2010.08.10 19:00 - Forest

 

The Guardian for this meeting was Eos Amaterasu. The comments are by Eos Amaterasu.

 

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Paradise

Paradise Tennant: smiles hiya eos :) how are you :)

Eos Amaterasu: Pretty good...

Eos Amaterasu: et toi?

Paradise Tennant: very well thank you :) long day ..drinking green tea and eating mango ice cream :)

 

--BELL--

 

Paradise Tennant: yum

Paradise Tennant: was reading .. TSK last night .. :)

TSK = the "Time Space and Knowledge" book

Eos Amaterasu: tsk tsk

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Lucinda

Lucinda Lavender: whispering hi...

Paradise Tennant: hiya lucinda .. gtsy :)

stevenaia Michinaga: evening

Lucinda Lavender: yes...:) and to see you...

Eos Amaterasu: ~~ Stevenaia

Paradise Tennant: hiya steve :) gtsy

Lucinda Lavender: evening

stevenaia Michinaga: hi Eos, Paradise, Lucinda

 

Lucinda Lavender: I heard that there were wonderful mushrooms in the forests of the retreat...

Paradise Tennant: smiles

Eos Amaterasu: lots of mushrooms in Nova Scotia forest - humidity

Eos Amaterasu: saw a Destroying Angel (amanita verna)

Lucinda Lavender: wanted to say that there was an article on NPR today about mushrooms.

Lucinda Lavender: Hi Bruce, Ewan

Paradise Tennant: hiya bruce :))

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Bruce, ewan

Bruce Mowbray: Hello, folks!

Paradise Tennant: what kind of mushroom is a destroying angel ?

Lucinda Lavender: poisonous?

Eos Amaterasu: one of the amanitas

Eos Amaterasu: yes, deadly

Eos Amaterasu: there are chanterelles there, which the cooks use

Paradise Tennant: you would have to really know your mushrooms:)

Lucinda Lavender: In the article the mushroom expert felt his mothers cancer was healed by this mushroom that grows in old groth forests.

Lucinda Lavender: growth...

Paradise Tennant: hmm mushrooms are supposed to be a good anti carcingen :)

Lucinda Lavender: it started with "ama" as well.

Bruce Mowbray: Even the non-poisonous ones can make someone really sick, is he/she has suseptibility to that -- while everyone else eating them has no problem at all.

Bruce Mowbray: if.

Bruce Mowbray: while.

Bruce Mowbray: This happened to me with morells.

Lucinda Lavender: just thought it interesting...

Bruce Mowbray: Yes, they can be powerful medicine. Probably an excellent anti-carcinogen.

Ewan Bonham: there are many healing plants that we have not yet discovered...

Eos Amaterasu: Yes, and a Polish friend of mine in Nova Scotia picked and ate some Boletus Edulis just before driving to airport to pick up mathematician friend of his

Eos Amaterasu: by the time he and his wife got to the airport they had to ask their friend to drive them to the hospital

Bruce Mowbray: yep. That happend with me, too.

Eos Amaterasu: same plant species in different locations can be different

Bruce Mowbray: indeed, and they can affect different people in different ways.

Lucinda Lavender: ah interesting

Bruce Mowbray: BUT they were SOOOO delivious!

Eos Amaterasu: found some nice Coprinus Comatus (shaggy mane) near Crested Butte, CO once

Bruce Mowbray: delicious.

Eos Amaterasu: cooked them up on frying pan

Lucinda Lavender: wood fire?

Bruce Mowbray: yum yum yum -- I can smell them now, Eos!

Paradise Tennant: there was a whole series of books written by a researcher who lived with indians who used mushrooms as a reality relaxer is blinking on the name

Eos Amaterasu: then went into local bar, with jukebox, and heard, for the first time, Janis Joplin singing "Me and Bobby McGee"

Eos Amaterasu: peak Maslowian moment :-)

Lucinda Lavender: :)))

Bruce Mowbray: OHHHH wonderful!

Bruce Mowbray: There's a PEAK moment!

 

Eos Amaterasu: The forest at Windhorse Farm is a close expression of Being itself

Lucinda Lavender: can you say more?

Eos Amaterasu: the owner, Jim Drescher, has over the years developed a kind of forest practice

Lucinda Lavender: seems like forests have special effects...

Ewan Bonham: What kind of practice?

Eos Amaterasu: From "The Little Book of Practice":

As a longtime naturalist and meditator, he says that during the first years he was eager to tune in to the subtleties of the forest - the invisible energies and secret lives of all that lived there. At some point he realized that all he really had to do was make himself available, to "show up", and be seen rather than struggling to see.

Lucinda Lavender: nodding

Ewan Bonham: do you mean the ecology?

Eos Amaterasu: we could say, Being seeing

Bruce Mowbray understands this.

 

--BELL--

 

Paradise Tennant: the forest is a wonderful place to do that

Eos Amaterasu: Paradise, you'll be happy to know that our January retreat will be in New Orleans!

Paradise Tennant: smiles oooooooo

Paradise Tennant: nice and warm :)

Eos Amaterasu: music!

Paradise Tennant: yes !

Bruce Mowbray: Do you think it's possible to convey to someone who has lived her/his entire life in a city what a forest IS? Unless they go to the forest an experience it themselves?

Bruce Mowbray: and.

Bruce Mowbray: Or -- turn that arounbd:

Eos Amaterasu: I think it is our challenge to be able to bring the same kind of spirit that we find in the forest to the urban environment

Bruce Mowbray: someone who has lived his entire life in a forest -- How can you convey to that person what Second Life is?

Lucinda Lavender: nodding

Ewan Bonham: And i do think they have to spend some time there in its ambience..

Ewan Bonham: It is one thing to just see it as a visitor.

Ewan Bonham: Another to live in it for awhile..

Eos Amaterasu: diff between forest life and "RL" is as great as between "RL" and "SL"

Ewan Bonham: :)eos

Bruce Mowbray: But is there REALLY that great a difference? -- I don't think so!

Lucinda Lavender: I think so too probably

 

Lucinda Lavender: Hi Pila!

stevenaia Michinaga: hi Pila

Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Pila.

Paradise Tennant: hiya pila :)

Bruce Mowbray: good to see you again.

Ewan Bonham: Hi Pila

Pila Mulligan: greetings peak experiencers

Lucinda Lavender: :)

 

Eos Amaterasu: different worlds, different ambiences

Pila Mulligan: I got a secret message :)

Bruce Mowbray: ;-)

Eos Amaterasu: how can you speak and be from Being wherever you are?

Pila Mulligan: message: 'discussing peak expereinces"

Bruce Mowbray: I live in a forest -- literally. If it were daylight right now - I would take a photo out the window behind my computer and show you.

Bruce Mowbray: So. . . does this mean that my time here on SL is "inauthentic"?

Bruce Mowbray: (I've pretty worked up about this right now because I was just called "inauthentic" by someone at www.pantheist.net

Bruce Mowbray: I'm.

Eos Amaterasu: hmm, how odd

Lucinda Lavender: hmmm

Ewan Bonham: Hopefully, that is there and this is here..:)

Bruce Mowbray: yes -- She said that everyone in Sl was "disguising themselves" and "hiding behind make-believe avatars" -- Why don't they get real and breathe the fresh air of the forest, etc???

Eos Amaterasu: as Buckaroo Banzai said, wherever you are, there you are!

Bruce Mowbray: And here I am breathing the forest air right now -- and i could NOT get through to her.

Bruce Mowbray: grrrrr.

stevenaia Michinaga: a rather judgemental perspective

Pila Mulligan: hi Roxana

Bruce Mowbray: ha ha.

Lucinda Lavender: interesting...lucinda lavender was thinking about the importance of breathing at all...

Roxana Falconer: Hello Pila

Paradise Tennant: hiya roxana :)

Bruce Mowbray: I am aware of my own judgment, too.

Lucinda Lavender: :)

Ewan Bonham: Hi Roxana

Roxana Falconer: Hey there Lucinda, Paradise, Bruce

Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Roxana -- good to see you again so soon.

Roxana Falconer: Ewan...oh I like that name

Ewan Bonham: to me they are different...

Roxana Falconer: I told you i'd be back!

Ewan Bonham: and equally authentic..

Bruce Mowbray: yes -- I am glad to see you again.

Bruce Mowbray: Good point, Ewan.

Bruce Mowbray: go on, please.

Roxana Falconer: What is the discussion?

Bruce Mowbray: We're talking about real-life forests, people who live in cities, and whether SL is "real" or -- whether it is authentic.

Ewan Bonham: Well, when i am in sl..

Roxana Falconer: ahhh

Ewan Bonham: I feel intensity of sensations..

Ewan Bonham: As i truly see colors, shapes and have interactions..

Eos Amaterasu: playing as Being in the forest, in RL, in SL, both, ....

Roxana Falconer: wouldn't it depend on the person? Personal needs etc

Ewan Bonham: These ar very real..and i think I can feel the hearts of folks..

Bruce Mowbray agrees totally with Ewan.

Ewan Bonham: But when I am in rl such as in the woods..

 

Roxana Falconer: I haven't met anyone online that ever really was real with me

 

Ewan Bonham: The surroundings kinda penetrate into my being..

Roxana Falconer: I've chatted online since '96

Ewan Bonham: There is so much beyond wordss...more dimensional..

Bruce Mowbray: Well, Roxana -- get ready to meet some REAL people....

Roxana Falconer: I am hoping so. It's about time

Lucinda Lavender: Thinking...and the word surrender come up.

Paradise Tennant: smiles surrender always comes up :)

Bruce Mowbray: yes, Luci -- please say more.

Lucinda Lavender: thinking about how surrendering occurrs in all places...

Lucinda Lavender: when we feel safe

 

--BELL--

 

Eos Amaterasu: Awesome - we were all in the 90 secs!

Eos Amaterasu: *where* were we when we were there?

Bruce Mowbray: yes.

Roxana Falconer: Surrendering?

Eos Amaterasu: :-)

stevenaia Michinaga: smiles

Paradise Tennant: in a surrender of sorts :)

Ewan Bonham: Sensing..

Bruce Mowbray: yes, wonderful, Roxana.

Bruce Mowbray: Being with each other.

Lucinda Lavender: seeing too...

Eos Amaterasu: presence sense

Paradise Tennant: so being seeing ..surrendering together ..sounds kind of nice :)

Eos Amaterasu: feel me, feel you, feel open space, feel being suspended

Ewan Bonham: yes...feeling with each other..

Bruce Mowbray: from AVATAR (the movie): I see you."

Roxana Falconer: I would think that in order to surrender one must have trust or a sense of safety

Paradise Tennant: yes and like the word namaste .. I see the divine in you :)

Bruce Mowbray: yes, that builds. . . through continuing experience and awareness.

Eos Amaterasu: and what is it that I see when I see you....

Roxana Falconer: You know the old exercise in which you fall backwards and trusts the person behind to catch him?

Eos Amaterasu: Yes Roxana, and/or a feeling of giving up

Ewan Bonham: Yes, the Divine..

Eos Amaterasu: so choiceless

Roxana Falconer: One must give up to fall

Bruce Mowbray: yes, I have done that falling-back thing many times.

Ewan Bonham: Feels so good when I am caught..

Bruce Mowbray: so, in the 90-sec breaks, we "fall back"?

Paradise Tennant: smiles one of the highlights of being a newbie in sl .. the sheer joy of falling :)

Roxana Falconer: Right on

Lucinda Lavender: ; )

Roxana Falconer: Well I don't think I feel that way at all

Bruce Mowbray: two thumbs up on that one!

Bruce Mowbray: say more, please, Roxana.

Ewan Bonham: I am a newbie as well...but see many similarities..

Roxana Falconer: Well this is like one big exercise in learning

Roxana Falconer: and that can be tough as well as fun

Bruce Mowbray: indeed.

Eos Amaterasu thinks of the book "Zen Mind, Newbie Mind", by Suzuki Roshi

Roxana Falconer: Plus the anonymity factor can be a heady thing to deal with

Bruce Mowbray: yes.

Roxana Falconer: Perhaps too much freedom at first for some

Bruce Mowbray: I'm sure of that.

Roxana Falconer: So one must deal with total freedom which is something one does not get in real life

Ewan Bonham: Can there be too much freedom?

Roxana Falconer: My experience in internet chat says "Yes"

Bruce Mowbray: it's a balance between ridigity and chaos --- a continual finding of the balance.

Eos Amaterasu: we may think it's freedom

Roxana Falconer: But that is for certain people not all

Eos Amaterasu: there's freedom to go from one fixation to another

Roxana Falconer: It takes a very strong personal sense of self to not let it go to ones head

Ewan Bonham: Yes, we can only find that balance when we give ourselves that freedom to do so..

Eos Amaterasu: and then there's a more real freedom

Roxana Falconer: Yes Eros, exactly

Eos Amaterasu: :-)

Roxana Falconer: At least for some

Eos Amaterasu is agape with humor

Pila Mulligan: Eros ... nice typo

Roxana Falconer: However I have met those for whom the internet is a license to steal...so to speak

Bruce Mowbray: in some groups, Roxana, there emerges a sense of belonging and trust.

Roxana Falconer: I would hope so

Bruce Mowbray: not every group, to be sure.

Eos Amaterasu: just like in RL

Roxana Falconer: Yes

Ewan Bonham: Hopefully, here.

Bruce Mowbray: it emerges out of our interactions with each other over time.

Eos Amaterasu: It seems easier in some ways to find like-minded people here

Bruce Mowbray: For example. . .

Ewan Bonham: I have found myself increasingly expressing my mind and heart here.

Bruce Mowbray: Ewan and I came into SL at the same time --

Roxana Falconer: As long as a person stays true to themselves then even negative experiences wind up good

Bruce Mowbray: but we didn't speak to each other for about two months -- untill somehow we both found this place.

Eos Amaterasu: the shit's it

Ewan Bonham: ã‹¡ Bruce

Bruce Mowbray: well, it's true.

Eos Amaterasu: this is a strange attractor

Bruce Mowbray: and there were all sorts of things that needed to emerge first ---

Bruce Mowbray: like common ideas and feelings and exdperiences.

Ewan Bonham: i find my more open expression has allowed itself to come into rl as well..

Eos Amaterasu listens

Bruce Mowbray: yes -- indeed so, Ewan.

Bruce Mowbray: I am a better person in RL because of my experiences in L.

Bruce Mowbray: Sl.

Roxana Falconer: I have had to learn to be more quiet in my rl

Bruce Mowbray: ;-) -- That TOO!

Roxana Falconer: There are blessings in silence

Roxana Falconer: darn it

Roxana Falconer: lol

Bruce Mowbray: mmmmmm.

stevenaia Michinaga: I think it;s easier to listen in RL after being here for a while

Ewan Bonham: ã‹¡ Rox

Roxana Falconer: yes Ewan?

Bruce Mowbray thinks --- this Roxana -- where have you been???

Ewan Bonham: I smiled in agreement with you.

Roxana Falconer: ahhhh lmao

Ewan Bonham: About blessings in silence

Bruce Mowbray: ;-)

Roxana Falconer: oh far out! *winks*

Bruce Mowbray waves and winks .

Bruce Mowbray: The people around this circle are REAL people - with REAL thoughts and experiences... and feelings for each other.

Bruce Mowbray: Some of them have spent the past week together in real life.

Paradise Tennant: smiles the lucky ones :)

Roxana Falconer: Really that is both wonderful and scary to me

Bruce Mowbray: while some of us had to stay at home....;-(

Eos Amaterasu: and now will spend 90 secs together, letting be

 

--BELL--

 

Eos Amaterasu: How was that? Reports from the open field?

Ewan Bonham: togetherness

Bruce Mowbray: a gentle sharing of silence.

Paradise Tennant: smiles ..yes focussed togetherness :)

Eos Amaterasu: 'co'

Eos Amaterasu: maybe more than just 'me' in that presencing

Paradise Tennant: smiles likes the tsk language that looks at our selves as only a tendency to consolidate ..but never really a consolidation .. in each successive moment in time .. kind of makes me smile whenever I think of that outlook .. looking down at my fingers which are not quite consolidated as I type this :)

Eos Amaterasu: we are trillions

Bruce Mowbray: a brief time to find balance again.

Ewan Bonham: and yet interconnected..

Eos Amaterasu: holds everything

Bruce Mowbray: time to renew my trust.

Bruce Mowbray: trust that we are indeed connected.

Eos Amaterasu: everything in that 90 secs is refreshed

Paradise Tennant: yes often will think of plunging into a pool surrounded by bubbles .. where it is deep and quiet

Roxana Falconer: If man is created in the image of God then we must have a connection. We weren't meant to be alone.

Roxana Falconer: We are a part of one another. Together we make a whole

Ewan Bonham: Para, and the bubbles interact with us..

Paradise Tennant: smiles at roxana :)

Bruce Mowbray seels: "Yes, and here we are."

Bruce Mowbray: feels.

Ewan Bonham: Roxana, I must recall...I am never alone..

Bruce Mowbray: separation is an illusion.

Bruce Mowbray: maybe even a delusion.

Ewan Bonham: ã‹¡ bruce

Bruce Mowbray: and yet, is it a feeling that we sometimes have.

Bruce Mowbray: alone. distant. isolated.

Eos Amaterasu: hmm, beyond meeting as well as beyond parting

Ewan Bonham: i often feel it...

Ewan Bonham: I think i know better..

Ewan Bonham: but must daily show myself...it is an illussion

Roxana Falconer: Well our aloneness is real enough in our flesh. The oneness we have is through our souls, our spirit beings

Ewan Bonham: based on old thought habits.

Paradise Tennant: metta practise is a wonderful banishment for the sense of being alone .. love connects

Roxana Falconer: So that we know though we be apart we are still with each other

Bruce Mowbray: we are one in the spirit -- as the old church song goes.

Roxana Falconer: Yes Bruce, exactly

Eos Amaterasu: when we are none in the spirit we are one in the spirit :-)

Bruce Mowbray: I am one in spirit with the forest, also.

Bruce Mowbray: My best friends are 200-year-old oaks.

Paradise Tennant: lol

Bruce Mowbray: and field mice.

Eos Amaterasu: they're much younger

Paradise Tennant: loves that .. bet they .. are great company and wonderful listeners :)

Bruce Mowbray: yep.

Bruce Mowbray: I mostly listen to them.

Bruce Mowbray: whether they also listen to me -- I'm not sure.

Bruce Mowbray: it's enough to hear them.

Ewan Bonham: lol..i would guess at another level

Bruce Mowbray: Jim Drescher knows about this stuff, I'll bet.

Eos Amaterasu: all watched over by trees of loving grace...

Eos Amaterasu: http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Richard-Brautigan/72

Roxana Falconer: I have never had that connection to nature. But I am filled with a sense of purpose. As if this world as expressed in nature is man's responsibility to honor and care for.

Bruce Mowbray: although I've never met him.

Roxana Falconer: It is a sacred trust

Eos Amaterasu: this pavilion is in a way such a forest place... a clearing of Being

Bruce Mowbray: There are some truly wonderful sims devoted to nature in SL.

Ewan Bonham: nods

Roxana Falconer: I rode horse yesterday which was wonderful

Ewan Bonham: Where?

Bruce Mowbray: yes, I feel that being at the PaB pavillion is a very real part of my spiritual prqactice.

Roxana Falconer: I'd have to check. A friend tp'd me there

Ewan Bonham: yes...real..

 

--BELL--

 

Ewan Bonham: Rox...I would like that experience.

Ewan Bonham: tx

Ewan Bonham: ty

Roxana Falconer: Well I checked an can't tell. I'll ask my friend about the palce

Roxana Falconer: Ok I sent her a message

 

Pila Mulligan: /must slip off to RL ... nice to see everyone, bye for now

Paradise Tennant: smiles

Roxana Falconer: Bye Pila

Paradise Tennant: good nite pila namaste :)

Bruce Mowbray: good night, Pila -- thanks for a wonderful group this afternoon!

Bruce Mowbray: (Pila and arabella and I had a great session on the I Ching today)

Paradise Tennant: sigh I should scoot too .. long day .. be well everyone .... thank you all for sharing .. as always really enjoyed the company :)

Bruce Mowbray: ok, Para -- enjoy your evening.

Roxana Falconer: Paradise, blessings to you!

Eos Amaterasu: ~~

stevenaia Michinaga: night

Paradise Tennant: smiles and goes poufie :)

Bruce Mowbray: ;-)

stevenaia Michinaga: nice to meet you roxana, hope to see you agaib

stevenaia Michinaga: n

Roxana Falconer: Same to you Stevenia!

Eos Amaterasu: bye Steve

Roxana Falconer: Call me Roxy

Bruce Mowbray thinks: WHaT a beautiful dress!

Roxana Falconer: please

Lucinda Lavender: night all...

Bruce Mowbray: g'night, steve.

Roxana Falconer: NIght Lucinda

Eos Amaterasu: bye luci

Bruce Mowbray: g'night, Luci! and thank you.

Bruce Mowbray: g'night, Ewan -- and thanks, as always.

Ewan Bonham: Thank you all...really a breath of fresh air in these meetings..

Lucinda Lavender: ah...oops

Roxana Falconer: Goodnight Ewan and Luci

Eos Amaterasu: luci jumps into the sky with diamonds

Lucinda Lavender: had a phone call...

Lucinda Lavender: yes!

Eos Amaterasu hopes skies will clear tomorrow for Perseids

Bruce Mowbray: yes -- I'm hoping for clear skies for the meteor shower, too.

Lucinda Lavender: hope so too...bet you can see them fromquieter places of less light?

Bruce Mowbray: the next two nights.

Bruce Mowbray: we have NO lights out here! (thank goodness).

Eos Amaterasu: lucky you!

Bruce Mowbray: yes, indeed.

Eos Amaterasu: however, our little pool in front of the house sometimes captures the moon!

Roxana Falconer: Where are you from ?

Bruce Mowbray: When I first came here tonight, I was quite angry.

Bruce Mowbray: Now I feel calm and settled and balanced again.

Bruce Mowbray: I live in southern Ohio, Roxy.

Roxana Falconer: In farm country then?

Bruce Mowbray: oh yes --- we get one car an hour down the road -- at most.

Roxana Falconer: I have lived it the country. I am glad I did

Bruce Mowbray: I sometimes cannot tell the difference between the backiground sounds in Sl and the sounds outside my window.

Bruce Mowbray: owls and everything.

Roxana Falconer: That has to be very soothing

Eos Amaterasu: ditto, Bruce

Lucinda Lavender: pondering the moon reflected...

Bruce Mowbray: yep.... and I need that.

Eos Amaterasu: moon reflected in pool; forest imaged in heart

Lucinda Lavender: bye for now...:)

Eos Amaterasu: beling playing in self

Eos Amaterasu: bye luci

Bruce Mowbray: bye, Luci -- see you again soon.

Roxana Falconer: Bye Luci

Lucinda Lavender: thank you yes...

Eos Amaterasu: Okay, I perhaps should go too - after minuit, ici

Bruce Mowbray: You folks had some sort of wonderful week.

Bruce Mowbray: ok -- me too.

Bruce Mowbray: good night, Eos.

Roxana Falconer: I guess this is the time to move on

Eos Amaterasu: yes.... thnx for this wonderful hour!

Roxana Falconer: It was very enjoyable

Eos Amaterasu: Ciao!

Bruce Mowbray: ok, Roxy. I do hope you'll joing our group again soon.

Roxana Falconer: Blessings to you both!

Bruce Mowbray: and blessings to you too.

Bruce Mowbray: Good night.

Roxana Falconer: Oh I am sure to do that

Roxana Falconer: NIght