2012.02.10 06:00 - Regarding Reality: Protected Space for Such

The Guardian for this final and much appreciated Regarding Reality session, was Maxine Walden.

 

Eliza Madrigal: Hi oO0Oo :)

oO0Oo Resident: Hi Eliza !

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Pema, Yaku :)

oO0Oo Resident: 〜waves〜

oO0Oo Resident: ☻/

oO0Oo Resident: /▌

oO0Oo Resident: / \ 

Pema Pera: hi Sam!

Yakuzza Lethecus: hey everyone

Pema Pera: hi Eliza!

Pema Pera: and hi Yaku!

Eliza Madrigal: Maxine may be having a little trouble... saw that she signed on but off quickly

Pema Pera keeps fingers crossed

oO0Oo Resident: :)

Pema Pera: hi Wester!

oO0Oo Resident: Wester :)

Yakuzza Lethecus: hello wester

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Wester :)

Wester Kiranov: hi all

Eliza Madrigal: Wester you seem soooo faaarrrr

Pema Pera: shall we just start regarding reality somehow, until Maxine joins us?

Pema Pera: ah, just saw her email

Pema Pera: will join us from another computer soon

Eliza Madrigal: :))

Eliza Madrigal: great

Eliza Madrigal: It does not seem like long that we've been meeting...

Eliza Madrigal: but have enjoyed the time

Wester Kiranov: so have i

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Maxine :)

oO0Oo Resident: +1

Yakuzza Lethecus: hello maxine

oO0Oo Resident: Maxine :)

 

Maxine Walden: hi, Eliza, sorry I am late, logging in problems!

Pema Pera: hi Maxine!

Wester Kiranov: hi maxine

Maxine Walden: hi, Pema, Yaku, Wester.

Eliza Madrigal: Happy you made it Maxine :)

oO0Oo Resident: More time given to express appreciation for these meetings :)

Maxine Walden: yes, glad to make it too.

Pema Pera: :-)

 

Wester Kiranov: it would have been pretty weird to have the last session without you :P

Eliza Madrigal: :) yes

Maxine Walden: ah, nice to hear O.

Maxine Walden: Yes, pretty weird indeed, Wester :)

Maxine Walden: Well, catching my breathe...

oO0Oo Resident smiles and breathes

 

Maxine Walden: as this is our last meeting, I would like to offer appreciation to everyone for his/her thoughtful participation. I feel more 'whole-minded' as a result of our conversations

Pema Pera: thank you, Maxine, for organzing this and inspiring us!

Eliza Madrigal: Much appreciation for you Maxine

Pema Pera: hi Zen!

oO0Oo Resident: . these sessions.. have been special ~ Periodic envelopes upholding sanity ~ Co-exploring that, for me, affirm the beauty, magic, mystery.. and the dignity inherent in life, and life's questioning. So.. big thank you to you Maxine, for the intelligent and kind guidance, and thanks to everyone for singing facets toward an awesome wholeness, revealing many unique reflections.

Zen Arado: Hi all

Wester Kiranov: i appreciate all of you in these conversations as well

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Zen :)

Wester Kiranov: hi zen

Yakuzza Lethecus: hi zen

oO0Oo Resident: Zen :)

Maxine Walden: hi, Zen

Eliza Madrigal is glad to hear that the meetings have been beneficial for your process too Maxine

 

--BELL--

 

Maxine Walden: Eloquent comments, O. 'periodic envelopes upholding sanity'; think I will hold onto that. And, yes, very warmed by these all.

Maxine Walden: In fact, maybe our experience of these conversations exemplifies this notion of wholemindedness; the accrual of enriching thoughts and ideas...

Maxine Walden: mutually enriching which fosters the wider, deeper perspectives we may share in appreciation of the vastness of reality

Eliza Madrigal smiles

oO0Oo Resident: :)

 

Maxine Walden: So maybe we are open to our musings, recollections, anticipations from our discussions, which may allow further exploration of this integrative process

Maxine Walden: (inviting musings)

Maxine Walden: There is something about the protected space for such: open and yet protected, amidst friends (whther external, SL, or internal friendliness)

 

Eliza Madrigal: For me the take-away in these sessions seems to be appreciation of crawling vine exploration which rivals deep sea diving and space exploration

Maxine Walden: :) Eliza, lovely images

Pema Pera: somehow "gentle exploring" comes to mind, when musing about these sessions we've had for the last half year . . . and yes, nice images, Eliza!

Maxine Walden: And the gentle may seem important; part of the safety; at the pace of vine growth?

Zen Arado: it's hard to stay open to 'not knowing'

Zen Arado: 'not knowing ' becomes a view too

Maxine Walden: Isn't it, Zen!

Maxine Walden: yes, does it become easier to stay open in the company of a friendly group?

 

oO0Oo Resident: caring for the tender tips of tendriling.. gently moving through the unknown :)

Zen Arado: we need to be challenged

Eliza Madrigal: :)

Maxine Walden: :)), new spring growth, O?

oO0Oo Resident: yes.. and any image of new born, newly conceiving

Maxine Walden: say more, Zen, about 'challenged'?

Zen Arado: so delicate we retreat back into old views

Zen Arado: well we can become too comfortable with our fixed views

Zen Arado: need others to show weaknesses or suggest new ways

Eliza Madrigal feels that there is always opening happening... perhaps in new ways

 

Maxine Walden: yes, so the image creeping in here for me as we talk is the courage to risk new growth, which is always vulnerable

Zen Arado: but challenge in a nice way ;)

Zen Arado: not too agressively as they often do in philosophy

 

Pema Pera: perhaps the gentleness can reflect the notion that exploration doesn't go anywhere, but rather has the power to unveil what already is at hand . . . .

Pema Pera: no force needed to see . . .

Maxine Walden: and maybe that is part of the integrative process: the simultaneous risk, courage, discovery, more openness...risk, etc ...cycles of opening

Zen Arado: I have a friend doesn't like these type of discussins because they don't seem to go anywhere

Zen Arado: people want neat conclusions

oO0Oo Resident: exposure.. precision

Maxine Walden: unveiling...say more Pema?

Pema Pera: unveiling what is already here, every moment, in the presence of what appears

Pema Pera: the isness of what is

 

--BELL--

 

Pema Pera: that sounds very abstract, but in fact, the more we get a taste of that kind of "suchness" the more we can learn to see that everything else is in fact more abstract: all the labeling and identifying we do is abstract in comparison to the suchness of what is.

Eliza Madrigal: while we think we are doing work directing more obvious explorations the little vine may stretch along lightly curiously tasting touching

oO0Oo Resident: wiggle room

Wester Kiranov: helping each other to open up a bit beyond the comfort zone - and keeping in mind that we don't all have the same comfort zone

Pema Pera: yes

Maxine Walden: So the unveiling may be peeling back the layers from the defended observer?

Pema Pera: showing that there never has been an observer :-)

Maxine Walden: the layers of 'labelling' categorizing, etc?

Maxine Walden: :)

Pema Pera: but that's perhaps too far for one session :-)

oO0Oo Resident: vigilant unveiling.. neverending

 

Maxine Walden: wholemindedness as no observer...does that feel like a stretch?

Pema Pera: each moment Time flickers all of this magic into existence, in SL and in RL alike -- and we hurry and scurry to give it names, like Adam and Eve trying to make sense of it all

Wester Kiranov: gentle vigilance

Pema Pera: right now too

Wester Kiranov: :)

Zen Arado: is it an obsession with thought?

Yakuzza Lethecus: gliding over the ice until one might break in in a positive sense

Eliza Madrigal: :)

oO0Oo Resident: we are mammals.. there is gentleness in recognising that ;)

Eliza Madrigal: Care to elaborate on suchness and Time, Pema... ?

Pema Pera: hmmmm

Eliza Madrigal: :)

Pema Pera: hi Luci!

Maxine Walden: :)

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Lucinda :)

 

Pema Pera: looking at a painting, we have abstract paintings and landscapes

oO0Oo Resident: Hi Luci :) (I'll make you a notecard)

Maxine Walden: hi, Luci

Pema Pera: but in both cases you could say that the paint is the most concrete, and even landscapes are abstract

Wester Kiranov: hi lucinda

Yakuzza Lethecus: hi luci

Pema Pera: so what is the paint of this very moment?

Zen Arado: Hi Luci

Pema Pera: what is the most concrete in the right here and the right now?

Pema Pera: what IS?

Pema Pera: perhaps that can be a pointer to suchness

Pema Pera: and Time is what presents it, you might say

Pema Pera: (as approximations)

Pema Pera: does that qualify as an answer, Maxine? :)

Eliza Madrigal: Thanks Pema... Suchness is, while Time Presents ... ?

Maxine Walden: beautifully, Pema. Giving us much to gently ponder, to allow to realize, to be unveiled

Eliza Madrigal: *Is

Pema Pera: what is our paint, what is our texture . . . not our body, not our mind, not any other abstraction . . . .

Pema Pera: abstractions have no power, hence "I" have no power . . .

Pema Pera: "you" have no power . . .

Pema Pera: but "It" has

 

Maxine Walden: Yes, I do seem to insert a mind to ponder with, and I think you, Pema, gently suggest 'no mind needed'

Pema Pera: and throughout history people have groped for words: God, Tao, Emptiness, All

Zen Arado: power through us ?

Pema Pera: "us" is an abstraction

Pema Pera: conjured up in the magic of "It"

Zen Arado: we are part of 'it' too?

Pema Pera: we are not

Eliza Madrigal: :)

Pema Pera: "we" is an abstraction

Zen Arado: ah

Pema Pera: "It" is it

Pema Pera: "I am that I am"

Pema Pera smiling in playing Avastu . . . :-)

Pema Pera: (for those who remember him)

Zen Arado: 'I' abstracts us out of 'it'

Zen Arado: hard to talk about

 

--BELL--

 

Pema Pera: yes

oO0Oo Resident: .. hence Zen ;)

Eliza Madrigal nods ... not it but also not other than it ... which may suggest trusting in open natural curiosity

 

Wester Kiranov: is this a bit like the neverending story (the book)? Where all this talking we do is like the travel to the heart, but the last part has to be given i.e. not-done?

 

Eliza Madrigal: hmmm nice... 'givenness'

Maxine Walden: maybe language is a snag here, giving the illusion that we can think our way toward the Real, using stepping stones of words/thoughts

Wester Kiranov: (i like suggesting new metaphors, more ladders to be thrown away)

Pema Pera nods

Pema Pera: we can't think our way to the Real, but we can try to think our way out of "thinking about the Real" :-)

Maxine Walden: :)

Pema Pera: with best regards to the real Reality :)

oO0Oo Resident: :)

Wester Kiranov: maybe when we have a nice stack of ladders lying around we suddenly see we didn't need them after all

 

Maxine Walden: Maxine's book Regarding Reality further deconstructed...:))

Eliza Madrigal: language may be a snag and also no obstacle

Eliza Madrigal giggles... perfect, Maxine :)

Maxine Walden: :)

Maxine Walden: Eliza, you were suggesting language also as no obstacle...care to say more?

Eliza Madrigal: in Wester's sense of the Never Ending Story there is so much that happens and is accomplished but in the end, all is open as though no work ever done... something like that... so hm, considering that though we trip ourselves with language, each time we do it points to that same openness

Eliza Madrigal: so the tripping and the snagging and the failing is all perfection

Pema Pera: yes, "not it but also not other than it" indeed

Eliza Madrigal: wonderous stories

Pema Pera: so nice to see us all holding reality in such high regards here today :-)

 

Lucinda Lavender: I just want to say thanks for the series of sessions...:) I hada dream this morning...about having been give horses as a child that were appropriate to my size:)...small stick horse ...then given a little bigger one etc...and I said this was just my experience...like good fortune or something....also in the dream were to instances of seeing a new thing...going from darkness to light...and seeing height growth in my son...and realizing it may have been his hair sticking up...but true amazement was there when growth was perceived. seeing something appear to change and grow.

 

Eliza Madrigal: oh Luci.... beautiful, thanks for sharing that

oO0Oo Resident: :)

Lucinda Lavender: is growth real?

Maxine Walden: yes, Luci, what a lovely experience to share! Thanks so

Pema Pera: thank you, Luci!

Pema Pera: growth is only real if we identify the before and after . . . .

Eliza Madrigal: :) a picture came to mind for the happiness project (though I changed my mind) , my son, 6 months, giggling wildly... picture/sound/time fresh now as then

oO0Oo Resident: :)

Maxine Walden: Lovely, Eliza. Pema, say more about 'growth' and the 'before' and 'after'?

Eliza Madrigal: he seems to have grown but hm

Pema Pera: we don't have to identify across time . . .

Eliza Madrigal: :)

Lucinda Lavender: appearances...

Pema Pera: growth presupposes a core of something unchanging that is inside what is growing

Pema Pera: there need not be a core

 

--BELL--

 

Wester Kiranov: because now is already always?

Pema Pera: timelessly, yes

oO0Oo Resident: :)

Pema Pera: but words don't have cores either :-)

Lucinda Lavender: :))

Wester Kiranov: still, it is nice to throw some words at people and see what words come back :)

Eliza Madrigal: :)))

Eliza Madrigal: and other things too

Pema Pera: hehehe

Pema Pera: I'll have to get going

Maxine Walden: And our boundary of time, our hour over, may be unreal, arbitrary as well...

Pema Pera: thank you again, Maxine!

Pema Pera: and All !!

Eliza Madrigal: ((((((((Maxine)))))))) (((((Everyone)))))))))))))

Maxine Walden: thanks everyone again!

oO0Oo Resident: :) Ditto

Maxine Walden: bye for now

Yakuzza Lethecus: bye maxine,pema

Lucinda Lavender: thank you Maxine!!

Wester Kiranov: thank you all!

Yakuzza Lethecus: wester, al leavers