2012.07.12 07:00 - Co-arising and the hermit

The Guardian for this meeting was Storm Nordwind. The comments are by Storm Nordwind.

A Leonard Cohen reference to start with.

Storm Nordwind: Good morning Riddle!
Storm Nordwind: How are you today?
Riddle Sideways: Good Morning, friend Storm
Riddle Sideways: a friendly Storm, like that concept
Storm Nordwind: Good morning San :)
Riddle Sideways: Hi San
Santoshima Resident: good morning!
Storm Nordwind: a "sleepy golden storm" perhaps? :)
Riddle Sideways: Hi oO
Storm Nordwind: Sam, good morning! Come join us. :)
Riddle Sideways: Hi Yak
oO0Oo Resident: : ) ty Hi Yaku !
Yakuzza Lethecus: good monring
Storm Nordwind: Yaku - good afternoon. Good to see you :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: thx :)

Watching developments.

Riddle Sideways: always interesting watching avs 'develop'
--BELL--
Storm Nordwind: So anyone with thoughts on the week's theme? Or anything else of course! Or happy just to sit and enjoy each other's company? :)
Storm Nordwind: Do you mean develop as in rez, or develop over time?
Storm Nordwind: As in long time :)
Riddle Sideways: mostly rez was first thought, but in the back-mind it was over time :)
Storm Nordwind: Good morning Bruce!
Riddle Sideways: Hi Bruce
Yakuzza Lethecus: hey bruce
oO0Oo Resident waves to Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: Good day, everyone!

Bustling topics.

Bruce Mowbray: How's the topic evolving today?
oO0Oo Resident: Topic, Week 1 - application of spiritual practices in real life
Storm Nordwind: Well... I floated the the question "So anyone with thoughts on the week's theme? Or anything else of course! Or happy just to sit and enjoy each other's company? :)" but so far we've talked about watching avatars develop. :)
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: I have a bit of story about the "developing avi."
Storm Nordwind: Oh please do share!
oO0Oo Resident: It reminds me of the somewhat cliche saying "practice what you preach", so.. Hmm was wondering if my sense of what I "preach" is the same as all of yours impression. If you reflect back to me I can see a little if i follow or apply in example what I seem to value conveying to others.
Bruce Mowbray: kk, ty.
oO0Oo Resident: oops!
oO0Oo Resident: Bruce please

Time for a haircut.

Bruce Mowbray: Well, my typist got a haircut for the summer... last week.
Bruce Mowbray: The, when my typist looked a Bruce, he decided that Bruce needed (deserved?) a haircut too.
Bruce Mowbray: So, he got one...
oO0Oo Resident laughs
Riddle Sideways: nice haircut :)
Bruce Mowbray: Then -- when my typist looked at Bruce's new glasses...
Storm Nordwind: "Looked a Bruce"... you mean Australian? ;)
Bruce Mowbray: he (my typist) decided to get ones that looked just like Bruce's...
Bruce Mowbray: looked AT Bruce
Bruce Mowbray: (can't typy and look at chat box at wame time, sry.)
Bruce Mowbray: [obviously! - - ]
Riddle Sideways: /smiles
Storm Nordwind chuckles

"reciprocal co-arising"

Bruce Mowbray: So, there is some reciprocal co-arising going on there.
Riddle Sideways: are you still experimenting with the third person turned to yous
Bruce Mowbray: And I have watched such "developments" for the past two and one-hald years... since I first came in-world.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, I am..
Bruce Mowbray: but in a slightly different way.
Storm Nordwind: So a change to the old conundrum: "What came first, the typist or the avatar?" :)
Riddle Sideways: demoting 3rd persons to seconds
Bruce Mowbray: sort of watching the "shift" that happens when I say "you" instead of "them."
Bruce Mowbray: the affective embodied shift.
Bruce Mowbray: feeling-frameworks.
Storm Nordwind boggles at big words
Bruce Mowbray: kk. sry.
Bruce Mowbray: emotional stuff.
Bruce Mowbray: I seem to have a different quality of empathy for "you's" than I do for "them's".
Bruce Mowbray listens.
--BELL--

"the observer who moves between"

oO0Oo Resident wonders a little about the observer who moves between Bruce, and Bruce's typist.. to see and choose similarities.. wonders if typist for instance sees how comfortable and seemingly at ease Bruce is with others in SL.
Bruce Mowbray: Wonderful question for "exploring," 0. Actually, I just realized that I regard everyone sharing a sim as "you" -- and avi's who are in other sims at that time as "them." Maybe that has something to do with it.
oO0Oo Resident nods and listens
Bruce Mowbray: In rl, Bruce's typist is far more uncomfortable with conflict than Bruce is in sl.
Storm Nordwind: Conflict involving him, conflict around him, or conflict reported to him?
Bruce Mowbray: There's a reason for my shifting from "them" to "you" ---
oO0Oo Resident: is it the solidity.. the embodiment of RL?
Bruce Mowbray: whish "him" do you mean, STorm (typist or Bruce)?
Bruce Mowbray: kk. Typisty.
oO0Oo Resident: That makes conflicts more challenging?
Bruce Mowbray: I was about to say something about that...

Challenge and the hermit.

Bruce Mowbray: I am a hermit -- probably never see other humans more than once a week - at most.
Bruce Mowbray: sometimes less often than that,.
Bruce Mowbray: I also tend to collect reactions (my own) and carry them...
Bruce Mowbray: in ruminations.
Bruce Mowbray: and built story upon story...
Bruce Mowbray: when I am alone and remembering....
Bruce Mowbray: So, it is far earier (as hermit) for me to reduce conflict to a minumum...
Bruce Mowbray: because I know that I will be "carrying" it and turning it against myself...
Bruce Mowbray: in my solitude.
Bruce Mowbray: That make any sense?
Riddle Sideways: yes
Storm Nordwind: Yes. Seems like a classic coping mechanism.

The emergence of hidden demons.

Bruce Mowbray: yes, also something that comes about of contemplation...
Bruce Mowbray: It's during solitude that the most fierce demons emerge...
Bruce Mowbray: so, withdrawing from society is, in a way, inviting those demons.
Bruce Mowbray: Thomas Merton wrote a lot about this.
Bruce Mowbray: He also lived in a hermitage at his monastery in Kentucky.
Bruce Mowbray: Every long-distance writer also experiences it.... the emergence of the hidden demons.
Bruce Mowbray: walker -- not writer.
Bruce Mowbray: sry!
Storm Nordwind: Interesting slip! :)
Bruce Mowbray: oh yes, because it is only through their writings that I know of it!
Storm Nordwind: Indeed!
oO0Oo Resident smiles
Bruce Mowbray begins to feel self-conscious and guilty about talking so much.
Bruce Mowbray sits on hands and hold breath.
Riddle Sideways: no, please continue
Yakuzza Lethecus: don´t feel so i really appreaciated ur shared
Bruce Mowbray: thanks, but is selfishly hoping to hear other's "stories"...
oO0Oo Resident smiles.. Think you share in generous ways Bruce
--BELL--

Generosity and the hermit.

Bruce Mowbray: ty. I feel compelled to be generous -- perhaps compelled BY generosity itself (dana) -- I find I really don't have much of a choice in the matter. . . (THIS might also be a coping mechanism, actually.)
Storm Nordwind: So there are presumably compelling reasons for withdrawing from society that make it yet worth facing demons (?)
Bruce Mowbray: I feel compelled to hermithood -- as well as compelled to be generous. . .
Bruce Mowbray: Stuff to "look at" in contemplation.. or to open to...
Bruce Mowbray: or to drop...
Bruce Mowbray: (?)
Bruce Mowbray: Another quick story?
Storm Nordwind smiles
oO0Oo Resident: yes
Riddle Sideways: ok
Yakuzza Lethecus: :)
oO0Oo Resident: :)
Bruce Mowbray: since I've been dominating the whole sesszion, mught as well...
Bruce Mowbray: kk.
Bruce Mowbray: When I was in the 4th grade, a boy asked me to join his soccer team for one recess period.
Bruce Mowbray: so I did.
Bruce Mowbray: This was SOOOOO unusualy, that the teacher went inside the school,
Bruce Mowbray: called my mother on the phone,
Bruce Mowbray: and they both cried about it.
Bruce Mowbray: Tommy had for the FIRST TIME join in playing with ithers.
Bruce Mowbray: I have been a hermit for as long as I can remember.
Bruce Mowbray: (end of story)
Riddle Sideways: :)
Storm Nordwind: Wonderful!
Bruce Mowbray: sry about all those typos.
Storm Nordwind: But also generous.
Storm Nordwind: That was an act of generosity

Demons and angels.

oO0Oo Resident: Kind of storyline I could live with :)))
Bruce Mowbray: Do you wish to say more, 0?
oO0Oo Resident: just that it is a heart warming story, and .. hm.. if there are demons.. there must be "something like angels".. and threads that we follow or are part of us or a stream of our lives.
Bruce Mowbray: Wonderful notion, 0, and one that I shall gently carry throughout this day.
Bruce Mowbray: thank you.
Riddle Sideways: yes, with the dualism comes both demons and angels
oO0Oo Resident smiles aw
Riddle Sideways: in equal strength
Storm Nordwind: For every demon that you face, there is an angel next to you waiting to be asked to help
oO0Oo Resident: "developing" (light and dark on the film of phenomena arising?)
Bruce Mowbray: seems like phenomenological co-arising (demons and angels together).
Bruce Mowbray: developing together, also.
Bruce Mowbray ponders inviting all the angels and demons to have lunch together.
Riddle Sideways: or inviting them to go over in the corner by themselves
Bruce Mowbray: "threads that we follow or are part of us or a stream of our lives." ---
Storm Nordwind: If they both develop on the film of phenomena, I think I would just expose the film to the light ;)

"Life is trouble"

Bruce Mowbray: Zorba says, life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and LOOK for trouble." (Thus, the demons.)
Storm Nordwind: Bring it!
Riddle Sideways: hehehe

After the laughter and applause die down, it's time to go.

--BELL--
Yakuzza Lethecus: which zorba said that ? bruce ?
Bruce Mowbray: RL hermitage duties call me away. Thank you all.
Riddle Sideways: the Greek?
Bruce Mowbray: Zorba from the novel by Kazantzakis.
Yakuzza Lethecus: thank you for sharing bruce!
Riddle Sideways: thank all
Storm Nordwind: Good to see you all!
Yakuzza Lethecus: ok, be well riddle, everyone
Yakuzza Lethecus: have a good day storm
Storm Nordwind: You too!