2015.01.17 01:00 - Remembrance of the Ritual, Flexible Space

The Guardian for this meeting was Wol. Session posted by Eliza.

Shufei Zenith waves sleepily.
Wol Euler: good morning, shufei
Shufei Zenith: Oh, it is morning already!
Shufei Zenith: Good morning.
Wol Euler: have you been here before, or do you have occult knowledge of this place and the happenings here? :)
Shufei Zenith: Oh, I have a bit of ancient remembrance of the ritual. I've known a few folks in PaB for a long time.
Shufei Zenith: Is this the meetup? You still doing them?
Wol Euler: okay, good, so I will spare you the introduction
Wol Euler: as you see :)
Wol Euler: to be honest, most of the "meetings" are unattended these days
Shufei Zenith: Really? That's kind of too bad.
Wol Euler nods.
Shufei Zenith: You folks really built something here.
Wol Euler: agreed
Shufei Zenith: I was just taking a gander at the museum of rel art.
Shufei Zenith: Quite well done.
Wol Euler: the founders moved on, and the institution foundered
Wol Euler: yes, Adams did a fine job there.

Shufei Zenith: Moved on as in, "Life happned", or moved on as in PaB sort of reincarnated elsewhere?
Wol Euler: "life happened", both are still alive in their current incarnations
Shufei Zenith: Good show.
Shufei Zenith: Well, I do know the feeling.
Shufei Zenith: But I was surprised to see noone abouts here on friday night.
Wol Euler: I find it very sad
Shufei Zenith: I've been out of sl for quite a time myself...
Wol Euler listens.
Shufei Zenith ponders.

Wol Euler: ((reading your profile, chuckling over the quote from "Siddhartha" in the skills section
Shufei Zenith: Quote...
Shufei Zenith: Oh, haha.
Wol Euler smiles.
Shufei Zenith: Yes, thinking, fasting, waiting.
Shufei Zenith: Not so much fasting lately (pokes her belly)
Shufei Zenith giggles softly.
Wol Euler chuckles.
Shufei Zenith: What sorts of inspirations, eurekas, and other wisdoms have this experiment come to?

Shufei Zenith: I saw PaB sort of start...
Shufei Zenith: So was wondering how things have gone with the various ideas.
Wol Euler: just a sec, runny nose RL
Shufei Zenith: :>
Shufei Zenith hands you a tissue.
Wol Euler: thank you :)
Wol Euler: well, I can't vouch for others, not in detail anyway, but it has helped me greatly in achieving peace and equanimity
Shufei Zenith nods.

Wol Euler: I learned a lot about other religions here, from direct teaching or discussion, and was struck by the similarities
Wol Euler: in retrospect I am not sure how much of that was specific to PaB and how much just general ageing and mellowing
Wol Euler: I was a very angry child and young person, and htat has been generally dissipating over decades
Shufei Zenith: Well, you only age what you live. :>
Shufei Zenith: But either way, glad to hear it.
Wol Euler smiles.
Wol Euler: glad to be able to say it :) being angry all the time was very tiring, an unpleasant way to live
Shufei Zenith: There was a thing they were trying out here: the 9 second meditation. I still use that when "needed". ;)
Shufei Zenith: I'm angry alot these days.
Shufei Zenith: So...

--BELL--

Shufei Zenith: Oh!
Shufei Zenith: What's the bell...?
Wol Euler: a ninety-second time out :)
Wol Euler: mini-meditation, or simply a chance to calm down and reconsider
Shufei Zenith: Haha, new to me!
Shufei Zenith: I like it.
Shufei Zenith: Hehe, 90 seconds and it just happen automatically?
Wol Euler: every quarter-hour, yes
Wol Euler: though whether one automatically meditates or goes to make tea, is a private decision
Shufei Zenith: Hehe, make it a good tea. :>

Shufei Zenith: I saw a theatre in a molecule structure. Do they have plays there?
Shufei Zenith: Not happening anymore?
Wol Euler: there hasn't been one in a while, one a year I think is all that happens
Wol Euler: unless other people are using it, which we did talk about encouraging
Shufei Zenith: :> Can always do ad hoc happenings...
Wol Euler: indeed
Shufei Zenith: Dance of the merry peasants or something.

Wol Euler: actually it will be used again in early April for our birthday celebrations
Wol Euler: (PaB birthday)
Shufei Zenith: Oh, good show!
Shufei Zenith: I'll try to make it if I'm still with internet.
Shufei Zenith: Can you recall which day?
Wol Euler: not off-hand, sorry, I don't know if the planning has got that far yet
Shufei Zenith nods.
Wol Euler: I'm inclined to say April 5th, as I believe that was the true day
Wol Euler: but like the Queen we don't always celebrate on the proper day, but move it if the proper day is in auspicious
Shufei Zenith: :>
Shufei Zenith: You can always have a very merry UNbirthday.
Wol Euler smiles.
Shufei Zenith: I'm glad you showed up.
Wol Euler: I'm glad you did too :)
Shufei Zenith: Thanks.
Wol Euler: it#s nice to meet you

Shufei Zenith: I do believe we met previously.
Shufei Zenith: Long time back?
Wol Euler: possible, but not here because I always write the date on which I first meet people at the Playgoda in their profiles
Wol Euler: to avoid giving the introduction spiel again and again
Shufei Zenith: Well, it might have been before that. I first met some of you when PaB was meeting at the old Zen temple just west of here.
Shufei Zenith: And I do have a poor memory, so maybe it was another life!
Wol Euler: oh, that could well be true. I only started this after we began recording
Wol Euler: that is possible
Wol Euler: my, that is a long time ago
Shufei Zenith: Yes... I suppose it was, now. Do you get many people wandering up from the welcome area anymore?
Wol Euler: no, that hasn't happened in ages (during my sessions)
Wol Euler: the welcome area itself doesn't seem to be as well attended as it was years ago
Shufei Zenith: Seems to be the trend. The vivacious, raucous aspect of SL ended.
Wol Euler: there would often be a dozen or twenty avs there on a weekend (on the map)
Wol Euler nods.

Shufei Zenith: How very strange, if you remember... This was supposed to be Web 3.0...

--BELL--

Wol Euler: we#ve had our excitable youth and now entering stable middle age
Shufei Zenith: xixi
Shufei Zenith: I guess so. Well, some of us.
Wol Euler smiles.
Wol Euler: I meant PaB, not you or I necessarily
Shufei Zenith: Well, no, as a cohort, maybe.
Wol Euler: Web 3.0, well, strange idea. Journalists in desperate search for a trend to lead
Shufei Zenith: Hehe, yes. The buzz and buzzwords flew by.
Shufei Zenith: I prefer it this way.
Wol Euler: agreed
Shufei Zenith: But when you consider the... fresh energy needed to break expectations...
Shufei Zenith: Well, something gets missed.
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: I miss it
Wol Euler: both here and generally
Shufei Zenith remembers.

Shufei Zenith: I doubt as many random kids with naughty griefing gestures wander into rituals anymore. :>
Wol Euler: heheheheh
Wol Euler: that too hasn't happened in ages
Shufei Zenith: But then, it's an opportunity to learn patience.
Wol Euler: that I do NOT miss
Shufei Zenith: Nor I, for myself. But it was kind of ...
Shufei Zenith: hm...

Shufei Zenith: I was once in a christian church group:
Wol Euler listens.
Shufei Zenith: And there was alot of flowery language going on.
Shufei Zenith: Not pompous, if you follow, but just "spirtual" talk.
Shufei Zenith: And some kid whips out a very large phallus.
Shufei Zenith: It may have shocked everyone and angered me, too, in a way it was also... truthful.
Shufei Zenith giggles softly.
Wol Euler nods.
Shufei Zenith: Hope that makes sense.
Wol Euler: I understand
Shufei Zenith: Sure stuck in my memory!
Wol Euler: I'm not sure that I would even call that griefing, just childish bad taste :)
Shufei Zenith: Hehe, well, it was hard to say.
Shufei Zenith: He may have not meant to, but he sure got bounced quickly.

Shufei Zenith: it occasioned a good talk on how and when to say "no" as the best thing, but the risks of that also to creating unhealthy cliques.
Wol Euler: well ... yes but
Shufei Zenith: ?
Wol Euler: I don't consider that a critique
Wol Euler: not what I would call a reasoned argument
Shufei Zenith: What is?
Wol Euler: whipping out a phallus
Shufei Zenith: Oh, his "art"?
Shufei Zenith: Haha
Shufei Zenith: No, it was inappropriate.
Shufei Zenith: Of course.
Shufei Zenith: And yet, the crude can be beautiful.
Wol Euler nods.
Wol Euler: this comes back to the ancient question "is it art?"

Shufei Zenith: It was something I noticed being around alot of Goreans, somehow made friends with a bunch. They came to temple alot.
Wol Euler: oh?
Wol Euler listens.
Shufei Zenith: Haha, I reckon it's art, as a happening. There is that ethos of shocking conventions...
Wol Euler: if that is the intention, then one might grant that it could be art
Shufei Zenith: :>
Wol Euler: ("intention" being the closest thing to an answer to the question "is it art")
Shufei Zenith considers.
Wol Euler: because people also sometimes shock conventions because they are arrogant ignorant selfish and angry
Wol Euler: that is not art :)
Shufei Zenith: Haha, but so much of art is exactly so arrogant and selfish...
Shufei Zenith: But I take your point. There is agreed context and novel intention creating new context.
Shufei Zenith: So, ritual space must be flexible.
Shufei Zenith: You can set all the zafus you like, to make the atmosphere, but when meditating, it's often the gas or coughs of people you attend to!
Shufei Zenith: giggles

Wol Euler: there must be more to it than just a three-year-old saying "I am bored of this conversation, let's talk about me!"
Wol Euler: true :)

--BELL--

Shufei Zenith: Do you often do these late night sessions?
Wol Euler: Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 1am are my times
Shufei Zenith: Jolly good.
Wol Euler smiles.
Wol Euler: so if you feel like dropping in ...
Shufei Zenith: I must toddle off, but hope to catch you again.
Wol Euler: but if nobody is here by 1:30 I sometimes leave
Shufei Zenith nods.
Wol Euler: bye Shufei, it was lovely meeting you (again)
Shufei Zenith: Nice seeing and chatting with you. Thanks for your dilligence and effort.
Wol Euler smiles modestly.
Shufei Zenith: You are wonderful. :>
Wol Euler: awwwww <3
Wol Euler hands you a cookie and smiles