28 - 31 Mind Monkeys

12/28 1am

oO0Oo Resident: It is a very friendly and cooperative community
oO0Oo Resident: thanks in no small part to people like Lobster here.

7am

Riddle Sideways: speaking of loud music...
Riddle Sideways: we had a Diggery-Do in the house
Riddle Sideways: a few nights ago
Riddle Sideways: Boy that lived up the street (goes to Berkeley school of music (for trumpet))
Riddle Sideways: brought it in
Riddle Sideways: what a really great sound
Riddle Sideways: it hits some core Being place

Xirana Oximoxi: what does the Play as being bell mean?? please?

Riddle Sideways: oh, it is a reminder to do a moment of silence
Aphrodite Macbain: it means please stop speaking for 90 seconds
Aphrodite Macbain: to stop that monkeymind
Riddle Sideways: yes, to stop monkey mind
Riddle Sideways: to pause thinking about monkeys

1pm

Bruce Mowbray: We will stop chatting for 90 seconds at 15 minutes after the hour. . .
Bruce Mowbray: [that's for the new folks.]
Bruce Mowbray: (and everyone else who feels a need to chat).

Bruce Mowbray: So, are we to hospitable to our monkey-minds, or not?
Dash Earthboy: my mind is too small for a monkey to fit
Wol Euler: mu :)
Mickorod Renard: is it monkey-minds today too?
Bruce Mowbray: ;-) They find a way in, Dash, somehow.
Wol Euler: definitely don't fight it, that only strengthens and prolongs the distraction
Bruce Mowbray: Not necessarily, Mick.
Bruce Mowbray: I'm just advocating for full acceptance of the Monkey, that's all.

Botty Absent: when do we stop practicing and start doing?
Mickorod Renard: I am so out of sync with PaB sessions that I don’t know if there is any structure now
Bruce Mowbray: WE make the structure here. Just as in our "real" worlds.
Yakuzza Lethecus: mick, i have to admit i am very often here and still i ask myself the same sometimes :)
Bruce Mowbray: We live in the worlds that we make - both in SL and in RL.

7pm

Eos Amaterasu notes, there's a monkey in the room
SophiaSharon Larnia: there is??
Paradise Tennant: looks for the elephant too  ;)
oO0Oo Resident: that's just my mind Eos
Eliza Madrigal: any friend of Bruce's is a friend of mine :)
Eos Amaterasu: lots of monkeys in the room
Eos Amaterasu: snowglobes of them :-)

Bruce Mowbray wonders where the "room" is.

SophiaSharon Larnia: monkey see monkey do

Eos Amaterasu: "I'm not really bad, I just draw myself that way"
oO0Oo Resident: bell receeding...
Paradise Tennant: smiles :) the bell moves through us

Paradise Tennant: they are perfect storms ...just reading a quote from Buddha ..

"when you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky :) "
really like that quote, lol looks for the guy with the pencil :)
Paradise Tennant: maybe beside the elephant ?
faberglas Resident: Perhaps Saturn and The Sun prefer rain.
Bruce Mowbray: Yes, blame the artist who draws the buses. THERE's the problem.
Paradise Tennant: do we draw ourselves ?
SophiaSharon Larnia head is spinning lolol
Eliza Madrigal: drive all blames into the elephant Paradise?
oO0Oo Resident: hehe
Bruce Mowbray loves that quote. Thanks, Paradise.
Eos Amaterasu: I thought Jimi said that :-)
SophiaSharon Larnia: :D
oO0Oo Resident: That's a T-shirt slogan if ever there was one: "Drive all blames into the elephant paradise"
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Eos Amaterasu: In SL, can you ask "who is the SL builder"?
Tess Aristocrat: or..'Eat At Elephant Paradise'
Eliza Madrigal hopes the elephant fits into the snowglobe when we find him
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes you can
Paradise Tennant: love elephants .. they paint .. in fact some do it better than i and faster :)
Eos Amaterasu: who is that?
SophiaSharon Larnia: the creator is the created
Eos Amaterasu: aha!

1am

Susan Aloix: Presence to me is the practice of being aware of self and other - of a sensitivity to ones
somatic experience and the sensing of other as if *part of self*........in that very practice alone (before
focus, before goal...before intention arguably) is a being alive to itself in relationship to other...i always
know when i am in the midst of presence....and it tends to the fertile ground out of which things like focus immerge.........focus then becomes mutually negotiated ...and presence is the place one returns to when focus dominates in leading a group....i think the two interpenetrate

7am

Arabella SpiritWeaver: how often do you meet??
Eliza Madrigal: four times a day... 1,7,1,7
Arabella SpiritWeaver: cool
Arabella SpiritWeaver: everyday??
Eliza Madrigal: yes its wonderful. And yes, all year, but not always the same people are here...
Gaya Ethaniel: :)
Gaya Ethaniel: So it's fun that way :P
Arabella SpiritWeaver: yeah that is great ill remeber the times then
Eliza Madrigal: we have guardians for each session and they can be quite different from one another

7pm

stevenaia Michinaga: but I feel if we would all let the wind blow through us rather then push against it, things could be different

1am

Bertram Jacobus: to me, my last and youngest thought is, that i can also appreciate very much that i simply don´t know ...

oO0Oo Resident: @ Bertram Socrates said it was more important to recognise this
Zen Arado: resurrection is also very doubtful I think
Bertram Jacobus: i´m very happy to be content with it sam - so i find peace ... and can go on in being interested in life and all it´s possibilities ...
oO0Oo Resident: :)
Bertram Jacobus: and so to me it´s also not important to know whether there is a re resurrection or not. both would be ok to me or at least - reality

7am

Lucinda Lavender: well...purity brings up for me the idea of recognizing the essential blueprint behind form.
Lucinda Lavender: The mind...in a fear free state.

Eliza Madrigal: Pema quoted something recently which seems to touch on 'purity' as simply staying open... Trungpa I think...

Since all things are naked,
clear and free from obscurations,
there is nothing to attain or realize.

The everyday practice
is simply to develop a complete
acceptance and openness
to all situations and emotions.

And to all people --
experiencing everything totally
without reservations and blockages,
so that one never withdraws
or centralises onto oneself.

Lucinda Lavender: :)
Bruce Mowbray: Beautiful - - so, practically speaking, our first "friend" and the thing that we accept first - must be ourselves. . . warts and all.

1pm

Lia Rikugun: thats true we can even embrace anger :)
Lia Rikugun: but this seems more difficult
Bruce Mowbray: No actually taking turns, but we do try to listen to each other and respect each other -- so I will now sit on my hands and listen. . .
Bruce Mowbray: ;-)
Bleu Levasseur: you have to see that things happen for a reason, i suppose
Sabia Innovia: Stepping back and embracing the fear or tiredness BEFORE it becomes anger is even better! But Hard!
Bleu Levasseur: hard when its something awful tho
Sabia Innovia: Yes but for any type of anger from small iritations to big whopping angers!
Bruce Mowbray: Maybe each person is different in such things/ . . . and it
Bleu Levasseur: finding channels for anger is helpful
Bruce Mowbray: is good to observe and know your own patterns. . .
Bleu Levasseur: and listening, properly listening

7pm

stevenaia Michinaga: seems every time I don't worry, nothing bad happens :)
oO0Oo Resident: there is always something to celebrate

1am

Pema Pera: the idea behind "Play as Being" is that in RL we spend a few hours or more a day in which we create little breaks in what we do, roughly once every 15 minutes for 9 sec (here in SL it's longer, for good measure)
Pema Pera: the idea is that when you do something every day, it has the possibility to actually change your life, or the way you look at the world
Pema Pera: these 9-sec breaks can be see as micro-meditations
Pema Pera: and we don't give much instruction, beyond the general advice "drop what you have to see what you are"
Pema Pera: even though the total time required, a few minutes a day, is very small, it does seem to have a large effect on those who try, within the first few days already
Pema Pera: compared to more traditional meditation methods, we trade duration for frequency
Pema Pera: here is some more background:
http://wiki.playasbeing.org/About_PlayAsBeing/Basic_Ideas
Rhiannon Dragoone: Almost like mini-vacations

7am

Pema Pera: Kiremimi and I greet all the newcomers from 2011

Eden Haiku: So how does 2011 look like Pema?

Pema Pera: we had many inches of snow in Kyoto this morning
SophiaSharon Larnia: :D
Eliza Madrigal: ohhh, nice....
Eden Haiku: Nice, a fresh start!
Eliza Madrigal: magical way to begin
Kiremimi Tigerpaw: beautiful new year white
Arisia Vita: try to see its beauty more than feel its cold...
SophiaSharon Larnia: nods at Ari
Bleu Oleander: white is a beautiful start to the new year
Eden Haiku: A clean sheet
Pema Pera: :-)
SophiaSharon Larnia: a clean page
Eliza Madrigal: a soft clean sheet...
Bleu Oleander: a "just this" color .... like light
Eliza Madrigal: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: drop what you had hehe

Pema Pera: (actually, Kiremimi and I are about ready to scurry away too . . . to toast the new year; it's 0:12 here :-)
Eliza Madrigal: :) Happy New Year to you both, and thanks so much for peeking in on us with blessings :)
Eden Haiku: No no, I'm trying to sit at my computer even though my mind is spitting lists...
Bleu Oleander: have a happy new year!
Kiremimi Tigerpaw: yes, nearby temples' bell are making sound...
Kiremimi Tigerpaw: but nice to see you all in new year
Eden Haiku: Happy New Year!!!!
Pema Pera: nice seeing you all, and waiting for you to join us in time :-)
Kiremimi Tigerpaw: thanks

1pm

picture

Eliza Madrigal: Darren, quick... champagne... Mira is going to say our first toast
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Miralee Munro: Oh my goodness!
Mickorod Renard: has everyone got a glass?
SophiaSharon Larnia: ")
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Lucinda Lavender: :)
Rhiannon Dragoone: thanks, Cal for the champagne
Darren Islar: yep
Miralee Munro: To everyone here, a wonderful new year bright and full of promise ... may we all have the strength of character and fortitude to progress in our aims!
Eliza Madrigal: ::::Cheers:::::
Mickorod Renard: this is such a nice thing that we find ourselves drawn to pab at this time
Rhiannon Dragoone: here, here!
Miralee Munro: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Lucinda Lavender: cheers!
Calvino Rabeni: Wonderful :) Hooray
SophiaSharon Larnia: to play as Being!!!!!
Mickorod Renard: yeaaaaa
SophiaSharon Larnia: Happy New Year!!
Eliza Madrigal: TY Bleu
Metafire Horsley: whinnys!
Eliza Madrigal: To Life!!!
Mickorod Renard: yeaaaa
Darren Islar: well said!!
SophiaSharon Larnia: to hitting the road
Eliza Madrigal: and friends :)

7pm

Pila Mulligan: a Dragon is the critter symbolic of yang
Eliza Madrigal: is it?
Pila Mulligan: yep
Lucinda Lavender: interesting
Eliza Madrigal: I thought of a dragon as encompassing both...
Pila Mulligan: as the horse is symbolic of yin
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Pila Mulligan: one of my favorite rural images is a bird sitting on the back of a horse ...
as the bird is possibly the descendant of dragons
Lucinda Lavender: nodding
Eliza Madrigal: :) cattle egrets..
Pila Mulligan: yep
Pila Mulligan: chi helping yin helping yang helping chi helping yin :)
Lucinda Lavender: cool:)