2009.12.09 01:00 - sound and oscillation

The Guardian for this meeting was Bolonath Crystal. The comments are by Bolonath Crystal.

    Bolonath Crystal: hello nymf
    Nymf Hathaway: Good day Bolonath, nice to meet you :)
    Bolonath Crystal: nice to meet you, too. have you been here before?
    Nymf Hathaway: yes I was a member untill recently
    --BELL--
    Bolonath Crystal: oh, great. so you already know about the recording stuff
    Nymf Hathaway: yes :)

breathing exercises as a tool of cleaning

    Nymf Hathaway: Do you have a topic you would like to discuss?
    Bolonath Crystal: no, i am open to any suggestion
    Bolonath Crystal: are you following any tradition in your spiritual exercises?
    Nymf Hathaway: No... I try to stay as openminded as I can... maybe thats a tradition by itself :)
    Nymf Hathaway: And you?
    Bolonath Crystal: openmindedness is always a good thing imo :)
    Bolonath Crystal: i am an advaita vedantin
    Nymf Hathaway: Tell me more please....
    Bolonath Crystal: advaita vedanta is an indian philosophy. it says, that in essence we are all projection of a thnig called "brahman", which maybe can be best translated as "being"
    Bolonath Crystal: thing*
    Nymf Hathaway: ah oke :)
    Bolonath Crystal: to realize brahman and to overcome the ego-illusion i use a technique called raja-yoga, mainly meditation and breath controlling exercises
    Nymf Hathaway: Thats nice
    Nymf Hathaway: I do breathing exercises as well... but with the philosophy of cleaning
    Bolonath Crystal: what are you cleaning?
    Nymf Hathaway: The day, my thoughts, body, environment
    Bolonath Crystal: sounds great. yogis also use breathing to clean the energy body
    Bolonath Crystal: what kind of exercises are you practicing?
    Nymf Hathaway: Pila Mulligan suggested some yoga breathing exercises I try to do correct :)
    Bolonath Crystal: :)
    Nymf Hathaway: I always wonder if I do them correct so I decided to listen to my body to inform me if I am on the right path :)
    Bolonath Crystal: which exercises are we talking about?
    Nymf Hathaway: Breathing deeply in and with puffing in 6 steps out
    --BELL--
    Calvino Rabeni: (sneaks in during pause)
    Nymf Hathaway: Good evening/night Calvino :)
    Bolonath Crystal: namaste cal :) we are talking about yoga breathing exercises
    Nymf Hathaway: Started on philosophy
    Calvino Rabeni: Good evening!
    Calvino Rabeni: Sounds juicy
    Nymf Hathaway: heheheh
    Bolonath Crystal: i didn't know pila already invented some here
    Nymf Hathaway: I do not know if he invents things... but Pila is in sl a loooong time :)

missing Pila

    Calvino Rabeni: Has he been coming around here lately?
    Nymf Hathaway: He was at Stim's yesterday
    Calvino Rabeni: RIght, I saw him but have not been in a dialogue place with him for awhile
    Nymf Hathaway: Same here... Pila seems busy
    Nymf Hathaway: RL can do that to a person :)
    Bolonath Crystal: yep
    Calvino Rabeni: He has a homestead on a different grid. I checked it out - nice, but for me its the people that make it interesting.
    Nymf Hathaway: I know... thats the grid of my RL partner and Pila. But as said Pila is just busy he will keep enjoying sl
    Calvino Rabeni: I remember, Nymf. I was tempted to get time on your partner's server.
    Nymf Hathaway: Well the future is open :) I wait untill they have improved the grid... I think I am spoiled by sl possibilities :)
    Calvino Rabeni: As long as I am not employed, I am tempted to do some thing creative with it.
    Nymf Hathaway: Yes you should... thats one of the things SL is capable of inspiring people
    Calvino Rabeni: Do you build and/or "hack" on the other grid?
    Nymf Hathaway: I sometimes pop in on the grid to test a thing for Q (my partner) but no... other than that I rarely visit it
    Nymf Hathaway: and for building... I did when we had two sims in sl...since we are hosted by Nature... there is no need
    Nymf Hathaway: and I really would be to busy already
    Nymf Hathaway: Do you create? Bolonath
    Bolonath Crystal: no, i have simply no idea about that
    Nymf Hathaway: Would you like too?
    Calvino Rabeni: Someone had the idea of making a spinning wheel, for the pavilion here - it would go round and then suggest a contemplation focus for the pause.
    Calvino Rabeni: I think I could do that.
    Bolonath Crystal: i'm busy creating a universe in rl ;)
    Nymf Hathaway: Sounds like a nice idea Calvino
    Nymf Hathaway: Smiles at Bolonath
    --BELL--
    Nymf Hathaway: (sneaks out during the break, see you two later :) have a nice meeting)

'the world is sound'

    Calvino Rabeni: Bolo, where are your creative energies going lately, if I might pick up you last comment?
    Bolonath Crystal: i make music
    Calvino Rabeni: Play an instrument?
    Bolonath Crystal: yes, guitar and didgeridoo
    Bolonath Crystal: especially the didgeridoo is a kind of meditating tool for me
    Calvino Rabeni: Yes, I watched a friend playing the didg the other day and could see that in the breathing. It made me want to start with it.
    Bolonath Crystal: it is a big fun :) and when i'm really one with the oscillations, all thinking stops
    Calvino Rabeni: I've always enjoyed sound as a meditation vehicle.
    Bolonath Crystal: me 2 :) that's why i like mantras
    Calvino Rabeni: I thought of picking up tenor sax - some instrument with breath
    Calvino Rabeni: I like nature sounds, outdoors meditation
    Calvino Rabeni: Lately I'm playing with voice - the built in instrument. :)
    Bolonath Crystal: during the summer i meditate in the garden
    Bolonath Crystal: sometimes accompanied by a blackbird *g*
    Calvino Rabeni: The world is sound, not noise.
    Bolonath Crystal nods
    Bolonath Crystal: sound is a direct expression of oscillation
    Calvino Rabeni: And oscillation is a direct expression of the nature of things
    Bolonath Crystal: yes :)
    Calvino Rabeni: And I like that it has the qualities - different than light I think - of all mixing together simultaneously, without interfereing, and being ephemeral
    Calvino Rabeni: Its a very different sense, in an intriguing way
    Bolonath Crystal: there are interferences. i'm thinking about harmony
    Bolonath Crystal: resonance
    Calvino Rabeni: Interactions but not really interferences.
    Calvino Rabeni: You know how waves mix
    Calvino Rabeni: without really interfering
    Calvino Rabeni: One wave can't block another
    Bolonath Crystal: what's the difference between interference and interaction?
    Calvino Rabeni: DIfferent wave trains pass through each other and emerge as if nothing happened.
    Calvino Rabeni: They mix and separate again.
    Calvino Rabeni: If you watch the ripples on a pond
    Calvino Rabeni: it is very interesting
    Bolonath Crystal: but they can as well extinguish each other...
    Calvino Rabeni: If they ahve the same frequency and opposite phase
    Bolonath Crystal: yes

using sounds for meditation

    Calvino Rabeni: BUt do you know fourier analysis ? It is an interesting theory
    Bolonath Crystal: yes, i know it
    --BELL--
    Bolonath Crystal: i used it in former times, while i was doing bioacustics
    Calvino Rabeni: When I learned it, and that it was invertable, it made me think differently about sond
    Bolonath Crystal: what changed?
    Calvino Rabeni: The senses and brain kind of accomplish that for you
    Calvino Rabeni: So the timing in sould gets converted to space in the brain.
    Calvino Rabeni: THe different frequenceis register in different places
    Calvino Rabeni: It gave me some ideas for meditation.
    Calvino Rabeni: And mad me think of sound as representing the independent presence of many objects
    Calvino Rabeni: before that I think I thought of it as similar to something like paint, where you mix it together and lose the definition.
    Calvino Rabeni: SO I started trying to listen to what was inside sound, to the components of it and separate them.
    Calvino Rabeni: Like listening to the deep background sounds.
    Calvino Rabeni: I think the brain is a little plastic too - that it can get trained pretty quickly to perceive new distinctions
    Bolonath Crystal: i often meditate about the silence behind the sounds
    Bolonath Crystal: silence is always there, even in the crudest noise
    Calvino Rabeni: I find that compelling also
    Calvino Rabeni: I think, for one of the pauses, I'm going to listen to the sound of the computer fan.
    Bolonath Crystal: :)
    Calvino Rabeni: Because I can't really hear the silence in it - basically it is just an annoying sound, but I realize that is mostly concept and attitude.
    Calvino Rabeni: I think I could somewhat reduce my level of tension
    Bolonath Crystal: if you think of sound as a field in the big space of possible frequencies, there is always a lot of free space left behind noise
    Calvino Rabeni: RIght, I was thinking that way listening to a complex sound.
    Calvino Rabeni: Specifically, water in a small river.
    Calvino Rabeni: An interesting thing happened, it affected my sense of vision = I guess that is synaesthesia?
    Bolonath Crystal: sounds affected your vision?
    Calvino Rabeni: Yes. There was a parallel effect somehow, maybe based on frequency or rhythm
    Calvino Rabeni: Hard to explain
    Bolonath Crystal: i know something like that from the didgeridoo. at certain frequencies my sight becomes kind of ... ehm... "shaky"
    Bolonath Crystal: maybe becuse the eyes start swinging in resonance
    Calvino Rabeni: THe effect can be in the brain also - perception is full of surprises
    Bolonath Crystal nods
    Calvino Rabeni: I wonder if the plastic telescoping Didg-es are worthwhile. DO you know?
    --BELL--
    Bolonath Crystal: i never played one, but it should be worth trying :)
    Bolonath Crystal: i didn't succeed in finding two tubes that really fit

music and harmony

    Calvino Rabeni: Most of the time I take sound arts more or less for granted.
    Calvino Rabeni: But in recent years I started listening outside the usual venues (recording, concert hall, etc.)
    Calvino Rabeni: LIke open-mike nights or small clubs or friends.
    Calvino Rabeni: And it got more interesting for me.
    Calvino Rabeni: I don't think of the harp, for instance, as a great instrument
    Calvino Rabeni: Maybe my memory is hearing it in a stereotyped composition
    Calvino Rabeni: BUt at a club a while back ther was an amateur harpost
    Calvino Rabeni: Harpist - and I was deeply affected by the sound of it.
    Bolonath Crystal: yes - it is the artist who makes the art ;)
    Calvino Rabeni: Yes - so much depends on the artist and their presence.
    Bolonath Crystal: sound is a very good tool to express harmony... if one has an inner harmony to express
    Calvino Rabeni: Ilove small venues - or in larger ones to be in the front
    Calvino Rabeni: I don't think I'm tuned to harmony particularly - I have no music theory knowledge.
    Calvino Rabeni: BUt in voice, I like the small group and the way it plays together.
    Bolonath Crystal: harmony is something you can feel. you need no theory for that. harmony produces joy in the listener
    Calvino Rabeni: I must produce it then. I know how to get to "joy" when singing with a small group.
    Bolonath Crystal: :)
    Calvino Rabeni: But it is exciting being just slightly off pitch.
    Bolonath Crystal: yes :) it is somehow more "interesting" than music that is too smooth
    Calvino Rabeni: It gives an exciting dynamic of individuality combined with union.
    Calvino Rabeni: which somehow creates more "togetherness" than uniformity would.
    Calvino Rabeni: It's aesthetic, I suppose.
    Calvino Rabeni: BUt I only do that about once a month
    Calvino Rabeni: I could use a lot more of that.

'god symbols always seem to go around in male / female pairs'

    Bolonath Crystal: nature doesn't like uniformity
    Bolonath Crystal: oneness is variability :)
    Bolonath Crystal: in*
    --BELL--
    Bolonath Crystal: hm... maybe 'is' would also be correct. interesting type mismatch
    Bolonath Crystal: in yoga there is shiva as a symbol for the oneness of all creation. the symbol for the variability is shakti. enlightenment is the merging of those two
    Calvino Rabeni: Those god symbols always seem to go around in male / female pairs, and to be interested in suggesting union.
    Bolonath Crystal: yes. it is the same in other religions as well
    Calvino Rabeni: Not christianity?
    Bolonath Crystal: even there
    Bolonath Crystal: christian mystics speak about the holy union
    Calvino Rabeni: There is a trinity
    Calvino Rabeni: like the 3 gunes
    Calvino Rabeni: gunas
    Calvino Rabeni: but I don't know of the female pole being represented in christianity
    Calvino Rabeni: except in a kind of shadowy way, as the Not-god
    Calvino Rabeni: i.e. the earth
    Bolonath Crystal: mother nature
    Calvino Rabeni: right, that
    Bolonath Crystal: father god
    Calvino Rabeni: BUt it's not part of the christian theory
    Calvino Rabeni: its the "outside" of it
    Bolonath Crystal: there is not much mysticism left in christianity
    Bolonath Crystal: and i don't really know much about the remaining parts
    Calvino Rabeni: not much that we can see, anyway.
    Calvino Rabeni: The myths don't emphasize, e.g. the female principle.
    Calvino Rabeni: although I would like to find out otherwise
    Bolonath Crystal: maybe we should ask one of our christian members about it
    Calvino Rabeni: Yes that is a good idea.
    Bolonath Crystal: i know that some christians worship mary, who might be the female part of christian mystics
    Calvino Rabeni: I think mary does carry some of that.
    Calvino Rabeni: I am not christian except as a cultural background
    Calvino Rabeni: but I do like a lot of the christmas mythology, now that I have had more time to think about it.
    Calvino Rabeni: Dropping the usual attitudes
    Bolonath Crystal: as far as i know, a big part of the christmas myths are not christian in origin
    Calvino Rabeni: They as most myths seem to have a deeper, universal level that is beyond traditions
    --BELL--
    Bolonath Crystal: rl is calling...
    Bolonath Crystal: sorry, but i have to go
    Calvino Rabeni: Thanks for the chat Bolo, TTYL
    Bolonath Crystal: thank you, too :)
    Calvino Rabeni: Bye
    Bolonath Crystal: see you next time
    Calvino Rabeni: :)
    Calvino Rabeni: (Poof)