01-03 Adams' October Fiesta

Drawing. French. Hubert Robert. Peasant Dance. ca. 1770/1775. pen and black ink with gray and brown wash and black chalk over a black chalk counterproof, on laid paper Washington, D.C., National Gallery

A few sessions are missing from the fiesta due to SL glitches (with no one being able to get in) and others when no one showed up.

2010.10.01 01:00 - Tea and Stories

Moon Fargis: Zen has no value system. Zen only brings one thing into the world: understanding, awareness. Through awareness comes innocence. And innocence is innocent of good and bad, both. Innocence is simply innocence ??? it knows no distinction. The last story. It is about Ryokan ??? the same master I was talking about a few days before, who burned the roof to save the bamboo shoot. Ryokan was a great lover of children. As might be expected of such a character as he was, he himself was a child. He was the child Jesus speaks about. He was so innocent that it was almost unbelievable that a man can be so innocent. He had no cunning, no cleverness. He was so innocent that people used to think that he was a little mad. He liked to play with children. He played hide-and-seek, he played tamari, hand-ball, too. One evening it was his turn to hide, and he hid himself well under a straw stack in the field. It was growing darker and the children, not being able to locate him, left the field. Early in the following morning, a farmer came and had to remove the straw stack to begin his work. Finding Ryokan there, he exclaimed, ???Oh Ryokan-sama! What are you doing here???? The master answered, ???Hush! Don???t talk so loud, the children will find me.???

2010.10.01 06:00 - Time Session: Looking for Our Selves

Vector Marksman: there is tension between openness and being critical that science seems to have resolved or at least worked out
Riddle Sideways: yes, vector that part of science understanding is great
Pema Pera: yes, Vector, the peer review method is what I think we are trying to apply here too!
Pema Pera: keeping each other honest
Pema Pera: comparing notes without authority past or present
Vector Marksman: but then "science" becomes authority and a bully
Vector Marksman: saying what is real and what is not
Vector Marksman: the thought police
Pema Pera: does it?

Maxine Walden: for me this notion of the portal to/from the unconscious where Being resides...think it may differ from Pema's view, but may be another way to access timeless Time, Being, the unfamiliar Reality we can only glimpse at times
Fefonz Quan ain't sure science does all that Vector
Bleu Oleander: I wouldn't characterize science like that
Bruce Mowbray: It seems to me that all of our explorations (in the Time Group) are based in a working hypothesis that internal observations are possible -- and "scientifically" valid.
Pema Pera: every silver cloud has its dark lining perhaps, science included (called "scientism")

Eliza Madrigal: I think I hear Vector as saying that it is easy to replace one voice of authority for another...
Vector Marksman: the shadow
Pema Pera: yes, we all have the tendency to become lazy and invoke authority . . .
Fefonz Quan: not just easy, but also tempting Eliza, authority can seem so comforting sometimes
Eliza Madrigal: one more 'acceptable' or 'respectable' but we can use as prop for same reasoning.. yes
Pema Pera: perhaps the observations are not "internal", Bruce . . .
Bruce Mowbray: but we can WATCH ourselves being lazy and invoking authority -- witness our minds doing that.
Eliza Madrigal: yes!
Vector Marksman: agree

2010.10.01 07:00 - The Same Thing Differently

On the Time Session:

Bleu Oleander: I see a strong similarity to the ideas in the book "time, space, and knowledge"
Bruce Mowbray: and with each new chapter there is a new "shift" -- a new "opening" in awareness, for me anyway.
Eliza Madrigal: yes, both
Riddle Sideways notes that the sentence Blue is white on white is very awkward
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eliza Madrigal: Oleander fits...
Bleu Oleander: :)
Riddle Sideways: the 3 levels of writings are very distinct and nice
Eliza Madrigal: indeed
Riddle Sideways: 1. a chapter of a long book
Bruce Mowbray: sometimes that shift seems to evoke a sort of ecstasy. . . and I watch that . . . . when we shifted to "appreciating the presence" - especially.
Riddle Sideways: 2. many people reports on their reading view of chapter
Riddle Sideways: 3. choas of threads discussing in chat sesion

2010.10.01 13:00 - Do you really have time to read?

Some questions:

2010.10.01 19:00 - Deliciously Different

During a discussion of time, a visitor talks about meditation:

Alexis Sommerfeld: let's go through a simple meditation exercise.
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, in Tai Chi we do that
Solobill Laville smiles at Alexis' 140 / minute typing kung fu skills!
Alexis Sommerfeld: imagine that you have to monitor your breathing, and be aware of each inhalation, and each exhalation.
Alfred Kelberry: solo :)
Alexis Sommerfeld: but
Alexis Sommerfeld: you can't actually force or control your breathing
Alexis Sommerfeld: it's not as easy as it seems
Alexis Sommerfeld: you have to breath naturally, while observing yourself breathing naturally
stevenaia Michinaga: breath can be a wonderful timekeeper of actions and thoughts
Alfred Kelberry: i don't think of easy or hard when i meditate. i just... let it happen.
Solobill Laville: Focusing on the breath is a bridge, or a ladder, scaffold, to rein in our thoughts
Solobill Laville: And also an organic way to remind us we are in a body, and not all disembodied thought-stuff :)
Alexis Sommerfeld: but that's the basics of meditation, the beginning of a long journey of self discovery.
Alexis Sommerfeld: understanding your reality starts this way
Alexis Sommerfeld: understanding what you are really doing, and not what you think that you are doing.
Alexis Sommerfeld: there are so many distortions, by ego, prejudice, preconception, that fog our view of reality
Alexis Sommerfeld: meditation makes us focus and understand precisely what we are doing
Alexis Sommerfeld: we start with the breath, and from those skills continue our awareness
Alfred Kelberry: :)

2010.10.02 13:00 - To Control, Or Not to Control

Zen Arado: There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.  Such bad luck they said sympathetically. Maybe,the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. How wonderful,the neighbors exclaimed. Maybe, replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. Maybe, answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. Maybe, said the farmer.

2010.10.02 19:00 - China Impressions

Pema Pera: if I talk about water, and its properties, how it behaves, what you can do with it
Pema Pera: and then somebody else talks about air
Pema Pera: then I'm happy to hear more about air, and also join the discussion about air
Pema Pera: but I can't use that to describe droplets and waterfalls and all that
Pema Pera: perhaps I can talk about clouds, as a compromise, but that's about it

2010.10.03 13:00 - Innocence and Experience

Bruce Mowbray thinks that 'innocence' is more of a mental construct than an actual state of being.
Zen Arado: more like a lack of mental constructs?
arabella Ella: but that raises a question for me
Zen Arado: or making them too quickly?
Wol Euler: hello gaya
Zen Arado: Hi Gaya
Mickorod Renard: I get the feeling that when you become the child again it is another layer, you dont loose the old self but have another set of eyes to see extra perceptions

2010.10.03 19:00 - Dreaming Up What Is

Last word:

Paradise Tennant: learn a new word ..try a new food .. walk home by different routes now with the web the possibilities are endless