2011.05.28 19:00 - The Cocoa of Awareness

The Guardian for this meeting was Pema Pera. The comments are by Pema Pera.

Pema Pera: Hi Eos!
Eos Amaterasu: Hi Pema
Pema Pera: good to see you again!
Pema Pera: did you come back from your trip?
Eos Amaterasu: Yes, back last night
Eos Amaterasu notices the orbiting fish
Pema Pera: Hi Roger!
Pema Pera notices two boxes
Pema Pera: what shall we do with all these boxes, Eos
Pema Pera: any idea what they are for?
Eos Amaterasu: HI roger
Eos Amaterasu: No idea
Eos Amaterasu: some kind of twitter box...
Eos Amaterasu: and the aquarium box
Pema Pera: owned by Alfred and Aphrodite
Eos Amaterasu: I guess we can get one tweet a minute as searched for by boxy's box
Pema Pera: and yes, aquarium, quite a proliferation!
Pema Pera: shall we put them aside, out of the way, or return them?
Pema Pera: it's getting really cluttered
Pema Pera: hi Eliza!
Eos Amaterasu leaves it to the GoC :-)
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Eos, Pema, Roger :)
Pema Pera: the GoC in turn leaves it to Eliza
Eos Amaterasu: Hi Eliza!
Eos Amaterasu: we are marveling at how things proliferate here
Pema Pera: as the wise well willing gentle facilitator-behind-the-scenes
Eliza Madrigal: :)) Yes, seems GOCs forgot their 'stuff'
Eos Amaterasu: Hi Susan
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Susan :)
Pema Pera: hi Susan!
iwandertoo Resident: waves
Pema Pera: shall we just return all this "stuff"

I decided to return the various things that had been left behind, in the hope that the owners wouldn't mind.

Pema Pera: one box gone
Eos Amaterasu: (poof)
Eos Amaterasu: (poof)
Pema Pera: another gone
Eos Amaterasu gasps
Pema Pera: fish still circling :-)
Eos Amaterasu: mind still spinning
Pema Pera: Nice to meet you, Roger!
Eliza Madrigal: maybe they are putting out signals... a call for Blub, since Bruce hasn't been inworld in a week or so :)
Roger Ormenthal: Thanks
Eos Amaterasu pictures Bruce & Blub on the NYC streets
Pema Pera: hi Paradise!
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Paradise :)
Eos Amaterasu: Hi Para!
iwandertoo Resident: waves
Paradise Tennant: hello eliza pema susan eos roger :)) good to see everyone :)
Eliza Madrigal: you too :))
Pema Pera: anyone cares to bring up a topic, by any chance? :)
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Ewan :)
Pema Pera: Hi Ewan!
Eos Amaterasu: HI Ewan, co-creator
Paradise Tennant: hiya ewan :)
Ewan Bonham: Hi Folks!
iwandertoo Resident: waves
Eliza Madrigal: Awareness is always an excellent topic, but then someone may ask in what way, etc., and I'd be too sleepy to say
--BELL--
Paradise Tennant: smiles and hands eliza some cocoa :)
Eliza Madrigal: :) glady accepted ! thanks
Eos Amaterasu tastes the cocoa of awareness

and so the title of this session was born . . .

Ewan Bonham: And the tasteIS an awareness..:)
Eliza Madrigal: mmm
Ewan Bonham: And the awareness of awareness is an awareness..:))
Paradise Tennant: lol :)
Pema Pera: /me's head spins
Eos Amaterasu: Eliza, in what way is awareness an excellent topic?
Eliza Madrigal: hehehehehe
Eos Amaterasu: ha ha ha :-)
Pema Pera growing aware of underlying subtleties . . . .
Pema Pera: as for `awareness of emptiness', the more I think about it, the more I like `awareness of openness', especially `openness to(ward)'
Pema Pera taking the heat of poor Eliza
Eliza Madrigal: :) Gladly accepted too, thanks
Ewan Bonham: Openess to allow for filling..:)
Eliza Madrigal: in a way that is never filled up?
Pema Pera: openning up to a situation and/or person seems more positive than just seeing the emptiness of a situation/person/problem
Eos Amaterasu: openness not closed by filling, yes
Ewan Bonham: So, my ccup is not empty...but rather open for something to be poured into..
Eliza Madrigal: :) receptive receptical
Pema Pera: willingness to go in any direction -- not predetermined
Pema Pera suspects that Eliza is dreaming already . . .
Roger Ormenthal: How about, consciousness of consciousness, as the abstract object of perception? I think that is inherent in the nature of empty space, which is not empty at all.
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eliza Madrigal: a dream is like that... you can fill it with endless stuff and stories and scenarios and poof
Pema Pera: ah, return to sender . . . is waking up??
Ewan Bonham: And allow it to fill me ...or not...
Eos Amaterasu: :-)
Pema Pera: aware of being aware, yes, how is that abstract, Roger?
Eliza Madrigal: :) :)
Paradise Tennant: always wonders what happens to dreams when they pouf :)

Actually, I've read several science fiction / fantasy stories where dreams did go somewhere . . . but there were already too many threads alive in this session, so I didn't go there. :)

Pema Pera: to the cosmic inventory??
Ewan Bonham: The cosmic database...lol
Roger Ormenthal: Abstract, because, normally we think about the object of perception as more substantial, like music, or a table, or a person. To have consciousness as the "object" of perception itself, seems fairly abstract. Of course that is the goal of some meditations, and some mystics say primordial space-time, or the vacuum, is pure consciousness.
Ewan Bonham: Do they come back?
Pema Pera: reincarnation of dreams??
Ewan Bonham: Are they retreiveable?
Eos Amaterasu: yes
Eos Amaterasu: they poof into hiddenness
Paradise Tennant: stev was talking of sharing dreams the other night maybe they just get passed from sleeper to sleeper :)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eos Amaterasu: ancient greek for truth = a-letheia, where lethe is river of forgetfulness
Eos Amaterasu: so coming out of hiddenness
Pema Pera: perhaps it's not like an object, then -- rather in some way going beyond subject/object split, to see that mechanism at work without turning it into another object (@ Roger)
Paradise Tennant: smiles at eos :) love the how lethe sounds when you say it :)
Eliza Madrigal: ah yes.... have always loved that idea, or in biblical terms, a sea
Pema Pera: truth, ah, forget about it ! :)
Ewan Bonham: Lostat sea...:)
Eos Amaterasu: a sea?

/me always likes to dream up new explanations . . .

Pema Pera: Eliza likes to think big . . . river -> sea
Eliza Madrigal: someone used the term rather than no self, no-truth ...
--BELL--
Eos Amaterasu: dharma ocean
Roger Ormenthal: Object is a crude word in this sense. I only use it in the context of "object of perception" where the perception folds back on itself. I've had tastes in meditation of being "conscious of consciousness".
Ewan Bonham: Watching my mind..
Ewan Bonham: And watching my mind's eye..
Paradise Tennant: yes the start of awareness watching our minds
Eos Amaterasu: also awarness coming to you, enveloping you, resting
Pema Pera: then what about the consciousness you use to watch consciousness?
Pema Pera: that may lead to infinite regress
Eliza Madrigal: or letting the consciousness watch you
Pema Pera: and yes, inviting awareness may skip that problem
Eos Amaterasu: my world is minding me
Eos Amaterasu: Hi Storm!
Storm Nordwind: Hi!
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Storm :)
iwandertoo Resident: waves
Ewan Bonham: Hi Storm
Pema Pera: hi Storm!
Roger Ormenthal: Infinite regress would involve multiple entities that were conscious, but if it is just one person, I think one would not get stuck in an infinite regression, as with a dream within a dream within a dream, etc.
Paradise Tennant: hiya storm :)
Eliza Madrigal: fish following fish
Eos Amaterasu: when they are fish to begin with
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Paradise Tennant: :)
Eos Amaterasu: there's two intersecting circles of fish :-)

I gave a very quick summary to Storm.

Pema Pera: Storm, Eliza suggest talking about awareness, saying that she was aware she was too sleepy to talk about it . . .
Pema Pera: but we talked anyway
Storm Nordwind smiles
Pema Pera: we came to the point of letting mind minding itself, I believe
Eos Amaterasu: we're talking for her, whispering sweet dreams
Paradise Tennant: like the body awareness .. always seems so real .. when you can feel tiredness or the approach of sleep like a cloud moving fast on the horizon :)
Eliza Madrigal: am certainly already dreaming
Pema Pera wouldn't be surprised to hear Eliza dreaming about SL . . .
Eliza Madrigal: I know because everything seems just a little off, hah
Ewan Bonham: You don't have to be sleepy to be dreaming..:)
Eos Amaterasu spins his totem
Pema Pera: ah, yes, all those boxes that had to be returned first :-)
Pema Pera cups his ears to hear the music . . .
Pema Pera: . . . je ne regrette rien . . . .
Eos Amaterasu: Carolyn Fourmy ....
Pema Pera: (the movie Inception, for those who haven't seen it, and wonder what we're babbling about :-)
Eos Amaterasu dreams of a night at the Balcony Music Club in New Orleans
Eos Amaterasu: with a Jazzy chanteuse singing that song, with avatars at the table
Pema Pera: is our mojo working??
Storm Nordwind watches movies about 3 years after everyone else... at a fraction of the cost!
Pema Pera: we saw the movie at the last Nova Scotia retreat, with the whole group
Pema Pera: it was worth seeing
Pema Pera: about dreams within dreams within dreams
Pema Pera: Maxine was there too, and also appreciated it
Eliza Madrigal: it kept coming up in discussions until we felt compelled :)

Storm expressed the long view:

Storm Nordwind: Doubtless i will see it in a couple of years time :)
Eliza Madrigal: having heard some of your dreams Storm' I think you'll like it very much :)
Storm Nordwind: Thank you Eliza. Another bright far horizon to look forward too :)
Eos Amaterasu wonders about, awareness of looking at, and awareness of looking from
--BELL--
Eliza Madrigal: mmm and what underlies what
Eos Amaterasu: the latter may be a bit more restful
Eos Amaterasu: and needing no looking at, so to speak
Pema Pera: and awareness of letting oneself be looked at ?
Pema Pera: perhaps even more restful?
Ewan Bonham: Looking at may be more dissonant
Eos Amaterasu: yes, hopefully mercifully :-)
Eos Amaterasu: like being held, or in moma's lap
Eos Amaterasu: it's all tolerated and okay :-)
Ewan Bonham: Looking from...uses my mind's framework directly..
Pema Pera: I like the way you used "awaring" as a verb, Eos
Pema Pera: a while ago
Paradise Tennant: smiles at eos :) and his love of words :)
Eos Amaterasu: heh heh, words are quite amazing!
Ewan Bonham: Amazing is another word...smile
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eos Amaterasu: yes, it's interesting, we have "to know", but we don't really have "to aware" (we have "to be aware")
Storm Nordwind: With words, you can sometimes tell how people thought a thousand years ago
Pema Pera: yes!!
Pema Pera: etimology is a great treasure
Pema Pera: *etymology?
Eos Amaterasu is eager for an example from 1000 years ago

Storm took an even longer view, back in time:

Storm Nordwind: OK... take the old word Sael
Storm Nordwind: sael meant luck
Storm Nordwind: (Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon)
Storm Nordwind: Someone who was saelig was lucky in some particular way
Storm Nordwind: But eventually, to even believe in luck at all, you have to be a bit simple
Storm Nordwind: a bit of a fool
Storm Nordwind: So saelig changed to me foolish - in all positive and negative senses
Storm Nordwind: and then the positive senses disappeared
Storm Nordwind: to leave us with foolish
Storm Nordwind: and the sound of the word changed only a little
Storm Nordwind: but the spelling mutated to middle and then modern English
Storm Nordwind: to become the workd we know today:
Storm Nordwind: "silly"
Eos Amaterasu: (wow)
Ewan Bonham: Amazing..:)
Eos Amaterasu: willing to let go, in a way....
Eliza Madrigal: interesting, Storm :))
Pema Pera: yes!
Pema Pera: happy go lucky . . .
Eos Amaterasu: that sense of "feeling foolish" you sometimes hear in song lyrics
Pema Pera: fool on a hill . . .
Paradise Tennant: so my love of silly really is an appreciation of luck ? storm :)
Storm Nordwind: Related word: hap = luck or fortune. hapless = unlucky. happy means fortune smiles on you

Eos provided an illustration:

Eos Amaterasu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIjxcmFyhc4
Eos Amaterasu:

"Tell me, honey, what will I do

When I'm hungry and thirsty too

Feeling foolish (and that's for sure)

Just waiting here at your kitchen door? "

--BELL--
Eliza Madrigal: ty Eos :) Nice
Pema Pera: (^_^)
Eliza Madrigal is going to sign off and head to deeper sleep, happily :)) Thanks everyone
Storm Nordwind waves
Pema Pera: (btw, "zalig" in Dutch means blessed, must be related to "saelig")
Eos Amaterasu: :-)
iwandertoo Resident: waves
Eos Amaterasu: thank you all, good night!
Eliza Madrigal: Lovely :))) Good Night
Paradise Tennant: nite nite eliza
Ewan Bonham: Bye Eliza and Eos..:)
iwandertoo Resident: best to everyone
Ewan Bonham: Bye Susan..
Pema Pera: bye Susan!
Paradise Tennant: nite nite ewan :)
Ewan Bonham: Bye folks and thanks you...very reflective..:)
Pema Pera: bye Ewan!
Paradise Tennant: smiles are you in Japan Pema ?
Pema Pera: yes, in Kyoto
Pema Pera: and about to go get some lunch :)
Pema Pera: it's 12 noon here
Storm Nordwind: very wise :)
Paradise Tennant: smiles :) enjoy !
Pema Pera: thank you!
Storm Nordwind: may you be zalig :)
Pema Pera: good seeing you all
Pema Pera: hahaha, sure!
Paradise Tennant: yes may you be zalig :)))
Pema Pera: (that blessed Pema!)
Pema Pera: bfn

I took off at this point, so I will leave the remainder of this log uncommented.

Paradise Tennant: namaste :)
Paradise Tennant: smiles nice just to sit and listen to the owls :)
Paradise Tennant: happy then means full of luck Storm ?
Storm Nordwind: Pretty much yes!
Storm Nordwind: As Pema said, these words are often tied up with being blessed too
Storm Nordwind: It depends on how much you like the idea of a being blessing or luck just happening
Paradise Tennant: smiles was thinking of doing a meditation tonight on blessings :) there are so many of them when you really contemplate it :)
--BELL--
Paradise Tennant: hmm kind of think they are always there you sometimes just don't see them
Storm Nordwind: How many of them are given, and how many self-generated? :)
Paradise Tennant: hmm not sure there is a delineation
Storm Nordwind: Indeed :)
Paradise Tennant: being open to what is :) surrendering to it completely .. makes you feel more in touch with how much ... not sure of the word I am looking for .. hmm how much there is .. :))) how intensely rich the experience of life is
Storm Nordwind: It is always there - it has always been there - in all its immensity. It is your expanding awareness of what is already there that is blessed! :))
Paradise Tennant: I guess what I am trying to get out is that when I think of being blessed I really think of just breathing of just being alive
Paradise Tennant: smiles :))
Storm Nordwind: Thank you allowing me to share time with you all here :)
Paradise Tennant: nite nite storm :)
Roger Ormenthal: Bye
Paradise Tennant: namaste :)
Storm Nordwind: Namaste
Paradise Tennant: salig !
Paradise Tennant: storm is our builder he has built this sim :)
Paradise Tennant: he does lovely work :)
Paradise Tennant: hiya stev :))
--BELL--
stevenaia Michinaga: hi, how was your evening
Paradise Tennant: we have been talking of awareness :)
stevenaia Michinaga: gtsy again Roger
Paradise Tennant: of zalig :) and blessings
stevenaia Michinaga: don;t know zalig
Paradise Tennant: 07:53 PM] Storm Nordwind: OK... take the old word Sael [07:53 PM] Storm Nordwind: sael meant luck [07:53 PM] Storm Nordwind: (Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon) [07:53 PM] Storm Nordwind: Someone who was saelig was lucky in some particular way [07:54 PM] Storm Nordwind: But eventually, to even believe in luck at all, you have to be a bit simple [07:54 PM] Storm Nordwind: a bit of a fool [07:54 PM] Storm Nordwind: So saelig changed to me foolish - in all positive and negative senses [07:54 PM] Storm Nordwind: and then the positive senses disappeared [07:55 PM] Storm Nordwind: to leave us with foolish [07:55 PM] You decline Guthries Folk Club, Kissena Park (32, 218, 21) from A group member named Dottie Iceberg. [07:55 PM] Storm Nordwind: and the sound of the word changed only a little [07:55 PM] You decline Sunshine Daydream Amphitheater, Haight Ashbury (217, 68, 420) from A group member named Grateful Stryker. [07:55 PM] Storm Nordwind: but the spelling mutated to middle and then modern Engli
Paradise Tennant: missed the last bit it has morphed into silly ;)
Roger Ormenthal: Hi Stevenaia.
Paradise Tennant: pema is in japan so is eating lunch as we speak :) always find that kind of cool being able to sit in a room with folks all around the world in today and tomorrow :) never ceases to amaze me )
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, know know so many ppl from so many places
stevenaia Michinaga: and so many new ideas
stevenaia Michinaga: a wonderful palce to learn and listen
Paradise Tennant: smiles how many of these sessions have you attended again stev .. alot :) right :)
stevenaia Michinaga: storm loggged off, just Paradse and a new guy at Pab
stevenaia Michinaga: did a search the other night, some number over 1000
stevenaia Michinaga: oops, rong window
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
Paradise Tennant: lol
stevenaia Michinaga: was asked where I was
stevenaia Michinaga: sorry new guy
Paradise Tennant: smiles was that slyectra ?
stevenaia Michinaga: hehe
Paradise Tennant: smiles at the new guy :)
stevenaia Michinaga: soon, you wil not be so new
Paradise Tennant: smiles yes :)
Paradise Tennant: think you will come to really enjoy this group so many super smart interesting folks :)
stevenaia Michinaga: from all walks of life with silmilar interests in exploration
Roger Ormenthal: Exploration is much more fun than animated dancing.
stevenaia Michinaga: they both have a profound affect at the right moment
Paradise Tennant: smiles arrived here quite by accident
Paradise Tennant: was doing a search looking for a sari :) and ended up here in the middle of a session so just sat down :)
stevenaia Michinaga: waslooking for your 1st session Paradise, couldn;t find it,
Roger Ormenthal: Yes, always balance. A slow dance, while discussing quantum mechanics, would be heaven.
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, an exciting topic while slow dancing always enhances the situation
Paradise Tennant: really liked the falling in sl but the animated dancing never really got mindyou was a terrible klutz when I first started so sitting was always safer :)
--BELL--
Paradise Tennant: once knocked frogg marlowe off his stool in the middle of a concert just by hitting the wrong key so embarassing :)
stevenaia Michinaga: was thinking tonight that our land has so few danceballs
Roger Ormenthal: When I first flew in SL, it was pure delight, and reminded me of the "out-of-body" flight some say we engage in all the time.
stevenaia Michinaga: the fountain has risen and we have new fishes
Roger Ormenthal: (at night while sleeping)
Paradise Tennant: yes we do :)) storm has been busy again
Paradise Tennant: pardon aphrodite has been busy :)
stevenaia Michinaga: I didn;t know she scripts
stevenaia Michinaga: hmmm
Paradise Tennant: smiles think she may or may just shop :)
stevenaia Michinaga: fish w/o water
stevenaia Michinaga: the ability to contol virtual matter w/ the wave of a word
Paradise Tennant: yes
stevenaia Michinaga: sound like magic to me
Paradise Tennant: have builder friends who get frustrated with rl want to fix city side walks with a few clicks :)
Roger Ormenthal: Once after many hours in SL, I was walking, and when I wanted to turn, I thought of my cursor key. Perhaps that is a sign of too much SL.
stevenaia Michinaga: no, when you wnat to fly... then it's too much SL
Paradise Tennant: lol
Paradise Tennant: have you wanted to fly stev :)
stevenaia Michinaga: no
stevenaia Michinaga: never crossed my mind
Paradise Tennant: there have been lots of chats about dreams where you dream as your sl avatar or there are mix of rl and sl personas :)
stevenaia Michinaga: are you asking? or do you remember
Paradise Tennant: I remember
Paradise Tennant: I do not think I have had a second life dream :)
Paradise Tennant: had some great dreams but not one about sl
stevenaia Michinaga: hmmm, I remember dreaming about SL ppl I ahve met in RL, but don;t remember dreaming about ppl's avatars or mine, must be the nature of dreams, to forget, but nice that other's remember
Paradise Tennant: lucinda would know
Roger Ormenthal: I have heard that some SL couples have SL babies?
Paradise Tennant: eos I think had an avatar dream
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, even go through pregancy in SL
Paradise Tennant: i have an sl dog :)
stevenaia Michinaga: Adams did, but she did not have a partner that I know of
Roger Ormenthal: Are SL babies animated, or an avi of a person who wants to be a baby?
stevenaia Michinaga: I have only seen large babies in sl played by adults
stevenaia Michinaga: (in RL)
stevenaia Michinaga: thise fish are making me dissy, did Aph leave a comment to turn them off?
--BELL--
Paradise Tennant: hmm
Paradise Tennant: not sure
stevenaia Michinaga: I;ll try to put them back before I leave
Paradise Tennant: smiles
stevenaia Michinaga: or at least keep the fish inder water
stevenaia Michinaga: under
stevenaia Michinaga: are you a full time physicist, Roger?
Roger Ormenthal: No I am not.
Paradise Tennant: we had a nice retreat weekend last summer or the summer before stev with pema at princeton . fun to have tea where einstein to tea :) walk the grounds where such big ideas were .. flowing :)
stevenaia Michinaga: the yellow fish swam away
Roger Ormenthal: My formal degrees are in engineering - general, with specializations in electronics and computers. But my first love is knowledge and exploration. So the engineering pays the bills, but I more love to research in various scientific areas.
stevenaia Michinaga: passion drives us all
Paradise Tennant: yes
stevenaia Michinaga: was just looking at some of the pictures Paradise
Paradise Tennant: still have my acorn :) somewhere :)
Paradise Tennant: many of the pab folks have met in rl at various retreats I have been to two one in princeton and one in malta :)
stevenaia Michinaga: they are quite the events, how oftin do you take a vaction to loook so deeply inward
stevenaia Michinaga: a special gift to yourself when you can afford to do it
Paradise Tennant: yes time is the most precious gift we can give ourselves I think
Paradise Tennant: and we often are not conscious how we squander it I think
stevenaia Michinaga: an oppurtunity is the most special thing we can take
stevenaia Michinaga: *and
Paradise Tennant: they are the only "retreats" I have been too
Paradise Tennant: been thinking of going on a more formal buddhist retreat to see what that is liek
--BELL--
Paradise Tennant: nice sitting in the fountain stev ..thank you :)
stevenaia Michinaga: it's very warm here, this helps
Paradise Tennant: smiles and misty :) shall we do butterflies :)
stevenaia Michinaga: hehe, the do tend to overwhelm
stevenaia Michinaga: *they
Roger Ormenthal: Is it just my imagination, or did I originally sit on a cushion on land?
stevenaia Michinaga: originally, yes
stevenaia Michinaga: but there are ways to control reality here
stevenaia Michinaga: hehe
stevenaia Michinaga: smiles at the butterflies

stevenaia Michinaga: I think you lost your hair, roger
Paradise Tennant: like sl for wrapping oneself in colour for some reason I find it relaxing being able to walk through fields of flowers
stevenaia Michinaga: I think we are "wired" for that from long ago
Paradise Tennant: smiles well it is 12.20 am here the dog is yawning and raising an eyebrow I should toddle off :)
stevenaia Michinaga: night paradise
Roger Ormenthal: Good night everyone.
Paradise Tennant: smiles thank you two for the company the conversation :)
stevenaia Michinaga: night roger
stevenaia Michinaga: good dreams paradise, and don;t forget to write them down
Roger Ormenthal: Bye