2010.10.22 06:00 - Time Session: Tour Guide to Awareness

In this session we shared reports around Pema's unfolding book, Exploring the Magic of Time, and specifically this week:  7. A Fork in the Road .

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Maxine :)
Maxine Walden: hi, Eliza, nice to see you :)
Eliza Madrigal: Nice to see you, beautiful report
Maxine Walden: oh....thanks, what life brings our way...:)
Bleu Oleander: hi Eliza, Maxine
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Bleu :) Good Morning
Maxine Walden: hi, Bleu
Eliza Madrigal: I thought your picture was really stunning Bleu... took me a minute wondering if was 'rl' or 'sl'
Eliza Madrigal: *then* I recognized it
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Wester :)
Bleu Oleander: ty .... that's what I felt too
Wester Kiranov: hi
Bleu Oleander: hi Wester
Maxine Walden: have to go see your picture, bleu
Eliza Madrigal:

http://wiki.playasbeing.org/PaB_Books/Magic_of_Time/Time_Sessions/Weekly_Reports/2010%2f%2f10%2f%2f22%3a_Reports/2010.10.21%3a_Bleu_Oleander

Eliza Madrigal: unusual for Pema to be a few minutes late... probably rushing to a cafe somewhere for an internet connection... :))
Bleu Oleander: :)
Bleu Oleander: hi Bruce
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Bruce :)
Bruce Mowbray: Good day, everyone.
Wester Kiranov: it is a bit busy here so I might have to leave suddenly
Eliza Madrigal: Oh :(
Darren Islar: hi everyone :)
Bruce Mowbray: And I have an out of town guess arriving -- but probably not until after this session.
Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Darren.
Bruce Mowbray: Guest*
Maxine Walden: guessing about your guest, Bruce?
Bleu Oleander: hi Darren
Eliza Madrigal: It would be interesting to hear thoughts on the last chapter before it is time to go...
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Darren :)
Maxine Walden: hi, Darren
Bruce Mowbray: well, actually, yes - I am!
Maxine Walden: :)
Darren Islar: sorry, I'm afraid I didn't do my homework :(
Bruce Mowbray: Here comes Pema.
Eliza Madrigal shakes head at Darren .. tsktsk...
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Pema :)
Bleu Oleander: hi Pema
Pema Pera: hi there, everybody!
Pema Pera: sorry to be late . . .
Darren Islar is looking at the floor feeling guilty
Pema Pera: oh thank you, Eliza!
Darren Islar: hi Pema
Eliza Madrigal: :) np
Bruce Mowbray: Good day, Pema.
Darren Islar: :)
Maxine Walden: hi, Pema.
Pema Pera: (just came back to Tokyo this evening, after a one-day workshop in Kyoto)
Maxine Walden: know that feeling Darren...
Pema Pera: (misjudged exactly how long it would take to get home :-)
Darren Islar: why do I see an anagram?
Maxine Walden: hmm, bullet train, bullet speeding Pema
Eliza Madrigal: yes I'd remarked that you might be running for a cafe somewhere... hehe
Pema Pera: actually home now, with fast internet!
Pema Pera: quite a relief
Maxine Walden: :)
Maxine Walden: home is where the fast internet is...
Pema Pera: I enjoyed reading the reports for this week on http://wiki.playasbeing.org/index.php?title=PaB_Books/Magic_of_Time/Time_Sessions/Weekly_Reports/2010%2F%2F10%2F%2F22:_Reports
Eliza Madrigal: hhaah Maxine
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Alfred :)
Pema Pera: and I was especially taken by Bleu's so very meditative contribution, picture and words blending so perfectly
Bleu Oleander: ty Pema
Darren Islar: hi Alf
Pema Pera: (and color even true to her name :-)
Bleu Oleander: :)
Maxine Walden: yes, beautiful, bleu
Pema Pera: Hi Al!
Alfred Kelberry: didn't expect to see so many of you so early :)
Eliza Madrigal: that picture played with my perception of separatino between sl and rl... just wonderful
Eliza Madrigal: This is Time Session Alf :)
Pema Pera: Alfred, see http://wiki.playasbeing.org/PaB_Books/Magic_of_Time/Time_Sessions
Bleu Oleander: I did that meditation when I was in La Jolla last week
Pema Pera: ah, did you go to the Cove?
Alfred Kelberry: ah, yes. thank you, pema.
Bleu Oleander: and when I got back to SL I was sruck by my beach view in sl and how much it felt like la Jolla
Bleu Oleander: yes, was at the Cove
Bleu Oleander: dinner at George's :)
Pema Pera: and Torey Pines is another favorite spot of mine just north of La Jolla
Pema Pera: I envy you, Bleu!
Bleu Oleander: was at UCSD and the Neurosciences Institute
Bleu Oleander: kept contrasting where I thought you were with the retreat with what I was doing
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Darren Islar: hi Zen
Bleu Oleander: parrallel explorations
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Zen :)
Pema Pera: did you meet Christoph Koch by any chance?
Pema Pera: or is he elsewhere in Southern California?
Zen Arado: Hi all
Maxine Walden: what were you studying at UCSD, bleu?
Bleu Oleander: no not this trip, but want to
Pema Pera: Hi Zen!
Bruce Mowbray: Good day, Zen.
--BELL--
Bleu Oleander: http://www.spiritofthesenses.org/LaJolla2010.htm
Pema Pera: oh wow, a RL avatar!
Eliza Madrigal: Happy Group :)
Bleu Oleander: was also struck emotionally by Storm giving away some of the PaB land and realizing that land at the "beach" was once part of PaB also .... so the picture brought that home to me :)
Pema Pera: yes, we had overexpanded a bit way back when :-)
Bleu Oleander: interesting to think about "everexpanding" in rl also .... need to drop sometimes
Maxine Walden: (remembering that time... an the subsequent evolutions)

Pema Pera: does anybody have comments or questions concerning our latest time chapter on http://wiki.playasbeing.org/PaB_Books/Magic_of_Time/7._A_Fork_in_the_Road or about the reports

Eliza Madrigal: Welcome man, will IM you with intro so as not to disturb the group :)
Wester Kiranov: well, I would like to say that it seems less theoretical, more real than the earlier chapters
Wester Kiranov: I actually found it touching
Pema Pera: oh thank you, Wester!
Pema Pera: indeed, I'm trying to "get real" now :-)
Pema Pera: and hopefully more and more so in further chapters
Pema Pera: like the one that I will put up in an hour
Wester Kiranov: looking forward to that one then
Alfred Kelberry: why not just be real from the start, pema? :)
Pema Pera: Wester, what do you think about the "less real" earlier chapters -- did you find the partly more theoretical chapters less useful, or complementary?
Alfred Kelberry: hmm, where did shout come from...
Eliza Madrigal: you? :)
Bruce Mowbray: Throughout the week, I came to have doubts about my capacity for "play" in the RL -- except as a fantasy (as "less real" as it were.)
Maxine Walden: :))
Pema Pera: can you say more, Bruce?
Alfred Kelberry: there's even no shout option in v2 :)
Bruce Mowbray: It was both a relief to "play as if I were Being" -- with nothing lacking. . . but I couldn't help contrast that to my RL lack of play.
Wester Kiranov: I did feel the other chapters had their place as well, but this one - I saw more clearly where it's going
Wester Kiranov: and I saw you in it more, Pema
Pema Pera: ah, the next chapter will address just that, Bruce, head-on :-)

Bruce Mowbray: also, kept thinking about the 3rd Zen Patriarch: "Nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. . . ."

Bruce Mowbray: OK -- THANKS, PEma.
Bruce Mowbray: I am looking forward to that.
Pema Pera: and thanks, Wester!
Darren Islar: (Ctrl-Enter, still means shouting in v2.0)
Pema Pera: I really am having fun, introducing "Play as Being" in the middle of the Time book . . . as if writing a creation myth for PaB
Pema Pera: as if all that was planned :-)
Eliza Madrigal: So you are being surprised too Pema?
Zen Arado: AV evolution?
Pema Pera: very much so, Eliza!
Pema Pera: in many ways, PaB seems to lead its own life . . .
Zen Arado: and at a very fast pace of change...
--BELL--
Maxine Walden: interesting how our creative ventures do take on a life of their own...for me the unconscious at work, not really consulting our conscious experience, but tapping the wider wisdoms
Pema Pera: btw, I loved the story about Maxine vs. Mouse, and also enjoyed the brevity of Eliza's contribution -- from which nothing was missing!
Pema Pera: yes, very much so, Maxine, that's how it feels while writing these Time chapters
Maxine Walden: :)
Zen Arado: is our unconsciuos process governed by time or is that only our rational mind?
Pema Pera: I do think and ponder, but when I start writing it is as if hitting an underground water vein or something
Eliza Madrigal: yes have thought about the little mouse... especially due to a possom that has come to the back patio due to our feeding the cat that showed up weeks ago...
Alfred Kelberry: pema, is this book, in a way, your search of a scientific ground (measured observations, shared knowledge) in "play as being" concept? i feel it's close in nature to pheno workshop that you led a year ago, and which started out of debate with gilles with a similar premise.
Maxine Walden: and how to relate to the possum, Eliza?
Eliza Madrigal: yes... cat cute, opossom threatening?
Pema Pera: no, not a ground, but yes, using the scientific method of working hypotheses, Alfred -- and indeed it includes elements of phenomenology but it goes way beyond that
Maxine Walden: hmm, :) yes,
Pema Pera: beyond the subject-object split
Alfred Kelberry: yes, i can see that
Eliza Madrigal loves the imagery of the underground water vein... always flowing....
Pema Pera: and beyond linear past-present-future time
Alfred Kelberry: good to see it advancing :)
Maxine Walden: figures from 'wild' nature seem to tap our 'fears, dreads' of 'what's out there'. While tapping the underground vein may be trusting in what is 'out there' or 'down there' beyond our immediate perception
Wester Kiranov: using the scientific method without searching for a ground... I like that
Pema Pera: yes, an ungrounded, unconditional trust -- to combine both images :)
Maxine Walden: yes
Maxine Walden: brb, tea water
Zen Arado: but science requires eveidence - as a friend always reminds me
Darren Islar: and the reality of boiling water :)
Pema Pera: awareness is its own evidence, Zen, what more could you want?
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Ya :)
Pema Pera: hi Yaku!
Yakuzza Lethecus: hi everyone
Darren Islar: hi Yaku
Bleu Oleander: hi Yaku
Alfred Kelberry: sneaky pema :)
Zen Arado: well I am happy with that but others want me to show them 'hard'evidence
Zen Arado: facts and figures
Zen Arado: Hi Yaku
Pema Pera: how is reading meters "harder" than being aware of awareness, Zen?
Pema Pera: isn't that using the same awareness?
Maxine Walden: back
Darren Islar: hmmmm, pondering
Bleu Oleander: is awareness subjective?
Zen Arado: don't know but it seems if you produce figues and graphs etc it seems more convoncing to some
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Pema Pera: the way I am using the term awareness, Bleu, is to point to what goes beyond the subject-object division
Alfred Kelberry: cause others can't read your awareness like meters :)
Zen Arado: they would say we are too subjective and want 'objective' evidence
Pema Pera: identifying ourselves with the subject pole of a polarized kind of experience is one way of using awareness, but a rather narrow way
Pema Pera: the more natural way is not to take a subject stance
Bleu Oleander: difficult to do?
Pema Pera: the problem is that biological organisms, like us, are programmed and educated to take just that stance
Pema Pera: so we have to learn to relax
Zen Arado: yes
Bruce Mowbray: Pema, do you consider our reports and discoveries to be "evidence" you are collecting in your research?
Pema Pera: (again, there is much about this in chapter 8, coming up :-)
Maxine Walden: to unprogram, as it were
Pema Pera: in some ways, yes, Bruce
Pema Pera: I mean, not for me in particular
Alfred Kelberry: maxine, i think maybe to "see", not unprogram :)
Pema Pera: but for all of us -- to see for ourselves
Pema Pera: not to try to convince others
Maxine Walden: ah, yes, I like your amendment, Alf
Pema Pera: that would only be conceptual
Zen Arado: maybe we have to unprogram in order to see
Pema Pera: rather to learn to open our own eyes, with a little help from our friends
Eliza Madrigal: ah, yes this chapter turned on a little light for me... a little shift in awareness abundantly available and dropping defenses being all that's needed... rather than some idea of building awareness or a 'feeling' of that ....
Maxine Walden: very nice, Eliza
--BELL--
Darren Islar: it is hard to figure out what subjective means; I had somebody in my meditationgroup that said she was completely in herself; talking about it made me realize she probably meant the opposite without realizing it
Maxine Walden: another example of 'nothing is missing', Eliza
Pema Pera: interesting point, Darren!
Eliza Madrigal: it can be like one keeps discovering the 'same obvious thing' at deeper levels of surrender... like walking down stairs... perhaps to the flowing vein...
Eliza Madrigal: Ah, yes Maxine :)
Darren Islar: like connecting to that vein
Pema Pera: and just one more thing re: Bruce's question: the notion of "beginning at the end" is really incredibly radical -- and it has to be lived to be appreciated; reading a report can help to live it, but when taken as verbal conceptual "evidence" it is completely useless, ineffective.
Wester Kiranov: in meditation it is possible to mean the opposite and still mean basically the same, in science it usually isn't
Pema Pera: that's what I liked so much about Bleu's report this time -- you can use that as a tour guide to awareness
Maxine Walden: perhaps ineffective in part because beginning at the end seems to be such a leap...
Darren Islar: right Wester :)
Wester Kiranov: and opposites are one part of "reality" that falls away when you really see
Darren Islar: yes
Pema Pera: yes, "the opposite of a great truth is a great truth too"
Darren Islar: .
Maxine Walden: :)
Pema Pera: such as "all is empty" and "there is nothing missing"
Darren Islar: :)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Bleu Oleander: :)
Darren Islar: the banguet of emptiness :))
Eliza Madrigal: ahhh, nice
Maxine Walden: :)
Darren Islar: (with a 'q')
Alfred Kelberry: pema, i see a lot of it has connections in buddhism (open mind, awareness, impermanence). how is it relevant to your book and your concept that you're studying in a broad sense?
Maxine Walden: maybe also with a 'g' Darren :)
Pema Pera: yes, Al, but not only to Buddhism; similar notions can be found in many other places
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Freud, welcome back :) We're toward the end of Time Session now and will move on to the regular session in just a bit :) Please join us :)
Pema Pera: Buddhist just like to spell things out in more detail, typically, where many other traditions are happy to express very similar sentiments in more devotional or poetic language
Pema Pera: hi Freud!
Darren Islar: hi Freud
Yakuzza Lethecus: hi freud
Zen Arado: Hi Freud
Maxine Walden: ah, Freud...:)
Freud Jungsten: si yo
Darren Islar: I think it depens on the tradition
Freud Jungsten: Sorry, on a text only viewer... am I any place inconvenient right now?...
Darren Islar: (depends, need typing lessons)
Eliza Madrigal: we're sharing a cushion Freud but that's okay... some days it takes time to rezz :)
Freud Jungsten: sorry... grins
Bruce Mowbray: On a text-only viewer, it takes a LONG time to rez.
Eliza Madrigal: hahah Bruce
Darren Islar: :)
Freud Jungsten: And you can't tell wher eyou are either.
Eliza Madrigal: yes....
Pema Pera: :-)
Eliza Madrigal: I see... well stay right here I'll pop over there...
Freud Jungsten: Sorry.
Eliza Madrigal: not at all! :)
Maxine Walden: Our various 'viewers' so determine our immediate experience of 'the world' it seems.
Bleu Oleander: in rl and sl Maxine :)
Bruce Mowbray: Mmmm. wonderful point, Maxine.
Maxine Walden: yes, :) !
Darren Islar: :)
Pema Pera: indeed Maxine! Some people I know in RL seem to be almost exclusively text based . . . .
Maxine Walden: :))
Freud Jungsten: I tred to sit down...
Eliza Madrigal: You did it Freud!
Wester Kiranov: :)
Maxine Walden: think you are speaking in metaphor, Pema, thus the smile
Freud Jungsten: You learn something everyday it seems...
Pema Pera: :)
Maxine Walden: hopefully, Freud
Darren Islar: and sitting next to me, so that is okay :))
Alfred Kelberry: pema, do you plan to publish the time book?
Eliza Madrigal: moving around in the unknown....
Bruce Mowbray: and also next to me, Freud.
Maxine Walden: :)
Darren Islar: interesting question Alf
Eliza Madrigal: This session is coming to a boundary but feel free to stick around. Just want to thank you again Pema for so much wonderful work... enriching our lives....
Bruce Mowbray: I must return to RL now. My "guess" has arrived. May all be well and happy in your play today.
Eliza Madrigal: Be well and Happy Bruce :)
Pema Pera: for the time being, it will effectively be published already in the form of being available on the web -- but yes, it may be interesting to find a way to officially publish it
Bleu Oleander: bye Bruce
Maxine Walden: bye Bruce
Alfred Kelberry: bruce :)
Darren Islar: bye :)
Bruce Mowbray: Thanks, everyone.
Darren Islar: need to go too
Pema Pera: thank you, Eliza!
Freud Jungsten: do na da go hv i
Darren Islar: bye everyone :)
Pema Pera: bye Bruce!
Zen Arado: bye Breuce
Wester Kiranov: am leaving too. bye & ty all
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Darren :)
Maxine Walden: I as well, very nice conversation
Eliza Madrigal: And Wester, glad you were able to stay
Eliza Madrigal: And Maxine :) You too.... happy camping :)
Maxine Walden: bye all
Maxine Walden: thanks!!
Bleu Oleander: bye all who are leaving :)
Pema Pera: bye all who are leaving!
Pema Pera: hahaha
Zen Arado: bye Darren, Wester

And if you read to the bottom you surely deserve the link to the later posted next chapter:  

http://wiki.playasbeing.org/PaB_Books/Magic_of_Time/8._Play_as_Being