2014.01.05 13:00 - The habit of time

The Guardian for this meeting was Aphrodite Macbain. The comments are by Aphrodite Macbain.

druth Vlodovic: hey guys
Bruce Mowbray: heya!
Aphrodite Macbain: Hi
Aphrodite Macbain: sorry I'm late
Bruce Mowbray: np!
Bruce Mowbray: I was putting together a notecard from Seth's class - just finished.
Aphrodite Macbain: still rezzing
Bruce Mowbray: Rezzing is good,.
Aphrodite Macbain: Thanks for coming- both of you
Bruce Mowbray: yw!
Bruce Mowbray: This is .... ELEPHANTASTIC !!
Bruce Mowbray: _____
Bruce Mowbray: / 0 \____
Bruce Mowbray: / _ \__/ \
Bruce Mowbray: / / \ ____ I \
Bruce Mowbray: /_/ I I I I
Bruce Mowbray: I__I I__I
druth Vlodovic: oh,what happened to the other guy?
Bruce Mowbray: 's antlers!
Aphrodite Macbain: I am SO close to getting out of SL for good
Bruce Mowbray: OH NO!
Aphrodite Macbain: It has been SO laggy
Aphrodite Macbain: I keep loosing my clothes, my place and my mind...
druth Vlodovic: but that's half the fun!
Aphrodite Macbain: are you having the same problems?
Bruce Mowbray: (Understood. That's why I got a new video card... It made life in SL MUCH easier.)
Aphrodite Macbain: Maybe I have to learn to relax and enjoy the mess
Bruce Mowbray: It could be a hardware problem, Aph....
Bruce Mowbray: or a server problem.
Aphrodite Macbain: ah- I am going to get a new computer soon; that should help
Bruce Mowbray: I upgraded both and it made a "world" of difference.... if you get my pun.
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)  You both missed the Guardian meeting today
Bruce Mowbray: yeppers.
druth Vlodovic: anything interesting?
Aphrodite Macbain: we were talking about a retreat in NYC
Bruce Mowbray: I was at the Sunday school class in Circleville at that hour -- or, my typist was, actually.
Aphrodite Macbain: and the theme of the week is unsticking yourself
Bruce Mowbray: I read the log.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, a NYC retreat.
Bruce Mowbray: That would be a REAL life treat, indeed!
Aphrodite Macbain: and trying to decide what to unstick and what to keep stuck
Bruce Mowbray: Well, this topic has many levels, of course.
Aphrodite Macbain: I'm starting by clearing my SL inventory of clutter
Bruce Mowbray: good!
Bruce Mowbray: I did that on New Years Day.
Bruce Mowbray: It's great!
Bruce Mowbray: like cleaning house!
Aphrodite Macbain: and in the process taking time to look through all that stuff!
Aphrodite Macbain: ...so much stuff
Bruce Mowbray: nawwwww. Just throw it out, Aph!
Aphrodite Macbain: ...too much stuff
Bruce Mowbray: Making room for new stuff!
Bruce Mowbray: Yikes!
Aphrodite Macbain: yes!
Bruce Mowbray loves druth's horns.
druth Vlodovic: the best part of "cleaning up" is sorting stuff
Aphrodite Macbain: I'd need to open it, in order to decide whether to throw it out
druth Vlodovic: though in my case it tends not to end up more compact than previous
Aphrodite Macbain: I have so much from the early years in SL
druth Vlodovic: more exploring than clearing
Bruce Mowbray: or moi, the best part of cleaning up is making room -- making emptiness....
Aphrodite Macbain: we need an archive....
Aphrodite Macbain: looks at druth
Bruce Mowbray: also looks at druth, again.
Bruce Mowbray: Yikes!
druth Vlodovic: there are advantages to not cleaning up... :)
Bruce Mowbray: Druthie does not seem to be amused.
Aphrodite Macbain: maybe we could put all our old builds and images in your archives druth
druth Vlodovic: assuming you have infinite space
Bruce Mowbray: Yes! Advantages to NOT cleaning.
Bruce Mowbray: I know those advantages well...
Bruce Mowbray: or at least the circumstance that they occurred in.
Bruce Mowbray: well.
Aphrodite Macbain: I don’t have infinite space- but I thought maybe your build would druth...
Bruce Mowbray: Well, if you're talking about my build, yes, there are a few things there that I cannot move or delete.
Bruce Mowbray: Heya, steve!
druth Vlodovic: hey steve
stevenaia Michinaga: waves
Aphrodite Macbain: stevenaia!
Aphrodite Macbain: gtsy
druth Vlodovic: holy smokes! I haven't seen 'naia in ages so the oriental look is new to me
Aphrodite Macbain: looks for the cigarettes; sees one in druth’s mouth
druth Vlodovic: speaking of changing things
stevenaia Michinaga: hi Bruce, Druth and Aph
Aphrodite Macbain: listens to druth
stevenaia Michinaga: you in colorodo, Bruce?
Bruce Mowbray: ha ha.
Bruce Mowbray: nope.
druth Vlodovic: lol, just considering "cleaning up" as in shaping one's space.

Bruce Mowbray: Heya, Woly!
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
druth Vlodovic: hey wol
Wol Euler: a
Aphrodite Macbain: Hey Woly gtsy
Wol Euler: evening all
stevenaia Michinaga: Happy New Year Wol
Wol Euler: thank you, same to you Stevie
Aphrodite Macbain: at the Guardian meeting this a.m. we talked about having a retreat in NYC Wol
Bruce Mowbray: So, Aph, you were talking about "change"?
Aphrodite Macbain: any plans to come to Toronto in the spring?
stevenaia Michinaga: in spring or fall
Wol Euler: cool
Aphrodite Macbain: It would be perfect
Bruce Mowbray: My typist used to go to NYC every spring and every fall..... for six years, anyway.
Wol Euler: I have no current plans to go to Toronto but that may change
Aphrodite Macbain: we were thinking about a place slightly outside Manhattan
Wol Euler: my planning does include a week in England in mid-August
Aphrodite Macbain: hmmm
Bruce Mowbray: Oh to be in England, now that August's there.

Aphrodite Macbain: the theme for this week btw is clearing the clutter; unsticking oneself from the ties that bind
Aphrodite Macbain: just to mix a few metaphors
Aphrodite Macbain: I'm starting with my inventory
Bruce Mowbray: The ties that bind lie very deep, I'm afraid.
Aphrodite Macbain: thinks about the ties during the drop

Bruce Mowbray: Welcome, Arthur.
Arthur Messing: salut
Aphrodite Macbain: Hello Arthur
Aphrodite Macbain: Please join us
Aphrodite Macbain: Have you been here before?
Arthur Messing: je fait que passé (I'm just dropping by)
Aphrodite Macbain: parlez vous anglais?
Arthur Messing: non desole (I'm afraid not)
Bruce Mowbray: oui.
Aphrodite Macbain: ah dommage (too bad)
Bruce Mowbray: ah FROMMAGE!
Bruce Mowbray: sry.
Arthur Messing: lol
Aphrodite Macbain: tous ce que nous disons sont recordés et misent sure un wiki
Aphrodite Macbain  (Everything we say is recorded and put put on a wiki)
Arthur Messing: ces bien ca , et pourquoi sur un wiki. (Great and why on a wiki)
Bruce Mowbray: Ach der lieber!
Aphrodite Macbain: nous avons un log des tous notres discussions
Arthur Messing: ok et vous parler de quoi (what do you talk about)
Arthur Messing: quelle son les sujets  (on what subjects?)
Aphrodite Macbain: etre (being)
Bruce Mowbray: dans le wiki.
Aphrodite Macbain: la raison d'etre (reasons for being)
Aphrodite Macbain: la philosophie
Arthur Messing: vaste sujet en efait (a broad subject!)
Aphrodite Macbain: oui!
Bruce Mowbray: Ici: https://wiki.playasbeing.org/
Aphrodite Macbain: mais personne ici parle bien le francais sauf moi (but not many people here speak French)
Aphrodite Macbain: alors.. no devons parler anglais (so we must speak English)
Arthur Messing: ok bas moi mes plus pour longtemps je vais pas rester lol (I wont stay long then)
Aphrodite Macbain: ok
Aphrodite Macbain: bonne annee (HNY)
Bruce Mowbray: Je ne parle pas le francais. (Obviously!)
Arthur Messing: oui merci a tous une bonne et heureuse année 2014
Aphrodite Macbain: merci
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Wol Euler: bon année arthur
Arthur Messing: merci
Wol Euler: *bonne
Bruce Mowbray: BON ANEE!
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Aphrodite Macbain: nous sommes fous (we are crazy)
Aphrodite Macbain: some
Aphrodite Macbain: somme
Arthur Messing: ca traduit (it translates)
Aphrodite Macbain: Ils sont fous les anglais! (the English are crazy)
Bruce Mowbray: annee (see? I told you I didn't speak French.)
Aphrodite Macbain: a la Asterix
Bruce Mowbray: *
Arthur Messing: gaulois
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Aphrodite Macbain: precisement

Oughts

Aphrodite Macbain: So
Aphrodite Macbain: what should we give up?
Aphrodite Macbain: or what do you think you should/can give up?
Bruce Mowbray: First, we give up our feeling of NEED to give up anything.
druth Vlodovic: "oughts"
Aphrodite Macbain: darn oughts
Bruce Mowbray: yes, we give up our shoulds and our oughts.
stevenaia Michinaga: unwanted thoughts
Bruce Mowbray: darn those oughts, for sure.
druth Vlodovic: not to mention "anti-oughts"
druth Vlodovic: some are good
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Aphrodite Macbain: how can we give up unwanted thoughts?
Bruce Mowbray: Anti-oughts are the worst.
Aphrodite Macbain: lol
Aphrodite Macbain: as well as uncle oughts
stevenaia Michinaga: antoughts
Aphrodite Macbain: I am seriously thinking of doing less SL and more RL (I am developing too many oughts here)
druth Vlodovic: related I think to effortlessness
Bruce Mowbray: The ties that bind are very deep. Perhaps we should honor them before throwing them out.
Aphrodite Macbain: or perhaps recognize them, anyway
Bruce Mowbray: yes, at least, recognize them.
Aphrodite Macbain: less effort druth?
Bruce Mowbray: we aware of them.
druth Vlodovic: is it better to make room or to add and allow new things to creep in and take over?
Arthur Messing: bon je vous laisse a plus tard (I’ll leave you now- later!)
stevenaia Michinaga: how much SL do you do a week?
Aphrodite Macbain: I can do 5-6 hrs

Bruce Mowbray: bye for now, Authur!
Aphrodite Macbain: a plus tard Arthur
druth Vlodovic: "effortlessness" is one of the meditation thingies, in some traditions if you are trying hard you are doing it wrong
Bruce Mowbray: au revoir.
Aphrodite Macbain: yes
Bruce Mowbray listens carefully.
Aphrodite Macbain: It requires effort to be effortless
druth Vlodovic: ok, saddle sores is a negative indicator
Aphrodite Macbain: lol
Aphrodite Macbain: humour makes things feel like they require less effort

stevenaia Michinaga: so does ignoring them

Bruce Mowbray: So, do we always see our lives through a rear- view mirror?
Aphrodite Macbain: no
druth Vlodovic: I was wondering :)
Aphrodite Macbain: I usually see what is ahead (or imagine it) and try and prepare myself
Aphrodite Macbain: which makes me tense and I rarely learn from my rear view mirror
druth Vlodovic: ignoring seems an active thing, "allowing" seems both more deliberate and passive
Aphrodite Macbain: yes
Aphrodite Macbain: you need some kind of self discipline to allow and ignore
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
stevenaia Michinaga: I suspect you ignore more than you even remember
Bruce Mowbray: for sure, Steve.
Aphrodite Macbain: ignore or forget?
Aphrodite Macbain: I forget most things...
stevenaia Michinaga: like watching thoughts and letting them pass, it's not really ignoring them, just watching them passively
druth Vlodovic: regretting
stevenaia Michinaga: perhaps that what I really intended to say
Aphrodite Macbain: ah - as in when we meditate?
Bruce Mowbray: watching without prejudgment. . .
Bruce Mowbray: All of our experience is still part of us.
Bruce Mowbray: It makes no sense to imagine that we can throw it out.
Bruce Mowbray: Better to honor it.
Bruce Mowbray: only then can we be free of it.... in a sense.
Bruce Mowbray sits on hands and listens.
Aphrodite Macbain: hmm I agree but …
druth Vlodovic: Unicorn: I am no longer like the others, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but now I do. I regret.

Aphrodite Macbain: aww
Aphrodite Macbain: I have habits of mind and action I could do without
Bruce Mowbray: (Don't we all, Aph!)
druth Vlodovic: resisting impulses seems to feed them in a peculiar way
stevenaia Michinaga: the best start is to see the habits, and then you have something to work with
Bruce Mowbray: Excellent point, druth. Obsession feeds on itself.
Aphrodite Macbain: that's what I'm thinking of- those habits that bind us down, keep us stuck in a way of thinking - preventing us from doing new wonderful things
Aphrodite Macbain: I rely on my friends to tell me when I'm stuck - as long as they tell me nicely!
Bruce Mowbray: Do you think that habit is more powerful than experience, then?
druth Vlodovic: or perhaps being used as an excuse by the part of the mind which knows that whatever things are like now, we have survived, a different future may be different
Bruce Mowbray: another excellent point, druth.
Aphrodite Macbain: smiles at druth
Aphrodite Macbain: I think habit is very powerful
Bruce Mowbray: Is that "part of the mind" called imagination?
Aphrodite Macbain: our conditioned response to things
Bruce Mowbray: the part that druth was referring to?
Aphrodite Macbain: ask druth :-)
Bruce Mowbray: I just did.
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Bruce Mowbray: (or imagined that I did.)
Bruce Mowbray: It takes only 21 days to establish a new habit, Aph.
Bruce Mowbray: I read that today on a website.
Bruce Mowbray: 21 days.
Bruce Mowbray: YAYYY!
Aphrodite Macbain: I don’t think habit and imagination are at all the same things
Bruce Mowbray: I HAVE A WHOLE NEW HABIT NOW!
Bruce Mowbray: me neither.
Bruce Mowbray: In fact, I feel that they are opposites.
Wol Euler: what a strange concept, how did you come to consider that?
Aphrodite Macbain: I have a nun's habit when needed
Bruce Mowbray: OMG!
Bruce Mowbray: Yikes!
Aphrodite Macbain: which concept Wol?
Bruce Mowbray: We'll have NUN of that!
Wol Euler: whether habit and imagination might be the same thing
Bruce Mowbray: (tries to imagine when one might need a nun's habit.)
Aphrodite Macbain: something Bruce said...
druth Vlodovic: I fell into habit driving to work this morning, as a result a deer almost paid the price
Bruce Mowbray listens carefully.
Bruce Mowbray: oh deer!
Aphrodite Macbain: what habit was that druth?
Bruce Mowbray: (Not paying attention?)
druth Vlodovic: the mind hums along not doing much, but this puts alertness aside for a bit
Wol Euler reads back thoughtfully
Aphrodite Macbain: nods
Bruce Mowbray: also nods.
Aphrodite Macbain: inattentiveness is a bit like a habit
druth Vlodovic: luckily I was able to pit experience and imagination against it in time to avoid damage all around
Bruce Mowbray: definitely so.
Aphrodite Macbain: thank god.
Bruce Mowbray: I'm off to Berti's meditation now. THANK YOU, dear Aph.
Bruce Mowbray: and everyone.
Aphrodite Macbain: those near misses give one a jolt
stevenaia Michinaga: bye all
Aphrodite Macbain: byee Bruce
druth Vlodovic: 'evening Bruce
Wol Euler: goodnight all, take care
Aphrodite Macbain: bye Stevenaia
Aphrodite Macbain: Wol
druth Vlodovic: cya'yall
Aphrodite Macbain: sigh
druth Vlodovic: lol, the habit of time
Aphrodite Macbain: :)

Apologies for my terrible French spelling. It's been a while...Aph