2012.05.12 13:00 - Stillness, Birdsong, and Being

The Guardian for this meeting was Bruce Mowbray.  The photo is by Bruce Mowbray.

Bruce Mowbray is afk for a sec.

--BELL--

Alfred Kelberry: bruce!
Alfred Kelberry: me too. afk sort of...
Bruce Mowbray: np! Take your time.
Bruce Mowbray: I'm transforming myself into a pirate.
Bruce Mowbray: Hey Kori!
Korel Laloix: Bozho
Bruce Mowbray: Trying to get these darn boots to fit!
Korel Laloix: lol...
Korel Laloix: The hat maybe a bit big as well.
Bruce Mowbray: oh yeah.
Bruce Mowbray: You know the saying, "All hat and no cattle."
Korel Laloix: Heya
Korel Laloix: No.. what does that mean?
Bruce Mowbray: Pretending to be cowboy.
Bruce Mowbray: like I'm pretending to be a pirate, sort of.
Eos Amaterasu: Hi boxy, Bruce, Korel
Bruce Mowbray: Hey, Eos!
Korel Laloix: Oh.. i get it... smiles
Eos Amaterasu: shiver my timbers!
Korel Laloix: What does that mean?
Bruce Mowbray: Yeah!
Eos Amaterasu: (it's a pirate phrase from some novel(s) way back....
Bruce Mowbray: Shiver my timbers, means something like OMG!
Korel Laloix: OH OK.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson.
Korel Laloix: Any ideas where that comes from?
Eos Amaterasu: maybe in a very strong wind the masts are shivering?
Bruce Mowbray: Oh, yes -- that's a good etymology, Eos!
Korel Laloix: Not motivated enough to look it up.
Bruce Mowbray: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiver_my_timbers
Bruce Mowbray: "Peace? Shiver my timbers! what a noise ye make -- ye seem to be fonder of peace than ye be of quiet." ... "Lather me! -- Shiver my timbers. if so be he comes athwart me -- I'll soon lower his topsails for him -- Here's King George and old England for ever!"
Eos Amaterasu: shiver this moment
Bruce Mowbray: "Shiver me" this or that seems to be anti-thetical (opposite) of "stillness."
Bruce Mowbray: and I think this would be the last session on a week's theme of 'stillness,' if anyone wishes to go there.
Eos Amaterasu: like an expression that shoots straight out of the current context
Eos Amaterasu: may stillness be with you at any speed
Eos Amaterasu: forward and reverse
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)  TY!
Eos Amaterasu: in stillness there is no attacking
Eos Amaterasu: it would be useful to have a portable cone of stillness to take with one to various places in the world
Bruce Mowbray: I'm musing about Eliza's comment about birdsong in today's 99-Days . . .
Bruce Mowbray: "a portable cone of stillness . . ."
Eos Amaterasu listens
Korel Laloix: I have that.
Korel Laloix: Any place I can run.
Eos Amaterasu: within running?
Eos Amaterasu: is stillness?

--BELL--

Bruce Mowbray: Well, I keep remembering the thought -- that both silence and stillness are always here. . .
Korel Laloix: My mind is most still when I am moving.. Running or on my bike.
Korel Laloix: I am the least still when I am physically still.
Bruce Mowbray: You "find" the stillness when you run, Kori. Wonderful.
Bruce Mowbray: Or perhaps better to say, "You hear the stillness when you run."
Eos Amaterasu: you run _in_ stillness?
Korel Laloix: I think I find stillness when I am running or when I get on the highway on my bike and settle in to a nice speed.
Eos Amaterasu: it's like a special spot
Bruce Mowbray: I have an inmate friend who knows this stillness. . . .
Bruce Mowbray: He ran ten miles three times a week.
Bruce Mowbray: and even within the tumult of the prison, he found peace.
Bruce Mowbray: a cone of stillness.
Korel Laloix: You have the best conversations with yourself when you are still in mind.
Eos Amaterasu: still in mind....
Bruce Mowbray: Perhaps that's the only time we "hear" ourselves, Kori.
Korel Laloix: At least that is the way for me.
Korel Laloix: Might not be that way for others.
Bruce Mowbray: otherwise we're too busy reacting to contextual stimulants?
Korel Laloix: But my brain is not exactly typical.
Korel Laloix: Could be.
Bruce Mowbray: perhaps defending ourselves and preparing our next move?
Bruce Mowbray: My brain is nowhere near typical!
Korel Laloix: I suppose those that practice mediation get there in their own way.
Korel Laloix: Good for us both then.
Bruce Mowbray: My "sitting" (meditation) is a sort of running, too.
Eos Amaterasu: there's certainly zillions of ways to "practice"
Eos Amaterasu: practice being, heh heh
Bruce Mowbray: indeed, Eos.
Korel Laloix: It could be that I just like the good endorphin rush.. smiles
Bruce Mowbray: "Sitting" is one way of watching myself run.
Korel Laloix smiles
Eos Amaterasu: it's a nice favour to do oneself, to sit with and in oneself
Bruce Mowbray: My "sits" are quite undisciplined . . . so I just "watch" it all.
Bruce Mowbray: And the birds sing as they will.
Eos Amaterasu: sometimes the birds sound like the voice of spring opening up all fresh and glistening....
Eos Amaterasu: there's quite a few birds sounds around my house....
Bruce Mowbray: There becomes this vast "opening" where no judgments are needed. Korel Laloix: I love going out to a grassland and just sitting and listening.. feeling the sun.. hearing the wind rush through the greenery.. love it.
Eos Amaterasu: everyone needs that
Eos Amaterasu: what is that, actually?
Bruce Mowbray: OH! There are so many birds here! And in the spring they're all announcing their mates and territories!
Bruce Mowbray listens.
Eos Amaterasu: SL birds, RL birds
Bruce Mowbray: I often can't tell the difference, Eos.
Korel Laloix: Love it when it so still you can hear the birds fly by.
Eos Amaterasu: I was lucky enough to walk into a dusk chorus the other day
Bruce Mowbray: Oh yes!
Eos Amaterasu: there were waves and slow rhythms
Eos Amaterasu: 3D, all around
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Eos Amaterasu: spring, and her grandmother, opening up
Bruce Mowbray ponders the grandmother of spring.
Eos Amaterasu: sharp bright sounds in darkness
Eos Amaterasu: gleams of life responding
Bruce Mowbray: The sounds of birds mark the beginning and ending of days.
Eos Amaterasu: we have a robin soon-to-be family in our porch rafters
Eos Amaterasu ponders inter-species empathy
Alfred Kelberry: hi :)
Bruce Mowbray: ahhh! beautiful blue eggs.
Bruce Mowbray: Hey Boxy!
Alfred Kelberry: meh, we have 12 hours ttl on mx records for pab :)
Bruce Mowbray: Hey, San!

--BELL--

Eos Amaterasu ponders having 12 hours ttl (time to live).... :-)
Santoshima Resident: hey and ahoy
Eos Amaterasu: Hi San
Bruce Mowbray: Shiver me timbers, San!
Santoshima Resident: hi Eos :)
Bruce Mowbray: 12 hours to live?
Alfred Kelberry: ponder something else, eos :)
Eos Amaterasu: [13:29] boxy (alfred.kelberry): meh, we have 12 hours ttl on mx records for pab :)
Bruce Mowbray: sort of like the mayfly?
Bruce Mowbray: But OH! WHAT a life!
Mickorod Renard: hi
Eos Amaterasu: Hi Mick
Santoshima Resident: hi Mick
Bruce Mowbray: Hey, Mick san!
Mickorod Renard: :))
Bruce Mowbray: I trust thee art well, Mick.
Mickorod Renard: what's new?
Bruce Mowbray: Everything is new.
Mickorod Renard: I am fine ty Bruce,,and you?
Alfred Kelberry: mick :)
Mickorod Renard: yes, a great thought Bruce
Santoshima Resident: hark
Santoshima Resident: a lark
Bruce Mowbray: a bit wobbly today, but otherwise . . . excellent.
Mickorod Renard: great
Bruce Mowbray: thank you!
Mickorod Renard: :)
Mickorod Renard: every day one at a time
Alfred Kelberry: Bruce, i wonder if it's the result of all the stillness talk lately :)
Bruce Mowbray: Hey, Miracle.
Bruce Mowbray: oooops. She poofed.
Eos Amaterasu: miracles are like that
Santoshima Resident: miracles come and go
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmmm.
Bruce Mowbray: Miracles are in the eye of the recipient of them.
Mickorod Renard: he he
Bruce Mowbray: She KNOWS!  Everyone else is skeptical.
Bruce Mowbray: To me, the birdsongs are miraculous.
Santoshima Resident: yes!
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Alfred Kelberry: or annoying
Bruce Mowbray: Ahhh! A fellow (pardon the sexism there) traveler.
Mickorod Renard: I have had a beautiful singing bird for the last two mornings when I go out for my car
Bruce Mowbray: The birdsongs are a bit annoying if I want to sleep longer in the morning, Alf.
Bruce Mowbray: But the birds know better, perhaps.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, Mick!
Mickorod Renard: I dint know what it is,,will have to record it
Korel Laloix: A lot of birds just like crickets are soothing.... but just one is annoying as anything.
Eos Amaterasu: invite them as dreams
Bruce Mowbray: It's wonderful, huh?
Mickorod Renard: how do you mean Eos?
Bruce Mowbray listens.
Eos Amaterasu: early morning birds waking you early, invite their songs back into your dreams
Bruce Mowbray: Ahhhh!
Santoshima Resident: "tea's ready"
Santoshima Resident: chickadee
Mickorod Renard: ahh,,I haven't heard mine from indoors, a good idea I may leave a window open to my bedroom
Bruce Mowbray: Birdsongs rule the day here.... since I live in a forest.
Bruce Mowbray: It's THEIR show -- not mine.
Mickorod Renard: I have tinitus,,or something, but very rarely I hear little, and it reminds me of the sound of snow falling lightly
Bruce Mowbray: I love to watch the parents feeding their young.
Bruce Mowbray listens to Mick.
Mickorod Renard: my best of 'hearing silence'
Bruce Mowbray: The sounds of "stillness," Mick?
Mickorod Renard: yes
Eos Amaterasu: vivid listening attention
Mickorod Renard: I think, in the evenings especially, when snow is falling, the snow makes it even quieter, and as everyone incl animals and birds are safely tucked away its pure silence
Eos Amaterasu: hmmmm
Bruce Mowbray loves "tucked away."
Bruce Mowbray prays, "May we each be safely tucked away."
Mickorod Renard: its funny,,if you are in a life threatening situation and you have to be deadly quiet,,the sound of your heart beating is like a huge drum
Eos Amaterasu: I have a suggestion for next 90 seconds: notice when it's not still
Bruce Mowbray: ahh! TY, Eos!
Eos Amaterasu: when your heart is pounding

--BELL--

Mickorod Renard: yea
Mickorod Renard: silence is from within as well as without :)
Eos Amaterasu: hmm, at first I kept noticing when anything changed or was new
Eos Amaterasu: then I noticed a kind of rigidity, and relaxed a bit
Eos Amaterasu: (done)
Bruce Mowbray realized during the "drop" that he prefers the term "stillness" to the term "silence."
Bruce Mowbray can hear heart pounding and still have stillness.
Bruce Mowbray: or BE stillness.
Mickorod Renard: well,,I think there is a difference, but perhaps open to individual interp.
Bruce Mowbray: as is everything, Mick -- and that's a wonderful thing.
Alfred Kelberry: kori?
Alfred Kelberry: *notes kori quietly sitting in the back*
Bruce Mowbray listens for more from Kori.
Bruce Mowbray: (not to be pushy, of course).
Alfred Kelberry: *pokes kori* :)
Bruce Mowbray thinks Kori might be running.
Alfred Kelberry: or fell asleep
Eos Amaterasu has been working for many years with the phrase "the simplicity nature of stillness"
Bruce Mowbray: Fair.
Korel Laloix: Just taking my meds.
Korel Laloix: Then nap..
Eos Amaterasu: The phrase was the answer to my asking, "what is nowness?"
Bruce Mowbray ponders and records "The simplicity nature of stillness."
Korel Laloix: Take care all.
Bruce Mowbray: Be thee well, Kori.
Mickorod Renard: as I am becoming more unburdened with what seemed to be attached complicated unnecessary thoughts, I am now becoming less tolerant of others bringing me complicated irrelevances, I am worried I am becoming less compassionate
Bruce Mowbray: Bye for now!
Mickorod Renard: by Kori
Eos Amaterasu: Ciao Kori
Alfred Kelberry: sleep well, kori girl
Eos Amaterasu: each one of those is an occasion for a bow
Alfred Kelberry: mick, or maybe you value your time more
Bruce Mowbray is also preoccupied with "less tolerant of others."
Eos Amaterasu: I think that's part of the journey of compassion, Mick
Mickorod Renard: its an attachment to stillness, i think, if i can be bothered to think
Alfred Kelberry: i prefer relevant input if possible, as most of us, i imagine :)
Eos Amaterasu: trick is how to manifest in the essence, so to speak
Mickorod Renard: yes, I am reminding people now that i am not a memory stick
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Eos Amaterasu looks at Mick
Bruce Mowbray: It seems, sometimes, that we need to train folks how to treat us.
Alfred Kelberry: one can sit through a boring meeting and be fine with it. another will interrupt in 10 minutes and make a point :)
Mickorod Renard: that is 'usb stick'
Mickorod Renard: yes Alf
Bruce Mowbray: We seem to register "differences" -- as with birdsongs.
Alfred Kelberry: i like those 10 minutes folks :)
Eos Amaterasu: differences wake us up
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Eos Amaterasu: still ttl, boxy?
Bruce Mowbray: Whether 'differences' are pleasant surprises or "interruptions" is largely up to us.
Alfred Kelberry: ah, no. propagated.
Alfred Kelberry: many mta's screw rfc and don't obey ttl values :)
Bruce Mowbray doesn't know "mta" or "rfc."
Santoshima Resident: please decipher the acronyms
Alfred Kelberry: mta - mail server
Mickorod Renard: I love now, to see other peoples lives as other stories, and respect that,,but its when their stories interface with mine that I find it awkward
Eos Amaterasu: :-)
Alfred Kelberry: rfc - web standards
Bruce Mowbray: kk, ty, Alfred.
Santoshima Resident: stories "interface" whether we want that or not
Eos Amaterasu: I think that is the point at which the warrior can be born, Mick
Bruce Mowbray: Interfacing my own life with others... Ahhh! Perhaps we're all just ONE life.
Santoshima Resident: good bye gentleman
Bruce Mowbray: The Sacred Warrior, indeed.
Bruce Mowbray: Bye for now, San!
Eos Amaterasu: How to be with your own edge, and practice, and meet the path, the world, situations as they arise
Eos Amaterasu: bye San
Alfred Kelberry: Mick, awkward in what sense? can you give an example?
Bruce Mowbray listens.
Mickorod Renard: family ok eos?
Eos Amaterasu: you mean meeting your family?

--BELL--

Mickorod Renard: well, I feel so compassionate in some ways, but tiresome of the urgency folk attach to what I now see as trivialities
Mickorod Renard: sorry Eos, yes, is your family well?
Bruce Mowbray: I need to move on to the I Ching group now. May you all be stable and clear.
Mickorod Renard: yes me too
Eos Amaterasu: family's ok
Alfred Kelberry: are you going?
Alfred Kelberry: staying?
Mickorod Renard: sorry too for chatting in the silence bit
Eos Amaterasu: yes, I must go....
Mickorod Renard: great Eos
Mickorod Renard: ok,,I Ching
Eos Amaterasu: bye Mick
Eos Amaterasu: bye Alf
Mickorod Renard: bye Eos
Alfred Kelberry: Mick, I'd like to continue this talk
Alfred Kelberry: some time :)
Mickorod Renard: yes?
Mickorod Renard: ok
Alfred Kelberry: intriguing
Mickorod Renard: are u i chinging?
Alfred Kelberry: ok, i'm off to iching
Mickorod Renard: me too
Alfred Kelberry: no, but will visit
Mickorod Renard: kk