28 - 30 The Way of Openness

(Eliza's Scribe)

It may have started with a little question... “What are we guarding?”

Wonderings unfolded... “Is there something Play as Being is not?”

Which touched soft places... “What then, is my offering?”

“Can we TRULY... Appreciate All that arises, as Being Presenting... even mistakes, even the messier bits of our humanity?” "What about administrative detail?!" 

“If we can find heaven in an flower, can we in a tear, in change, in loss?” "Can we bear the tenderness?"

Ring the bells, that still can ring. Forget,
Your perfect offering.

There is a crack, in everything.
That’s how the light gets in… L. Cohen
 
http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/11/2009.11.28_07%3a00_-_A_Kind_of_Wild%2f%2fIncalculable_Potential

Eos Amaterasu: We have been having a number of discussions over the last week on topics of leadership, belief, commitment, etc which involve themes of paying attention to form and to detail, while at the same time being completely open. This also relates to the idea of guardianship here, which has some (paradoxical) sense of "protecting" openness :-)

EA: Pema summarized this as "no leader, no belief system, no defense"
the plus side of no defense being "being open", not separate from caring

Pema Pera: what we are doing here is unique, it seems to me, at least I don't know of any other group, RL or SL, which is so open, so without hierarchy, wthout belief system, without obligations really -- and yet is growing its own open structure in an organic way, with nobody having a clue of what direction it is moving to.
SophiaSharon Larnia: thinking of a form finding itself
Eos Amaterasu: :-)

Eos Amaterasu: Hmm... one thing is that it helps to acknowledge the form that is there; otherwise we tend to ignore it and it goes on under the surface, so better to celebrate form :-)
Pema Pera: :)

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/11/2009.11.28_01:00_-_Discriminating_Awareness

Calvino Rabeni: When I feel compassion, I try to drink it in, and use it to motivate something deeper in myself.
Calvino Rabeni: Part of that something is about becoming more discriminating
Calvino Rabeni: BUt it doesn't feel like a "should" being imposed.
Calvino Rabeni: Nor like trying to become something
Scathach Rhiadra nods
Calvino Rabeni: It feels like seeing more of what is
Geoff Baily: agree Calvino
Calvino Rabeni: And when I can't do that, I don't worry about it :)
Calvino Rabeni: But when I can, I don't want to miss the opportunity
Geoff Baily: ;)
Bertrum Quan: That makes sense on the face of it.
Calvino Rabeni: It calls to me, it is what I want
Calvino Rabeni: That is the feeling
Calvino Rabeni: Not like "how can I do the right thing"

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/11/2009.11.28_13%3a00_-_Meeps_about_Space%2c_Witness%2c_and_Focus

Fael Illyar: sharing is caring :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: i float in the space of nothing-important today, it's nice here

Calvino Rabeni: I am interested in every focus, in balance.
SophiaSharon Larnia: can you descibe that a little, I still didnt understand
Calvino Rabeni: There is not a real separation between experience and concept
Calvino Rabeni: in that everything we perceive immediatly becomes concept
Calvino Rabeni: and that concept guides and forms what we perceive in experience.
Calvino Rabeni: Experience is a complicated and dynamic process mixing different levels of mind together.
Calvino Rabeni: Perhaps in meditative states they get separated
Calvino Rabeni: But in ordinary consciousness they are thoroughly mixed.

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/11/2009.11.28_19%3a00_-_A_Boat_Called_%22No-Boat%22

Eos Amaterasu: music can create a kind of suspense-ful moment, both complete and in time
Pema Pera: but yes, real silence is everywhere, like real emptiness in all form
Calvino Rabeni: Yes
Pema Pera: music is something very mysterious . . . .
Calvino Rabeni: As is speech, which has a musical center
Eos Amaterasu: so going to a really quiet place and being silent is a somewhat artificial way at arriving at the silence that pervades
Calvino Rabeni: I agree Eos
Eliza Madrigal: its a boat :)
Pema Pera: :-)
Eos Amaterasu: yes :-)
Calvino Rabeni: But it can be done at the bus stop

--BELL--
Eos Amaterasu is walking into the 90 secs :-)
Calvino Rabeni: Conceptual art
Eos Amaterasu: gateless gate
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eos Amaterasu: gateless gaté
Eos Amaterasu: the 90 secs is always happening (every 90 second interval), but we tell ourselves to walk through it
Pema Pera: :)

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/11/2009.11.29_07%3a00_-_Sense_of_the_WHY

Pema Pera: you said you found it difficult at first to do that kind of exercise, can you say a bit more about what the initial difficulty was?
Adams Rubble: I could not imagine the size
Adams Rubble: but....
Adams Rubble: I think I was fighting it
Adams Rubble: Something has changed in me
Pema Pera: (the TSK exercise was to imagine a giant body, externally and internally, down from organs to cells to molecular structure)
Adams Rubble: I think I am finally getting a sense of the WHY of the exercies
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Adams Rubble: yes, still have not gotten to the second part you mention Pema
Pema Pera: some of the WHYs.... :-)
Adams Rubble: but it is a step for me to get to the first part
Pema Pera: there may be many more (^_^)
Adams Rubble: OK :)
Adams Rubble: one WHY at a time :)

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/11/2009.11.29_08%3a00_-_guardian_meeting_-_transitions_in_PaB

Pema Pera: I guess the two main things it has taught me are:
Pema Pera: 1) how unique PaB is, in having no leader, no believe system, and no obligations for its members;
how unusual that is, and in conection with that, what an enormous challenge it is to find a formless form to handle that
Pema Pera: 2) how much I still have to learn myself, in terms of integration; no matter how much I know, both in terms of glimpses here and there of meditative experiences and general intellectual understanding, I am learning more, day by day, to see so many of my own tendencies at what is sometimes called "spiritual materialism" -- focusing on goals, trying to gain, trying to protect . . . and I'm really grateful for these lessons

Eos Amaterasu: wu wei / stay out of the way / is the way :-)

arabella Ella: but I must admit it is thanks to Pema's involvement and encouragement that many of us are here today ... Pema made a huge difference for some of us
Wol Euler: absolutely :)
arabella Ella: he has taught us so much
arabella Ella: I cannot begin to think what PaB would be like today if Pema had been involved much less ... so generously
Maxine Walden: In a way, perhaps, allowing Pema to be the 'leader' and so even perhaps ever so slightly pressuring
him toward being that authority rather than toward letting be
Storm Nordwind: Caring lightly... like tranquil abiding meditation... holding the soap neither too tightly nor too lightly as both will lose the object back into the bath-tub!

Maxine Walden: so many levels of appreciation going on here at the same time, wonderful threads
Pema Pera: you see, my real motivation has been very self-centered, hopefully in a positive way: I just don't like the teacher-student traditional way of spiritual practice; instead I just love the scientific way of mentoring while collaborating in research, shoulder to shoulder. I didn't see any group like that, so I had no choice but to create one . . . . .
stevenaia Michinaga: you cannot diminish the importance of a "cultivaor" when the field grows as a result of your efforts, Pema

Maxine Walden: But maybe we all have had some lessons in this process, some surprises, some pains even...
stevenaia Michinaga: but in all cases, Maxine, a valuable experience, certainly for me

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/11/2009.11.29_13:00_-_Several_strands

Maxine Walden: and it seems useful to consider that exploring the nature of reality does mean for most of us, trying to reach beyond what our usual senses and pre-occupations with self dictate
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, and "beyond" might include "more deeply into"
Maxine Walden: yes, the sharing of our experiences, points of view, does allow us to learn from each other...learning about differences rather than feel judged by differences
Pema Pera: even if you do 9-sec practices a hundred times a day, you still have lots of time for other forms of meditation, so the two don't crowd each other :-)
Maxine Walden: indeed, Cal

Maxine Walden: My own experience during this 90 sec pause was to breathe and try to let the birdsong 'be' and to see what else felt 'just being' which included heartbeat, sun out the window...silence in the afternoon.
Maxine Walden: we may have many different experiences here, which is so interesting, so many versions of reality at the same time
Maxine Walden: threading together as we meet, some helpful convergences, some interesting divergences...
arabella Ella: how lovely your description sounds Maxine
arabella Ella: besides being a reminder of the different geographies and time zones represented here too
Zon Quar: like it is...yes
Zen Arado: so many delusions, preferences, prejudices...and that's just me!
Bertram Jacobus: (why do i read a translator all the time here?) ...
Maxine Walden: haha, Zen...yes, for each of us!!
Zon Quar: isnt it great..all thse wonderful stories and delusions for us to enjoy
Zen Arado: :)

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/11/Homework

Eden Haiku: We HAVE to take ourselves lightly!
stevenaia Michinaga: the observers become the theater
Calvino Rabeni: Sometimes things get slightly boring, then they change to who knows what. :)
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, sometimes we can change on a word
Calvino Rabeni: I think you noticed, we often do not stick to a subject very long.
Eden Haiku: See in the words "Play as Being" the word Being encompasses everything that happens,
the way I understand it. So this is part of it, our reactions are part of it, yours too ;-)

Eden Haiku: onigokko
Andrew Varthader: wtf is that......
stevenaia Michinaga: Play
stevenaia Michinaga: stop
Andrew Varthader: aw
Eden Haiku: That is a running meditation. We do that too.

10/30-7AM

Eden Haiku: «Our litlle life is but a dream/Rounded with some sleep» Shakespeare was aware of that ;-)
Geoff Baily: sometimes I just feel open and 'connected'
Kallie Kira: :)
Eliza Madrigal: Becoming habitual about the pauses, seems to nurture a kind of rhythm of awareness...
Kallie Kira: sometimes hard to tell where the pauses stop and start :)
Geoff Baily: :)
Eliza Madrigal: Yes, isn't that what it is all about?

http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/2009/11/2009.11.30_13%3a00_-_Accepting_Graciously

Eden Haiku: There is a grace both of giving and of receiving. A graciousness about it,
on both sides, not always easy. But when it flows naturally, what a pleasure!
Wol Euler nods

Eliza Madrigal is going to try the half-sleeping thing to keep from making mistakes in public...
SophiaSharon Larnia: just watch where youre going, Eliza it can be tricky ;p
Gaya Ethaniel: Without mistakes, how is one supposed to learn?
Stim Morane: true
Stim Morane: mistakes are very important
Eliza Madrigal: I'd like to choose which mistakes to make... is that do-able?
Zon Quar: i like mistakes..especially whe others do them
Stim Morane: :)
Gaya Ethaniel: lol
Stim Morane: those should go unseen
Stim Morane: :)
Wol Euler: Eliza, I think that would be a mistake.
Archmage Atlantis: Chuckles
Eliza Madrigal: :)

Wol Euler: A favourite quote, a mathematician talking about a colleague: "Yutaka Taniyma was
gifted with the special ability of making many mistakes, mostly in the right direction. I envied him
for this and tried in vain to imitate him, but found it quite difficult to make good mistakes."

Scathach Rhiadra: the presence of awareness is always in the moment; we may not be, so that is why we try to have some continuity of presence