2012.02.27 19:00 - Genuine Heart of Sadness

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

Bleu Oleander: hi Sam :)
oO0Oo Resident: Hiya Bleu ! Lila ! :)
Bleu Oleander: hi Lila, Storm :)
Lila Darkmatter: Hi Bleu, oO0Oo, Storm :)
oO0Oo Resident: Hi Storm :)
Storm Nordwind: Hi all. :)
oO0Oo Resident: before i forget... um...
oO0Oo Resident: I love you all :)
Storm Nordwind: Thank you Sam. The feeling is mutual :)
Lila Darkmatter: *loves you all* too
Storm Nordwind: A great way to put Riddle's email into immediate action.
Bleu Oleander: aww Sam how lovely of you to say that ... love you all also!
--BELL--
Pema Pera: Hi there, everybody! So sorry to be late . . . . not used to having my session on Monday evening rather than Saturday evening . . . . my apologies!
Bleu Oleander: hi Pema :)
Lila Darkmatter: Hi Pema :)
Storm Nordwind: Good evening Pema :)
oO0Oo Resident: Welcome Pema :) gtsy
Pema Pera: same here, Sam!
Pema Pera: and thank you again, Bleu and Storm for your happy-in !
oO0Oo Resident: :))))
Storm Nordwind smiles widely
Bleu Oleander: yw! :))
Bleu Oleander: my pleasure!
Storm Nordwind: Lots of great contributions, and great to see so many people at the opening discussion
Pema Pera: yes!
Bleu Oleander: yes :)
oO0Oo Resident: Was nice.. :)
Pema Pera: I've been wondering about the connection between certain artistic forms of sadness, like blues music, and happiness . . . .
Pema Pera: every culture has forms of that
Storm Nordwind: There seems to many other non-happiness genres. I remember the rage of the protest songs.
Pema Pera: yes, but that is very different, more distant from happiness, I feel
Pema Pera: blues, on the contrary, is a form of happiness, in a different guise, or so I feel it
Pema Pera: hi Ewan
Lila Darkmatter: Hi Ewan :)
Pema Pera: complementary perhaps
Bleu Oleander: I know many happy blues artists
Pema Pera: yes, just watching BB King playing, even in his eighties!
Bleu Oleander: hi Ewan
oO0Oo Resident: Hi Ewan :)
Storm Nordwind: I also remember the early 20th century classical composers who often made bleakness into a thing of great beauty.
Pema Pera: sadness can be bittersweet -- and then the English word "sad" doesn't fit too well
Storm Nordwind is a blues guitarist... retired I guess!
Pema Pera: the Portugueses "saudade" is perhaps more fitting and more interesting
Pema Pera: you sure strike me as happy, Storm!
Lila Darkmatter: :)
Storm Nordwind: haha!
Bleu Oleander: :)
Ewan Bonham: :)
oO0Oo Resident: :)
Storm Nordwind: I think the only PaB person who can tell whether my music is happy was genesis. She heard me jamming with her father in CA
Pema Pera: oh, how nice!
Pema Pera: what did you play?
Storm Nordwind: I played one of his many electrics. He laid down a rhythm and I improvised over the top. Wonderful afternoon in their house by the ocean
Bleu Oleander: sounds fun!
Storm Nordwind: Then we went on to the Santa Cruz retreat :)
Pema Pera: great!
Lila Darkmatter: no jamming in Vashon?
Storm Nordwind: Oh... yes I forgot about that!
oO0Oo Resident: :)
oO0Oo Resident: the jam spreads
Storm Nordwind has a memory like a ...er .. one of those things with holes in it... what do you call it
oO0Oo Resident: reality?
Lila Darkmatter laughs
Pema Pera: :-)
Storm Nordwind chuckles
Bleu Oleander: haha!
oO0Oo Resident: :)
oO0Oo Resident: <3
Pema Pera: we're jamming, it seems :-)
Storm Nordwind: Yes I jammed with Riddle in Vashon. It all floods back now.
oO0Oo Resident: me feels waves of happiness
Lila Darkmatter: I remembered Luci's image of rowboat full of guitars on her way to retreat, or something... hah
Pema Pera: hi Camilla!
Pema Pera: and hi Tess!
Lila Darkmatter: Hi Camilla and Tess :)
Storm Nordwind: When I left the UK I gave all my music equipment away: guitars, amps, speakers.
Tess Aristocrat: hello :)
Bleu Oleander: hi Tess
Pema Pera getting an image of a Mexican band :-)
oO0Oo Resident: Hi Camila.. Tess :)
Storm Nordwind waves
Ewan Bonham: Hi Camilaand Tess...:)
Bleu Oleander: hi Camilla
--BELL--
Storm Nordwind: Sorry Pema... got carried away and usurped your thoughts: "[19:19] Pema Pera: I've been wondering about the connection between certain artistic forms of sadness, like blues music, and happiness . . . ."
Tess Aristocrat: comiseration
Pema Pera: Camilla, feel free to join us here in the circle, if you like!
Pema Pera: yeah, I was just wondering :-)
Tess Aristocrat: :)
Pema Pera: sadness can be associated with loss, but perhaps in there are other shades of happiness too . . . hard to express in words
Lila Darkmatter: sharing burdens/humanity ...happily? :)
Tess Aristocrat: mmhmm
Camilla Mannonen: ㋡ ☆*¨¨*:•.•:*¨* hallo hello hi holla *¨¨*:•.•:*¨*☆ ㋡ 
Ewan Bonham: Survival..
Tess Aristocrat: a feeling that you're not alone
Pema Pera: Camille, we get together a few times a day to chat about the nature of reality, and everything else, and we have a wiki http://wiki.playasbeing.org/ -- We record our conversations there. Do you mind being included in our blogs?
Ewan Bonham: Resilience
Camilla Mannonen: no its okay, im a big talker, but like to listen
Pema Pera: thank you, Camilla!
Pema Pera: I'm still groping for words
Pema Pera: sadness can come with a kind of resignation
Pema Pera: that can be either a form of hopelessness
Ewan Bonham: Bittersweet
Pema Pera: or it can be finding a key to discover happiness everywhere
Pema Pera: after the path to perceived happiness has been cut off
Pema Pera: unexpected small happinesses may pop up everywhere
Pema Pera: in fact, many blues song texts testify to that
oO0Oo Resident: invitation to authentic presence
Pema Pera: yes!
Storm Nordwind: Sadness is a very powerful creative force for many artists
Tess Aristocrat: Its a balance is what it is
Lila Darkmatter: "genuine heart of sadness" in shambhala terms
Pema Pera nods
Tess Aristocrat: for even if you go to a funeral, you'll at some part find people laughing
Ewan Bonham: Sweet Recollections..
Pema Pera: certainly after the funeral, in all cases I've seen
Tess Aristocrat: yes
Tess Aristocrat: now, do you wonder why?
Ewan Bonham: Funerals- a chance to feel endearment forthe lost one..
Pema Pera: a sense of balance, intuitively, perhaps
Tess Aristocrat: They've got to rebalance themselves
Tess Aristocrat: yes
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: but it may be more than adjustment, it can just be natural expressions of innate balance
Pema Pera: already there
Pema Pera: never left
Tess Aristocrat: nods
Ewan Bonham: Recognition that the lost one still lives inside of us..
Tess Aristocrat: makes me think of the old 'for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction'
Pema Pera: ten years ago, a young physicist in his twenties suddenly died from a heart attack, overnight, completely unexpected, at the research institute where I work. A day later, his parents, farmers in Germany, flew over. The first thing I did is go out with the father to a bar to have a beer. It was the natural thing to do (also, I grew up in a farm village, not far from where he lived, just across the border in Holland)
oO0Oo Resident listens
Pema Pera: (that's it)
Ewan Bonham: Was the beer good tasting, Pema?
Pema Pera: well, it was the atmosphere
Ewan Bonham: Smile
Camilla Mannonen: Where I work, theres death when you least expect it. The hardest thing is to look at the individuals eyes and know it.
Camilla Mannonen: know that, theres nothing else to do.
Pema Pera: can you say more, Camilla?
--BELL--
Camilla Mannonen: You are expected to do your job day in and day out. and go home and act like you didnt just experience someone dying
Camilla Mannonen: wondering was there anything else i could do.. or could have done to make this person b alive right now.
Camilla Mannonen: i have many ppl looks
Camilla Mannonen: in my mind... that event talking about it i can remember.
Tess Aristocrat: but..you did all you could do
Camilla Mannonen: Did I?
Camilla Mannonen: how would we ever know...
Camilla Mannonen: yet.. you would never know or thing that i just had somenes mother in my hands, trying to save her.. because thats just what's expected of us.
Pema Pera: did you work in a hospital, Camilla?
Camilla Mannonen: yes
Lila Darkmatter: so you learn to live with a certain measure of self-doubt daily....
Camilla Mannonen: yes
Lila Darkmatter: perhaps why those in the medical profession tend to have darker senses of humor
Camilla Mannonen: ohh Yes :)
Camilla Mannonen: we have to..
Camilla Mannonen: theres no way i could live life... with out it..
oO0Oo Resident: balances
Lila Darkmatter: understandable, yes
Storm Nordwind: And in airline training - working in designed flight simulators - very dark humor there. But also light-hearted too.
Lila Darkmatter: oh my, can imagine there too
Camilla Mannonen: yes..
Storm Nordwind: I can image that all first responders / emergency services must do this. I guess it's a survival mechanism for them
Storm Nordwind: Amazingly it's never disrespectful.
oO0Oo Resident: Soldiers... Survivors.. prisoners...
Pema Pera nods
Lila Darkmatter nods
Camilla Mannonen: yes, our humor is very difficult to explain. because sometimes... you can just look at us and think. Who.. really?>
Camilla Mannonen: wow*
Storm Nordwind: It touched me for 4 years because the machines I built were flown by pilots, some of whom I knew, and some of whom flew others to their deaths.
Pema Pera: what kind of machines, Storm?
Storm Nordwind: Flight simulators for large commercial aircraft.
Pema Pera: ah!
Pema Pera: we have covered a very large terrain today, starting from happiness, going to sadness, and beyond . . . .
Lila Darkmatter: :)
Pema Pera: Glad to see you all here this evening!
Lila Darkmatter: holding both open in some way... and beyond too :)
oO0Oo Resident contemplates if there is an analogous PaB sense of humour, while anticipating the sound of the bell.. the decline of the fountain, the mist upon the waters, the illumination of the red ring... the stars of Southern Cross flashed thrice, the vibration of the tatami mats, the call of the Sirens, the releasing of the balloons and doves...
Tess Aristocrat: with that said I'll bid you all goodnight :)
Pema Pera: :-)
--BELL--
Pema Pera: I'll sleep on that, Sam! :)
Bleu Oleander: nite all ... take care :)
Camilla Mannonen: :)
Bleu Oleander: bye everyone
Camilla Mannonen: ciao
oO0Oo Resident: <3 All and everyone
Lila Darkmatter: Night Pema, Tess, Bleu
Camilla Mannonen: how often are these secions
oO0Oo Resident: 4 times each day Camilla 7 AM * PM 1 AM & PM
Storm Nordwind: They are every 6 hours, at 1am. 7am, 1pm and 7pm
Storm Nordwind: That's all Second Life Time
Lila Darkmatter: that is food for thought, oO0Oo
Camilla Mannonen: and you guys just sit around and talk about life?
Lila Darkmatter: :)
Lila Darkmatter: sometimes we dance about it too
Camilla Mannonen: :)
Camilla Mannonen: i need to find mening in mine.. feel so lost and alone and need God in my life.
Storm Nordwind: We're here originally because of the "Play as Being" project. You can read about it on our website http://wiki.playasbeing.org/
Storm Nordwind: It's nearly 4 years since we started.
Lila Darkmatter: diverse and curious group
Camilla Mannonen: ohh k
oO0Oo Resident: Also, you can click on the box behind me for a notecard Camilla :)
Camilla Mannonen: ty
Lila Darkmatter feels lost sometimes too... maybe rich ground
oO0Oo Resident: Just being in a circle of people .. when feeling lost and alone.. can be very supportive.. PaB has been that for me so many times :)
Lila Darkmatter nods... me too
Lila Darkmatter: Thanks for visiting Camilla
Camilla Mannonen: ohh thank you :)
oO0Oo Resident: Nice to meet you Camilla !
Camilla Mannonen: same here :) ciao everyone, and thanks
Lila Darkmatter waves
Storm Nordwind waves
oO0Oo Resident: 〜waves〜
oO0Oo Resident: ☻/
oO0Oo Resident: /▌
oO0Oo Resident: / \ 
Lila Darkmatter: :)
Lila Darkmatter wonders what storm is working on
oO0Oo Resident imagines Storm performing Reiki on the universe
Storm Nordwind looks around innocently ;-)
Lila Darkmatter smiles
Storm Nordwind: Wow Sam - what an image :))
Lila Darkmatter: nice to be with you all tonight
--BELL--
Storm Nordwind: You too Lila!
oO0Oo Resident: :) Lila
Lila Darkmatter: :) ty, Night
oO0Oo Resident: Will be on my way.. as well. Thank you. Storm, Ewan :)
Storm Nordwind will retire too.
Storm Nordwind: Thank you Sam :))
Ewan Bonham: Bye ooo...will do the same...:)
oO0Oo Resident: Bye.. Best wishes