from within the mind/body/soule
Repose Lionheart: better to speak when you have someting to say :)
Repose Lionheart: yes
Play as Being 15 minute bell: Thank you.

I liked Arch's response, but didn't know how to say that, exactly. It seemed a mindful attitude seeing oneself almost as another.

Calvino Rabeni: You honor yourself, Arch.
Archmage Atlantis: How do you mean that, Cal?
Calvino Rabeni: Thanks for asking. Your last comment - let the thoughts come from the mind/body/soul - I think is a way of listening to what is in oneself and acting like it matters - crediting it with a reality.
Calvino Rabeni: Remembering to see yourself.
Calvino Rabeni: That is how I translate your comment to my own understanding
Archmage Atlantis: Ah, yes, that us well said, "listening to what is in oneself" and "acting like it matters"
Calvino Rabeni: Could be called self-acceptance.
Archmage Atlantis: I does matter, in my understatnding
Calvino Rabeni: But not in a passive way
Repose Lionheart: and "remembering to see yourself"
Repose Lionheart: like that
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, I think of it almost like, how to see another person.
Calvino Rabeni: Without taking them for granted
Repose Lionheart: yes
Wester Kiranov: without thinking that you already know what you're like
Archmage Atlantis: Yes, we are not just one thing, and all of us is not visible
Calvino Rabeni: :)
Repose Lionheart: yes, not all visible...
Calvino Rabeni: All that is not visible - not immediately useful - not already involved in doing what life needs in the small moment.
Archmage Atlantis: Smile, indeed Cal, so true
Repose Lionheart: the small moment -- interesting
Repose Lionheart: nice way to put it...

It felt like we were tuning into a similar thing, and I thought of a poem that visualized the state of affairs from which this idea was a departure.

Calvino Rabeni: Do you mind if I share a poem ?
Archmage Atlantis: Please do
Repose Lionheart: love it
Wester Kiranov: that's fine
Calvino Rabeni: Not mine
Calvino Rabeni:

ISLANDS

O for God's sake
they are connected
underneath

They look at each other
across the glittering sea
some keep a low profile

Some are cliffs
The Bathers think
islands are separate like them

This was actually a dramatic end to the session, although we didn't realize it.  There was a lengthy pause.  Then a weird thing happened that I had never experienced before in SL, starting with the ominous phrase:

Disconnected from in-world Voice Chat

I found myself shipwrecked, washed ashore on a different island in SL,  an adult-themed sim with strange inhabitants that had avatars specialized to imaginative sexually-themed relationships.

But eventually I discovered I could teleport to the Kira Cafe, which is not in the same Sim as the PAB Pavillion.  All this took up some time.  I IM-ed Wester and eventually, the others and retrieved the members of the meeting.  The sim had crashed or been rebooted without warning.  Moreover the log was lost, not sent to me as expected.

The Play As Being island was still not inhabitable.  We all stood around in the virtual snow outside the Kira Cafe.  Mindfulness was all but forgotten as we took care of business.

Calvino Rabeni: I tped AA here, Wester
Calvino Rabeni: Thanks, I thought it might have been you, wester
Calvino Rabeni: THey are interesting, but not used yet
Wester Kiranov: hi arch
Archmage Atlantis: Hi, Wester
Calvino Rabeni: If we had a moveable chat logger, we could do roaming sessions every now and then.
Calvino Rabeni: (although people might pop in and miss it)
Wester Kiranov: nice dance ;)
Archmage Atlantis: were you being the guardian Cal?
Wester Kiranov: he filled in for me, and then I did manage to get there after all
Archmage Atlantis: That comment should be in the log, so others would see it
Wester Kiranov: but he should have the log
Calvino Rabeni: It may be on my hard disk
Archmage Atlantis: Ah, a few "emergency procedures" never hurt

Calvino Rabeni: I did find the chat data on my disk
Archmage Atlantis: Did you locate Repose also, Cal? - although the meeting is really past the end of it's time period, and I have to go do RL things
Calvino Rabeni: I will try now
Archmage Atlantis: Repose Lionheart
Wester Kiranov: I think we all have other things to do. would like to leave now as well - we can stay in touch about the chat log.
Wester Kiranov: I would like to thank you both for an interesting session
Archmage Atlantis: I hadn't seen him there before, but there are still people who come to meetings that I don't
Calvino Rabeni: Repose is on his way here
Archmage Atlantis: Yes, I like ending on Cal's poem actually
Wester Kiranov: repose has been to some meetings, but he is pretty new
Calvino Rabeni: Thanks both!
Wester Kiranov: bye then
Archmage Atlantis: Your composition Cal?
Wester Kiranov: namaste
Archmage Atlantis: Bye Wester
Calvino Rabeni: Poem is by Muriel Rukeyser - I sent a link but it was lost in the crash.
Calvino Rabeni: http://intercapillaryspace.blogspot....r-islands.html
Archmage Atlantis: Ah, well it was an excellent choice - Beautiful imagery
Calvino Rabeni: Repose logged off. And I will go also. See you another time,Archmage.
Archmage Atlantis: Late Cal :) - have a good next period
Calvino Rabeni: You too - bye.