2010.07.14 07:00 - All about Bruce and fish

The Guardian for this meeting was Gaya Ethaniel. The comments are by Gaya Ethaniel.

Bruce Mowbray: Lucinda -- good to see you again!
Lucinda Lavender: Good Morning Bruce and Blub!
Lucinda Lavender: Lately I have been very unaware of the bell.
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: The every first one -- the same for me.
Lucinda Lavender: I had set my audio way down and unticked the streaming media.
Lucinda Lavender: In order to participate somewhere else where hearing is quite problematic.
Lucinda Lavender: Has the bell been happening?
Bruce Mowbray: yes. I almost never do streaming -- but the background sounds here (birds) are so similar to those at my RL location that it is literally impossible for me to distinguish between them.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, the bell has been happening every 15 minutes.
Lucinda Lavender: yes same for me about the birds
Bruce Mowbray: background sounds.
Lucinda Lavender: ok
Lucinda Lavender: Hi Gaya!
Bruce Mowbray: Good morning, Gaya.
Gaya Ethaniel: Hello Bruce and Lucinda :)
Gaya Ethaniel: Hello Sharon :)
Bruce Mowbray: Lucinda was just wondering about the sounds here -- whether the bell was ringing regularly (it is) - due to her sound settings... and I commented that the background sounds here are almost identical to those in my RL setting -- indistinguishable, in fact.
Bruce Mowbray: Good morning, Sharon.
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: hi Gaya, Bruce, Lucinda :)
Lucinda Lavender: hmmm working on the preferences but still no sounds except typing
Bruce Mowbray: got your volume on?
Bruce Mowbray: of course -- if you can hear typing!
Bruce Mowbray: ;0
Lucinda Lavender: Hi Sophia Sharon
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: the sounds are like my rl home too Bruce :)
Bruce Mowbray: ;-) wonderful.
Gaya Ethaniel: brb
SophiaSharon Larnia: in fact there have been a few times here where time/space slipped and the sounds joined a bit
SophiaSharon Larnia: sitting here
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, Lucinda and I had both commented on that phenomenon.
SophiaSharon Larnia: oh :)
Bruce Mowbray: wb, Gaya.
Lucinda Lavender: wb Gaya
SophiaSharon Larnia: I wanted to at one time record the sounds outside and import them into SL, I've built a reproduction of my rl house in SL also
Gaya Ethaniel: gah SL isn't very friendly to me today ...
Gaya Ethaniel: ty
SophiaSharon Larnia: wb Gaya :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: i see that Gaya :(
Lucinda Lavender: SSL I would find that an interesting project!
Bruce Mowbray: a home inside a home inside a home ;-)
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes, it was surreal building my rl house in SL
SophiaSharon Larnia: that was recent, around the time I had the dream of meeting my avatar in the living room
Lucinda Lavender: I was just reading...home is where we remember who we are.
Lucinda Lavender: ah! I remember that dream
SophiaSharon Larnia: oh Lucinda?
SophiaSharon Larnia: (the reading :)) )
Lucinda Lavender: saw it on Edens Twitter I think
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Lucinda Lavender: I have been awake a while this morning...
Gaya Ethaniel: ah ...
SophiaSharon Larnia: i mean to check twitter and forget
Lucinda Lavender: Yes I don't go there much be was just ranging around.
SophiaSharon Larnia: :D
Gaya Ethaniel: ah a ranger!
Lucinda Lavender: exploring...

--BELL--

Lucinda Lavender: Home on the Range!
Lucinda Lavender: Lucinda is waiting for the Bell...and hope it appears for her...
Gaya Ethaniel: Just rang ... did you hear it Lucinda?
Lucinda Lavender: no!
Gaya Ethaniel: The fountain went misty ...
Lucinda Lavender: no bell for me!
Gaya Ethaniel: That's the sign.
Gaya Ethaniel: hm ... maybe relog?
Lucinda Lavender: one of my settings must be changed...
SophiaSharon Larnia: hi Ewan :)
Lucinda Lavender: sorry of talking through if I did!
Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Ewan! The bell is loud and clear for moi.
SophiaSharon Larnia: what did the reading say, Lucinda?
SophiaSharon Larnia: smiles, have fun Ewan
Gaya Ethaniel: How was the pause Bruce?
Bruce Mowbray: The pause was good -- am aware of cranial pressure, though -- as if the neurons are very busy and generating head head -- contributing to global warming . . .
Bruce Mowbray: head heat.
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Gaya Ethaniel: Do you have own practice in RL?
Bruce Mowbray: Oh yes -- I sat for about 40 minutes before getting on-line this morning.
Bruce Mowbray: That's when I became aware of the head heat.
Gaya Ethaniel listens.
Bruce Mowbray: Too much synaptic resistances?
SophiaSharon Larnia: listens also
Bruce Mowbray wonders: If we all cooled down our thought processes a bit, maybe that could off-set global warming.
SophiaSharon Larnia: ( i think Ewan home is set to here ^.^)
Gaya Ethaniel: I can't say ... Bruce.
Bruce Mowbray: Yeah, I think Ewan camps here...
SophiaSharon Larnia: I camp here
SophiaSharon Larnia: :D
Bruce Mowbray: I've seen him zip in and out many times ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: I camp at a zendo -- Prison Dharma -- at Commonwealth Island.
SophiaSharon Larnia: kept meaning to check that out
Gaya Ethaniel: Ewan?
Bruce Mowbray: [fingers aren't working yet.]
Gaya Ethaniel: ah ...
Gaya Ethaniel: Have you been practising meditation for many years Bruce?
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, more than 40.
Gaya Ethaniel: ah ... how did you come across it?
Bruce Mowbray: When I lived in Berkeley in the 1960's -- encountered Ram Dass there and followed him.
Gaya Ethaniel Googles Ram Dass ... ranges the net.
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Bruce Mowbray: aka Richard Alpert -- who worked with Tim Leary at Harvard before they both got fired for research on LSD.
Bruce Mowbray: The character on LOST (Richard Alpert) was named after him.
SophiaSharon Larnia: lol
Gaya Ethaniel: ack ... I haven't watched the programme ... continues to range the net.
SophiaSharon Larnia: I don't watch it either :) Every time i checked it out they were still lost
Bruce Mowbray: The most amazing series (6 years long) I'd ever seen on TV -- and milions agree with that.
SophiaSharon Larnia: true
Bruce Mowbray: very literary -- philosophical -- artistic -- intellectually stimulating -- amazing metaphors!
Gaya Ethaniel: What are his teachings if you can condense it Bruce?
Lucinda Lavender: thanks for the heads up Bruce.
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes
Bruce Mowbray: Ram Das -- follows a Hindu route, mostly - although very synergistic (eclectic). Wrote several books on meditation and awakening.
Bruce Mowbray: Dass.
Bruce Mowbray: The Only Dance There Is
Bruce Mowbray: Grist for the Mill
Bruce Mowbray: Journey of Awakening
Bruce Mowbray: Be Here Now =-- was his first and most influential book.
Gaya Ethaniel: ah ... does he favour any specific meditation techniques?
Bruce Mowbray: His is a path of Bakti (sp?) Yoga -- a path of adoration-love (for his guru) -- But he is completely open to other paths.
Lucinda Lavender: Not long ago I had a dream where his book Be here Now was apparent to me on a bookshelf in a prominent way.
Gaya Ethaniel: So much like guru yoga in Tibetan traditions I guess.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes -- large format -- blue cover.
Gaya Ethaniel: How does it work?

--BELL--

Bruce Mowbray: Ram Dass autobiography...
SophiaSharon Larnia: for some reason grist for the mill reference reminds me of hamlets mill, a myth some see as a progression on the equinox's, there is probably no connection
SophiaSharon Larnia: of*
Bruce Mowbray: In my RL Quaker Meeting last Sunday, I "spoke out of the silence" and said that I would not be alive if it were not for meditation.
Gaya Ethaniel: ah you read the book Lucinda?
Bruce Mowbray: The principle of Grist for the Mill and also of The Only Dance Their Is -- is very similar to PaB.
Bruce Mowbray: There Is.
Bruce Mowbray: -- sorry.
Bruce Mowbray: It is that EVERYTHING can become part of the "work" -- or, in our case, part of the Play (the Dance).
SophiaSharon Larnia: smiles
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Gaya Ethaniel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti_yoga
Bruce Mowbray: ahhh There is the right spelling.
Gaya Ethaniel: I'm rusty with Hinduism stuff ... I think bakti means devotion?
Lucinda Lavender: Many years ago...read it.
Bruce Mowbray: yes, devotion -- usually to one's guru.
Bruce Mowbray: but also to various gods and goddesses...
SophiaSharon Larnia: I also watched a show yesterday, calling the dance of two stars immolating themselves in a their black holes as a cosmic dance, and the interaction of matter as the cosmic dance, too (dance of shiva) -- i digress tho, sorry
Bruce Mowbray: My path is more Buddhist-contemplative-mystical.
Gaya Ethaniel: Hindus practice bakti through rituals etc. ... curious how Ram Das students practise.
Bruce Mowbray: "the dance of Shiva" -- amazing stuff - - - out-picturing everywhere.
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Gaya Ethaniel: ah ... ok so not identifying Ram Dass as a deity then?
SophiaSharon Larnia sit on hands
Bruce Mowbray: Oh now -- that is the very LAST thing he would advocate!
Gaya Ethaniel: ah ok ^^;;;
Bruce Mowbray: no.
Gaya Ethaniel: I did wonder ... so it's the traditional Hindu practices you meant.
Gaya Ethaniel: Rather than Tibetan guru yoga type ...
Bruce Mowbray: Yeah, I could never relate to the guru thing -- even though I've been with Ram Dass in person a few times.
Bruce Mowbray: yes, Hindu.
Bruce Mowbray: To me "the meanest flower that blows does often bring thought too deep for tears." -- Wordsworth.
Gaya Ethaniel: ?
Bruce Mowbray: thoughts to deep for.
Bruce Mowbray: too.
Gaya Ethaniel: Sorry not understanding the quote in this context ... slow today >.<
Bruce Mowbray thinks to self: "Either get those finger to work better or sit on them!"
Gaya Ethaniel: heh :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Bruce Mowbray: The quote - for me - means that every leaf and flow functions as my "guru" -- Is a teaching in itself for me.
Bruce Mowbray: flower.
SophiaSharon Larnia: oh yes
Bruce Mowbray: Do not need physical human guru.
SophiaSharon Larnia: everything grist for the mill
Bruce Mowbray: Yes! Exactly, Sharon!
SophiaSharon Larnia: I agree, although the meandering paths seem to go on and on
Gaya Ethaniel: Well I don't know much but I believe guru/yidam in guru yoga practice isn't always one's living teacher.
SophiaSharon Larnia: easy to get sidetracked
Gaya Ethaniel: It can be like what you described Bruce. Depends ...
Bruce Mowbray: It can be ANYTHING . . . Buddha-Nature is omni-present.
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Bruce Mowbray: no boundaries in spiritual ACCESS.
Bruce Mowbray: Honouring all paths.
Gaya Ethaniel nods.
Lucinda Lavender: HI Bleu!
Gaya Ethaniel: Hello Bleu :)
Bruce Mowbray: Good day, Bleu.
Lucinda Lavender: Well I am waiting again for the bell. Saw the mist last time but no bell mentioned in the dialogue box.
Gaya Ethaniel: SL is a bit strange for me too today ...
Lucinda Lavender: and no sound

--BELL--

Bruce Mowbray: You will see green print in the chat box - also.
Lucinda Lavender: hope so...
SophiaSharon Larnia: seeing a big mill in the 90 seconds, that turned into a potters wheel
Gaya Ethaniel: Sorry for being so curious :P Have you been going to Quaker meetings for a while too Bruce?
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Bruce Mowbray: for only 3 year -- A big mill -- Sharon (the one with grist in it?)
Gaya Ethaniel: I once had along chat with a Quaker in RL and it seems many of them are interested in meditation.
SophiaSharon Larnia: a water turbine that turned into a potter wheel and i was shaping clay
Bruce Mowbray: beautiful image-metaphor!
SophiaSharon Larnia: i wonder how much of that is shaped by my hazy beliefs
SophiaSharon Larnia: sits on hands again
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Gaya Ethaniel: You often visualise things during pauses Sharon?
SophiaSharon Larnia: I often visualize everything, i wish i could stop sometimes
Gaya Ethaniel: ah ... ok
SophiaSharon Larnia: I've never been to a quaker meeting :) I've been meaning to for years
Bruce Mowbray: They are very diverse -- especially in America -- everything from Christ-centered to atheist.
Bruce Mowbray: Ours tends toward the latter.
Gaya Ethaniel: Bruce's pet reminds me of a goldfish I had a looong time ago.
SophiaSharon Larnia: I just saw it I think Gaya ^^
Gaya Ethaniel: heheheh
Bruce Mowbray: Blub bubbles his joy at hearing that!
SophiaSharon Larnia: :D
Gaya Ethaniel: Mine was called 'Bubbly' :)
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Lucinda Lavender: :)
Bruce Mowbray: Blub gets excited and swims faster.
Gaya Ethaniel: I read a bit about Quaker movements in US in Tolstoy's book recently.
Gaya Ethaniel: Hello Visitor :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: hi  Visitor
Bruce Mowbray: G'Day, Visitor.
SophiaSharon Larnia: bye Lucinda :)
Gaya Ethaniel: Lucinda had to leave? I missed saying bye ...
Gaya Ethaniel: wb
Bruce Mowbray: I sit with Friends because it is the only RL meditation group within 50 miles of where I live.
SophiaSharon Larnia: :) Bruce
Gaya Ethaniel IMing Visitor with intro :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: wb Lucinda :)
Lucinda Lavender: just trying to hear the bell next time
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Bruce Mowbray: You're welcome to join us, Visitor. Pitch your tent in the front row, if you like.
Bruce Mowbray: join.
Bruce Mowbray: We don't bite -- just nibble.
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Gaya Ethaniel: I see ... 50 miles is a long way.
SophiaSharon Larnia: bebe
Bruce Mowbray: Columbus, Ohio --- north of where I live in RL.
Gaya Ethaniel: ah I see ...
Bruce Mowbray: Visitor just disappeared - probably thought his bathrobe was not appropriate here.
Gaya Ethaniel gives a fish to Lucinda ...
Lucinda Lavender: thanks Bruce!
SophiaSharon Larnia: plays

--BELL--

Bruce Mowbray: Oh! A WHITE HORSE!
SophiaSharon Larnia: :D nice Gaya lol
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Gaya Ethaniel: Just wear it Lucinda :)
Lucinda Lavender: thank you Gaya
Gaya Ethaniel: yw :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: being
Lucinda Lavender: on my shoulder
SophiaSharon Larnia: at
Gaya Ethaniel: cute :)
Lucinda Lavender: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: laggy :) oops
Bruce Mowbray muses to self: "I LOVE this inter-being with all species!"
SophiaSharon Larnia: yay :)
Gaya Ethaniel: oh Sharon's fishes are gone?
SophiaSharon Larnia: lol
Bruce Mowbray: there they are again.
SophiaSharon Larnia: was a little laggy, but not too bad
Gaya Ethaniel: ah :)
Bruce Mowbray: A cowbird comes to my window every morning when I am meditating.
SophiaSharon Larnia: a what?
Bruce Mowbray: He (she) pecks at the window as if to call me outside.
Bruce Mowbray: I named him "Luther."
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: :D
Bruce Mowbray: (thinking his coloration was like robes ---)
Gaya Ethaniel: I haven't named birds that frequent my garden yet.
Gaya Ethaniel ponders ...
Bruce Mowbray: I imagine Luther wearing robes . . . don't know why.
Bruce Mowbray: He has come literally every day for weeks.
Gaya Ethaniel: It is strange ... I used to love naming things.
Bruce Mowbray: I once had a bull staying in my barn... inside a corral.
Bruce Mowbray: My neighbor's rooster fell in love with my bull.
Gaya Ethaniel: lol
SophiaSharon Larnia: oh my
Lucinda Lavender: :)
Bruce Mowbray: The rooster walked down the road almost a quarter of a mile daily to visit the bull.
SophiaSharon Larnia: a doom match?
SophiaSharon Larnia: doomed*
Bruce Mowbray: Would walk back and forth in front of the corral for an hour or so, then return home.
Bruce Mowbray: I took many photos.
SophiaSharon Larnia: love from afar
Bruce Mowbray: Have often wondered -- what was going on there?
Gaya Ethaniel: heh :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: giggling in rl
Gaya Ethaniel: I think a dog fell in love at first sight with me yesterday.
SophiaSharon Larnia: aww!
Lucinda Lavender: nice!
Bruce Mowbray: a wonderment - - a sort of miracle, I thought then.
Gaya Ethaniel: S/he probably thought I was a dog :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: heheh
Lucinda Lavender: nice to see you all..
Bruce Mowbray: say more, Gaya.
Lucinda Lavender: till later...
SophiaSharon Larnia: bye Lucinda!
Gaya Ethaniel: Thanks for coming Lucinda. Have a good day :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: have fun
Bruce Mowbray: Walk in beauty, Lucy.
Lucinda Lavender: yes!
Lucinda Lavender: thanks...
Gaya Ethaniel: It's already 8 am ... I should get going to.
Gaya Ethaniel: too
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes, me too *smiles*
Gaya Ethaniel: Thanks for the conversation. Enjoy your day :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: bye Gay :)
Bruce Mowbray: OK. Me too -- want to take Bear Dog for a walk through the woods now.
SophiaSharon Larnia: um Gaya
Bruce Mowbray: May all be happy today.
SophiaSharon Larnia: you too Bruce!!
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Bruce Mowbray: Good bye for now, Sharon.
SophiaSharon Larnia: ~waves~