22-24 - Better Late

Fefonz Quan: but there are so many levels of communication, that it is really hard to define the person from it's manifestation outward
Fefonz Quan: or is there any difference?

Adams Rubble: here we are looking for what we ARE
Adams Rubble: in doing that we see this in others in the group
Adams Rubble: it comes through all the imprefections of language
Adams Rubble: and even our avatars
Adams Rubble: for when we meet in RL...
Adams Rubble: it is still there

Adams Rubble: We embrace the imperfections with the essence (as Steve put it)

Corvuscorva Nightfire: the dance is what is essential.
Corvuscorva Nightfire: that dancing occurs..not it's form.
Fefonz Quan: yes, and then we circled around back to the doing/being, the dance is here, now
Fefonz Quan: is there any essence nessecary beyond it?
Fefonz Quan: "what we aRE" quoting Adams
Corvuscorva Nightfire: matter..the thing that appears..is just what the dance looks like if you step away a bit.

Adams Rubble: the same love I feel when i think about God/Being
stevenaia Michinaga: the ability to love define your essence

Samuel Okelly: during the relatively short time I have been here, I have only witnessed "opinion" as opposed to actual exploration (this is not a criticism btw)

Pema Pera: there is the "philosophers" culture of going head to head

Pema Pera: and there is the culture here of showing each other in our cupped hands what nice little birds or flowers we recently came across

Pema Pera: before we set them free again

Moon Fargis: or more wich we never saw but start to see them slowly 

Tarmel Udimo: beautifully put pema

Samuel Okelly: discussion for me involves exploration and here i see only submission (as valuable as that is in its own right)

Fefonz Quan: (RL calls again, sorry, the stuffed cabagge is ready to eat :)

and the tones became louder:

Tarmel Udimo: I have to leave too, but before I do I have to say samuel, that in wanting to talk about an issue like abortion, perhaps you need to be more sensitive to what others may have experienced around that issue

Tarmel Udimo: and unless you wish to discuss it on a personal level i for one find it invasive being discussed just willy nilly

Samuel Okelly: with respect tam, you are missing the point i have made

Tarmel Udimo: I AM NOT SAMUEL

Samuel Okelly: k

Scathach Rhiadra: you seem to think we all miss the points you make, Sam

Tarmel Udimo: I think perhaps you have an agenda that is driving your need to discuss this, fair enough

Tarmel Udimo: but be open about it

Tarmel Udimo: don't use this place as an open forum to push your point of view

Tarmel Udimo: there are many places in SL and RL to do that

Samuel Okelly: k

and a long thorough emotional conversation with Samuel followed. You are welcomed to look at it on the link, start from teh middle of it: http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/02/2009.02.22_13%3a00_-_Opinions%2c_explorations%2c_respect

That discussion also resulted in a most fascinating email thread concerning Samuel's approach and the groups' reaction to it. Though can't be documented here, i found that group thread touching, emotional, compassinate in ways and harsh in others, and overall giving a feeling of a strong consolidated group that cares deeply to teh feelings and needs of it's friends, while confronting challenging interactions with a will to understand, tolerate and accept rather than oppose and bann which might naturally arise.

Gives me proud to be among you, PaB's :)

On the next meeting, the intruiging issue of trust is discussed, on many levels.

One taster:

Adelene Dawner: That's actually a good example of my sideways definition of 'trust' - it's not about whether the person is honest, it's about whether they're predictable - sounds like he was predictable, so you could trust him, even if what you were trusting him to do was to be dishonest.

 and i couldn't help quoting the next one:

Squee: Everyone has their own magic because nothing is real.

 and then friendship, relashionships and their complexities, our borders with relations to others, and even - jokes:

Pila Mulligan: what did the termite say when he walked into the bar?
Pila Mulligan: is the bar tender here?

And the rest is here: http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/02/2009.02.22_19%3a00_-_Trusting_Discussion

Some "spacy" sessions also happen, like that one:

Putty is having weird visions that he is eager to talk about, and Adelene and Gaya take it to God's plan, before they say wittily:

Adelene Dawner: Life can and does throw curveballs.
Gaya Ethaniel: It surely does :)

 More about curve balls: http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/02/2009.02.23_01%3a00_%e2%80%93_Life_throwing_curveballs

The next session was very personally involving: A very long conversation concerning our practice takes place, with me as the ignorant student. mostly it started with APAPB and YSBS code words that were flying above my head and i tried to catch them... it went back to the notion of Being itself in our contemplations, and it also had a nice output: Me and Pema himself are going to have a (one or more) dialoge about these issues next week! I am pleased at that result and excited towards that event. Hope the group will find it fruitful as well!

So as for APAPB, YSBS and other acronyms: http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/02/2009.02.23_07%3a00_-_APAPB%3f_YSBS%3f

Being is back again, with Pema and stim, and if pema defines the following phrases as PaB 101 in a nutshell, how can i resist?

Pema Pera: very simply put, phenomena are the ink, and to find Being we have to look at the paper on which the ink is written

Pema Pera: (oversimplified, more like a hint)

Pema Pera: or more acurately: our awarness itself is like the paper

Pema Pera: and Being is what allows both paper and ink to appear

Pema Pera: (still too simple; another kind of hint)

Pema Pera: So there are a few steps: from reading words, to looking at letters to looking at ink to finding the paper on which the ink is written

Pema Pera: In our consciousness we start with meanings and judgements then we go back to the phenomena themselves then to the awareness in which phenomena arise then to Being

Scathach is describing very lively how awareness guides her in her practice, and i struggle with the differences and similarities of awarenes and consciousness. Somehow i feel like many times i take the role of the questioner, hanging on details and words we use in order to clarify them to myself - and hopefully others - while many friends in the group express themselves in much more harmony and wholeness while i struggle in details. An interesting thought to look at, maybe i should bring it up in one of the sessions :)

Stim Morane: But the word "awareness" is used in contemplative traditions to refer to a more subtle and direct way of knowing too, one that is beyond the cognitive, body-based processes that figure in ordinary awareness

photography as a nice metaphor to awareness is also discussed - so all in all a lot of gems in one chat! - enjoy:

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/02/2009.02.23_13%3a00_-_Roads_to_Being

Choice is the main issue of the next meeting, and quite an issue that is! Among the most ancient philosophoical question - Free Will. BTW - have you seen the movie about it - Free Willie? ;-)

I gathered some assorted gems here:

Eliza Madrigal: Someone once said to me that "There's a time to choose, and a time to enter into the choice you've made" ....was many years ago and I'm still not quite sure what thy meant

      

Pila Mulligan: maybe it's like the period between an engagement and a marriage

      

Threedee Shepherd: Is there such a thing as a conscious choice? Or do we tell ourselves a story after the fact?

      

Neela Blaisdale: but if you're not aware of it is it really a choice?

      

Threedee Shepherd: Of course. My pre-conscious is as much me--perhaps moreso--than what reaches consciousness.
Pila Mulligan: pre-conscious free will, now there's an interesting twist :)

And all of them can be found in http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/02/2009.02.23_19%3a00_- 

And after so much words and talking, sometimes silence is the best response, sitting in our lovely pavillion, hearing the birds singing, some friends and companions of our path present, and no need to say or do or think, or even play, just being. As inspiring as any other meeting. http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/02/2009.02.24_01%3a00_-_The_Sound_of_Silence

Well, in the next session i found out riddle is playing bass guitar in a rock-n-roll band. I am green with envy ;-)

And more Pabishly, talks about pain and meditation are brought up. 

Sonic Moonites: so how is the 9sec working out?
Solobill Laville: For me, I use at somewhat ad hoc lately, but as a tool to reinforce my sitting practice
Solobill Laville: "wiping the windshield clean" :)

Riddle Sideways: imagines running up a long hill. Breathing is very hard. going on is hard
Riddle Sideways: yet there can be a stillness
Sonic Moonites: difficult, running creates a kind of pain(at least for me, im not to good at it)! and pain usually distracts me from stillness, however pain also makes me more aware of being

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/02/2009.02.24_07%3a00_-_Meditation_Pains

And if you wondered about the connection between dreams and meditation - you are not alone :)

The final session of these three days is just about that:

      

 Pila Mulligan: some people report that when flying in their dreams they lack some stability
Pila Mulligan: it can lose momentum or become erratic
Pila Mulligan: so it seems a nice trick to help that is to sit in lotus position when flying
Pila Mulligan: adds stability
Pila Mulligan: and fun

Dreaming about meditation? Meditating about dreams? All of the above? take a look here :)

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/02/2009.02.24_19%3a00_-_When_dreams_and_meditation_collide