2019.04.16 11:30 - Dreams - Hot Cognition

The Guardian for this session was Zen. The Log is by Aggers.

Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala) entered chat range (6.44 m).
Zen (Zen Arado) entered chat range (3.50 m).

Zen (Zen Arado): Hi Alma :)
Zen (Zen Arado): Hi Ahhers :)
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala) entered chat range (4.52 m).
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): hi Agatha
Zen (Zen Arado): Aggers
Tura Brezoianu entered chat range (6.28 m).
Agatha Macbeth: Evening all
Zen (Zen Arado): getting new glasses
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): wb Tura
Tura Brezoianu: hi Zen, Ag
Agatha Macbeth waveth to the assemblage
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala) waveth back

Zen (Zen Arado): I never saw anyone lie down on a cushion at a Zen  retreat :)
Agatha Macbeth: Chillin'
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I'm sure plenty have wanted to
Tura Brezoianu: Aren't you supposed to get whacked with a stick if you do that?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): probably
Agatha Macbeth: Are you sure that's a retreat you're thinking of?
Zen (Zen Arado): you got whacked for a lot less than that
Agatha Macbeth: Whacko
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I learned to meditate in a more relaxed sangha :)
Zen (Zen Arado): I only ever went to 1 retreat where they had a stick like that and it was only to demonstrate it
Zen (Zen Arado): you had to request it if you felt sleepy
Zen (Zen Arado): it's more like a big  paddle and they hit you between the shoulder blades so it isn't painful
Agatha Macbeth: Spoil the rod and spare the meditators
Agatha Macbeth: Or something
Zen (Zen Arado): it was different in the old Japanese monasteries where they had novices about 13 years old
Agatha Macbeth: Like Kwai Chang Caine
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): pain has a way of bringing you into the present moment
Agatha Macbeth: Indeed
Zen (Zen Arado): they are very strict with rituals in Zen
Zen (Zen Arado): I was just discussing this with  a woman in real life
Agatha Macbeth ponders Zen d/s
Zen (Zen Arado): they have a little mindfulness/Zen  meeting once per week
Zen (Zen Arado): they do some Zen rituals and they think it puts people off
Agatha Macbeth: Odd that
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I actually saw an article a while ago about a place that uses bondage as a form of meditation
Agatha Macbeth: In SL?
Tura Brezoianu: wow
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): no, in RL
Zen (Zen Arado): it is a bit strange adopting Japanese rituals in Northern Ireland context
Agatha Macbeth: Oh
Agatha Macbeth: Yoga does come from yoke I think
Agatha Macbeth: (In Sanskrit)
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I think the underlying meaning is "connect"
Zen (Zen Arado): the first retreat I went to I had light coloured trousers and everyone else wore black or black moves
Zen (Zen Arado): because nobody told me
Agatha Macbeth: Ah right
Zen (Zen Arado): black robes
Agatha Macbeth: Good job you didn't wear brown ones
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): or paisley
Agatha Macbeth: Ian?
Zen (Zen Arado): :-)
Zen (Zen Arado): maybe rituals are more important than we think
Agatha Macbeth: Now he would have been a good disciplinarian
Zen (Zen Arado): it's in that wu wei book
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): Confucius would agree
Zen (Zen Arado): yes
Agatha Macbeth: The Slingerland one?
Zen (Zen Arado): yes
Agatha Macbeth nods

Agatha Macbeth: Any dreams this week?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I had another cat dream
Zen (Zen Arado): my dreams are getting boring
Agatha Macbeth: :3
Zen (Zen Arado): too predictable
Agatha Macbeth: Animals again!
Zen (Zen Arado): can't even be bothered  recording a lot of them
Zen (Zen Arado): listens
Agatha Macbeth: Maybe that's an indication your life is ordered

Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): A man comes to have dinner with a large group of friends in someone's house. He brings 2 or 3 cats with him. He has trained them to stay in one place on special mats that he has made for them, so that they won't wander around the crowded room and pester the guests. He uses a whistle that sounds a two-note chord as the signal for them to lie on their mats and not move. Each mat has a logo of a blue diamond, similar to that on a box of Diamond brand matches. The man blows on the whistle from time to time, to remind the cats to stay lying on their mats. The cats are very well trained, and obediently stay on their mats. As I watch one of them, it moves its head and neck in a peculiar way, as if it is uncomfortable or restless.

Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): [meow/end]
Agatha Macbeth: Could *really* see cats doing that in reality :p
Zen (Zen Arado): I can't imagine trained cats
Agatha Macbeth: You might be able to train a dog to obey a whistle
Zen (Zen Arado): they could train lions and tigers  In circuses though  couldn't  they?
Tura Brezoianu: cats in bondage to a whistle
Agatha Macbeth: Long time since I went to a circus
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I believe that cats can in fact be trained
Agatha Macbeth: Interesting
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): or maybe bribed would be a better word
Zen (Zen Arado): yes just not as well as dogs
Agatha Macbeth: Probably best to start early
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): it occurred to me that this dream could be related to our reading about
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): Confucian wu wei
Agatha Macbeth listens
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): these cats are the Confucian ideal, of hot cognition trained to behave in a naturally "appropriate" way
Agatha Macbeth: Hot cognition is an interesting term
Zen (Zen Arado): and behaving well in a social context
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): trained to behave until it becomes "natural"
Zen (Zen Arado): yes
Agatha Macbeth: Hot cogito ergo sum
Zen (Zen Arado): Cats are graceful animals
Agatha Macbeth: Indeed
Agatha Macbeth: ^.^
Zen (Zen Arado): they have a lot of de
Zen (Zen Arado): things move in an effortless way
Agatha Macbeth: De nada
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): now I will have to see how my dream cats behave after reading the chapter about Laozi
Tura Brezoianu: hot cogito noodles
Agatha Macbeth: Yum
Zen (Zen Arado): I slurp therefore I am
Agatha Macbeth: Yeh can be messy
Agatha Macbeth: Not as bad as spaghetti tho
Zen (Zen Arado): I think cats would like Laozi  better
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): "I purr therefore I am" - Rene deCat
Zen (Zen Arado): they are really quite lazy creatures
Agatha Macbeth: Ha
Zen (Zen Arado): they just lie around and let us feed them
Agatha Macbeth: I remember Fritz the cat
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): have you seen the videos of Henri, the existentialist cat?
Zen (Zen Arado): the dream is certainly something about control
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7i...CWM9q8ezLZPyY9

Agatha Macbeth: Wonder why the blue diamond
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): yes, I wonder too
Agatha Macbeth: That was the name of the club in Hamburg in Smiley's People
Zen (Zen Arado): thanks Alma
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I associate the blue diamond with Diamond Matches, but there are a lot of other companies that also call themselves Blue Diamond
Tura Brezoianu pauses the video for later
Zen (Zen Arado): wasn't  there a blue diamond in the visualisations in one of the first dream books we read?
Zen (Zen Arado): you imagine it going into your throat
Agatha Macbeth: Was there?
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): there was a lotus
Agatha Macbeth: Om
Zen (Zen Arado): maybe it was a red  diamond
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I don't remember a diamond, but will go back and look
Agatha Macbeth: Urawa

Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): oh, that's right, isn't the diamond associated with one of the chakras?
Agatha Macbeth looks at Zen
Zen (Zen Arado): I don't know much about that stuff
Agatha Macbeth: Awww
Agatha Macbeth: Thought you were our expert
Agatha Macbeth: All I know about chakras is there are 7
Agatha Macbeth: And it means wheel or something
Zen (Zen Arado): there aren't any chakras in Zen
Agatha Macbeth: Oh
Agatha Macbeth: Hiunduism then?
Zen (Zen Arado): it's a bit too new age for me
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I think the Tibetan chakra system is a little different
Agatha Macbeth: I've heard of kalachakra the wheel of time
Agatha Macbeth: Think Buddha taught it
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): yes, I've heard of that as a practice in Tibetan Buddhism
Agatha Macbeth nods
Zen (Zen Arado): isn't it about energy fields?
Zen (Zen Arado): Which is more in Chinese medicine
Agatha Macbeth: Hm, not sure
Zen (Zen Arado): chi
Agatha Macbeth: Yeh, acupuncture
Agatha Macbeth: Meridians et al
Agatha Macbeth: Any other dreams to report?
Tura Brezoianu: I have one
Agatha Macbeth: Yay
Agatha Macbeth: Fire away Tu
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala) listens

Tura Brezoianu: I was cycling home, but the road seemed to slope down absurdly steeply and very far, so I decided not to try to go that way. I tried going onto the pavement but that was the same. Then I went onto a grassy verge behind the pavement. There were four deep holes there, arranged in a square. I avoided them, then yet again came to a steep downhill, so I got off and walked.
Tura Brezoianu: Then instead of following the road, I went through a brick archway and found myself in a place that was partly a building site, partly parkland. On my left there was a building being built, several stories but just bare walls so far. There were a few other buildings just being started, only low walls so far. Two workmen were sitting apart from each other, leaning against walls under construction, and looked like they were taking a break. They looked very like each other, I thought maybe they were twins. I walked in the direction of home, walking across the parkland, which was grassy but dried up, straw-coloured.
Tura Brezoianu: Past where the building works were going on, there were other people sitting around, having picnics, on this really rather unprepossessing stretch of ground. I walked through and past them.
Tura Brezoianu: done

Agatha Macbeth: On your bike again then
Tura Brezoianu: yes, well, walking it through the park
Agatha Macbeth: Oh weren't you on it at the start?
Tura Brezoianu: And there's a motif of a road falling away steeply, almost vertical, that's come up a couple of times before
Tura Brezoianu: I was cycling at the start, but I got off after encountering all these vertical drops
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): a contrast between a construction site and parkland, in the same area
Agatha Macbeth: I remember you crossing a narrow bridge
Zen (Zen Arado): I usually wonder if travelling is the journey through life
Agatha Macbeth: Wonder why the grass was brown
Agatha Macbeth: Was it summer?
Tura Brezoianu: I think it was quite bright. The grass was like after a long period of hot dry weather
Agatha Macbeth: Yeh
Agatha Macbeth: Like last year
Zen (Zen Arado): maybe it's in the future when we can't drive cars any more and we have very hot summers
Zen (Zen Arado): I think the changes will come suddenly
Zen (Zen Arado): we always think linearly
Zen (Zen Arado): but climate change is exponential
Zen (Zen Arado): thinking a lot about that lately
Agatha Macbeth: Our lawn hadn't been brown since 1984
Zen (Zen Arado): I don't remember brown lawns
Zen (Zen Arado): it usually rains too much  in Ireland
Agatha Macbeth: Hence the Emerald Isle
Zen (Zen Arado): I think these steep downhills are significant
Zen (Zen Arado): abrupt change
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): is there a sense of danger?
Agatha Macbeth: Life going downhill :p
Tura Brezoianu: Dangerous enough to not try to cycle down them :)
Zen (Zen Arado): life always goes downhill doesn't it?
Agatha Macbeth: Smart girl
Zen (Zen Arado): That's not just pessimism
Tura Brezoianu: "The dew dries up, the bubble dies / And spring entombed in autumn lies"
Zen (Zen Arado): at least you were in control
Zen (Zen Arado): so we enjoy what we can when we can
Agatha Macbeth: Using leg power
Zen (Zen Arado): going with the flow
Agatha Macbeth: Carpe diem and all that
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): slow down and smell the flowers
Tura Brezoianu: or ignore them as a snare
Zen (Zen Arado): "Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and grass grows by itself."
Zen (Zen Arado): better than me trying to drive formula 1 cars :-)
Agatha Macbeth: Oh you're welcome to that

Zen (Zen Arado): I am just having the usual dreams about power stations and  art clubs
Zen (Zen Arado): I am walking into Kilroot power station and it is just starting up. A man explains to me that the chemist has kept the place going because they have had many problems with in that area. I walk around trying to learn the mysteries of each department and it seems very complex and difficult. Then the dream gets silly because there seem to be small groups who plot against each other and they are discussing firing through the ceiling to kill the people in the room above!

Zen (Zen Arado): done
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): oh my
Agatha Macbeth: Erk
Zen (Zen Arado): reading too many crime novels
Zen (Zen Arado): Glaswegian hard men :-)
Tura Brezoianu: Takes office politics to a new level!
Agatha Macbeth: Indeed
Zen (Zen Arado): or watching too much Netflix
Agatha Macbeth: You're fired (literally)
Zen (Zen Arado): :-)
Zen (Zen Arado): that is a summary of my work life I guess
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): maybe this power station is what supplies energy to the dream world
Zen (Zen Arado): it was all about learning though because I was a training instructor and never felt I knew enough
Agatha Macbeth: You could always fake it
Zen (Zen Arado): sometimes I had to
Agatha Macbeth: :P
Zen (Zen Arado): all teachers get that
Zen (Zen Arado): somebody asks you a question you have never thought about before
Agatha Macbeth: Then there's always one smartarse who asks a difficult question
Zen (Zen Arado): Yep
Agatha Macbeth: Snap
Zen (Zen Arado): though I prefer that to having a class who were silent and unresponsive
Agatha Macbeth: True dat
Zen (Zen Arado): last night I had a dream that I was back in the art club
Zen (Zen Arado): I walked into the main game then walked into another room and there was musician woman I know in second life
Zen (Zen Arado): she was doing a huge painting with the outlines of buildings
Zen (Zen Arado): and explaining to someone I the size of the buildings tapered off into the distance into the blueness of the sky
Zen (Zen Arado): I was grumbling to myself about how she managed to get a big room all to herself to paint in
Zen (Zen Arado): I thought later that the huge buildings resembled cathedrals
Zen (Zen Arado): and I know where that image came from
Agatha Macbeth: Yes!
Zen (Zen Arado): done
Agatha Macbeth: Hot cognito indeed
Zen (Zen Arado): maybe you know that woman, she is called Yadleen in second life
Agatha Macbeth: Oh yes
Zen (Zen Arado): she plays a lot of concerts in second life
Zen (Zen Arado): she is quite good I think
Agatha Macbeth: Does esoteric stuff
Agatha Macbeth: Yeh I've seen her
Agatha Macbeth: Does she paint?
Zen (Zen Arado): I don't know I don't think so
Agatha Macbeth: Hm

Zen (Zen Arado): by the way I was talking to Sunji  a little earlier and she sent her regards
Zen (Zen Arado): she is at perfect paradise at the moment
Agatha Macbeth: Oh
Agatha Macbeth: She went back
Zen (Zen Arado): I'm not sure if Alma or Tura  know her
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): I don't
Tura Brezoianu: I don't
Vuvuzela yellow - Turned Orange!: Type 'buu' to play bubuzela.
Zen (Zen Arado): I used to DJ with her quite a lot
Agatha Macbeth: buu
Zen (Zen Arado): :-)
Zen (Zen Arado): she is Hungarian but lives in South Africa
Agatha Macbeth: Still got your dijeridoo Zenny?
Zen (Zen Arado): somewhere :-)
Agatha Macbeth: Wow
Zen (Zen Arado): I used one in some of my tracks
Agatha Macbeth: Bet that sounds good
Zen (Zen Arado): one of my tracks has Tuvan throat singing
Zen (Zen Arado): just background
Agatha Macbeth: Don't they do that in Tibet too?
Zen (Zen Arado): yes I think so
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): Tibetan monks can sing two notes at the same time
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): overtones
Agatha Macbeth: Lord
Zen (Zen Arado): yes this is like that
Agatha Macbeth: I remember the Undertones
Agatha Macbeth: Teenage kicks
Agatha Macbeth: Peely's favourite song

Zen (Zen Arado): https://soundcloud.com/zenarado/chadan
Zen (Zen Arado): I think it was on that  track  somewhere
Agatha Macbeth listens
Agatha Macbeth: Always read that as 'Zenradio'
Zen (Zen Arado): oh trance track too
Zen (Zen Arado): you can get away with murder on trance tracks
Agatha Macbeth: And many do
Zen (Zen Arado): so long as you follow the main structure
Zen (Zen Arado): that is
Agatha Macbeth: Mind you so many are drugged up they don't notice
Tura Brezoianu hears the throat singing start
Zen (Zen Arado): they can be quite hypnotic
Agatha Macbeth: There actually used to be a game on the playstation that let you write your own music
Zen (Zen Arado): used a hang drum too
Zen (Zen Arado): had one hanging around :)
Agatha Macbeth: Très trippy
Agatha Macbeth passes round the E
Zen (Zen Arado): drinks a gallon jug of water
Agatha Macbeth: Glug glug

Agatha Macbeth: Well that woke me up
Zen (Zen Arado): better go and watch Man U getting hammered by Barcelona :)
Agatha Macbeth: Best of luck :p
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): time for me to move on too
Zen (Zen Arado): but you never know
Agatha Macbeth: Ar
Agatha Macbeth: Let's check the recording
Zen (Zen Arado): he said optimistically :)
Tura Brezoianu: good evening all
Alma di Masala (Almadi Masala): be well all
Zen (Zen Arado): byee
Agatha Macbeth: TCFN