The Guardian for this meeting was Bruce Mowbray. The comments are by Bruce Mowbray.

"We poofed Butterflies" - photo and quote by Catrinamonblue

Bruce Mowbray: Hello, Cat!
Bruce Mowbray: I forgot to thank you for sharing your dream at Maxine's workshop.
Bruce Mowbray: So, thank you for sharing your dream!
Catrinamonblue Resident: ah It was fun :)

--BELL--

Qt Core: Hi all
Bruce Mowbray: Hello, Qt!
Catrinamonblue Resident: Hi QT
druth Vlodovic: hi guys
Bruce Mowbray: Hello, druth!
Bruce Mowbray: We missed you on Monday, druth.
druth Vlodovic: ah, sorry, had an appointment
Bruce Mowbray loves druth's fish -- and goes to wake Blub.
druth Vlodovic: I hope nothing dire went down in my absence
druth Vlodovic: hi goldie
druth Vlodovic: hi blub
Bruce Mowbray: Nope. It was a good session. I led the meditation through voice. My first time for that.
Catrinamonblue Resident: Goldie wanted to meet Blub :)
druth Vlodovic: now all we need to do is get them to make comments for the log
druth Vlodovic: neat
Bruce Mowbray: OH my! Cat has a fish friend, too!
druth Vlodovic: did you fall asleep?
Catrinamonblue Resident: :) a gift from Druth
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: Did I fall asleep? You mean during the meditation?
Bruce Mowbray: No, ha ha!
druth Vlodovic: you kept mentioning that darren has a very soothing voice :)
druth Vlodovic: this may be good for your practice then :)
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, he does, but I don't usually listen that closely to Darren.
Bruce Mowbray: Darren, btw, is not able to be with us now. - and was not there on Monday.
druth Vlodovic: I understand it to be a private matter, I wish him the best
Bruce Mowbray: Hello, __*__

druth Vlodovic: hi __*__

--*--: hello :-)
Qt Core: Hi __*__
--*--: can i join?
Bruce Mowbray: Please do join us, __*__!
Bruce Mowbray: I will give you a notecard with information about the group....
__*__: thanx
Bruce Mowbray: There you are!
Bruce Mowbray: Also, the Linden Labs' rules require that I ask your permission before posting anything you might say in chat onto our wiki web page. Would that be all right with you?
druth Vlodovic: hi zon,
druth Vlodovic: we're drawing a crowd
__*__: could u keep my name off the game?
Bruce Mowbray: Hello, Zon!
Bruce Mowbray: Sure, I will do that, __*__. No problem -- and THANKS for letting me know.
__*__: thank you
Bruce Mowbray: YW!
Zon Kwan: heya
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Zon.
Bruce Mowbray: Hey, Vorder! Good to see you again!
Catrinamonblue Resident: Hi Vorder
Vorder Forder: hello all
Vorder Forder: good to see you all
Bruce Mowbray: I hope you're all feeling FREE today.
Rosatta Resident: Or reasonably priced? (giggle)
Bruce Mowbray giggles back.
Catrinamonblue Resident: Hi Rosatta :)
Rosatta Resident: Hello :)
Zon Kwan: is there lag or is it only me ?
Bruce Mowbray: Rosatta! Good to see you again!
Rosatta Resident: Good to see you, too, Bruce. ty
Bruce Mowbray: I'm not experiencing lag, but I might be the exception.
Vorder Forder: I am stable at the moment
Zon Kwan: do we have a topic ?
Bruce Mowbray: The topic -- should you wish to pursue it - is "Freedom and Dropping."
Zon Kwan: drop all and be free
Bruce Mowbray: or, Freedom as it relates to dropping, or something like that.
Vorder Forder: it happens when we go behind our thoughts
Bruce Mowbray: Drop and Be Free...
Bruce Mowbray: Indeed.
Vorder Forder: what we can´t think about
Bruce Mowbray listens for more from Vorder -- and from everyone.
Vorder Forder: well trying at times.)
Bruce Mowbray: So, are you saying we "drop" our thoughts?
Vorder Forder: what did have in mind with that topic Bruce?
Bruce Mowbray: Or that we drop our "beliefs" - ?
Bruce Mowbray: or what?
Vorder Forder: it´s easy to relate that to meditation
Bruce Mowbray: The topic was posted on the board over there -- with all the mug shots.
druth Vlodovic: "and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free"
druth Vlodovic: does that mean dropping untruth, or accepting illusions that feel free?
Bruce Mowbray: So, we don't - at least - want to drop the "truth" - along with everything else that we drop?
Zen Arado: Hi all
Bruce Mowbray listens for more.
Vorder Forder: hello Zen
Bruce Mowbray: Hey, Zen!
Bruce Mowbray: Good to see you!
Bruce Mowbray: Zen is an expert on dropping.
druth Vlodovic: investigation often requires dropping the idea of truth
Catrinamonblue Resident: HI Zen
Vorder Forder: might mean a different things to people
Vorder Forder: it´s a very open topic
druth Vlodovic: or, Zen might say, the ego that tells us we must have the truth :)
Catrinamonblue Resident: truth is a three edged sword that cuts both ways
Zon Kwan: hi zen
Bruce Mowbray: dropping the notion that something is "truth" and that something else is NOT "truth"?
Vorder Forder: unless we keep in a safe place
Rosatta Resident: Echkart Tolle's experience was not knowing, I think
Bruce Mowbray smiles at the three-edged sword...
Catrinamonblue Resident: :)

--BELL--

Zen Arado: heh maybe it's realizing that there isn't anything TO drop
Zon Kwan: who is doing the dropping
Vorder Forder: we have to give it a closer look what we think we need to drop there is always something there we need to give a little bit more focus
Bruce Mowbray listens eagerly for more...
Vorder Forder: it´s more important to be silent than to talk?
druth Vlodovic: can you drop the idea of the necessity of dropping without losing the program?
Zen Arado: nothing left...all dropped
Zen Arado: :)
Bruce Mowbray: When I "play as being" -- do I drop anything? Does Being drop anything?
Bruce Mowbray: or does Being hold everything?
Bruce Mowbray: or am I mixing metaphors?
Zon Kwan: how to drop the dropper
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Zen Arado: heh yes Zon
Zen Arado: just a big unexplainable event
Bruce Mowbray: "Eye-ing" the dropper. . . "I-ing" the dropper.
Zen Arado: no dropped or dropper
Catrinamonblue Resident: Hi San :)
Zen Arado: Hi San
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, San!
Zon Kwan: hi san
Santoshima Resident: hello
Bruce Mowbray: Good to see you again, San!
Vorder Forder: if you look at from the Buddhist view from the metta view
Vorder Forder: what does it mean to drop things ?
Rosatta Resident: let go
Bruce Mowbray: Excellent question, Vorder!
Bruce Mowbray: Thanks!
Catrinamonblue Resident: to allow
Bruce Mowbray: To "allow whatever is" -- to be?
Vorder Forder: you receive the dark spots and give the light ones
Catrinamonblue Resident: yes
Zen Arado: is there a Buddhist view?
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmmm.
Zen Arado: just direct experience
Zen Arado: no presets
Rosatta Resident: mindfulness is a form of dropping
Bruce Mowbray has direct experience of his own inability to drop some things.
Rosatta Resident: letting go of past, future and desire
Zen Arado: as I have too
Rosatta Resident: just being in the now
Catrinamonblue Resident: nods
Zen Arado: but we can't help be in the present
Zon Kwan: just relaxing
Bruce Mowbray nods and listens.
Vorder Forder: allow things to come is a way of let things drop
Rosatta Resident: lol not being able to drop things is just being human, isn't it?
Zen Arado: it's all there is
Bruce Mowbray: That's a lot.
druth Vlodovic: isn't dropping not allowing ourselves?
Zen Arado: though we can think about past and future
Rosatta Resident: I am constantly amazed at how people have a tendency to find loop holes through anything and make religions out of everything
Zen Arado: yes Rosatta
Zon Kwan: we like stories
Zen Arado: trying to find solid ground
druth Vlodovic: loopholes?
Zen Arado: something permanent
Bruce Mowbray: Well, Rosatta, maybe some folks really need NOT to drop. . . and they make religions out of the stuff they cling to - hold on to.
druth Vlodovic: I doubt anything is completely impermeable
Zen Arado: something to cling to
Rosatta Resident: Well, I have been told that in Israel they are by law required to live some of the ancient laws of
Bruce Mowbray: So, are you suggesting, then, that they are less "free" because of what they cannot drop?
Rosatta Resident: returning things and letting fields lay fallow
Vorder Forder: clinging happens when you look at what you dropping
Rosatta Resident: But instead of giving up that income, they find ways around it
Rosatta Resident: following 'the letter of the law but not the spirit'
Bruce Mowbray: Ahhh.
Bruce Mowbray ponders clinging and dropping.
Rosatta Resident: This is something I see in almost all human situations
druth Vlodovic: people take the rules and learn to live in spite of them
Rosatta Resident: Dropping can only come from a place of refusing to fear
Zen Arado: can I just keep a teeny bit?
Zen Arado: :)
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmm. a fine point you've just made, Rosatta -- Dropping from a place of no-fear.
Rosatta Resident: Druth, the instances I am referring to are usually rules that are helpful and cause people to be more kind
Rosatta Resident: or generous
Zon Kwan: what is the opposite of dropping ?
druth Vlodovic: I suspect the concept of dropping is about balance, seeing as it came (afaik) from an area of the world prone to rigidity
Bruce Mowbray: Clinging? Grasping?
Zon Kwan: and clinging is..identification
Rosatta Resident: Step 1
Santoshima Resident: clinging to a notion of "eternal" ... of fixity
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmmm.
druth Vlodovic: "one bad apple spoils the barrel" Rosatta, one person profiting by breaking the rules makes the rest feel like suckers, and that offends them more than the broken rule
Bruce Mowbray: Do we sometimes need to make a choice of what to drop?
Rosatta Resident: Unless choice is ripped away from us by circumstances
Bruce Mowbray: like, shall I drop my innocence or my savvy?
Catrinamonblue Resident: for me so far dropping has been looking with compassion, not so much dropping as just allowing
Rosatta Resident: Druth, you are right. It is hard to 'drop' resentment when others are being unfair and profiting from it
druth Vlodovic: lol,I remember explaining the notion to my son, and he mentioned that if you dropped everything you'd be dead, since you'd no longer know how to breathe
Vorder Forder: heheh
Vorder Forder: wise guy
Bruce Mowbray ponders dropping as looking at life with compassion . . .
Bruce Mowbray thinks it would be hard to drop one's breath.
Vorder Forder: children know all the right answers
Catrinamonblue Resident: :)
Bruce Mowbray: We were all children once, I hope.
Vorder Forder: I am still one
Vorder Forder: I hope
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Catrinamonblue Resident: :)
Vorder Forder: beginner always
Bruce Mowbray: Wonderful, Vorder!
Vorder Forder: to learn to drop and begin again
Vorder Forder: again and again
Bruce Mowbray: But there's the "freedom" thing -- and how that gets connected to "dropping...."

--BELL--

Bruce Mowbray: [drops]
Zon Kwan: is there freedom or does dropping just happen when time is ripe ?
Catrinamonblue Resident: in compassion there is freedom to let go of anger and frustration, seeing that things are for a reason and allowing them to move allows for freedom
Vorder Forder: what you give is what you get. what you drop is what.....
Santoshima Resident: please excuse me ... sunny day calls
druth Vlodovic: infants have the advantage of looking at everything with compassion, since they don't have the templates adults use to avoid seeing
Santoshima Resident: bye
Rosatta Resident: According to Eckhart Tolle and to A.A. the dropping is what allows true freedom
Catrinamonblue Resident: bye San
Zen Arado: bye San
druth Vlodovic: cya san
Bruce Mowbray: Apples drop from trees when they are ripe.
Zon Kwan: bye san
Bruce Mowbray: Bye San!
Vorder Forder: blessings þig San
Vorder Forder: bye San
Bruce Mowbray makes note to read Tolle.
Zon Kwan: but if we can't drop what we are clinging to..how can we talk of freedom?
druth Vlodovic: anger and frustration would be called "second arrow" suffering, inflicted upon ourselves by our own interpretations
Zen Arado: 'Instead of calling it 'anger', drop that heavy and loaded word, and directly contact the intense raw sensation in the belly, chest, throat. Feel directly the intensity of it. Feel the sheer aliveness of it. You are alive! You are alive! Allow life to move without blockage. Notice that these waves of energy are already allowed, without you having to allow them. They are allowed because they are LIFE, and all life is sacred.' -- Jeff Foster
Zen Arado: drop the labels, in other words
druth Vlodovic: lol, not sure all of the energy in anger ought to be allowed
Catrinamonblue Resident: Zen I like that!!!
Bruce Mowbray: Confronting that raw sensation in ourselves -- is that the same as "honoring" it?
Bruce Mowbray: That's how I would express the notion.
Vorder Forder: Jeff wise Foster
Bruce Mowbray: and it is so important to do that, I feel.
Rosatta Resident: Most anger is really something else- disappointment, shame, etc
Rosatta Resident: grief
Zen Arado: feel it better than thinking about it
Bruce Mowbray: Hmmm.
druth Vlodovic: "you really pissed me off! Thanks for helping me feel energetic and alive!"
Zen Arado: helped you to notice your reaction
Bruce Mowbray: So, "look" at it rather than dropping it? Or drop it after we've done a sufficient job of looking at it?
Zon Kwan: where is freedom ?
Catrinamonblue Resident: look and allow and drop :)
Zen Arado: not look, feel
Bruce Mowbray: Freedom - ust another word for nothing left to drop?
druth Vlodovic: trying to drop it beforehand would be suppressing it
Zon Kwan: if we are conditioned to react
Zon Kwan: in certain way
Rosatta Resident: Find the true emotion under the anger and it will usually give you direction
Vorder Forder: freedom is within you
Catrinamonblue Resident: freedom is when it is dropped it is gone lifted from you
Zen Arado: can you just feel anger?
Zon Kwan: looks around and inside finding nothing
Zen Arado: without adding lots of thoughts?
druth Vlodovic: yes you can, it's a bit unpleasant :-/
Zen Arado: it goes away quicker
Zon Kwan: who is that me that makes me drop
Catrinamonblue Resident: I have sometimes felt just anger and no thoughts no prejudices just pure energy
Zen Arado: after 90 secs they say unless you reactivate it
Rosatta Resident: If you just feel anger and it is really another emotion, you will stay stuck
Zen Arado: raw sensation
Zon Kwan: who makes me feel the sensation
Catrinamonblue Resident: when it drops it leaves the rest to be sorted
Zon Kwan: who makes it go away
Zen Arado: it doesn't stick with me when I don't think about it
Zen Arado: if you need to act, act
Catrinamonblue Resident: it goes on it's own drops away
Zen Arado: but if no action is necessary or required drop thoughts
Zon Kwan: so no freedom
Zen Arado: make sense?
Zon Kwan: it comes, it goes
Zen Arado: Tolle says that too Rosatta
Vorder Forder: turn and twist it before you drop it
Vorder Forder: be sure it's worth dropping
Zen Arado: just my present idea
Bruce Mowbray: So, perhaps dropping is a sort of elevator -- of the emotions, I mean.
Zen Arado: 'drop' is being overworked I think
Zen Arado: 'let go; better?
Bruce Mowbray: We feel grief -- see it, experience it, feel it, - then drop it and go "UP."
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, release, let go, drop -- cease clinging
Catrinamonblue Resident: I like "let go"
Zon Kwan: we drop it when it burns our fingers
Zen Arado: stops us getting dragged down anyway maybe :)
Bruce Mowbray: I do too.
druth Vlodovic: directing anger often requires dropping the emotion first, otherwise it is difficult to think clearly and see what is there
Qt Core: i have to go, bye all
Bruce Mowbray: Bye, Qt!
druth Vlodovic: ttfn QT
Catrinamonblue Resident: Bye Qt
Zen Arado: let go without worrying where 'it' goes
Zen Arado: bye Qt
Zon Kwan: bye qt
Zon Kwan: waves
Catrinamonblue Resident: Bye Zon :)
Bruce Mowbray: Bye, Zon!
Zen Arado: going to Pink Floyd concert :)
Zen Arado: byee
druth Vlodovic: I know I'm a new age hippie
Rosatta Resident: No matter what time it's from
Catrinamonblue Resident: Bye Zen :) have a good day
Vorder Forder: bye Zen
Bruce Mowbray: Bye, Zen! Always good to see you! 
Rosatta Resident: Respect is required for peace.
druth Vlodovic: inner peace

--BELL--

Rosatta Resident: Yes, and social peace
Bruce Mowbray: That was a "first" for me. 
Bruce Mowbray: Bye, Vorder -- THANKS for being here today!   
Bruce Mowbray: So, we have had an experience of the "raw" emotion of anger?
Rosatta Resident: You are allowing him freedom to be who is is without it tearing up your reality
Rosatta Resident: Do you not believe you have a right to non-violently protect yourself?
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, I truly want to do that, Rosatta . . . to allow others their freedom to be obnoxious, and at the same time to respect my own limits.
Rosatta Resident: I have the power to avoid negativity so I don't need to get angry
Bruce Mowbray: That's what I meant earlier when I asked if we had to make a choice when 'dropping.'
Rosatta Resident: You have done that, Bruce :)

[For the first time ever, I "blocked" a visitor to the Pavilion because he was intentionally insulting people - and he refused my offer of a notecard explaining PaB.]

Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Rosatta Resident: Well, if feel you have done very well
Catrinamonblue Resident: :)
Catrinamonblue Resident: thank you Bruce
druth Vlodovic: if you did what you did for a purpose and without anger then it was not the wrong thing
Bruce Mowbray: But I have also cut his viewpoint out of our experience -- for which I am sad.
Rosatta Resident: Cat, is that your goldfish?

Catrinamonblue Resident: yes :)
Rosatta Resident: Bruce, I know people like that. You weren't getting his viewpoint
Bruce Mowbray: Cat has a very excellent goldfish.
druth Vlodovic: Rosatta has a seahorse :)

Rosatta Resident: you were getting his enjoyment of causing grief
Rosatta Resident: bullies are like that
Catrinamonblue Resident: nods
druth Vlodovic: maybe we can get a seven seas thing in the fountain :-P
Rosatta Resident: Cat, would be willing and able to tell me where to get a goldfish like yours?
Bruce Mowbray: and Rosatta has a very excellent seahorse.

Rosatta Resident: She is sweet, isn't she?
Catrinamonblue Resident: You'll have to ask Druth, Goldie was a present from her
Rosatta Resident: Ah :)
druth Vlodovic: seven seas
Rosatta Resident: Druth is fishing lol
Rosatta Resident: seven seas is a shop?
druth Vlodovic: it's a sort of hud game where you get a fishing rod and can fish at designated spots in SL
druth Vlodovic: you can get shorts and old tires too
Rosatta Resident: You can keep the fish as pets?
druth Vlodovic: if you wear them they swim around
druth Vlodovic: I thought yours was one

Rosatta Resident: Dotty was offered on the marketplace
druth Vlodovic: ah
Rosatta Resident: It was a limited offer and I got the last one
druth Vlodovic: my rod is actually a seven seas thing
Rosatta Resident: nice cast :)
Bruce Mowbray: amazing.
Rosatta Resident: What is, Bruce?
Bruce Mowbray: Your casting!
Bruce Mowbray: sry, druth's casting!
Catrinamonblue Resident: :)
druth Vlodovic: casting call
Rosatta Resident: So, I wonder what kind of pet an old tire makes?
druth Vlodovic: fishing is a good way to soothe anger
druth Vlodovic: which is, I think, the only real way of dropping it
Catrinamonblue Resident: how do you soothe anger Druth?
Bruce Mowbray: I shall be moving on now. Thank you Cat, druth, and Rosatta for being here today!
Rosatta Resident: I can't fish in real life anymore. Can't hurt anything but biting insects now
Catrinamonblue Resident: Bye bruce :)
Rosatta Resident: And I didn't ever choose to be a Buddhist lol
druth Vlodovic: "sitting on a dock by the bay"
Rosatta Resident: Peace and blessings Bruce!
druth Vlodovic: have fun Bruce
druth Vlodovic: people need space and quiet to be human
druth Vlodovic: otherwise they build up frustration
druth Vlodovic: and become prone to anger
Rosatta Resident: Yes. And natural surroundings if at all possible
Catrinamonblue Resident: so walks in the woods sooth anger?
Rosatta Resident: lol an old tire . . . well, it is a quiet pet :-D
Rosatta Resident: It does for me, Cat - and grief and sorrow
Rosatta Resident: and exhaustion
Rosatta Resident: emotional exhaustion
Catrinamonblue Resident: yes
druth Vlodovic: "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day today."
Rosatta Resident: I have noticed all groups go through waves of doing well and then getting negative
Rosatta Resident: But we are living the name of this place at this time :)
Rosatta Resident: I am enjoying our fish-play
druth Vlodovic: people get upset about the growing negativity, then people either leave or stop caring

--BELL--

druth Vlodovic: when they stop caring often the negativity disappears :)
Rosatta Resident: Oooo! I love your hummingbird poofer!
druth Vlodovic: :)
Catrinamonblue Resident: lovely :)
druth Vlodovic: lol
Catrinamonblue Resident: lovely!!!
druth Vlodovic: don't open your mouth
Catrinamonblue Resident: :)
Catrinamonblue Resident: it's raining butterflies :)
druth Vlodovic: speaking of opening my mouth
druth Vlodovic: I have no butterflies here, so I'll have to cook something
druth Vlodovic: catch you later Rosatta and Dotty :)
druth Vlodovic: and cat and goldie
Rosatta Resident: It was so good seeing you, Druth
Rosatta Resident: hugs!
druth Vlodovic: :) hugs
Catrinamonblue Resident: Bye Rosatta :)
Rosatta Resident: It was good seeing you again, Cat
Rosatta Resident: hugs to you :)
Catrinamonblue Resident: :)
Catrinamonblue Resident: Hugs too
Rosatta Resident: For the recording I would like to say - don't give up on Play as Being if you get frustrated with people. Part of the development process is learning to be Play as Being and not letting distractions rob us of the good.
Rosatta Resident: Peace and blessings to each of you