2010.10.31 19:00 - Being Disguised

The Guardian for this meeting was Calvino Rabeni. The comments are by Calvino Rabeni.

Calvino Rabeni: Hello Mitzi, how are you on this eve?
Mitzi Mimistrobell: ah, what's this ... stone soup?!?
Calvino Rabeni: It might become that if we can each throw something into the pool
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Stone soup is a good analogy really ... each person ads something and after a bit, you have some good soup.
Lucinda Lavender: Hi All...
Calvino Rabeni: And Lucinda too :) Hello
Lucinda Lavender: hi...I am in Deleware
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I'm feeling rather good in fact ... a superb nature meditation this afternoon probably has a lot to do with it.
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Lucinda .. in Delaware?!? Be careful there are WITCHES about in that land!
Lucinda Lavender: wanted to say Happy Halloween and all...
Lucinda Lavender: my computer says 7:03...and is that what time it is for you?
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Happy day of the dead to all!
Calvino Rabeni: Anything special and seasonal going on for you in Delaware, Lucinda?
Lucinda Lavender: visiting my daughter...
Lucinda Lavender: and then son later this week
Lucinda Lavender: we are trying to figure out what to do tomorrow for fun
Calvino Rabeni: I'm imagining ... hmmm.... how about a haunted museum, closed for the night, full of early american furniture ..
Lucinda Lavender: right!
Mitzi Mimistrobell: In Colorado it's 8:05pm ... In Delaware it should be 10:05 by my reckoning! Your computer is still on Pacific Time it seems ...
Lucinda Lavender: right! thanks for helping me figure that out...
Lucinda Lavender: any halloween impressions today?
Calvino Rabeni: There was a huge costume parade ...
Calvino Rabeni: more people in the parade than the entire population of the town it seems
Lucinda Lavender: ah..cool!:0
Calvino Rabeni: Kiddies and their parents
Lucinda Lavender: for you Mitzi?
Calvino Rabeni: After a while all the costumes start to look normal
Lucinda Lavender: yes...
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I saw some parents and kids in costumes walking around various neighborhoods in the mid-afternoon, which I thought odd ... is that the new thing?
Lucinda Lavender: night being too scary...maybe so...
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I bought candy but got home too late ... no one came by. Oh well!
Lucinda Lavender: aw
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Tomorrow I have to get rid of this candy. I'll take it to work.
Lucinda Lavender: nodding
Calvino Rabeni: I was in a really scary place ... the garage of my old house ... looking into the old file cabinets (shudders)
Lucinda Lavender: maybe get to use your dreaming mind to open them up...
Mitzi Mimistrobell: The most fun I had re costimes - yesterday I went to the hair salon and all the salon staff were in pretty great costumes, fun to watch. Pirates, unicorns, witches, Daisy Mae,
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Calvino ... that does sound horrible
Calvino Rabeni: But (he said, distracting) there were some creative costumes at the parade ... a couple of nice jelly fish, made with transparent umbrellas
Calvino Rabeni: and someone who must have had stilts inside their trowsers
Lucinda Lavender: lot of fun...
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Jelly fish ... were they trailing transparent whiskers and all?
Calvino Rabeni: Yes,  and a tiny horsie ... worn by a tiny child
Calvino Rabeni: who dropped their lollie and then tripped on it
Lucinda Lavender: ooops
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: Who is Daisie Mae?
Lucinda Lavender: out of appachia?
Lucinda Lavender: appalachia...cartoon from the paper
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Yes, ... remember the old comic strip "L'il Abner"? Daisy Mae was his sexy sister
Lucinda Lavender: ?perhaps?
Calvino Rabeni: Ah yes ..
Mitzi Mimistrobell: She is blond and wears cut off jeans and a red and white polka dot top with cleavage spilling out ...
Calvino Rabeni: There were plenty sexy sisters at the parade ...
Lucinda Lavender: :)
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Halloween gives a handy excuse for sexy costumes for all!
Calvino Rabeni: Although not as many teenage dominatrix as one might expect
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Well I'm sure it was a family oriented event ...
Calvino Rabeni: I kept my eye out for a costume made entirely of bubble-wrap
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Cinda your hair is different ... nice!
Calvino Rabeni: but the jellyfish was the closest to that
Lucinda Lavender: it came out of the assessories.....
Lucinda Lavender: thanks
Lucinda Lavender: very nice cal
Mitzi Mimistrobell: yes, nice tuxedo!
Lucinda Lavender: I think that somekind of green color is in my hair...maybe reflected from somewhere else
Lucinda Lavender: it is on your hair too Mitzi
Lucinda Lavender: maybe comes from the pumkin leaves
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Oh yes, I noticed that. Cal ... I might try to drink champagne punch ...
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I got some but I don't know how to drink ...? Do you need an animation to do so?
Calvino Rabeni: You find it in the inventory and then click Wear
Mitzi Mimistrobell: aha!
Mitzi Mimistrobell: ah, delicious
Calvino Rabeni: I found some rather interesting things in the garage ... an article written long ago by a friend ... it was titled "The Epic Multidimensional Journey of Holistic Learning"
Calvino Rabeni: I love the title
Lucinda Lavender: sounds very interesting too
Mitzi Mimistrobell: AUthor?
Lucinda Lavender: sipping
Calvino Rabeni: I signed a nondisclosure agreement back then .... but check your IM for details
Calvino Rabeni: (sorry log readers ... )
--BELL--

Lucinda Lavender: thinking about getting tired here and may want participate in planning...have a great night all...and sweet dreams.
Calvino Rabeni: Thanks for stopping by, Cinda :)
Lucinda Lavender: so nice to see you both:)
Calvino Rabeni: :)
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Good bye east coast girl - have interesting east coast dreams. I have no doubt they will differ from the ones you have at your home.
Calvino Rabeni: That seems assured
Lucinda Lavender: till later...yes...may have some elections stuff going on this week...
Calvino Rabeni: Interesting timing yes
Lucinda Lavender: blessings all...:)
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I filled out my vote by mail ballot yesterday and will drop it off tomorrow at the county clerk - right behind my office so a nice stroll over there to break up the day.
Calvino Rabeni: Bye Cinda!
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Wow, I'm getting a little virtually tipsy on this punch!
Calvino Rabeni: There were some interesting items on the ballot this time
Calvino Rabeni: reversing the state control of liquor sales
Calvino Rabeni: establishing a state income tax (but only for the wealthy)
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Really?!? In Colorado, we just have a few ultraconservative amendments - forbidding all borrowing by state entities and defining a fertilized egg as a legal person with the same rights as a born individual. Those will be defeated I'm sure.
Mitzi Mimistrobell: So, enough about politics. I was in a spiritual group gathering last night where someone admitted their disdain for humanity, and it opened up everyone to share their own discouragement with the human race.
Mitzi Mimistrobell: It was a brave admittance, and changed the atmosphere in the room. People got more open, it felt like.
Calvino Rabeni: How does one present and/or hear a statement that on the face of it seems like such a fixed generalization?
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I guess I feel depressed about humanity's state even though I realize we are early in the evolutionary process.
Calvino Rabeni: And have it work as an opening?
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I think probably the vulnerability of delivery was the key element.
--BELL--

Mitzi Mimistrobell: Being there in the room, and after various people sharing as well as this person, it felt like an opening up, a dropping of the mask of positive attitude to show that which was hiding beneath.
Calvino Rabeni: It seems there's a negative mask on top of a positive mask on top of a negative mask on top of .... ?
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Right!
Mitzi Mimistrobell: My thought was, in this group, we acknowledge that we are in an early stage of evolution and that it's not our fault that we're so screwed up. Nevertheless, evidently some of still believe we *OUGHT* to be further than we are and are upholding the image that we are doing better than we really are in our growth process.
Mitzi Mimistrobell: So, admitting that negativity felt like a relief ... several others chimed in. What was interesting to me was that person's use of the word "disdain" rather than disappointment, which releaved something about that individual which was also more open than usual.
Mitzi Mimistrobell: She admitted she had disdain which matches her personality quite accurately.
Calvino Rabeni: That is interesting, yes
Mitzi Mimistrobell: So I felt like she must have had an extra measure of safety in her to speak in that way.
Calvino Rabeni: Then what happened?
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Oh ... I'm not sure I remember ... more people shared their issues after that. The feeling was greater vulnerability and seriousness all around. Quite lovely.
Calvino Rabeni nods
Mitzi Mimistrobell: So that's something I was impacted by recently. Just thought I'd share. No particular conclusion to draw at this time.
Calvino Rabeni: I'm wondering about the opposite thing ... for a couple of activites going on around here... and maybe you had an experience today ( you mentioned it at the very start of the session )
Mitzi Mimistrobell: When I got home later, I didn't have any urge to eat late at night. That's unusual. So I wondered if the quality of my group had nourished me deeply, satisfying something that's usually unsatisfied.
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Yes, I could share more ... what were you wondering?
Mitzi Mimistrobell: What would be the opposite thing, btw?
Calvino Rabeni: The contemplation is about the "relational" aspects of awareness
Calvino Rabeni: And the opposite of what you mentioned is something like
Calvino Rabeni: what are the social conditions - you mentioned the word "safety" - under which a positive, or deeply meaningful, experience - an experience say of reverence or beauty - can be communicated and expressed
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: There's a sort of malaise on the culture with respect to it ... perhaps driving people toward looking towards foreign or esoteric traditions
Calvino Rabeni: due to a hunger to communicate / experience those experiences at the intersubjective (social) level
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Wow, that's a great question. In my recent experience, I think you have to have some kind of shared, full experience, like working together in a body practice that requires group cooperation, or camping out together, traveling together, and have had an experience of facing and overcoming challenges together as a group.
Calvino Rabeni: so for instance, we can't really talk of beauty and reverence ... but can use code words from buddhism that are essentially the same human knowing
Calvino Rabeni: YES
Calvino Rabeni: That group level is very important
Calvino Rabeni: as is the somatic aspect of it
Calvino Rabeni: that's the angle I've been working at in one area
Calvino Rabeni: and in the other, it's a contemplation group talking about buddhist conceptual categories for those experiences
Mitzi Mimistrobell: One impact for me is that when feeling that "safety" or greater seriousness / vulnerability is that I then see, by contrast, how much we DON'T do that as a normal thing, and therefore how carefully controlled and fearful we are as a normal way of interacting.
Calvino Rabeni: but my effort is to reconnect with the occluded western tradition concepts for the "same" thing
Calvino Rabeni nods
Mitzi Mimistrobell: OK - that's a good thing. Where have you found these traditions, if any identifiable place / tradition?
Calvino Rabeni: It's a matter of reading the classics perhaps, with a less jaundiced eye
Calvino Rabeni: or of rediscovering the real experiential territory, which I think you're pretty well connected with
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Would college kids sitting around late at night qualify as one of those traditions? (whether using alcohol, marijuana or other substances - or not)?
Calvino Rabeni: For the first approach, there's for example, the book "Beauty - The Invisible Embrace" with the subtitle "Rediscovering the true sources of compassion, serenity and hope"
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Is group communication said to be one of those sources?
Calvino Rabeni: http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Invisible-Embrace-John-Odonohue/dp/0060957263
Calvino Rabeni: Well, I think that's something that we have to explore, and to pursue
Calvino Rabeni: Group communication is the place where an experience takes on its intersubjective reality
Calvino Rabeni: As it did in your group experience last night
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Oh, John Odonohue! I heard an interview with him and thought he was wonderful. Very insightful and slicing deeper than almost everyone.
Calvino Rabeni: but our nourishing insights and connections with nature and with something greater than the isolated individual ... these also become real in the same way
Calvino Rabeni: you could say ... "Life is only real, then, when I AM authentic in relationship"
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, he does go into these deep, feeling contemplations
Calvino Rabeni: and also if you look, systematically comprehensive
Calvino Rabeni: for instance, the experience of Beauty, through many different channels of experiences - body, nature, art, somatics, all the different senses
Mitzi Mimistrobell: ... maybe ... that's very difficult though ... so I'd hate to think I lack authenticity when I just don't happen to feel the path to reveal certain things to certain people. I think there's an authenticity to the nuance of each and every individual relationship - what feels right to say and what isn't really ready to come out yet ... or not to that person anyway ....
Calvino Rabeni: Specific to the group level, there are sections on Voice
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Within each interaction, that can shift over time as trust or safety grows ...
Calvino Rabeni: I follow what you're saying and agree
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Wow, I like that. I should check out that book, Calvino, thanks for pointing that out.
--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: A relationship - every relationship - has two "ends" and a center of "its own"
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Yes, each relationship is like a "whole", an "entity" of its own, just like an individual is
Calvino Rabeni: I think your nature practices, if I understand them, are a connection with something like reverence, compassion, hope ... but as I say that I experience a social twinge of some kind
Mitzi Mimistrobell: They feel deeper and more neutral than that, although such qualities may be a result of the nature practices. The practice itself doesn't really go with those words *DIRECTLY*
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, I understand that ... they might be deeper than those things
Calvino Rabeni: the sources deeper that is
Calvino Rabeni: that's a good point
Calvino Rabeni: nice way of putting it, thanks
Mitzi Mimistrobell: The nature practice feels more like a receptivity practice - which then allows me to feel, see, hear, drink in, the beauty and complexity of the natural world, which is inherently enjoyable and satisfying.
Calvino Rabeni: on the other hand, those "qualities" need to stand somewhere
Calvino Rabeni: Yes
Mitzi Mimistrobell: They could perhaps stand as qualities of manifestation coming back out from myself after having been refreshed in such a way ...?
Calvino Rabeni: In my experience it transfers .to the "human world"
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Right.
Calvino Rabeni: But not directly perhaps
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Directly ... or indirectly. Both.
Calvino Rabeni: No maybe that's actually the direct path, depending on how you think of it
Calvino Rabeni: Via an experience of the nature of self
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I might have better resonance with my neighbor's pet cat as well! So, human, animal, mineral world ... all can be impacted by how I am different after such meditations.
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, it's not too concerned with those categories, is it
Mitzi Mimistrobell: The question of intereaction with the mineral or elemental world, or with objects in my house, is a fascinating one as well.
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I was recently instructed by a spiritual teacher to take in inanimate objects as examples, inspirations, of how to just "be"
Mitzi Mimistrobell: I found that thought to be very relaxing. Slow down and be as still and simple as my coffee cup.
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Coffee cup as mentor
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, or as free and chaotic as the wind ... I had a bit more difficulty with that nature quality
Calvino Rabeni: the way it's constantly worrying things
Calvino Rabeni: in the archaic sense of the word :)
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Well, I think we take in the qualities that we need at any time ... the others just roll by. So if you are already windy and chaotic, don't focus on that, it won't nourish what you need at that time.
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, that's how it works
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Today I found I liked to look a small close things, to calm down. Then I would look up at the sky and mountains and open up ... then seek some relief in smaller closer stiller things ... a yin and yang flow
Calvino Rabeni: I understand
Calvino Rabeni: There are also alchemical ways to work with it
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Sure, alchemical ways! Very intriguing. But I'm a bit of a novice so I get a lot from the simple stuff.
Calvino Rabeni: That's sensible
--BELL--

Mitzi Mimistrobell: So, calvino, it's been really nice tonight. I must finish up some end of month work though, so I'll reluctantly take my leave now ...
Calvino Rabeni: Great. thanks Mitzi
Calvino Rabeni: I'll talk to you later
Calvino Rabeni: Have a good evening
Mitzi Mimistrobell: Thanks for the champagne punch! Very fancy ...~!
Calvino Rabeni: YW :)
Mitzi Mimistrobell: See you next time then ... Have a wonderful week ...
Calvino Rabeni: Thanks, same to you :)