A. Month of December

December was a month in which new energy was generated by more dialogs and Kira Workshop. More on that later.

The 1000th session of Play as Being was held on December 15 at 13:00. At the session Pema proposed the scribe project and worked out the details. There would be ten scribes who would each take 3 days, or twelve sessions, and summarize them. This would begin in January.

There was a "fire" in the Kira Cafe in mid December which necessitated a four hours of intense rebuilding by Storm to restore it. Storm noted that "The 'fire' happened because of land transfer between groups and a usability bug in LL's system".

The autologging group, now down to Fael and Wol, continued to work away at all the hurdles to make it possible to capture and deliver the logs for the sessions.

Phenomenology Workshop:

On Friday December 5 Pema Pera and Gilles Kuhn debated about Edmund Husserl's philosophy of Phenomenology in the Kira Cafe. From this was to grow the Phenomenology Workshop on Fridays. The latter was to start a couple of weeks later, on December 19, emphasizing exploration with weekly "lab reports".

Kira Dream Workshop:

In addition to the Phenomenology Workshop, Maxine started a Dream Workshop which met once a week. Very quickly ideas from these workshops began to flow into PaB sessions. The following is from the December 21 13:00 session:

Tarmel Udimo: often when I am on beam I call it things unfold as they should be, I think of something and it happens
doug Sosa: well, amix for me. i can be in a tight mood and see something beautiful suddenly and i respond to it.
Fefonz Quan: right doug, i feel too that there is some mutual corespondance"
doug Sosa: right,and not completely deterministic in either direction.
Maxine Walden: yes, doug, that is wonderful when that happens, and maybe you are reminding us or me that it is not 100% but the tighter I am inside the more constricted does the world out there seem,
Maxine Walden: and vice versa...do these thoughts of ours connect with PaB or Being?

Continuing Dialogs

Pema and Stim continued their dialog about Being into December with a dialog about starting at the end. The following exerpt is from the December 12 13:00 session:

Pema Pera: so my "start at the end" may be misleading
Pema Pera: ah, yes, same thoughts :)
Pema Pera: "be at the end"
Stim Morane: better... but maybe not very exciting
Pema Pera: or "be, in a way that may seem `at the end'" from the relative viewpoint
Pema Pera: that's okay, Stim
Pema Pera: :-)
Faenik: why not?
Pema Pera: as soon as one gets a taste of it, it's VERY exciting and totally NON exciting, at the same time
Pema Pera: so I'm not worried about that
Stim Morane: "as soon as"?
Pema Pera: the "Play" in PaB and the group will together give us enough excitement
Pema Pera: well, yes, from the relative point of view "as soon as" it starts to sink in more
Stim Morane: :)
Pema Pera: of courese not fro the absolute point of view
Pema Pera: :)
Pema Pera: so the biggest challenge is how to combine the two
Stim Morane: I would suggest just relaxing
Stim Morane: one of the hallmarks of being awake is that there is no concern about being awake
Pema Pera: yes, I can see that -- but how do you translate that in what we are doing here?
Stim Morane: good question
Pema Pera: we have two totally different views

Then, when the first series of dialogs was complete, Pema and Stim began a three-session dialogue of the Prehistory of Play as being on December 30 13:00  which continued into January. (see Chapter 3: The Beginnings).

Maxine and Pema did a dialog on December 30 19:00 called Dreaming as Possible expressions or ties to Being.

December opened with the following exchange with Crusty who visited regularly in November and December:

Wol Euler: ah there you are :)
Wol Euler: I'm glad to meet you Crusty, I've been reading your name in logs recently.
Crusty Goldshark: Hi - you read things in trees? Wow!

Switching from what we think we are (December 2 01:00):

Pema Pera: -- but then there is a very radical way
Pema Pera: in which you switch from you to Being
Pema Pera: totally different
Pema Pera: instead of identifying with the you you thought you were, you let Being Be
Pema Pera: that is by far the fastest and simplest way . . . . .
Becka Finesmith: each way leads to the radical?
Pema Pera: not "leads to"
Pema Pera: but "is allowed by"
Pema Pera: if you really like to continue to struggle unnecessarily :-)
Pema Pera: (saying all this totally seriously, not trying to be flippant)
Becka Finesmith: I don't want to struggle, but I'm not ready to let go of all I know yet
Becka Finesmith: So I must take the scenic route
Pema Pera: you will never be ready
Pema Pera: Being has always already been ready

The group could still get back to the very basics of the action that unites the group, the nine seconds. Even the reasons for doing the exercise continued to be a topic of interest (December 8 07:00)

Gaya Ethaniel: Do you have particular reasons for doing 9 sec then gen?

genesis Zhangsun: little bit of a complicated answer
genesis Zhangsun: like you I suppose in one way yes and in one way no

Gaya Ethaniel: Do you mind saying more on each gen?
genesis Zhangsun: sure
genesis Zhangsun: In one way yes because I use my intention of becoming/being more aware, alert, healthy "better" as you say to motivate me in some ways to keep going
genesis Zhangsun: to keep at for now more than 7 months
genesis Zhangsun: sometimes I falter and I have let it go for a couple of months
genesis Zhangsun: so this is not entirely consistent over 7 months
genesis Zhangsun: but anyhow it has been a challenge of commitment for me to stick with it
genesis Zhangsun: and in this process I find myself using my commitment/my intention to be a "better" person to keep me going
genesis Zhangsun: on the otherhand I say "no" because another part of me sees that this is laughable
genesis Zhangsun: that there is no such thing as "better"
genesis Zhangsun: that this goal is very "monkey" like
genesis Zhangsun: the regular preoccupation of humans of samsara
genesis Zhangsun: and yet these two parts of me play in a balance with one another
genesis Zhangsun: they sort of laugh at one another and support one another
genesis Zhangsun: so that is my bit of a complicated answer

In a session on "spritual awareness" the story of Jacob was used to illustrate struggling (December 14 19:00):

Pila Mulligan: In the story of Jacob, he wrestled with the angel in order to obtain a blessing -- he would not let the angel go until the angel gave him the blessing. That would suggest the idea of a struggle to obtain more spiritual awareness, in a Judeo-Christian context.
stevenaia Michinaga: aww, was focusing on awakening
Pila Mulligan: we may not have angels, but we have practices to help out spiritual being, whatever it is
Threedee Shepherd: exactly, Pila, and the story also has interesting implications with dealing with a supposedly omnipotent god, who should always win every wrestling match

Yes indeed! The Jacob story led to a discussion of the Judeo-Christian "soul". Later in the same session the Hindu Atman came up. These two exerpts only give a taste, not a summary, of the session:

Pila Mulligan: Atman is the big Soul of Hinudism
stevenaia Michinaga: asks if Three knows of this concept
Pila Mulligan: it is similar to what can be called Being
Threedee Shepherd: Well there are no "new" ideas, by this late in the human game ;>
Pila Mulligan: and Atman was rejected by Buddhism, as I understand it, as it was too mythical
Dharma Voyager: an idea to describe what exists... did not bring into being what existed
Pila Mulligan: well, the idea of a soul has been seen through many lenses, historically
Pila Mulligan: the big Being idea, or the big Soul of Atman was universal one giant soul for everyone
Pila Mulligan: so spiritual awareness in Hinduism is essentially self-debasing

 Another exchange about the reasons to do the nine second stop; this one focused on a possible beneft (December 12 19:00):

doug Sosa: yes. I try a meditative approach to almost all things.
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
doug Sosa: leads to more spontaneity.
Sylectra Darwin: I agree, but I just wish I could accomplish that state of mind more often.
doug Sosa: well,if every time you wish,you did he 9 sec,it would happen :)
stevenaia Michinaga: the key is not to rush.. just do
Sylectra Darwin: That's a good point, sort of a meditation on demand.

Starting at the End and relative vs. absolute (December 23 13:00):

Adelene Dawner: Start where you are. Assume it's the end, in the sense that there's no need to go anywhere else. What do you see? What do you think? What movements does 'here' suggest, if you don't bring any movements of your own into it?
genesis Zhangsun: sounds like a beginning ;)
genesis Zhangsun: yeah ok I get it
genesis Zhangsun: its very complicated between this relative and absolute perspective
Adelene Dawner: Well, a beginning implies that you have a plan to go somewhere. But, yeah ^.^
genesis Zhangsun: I don't really get that relationship perhaps

Adelene Dawner ponders for words.
Adelene Dawner: ...the difference between a beginning and an end is that if you're at a beginning, you expect an answer to 'what happens next?'
Adelene Dawner: At an end... you don't. You close the book, and any ideas you have about what happens after the end of the story are your own... suggested by the book, perhaps, but not dictated by it.

Adelene Dawner: As to the absolute... it's not so complicated that it's hard, it's so simple that it's hard.
Adelene Dawner: There's here. There's now. That's it. Right now, these words are on your screen. How long have they been there? Does that even make sense? There's only now, and now, they are here. Any other thoughts about whether they were or will be are just speculation.
genesis Zhangsun: and the relationship to the relative?
Adelene Dawner: The relative is this idea we have, that the words were there a second ago or will be there in a second. ^.^
Adelene Dawner: Or that that pillow is over there... I can't prove it. All I can prove to myself is that I have an idea that there's a pillow over there.
Adelene Dawner: And once that idea has left the now, I can't even prove that I had that. ^.^
genesis Zhangsun: So the relative is that an illusion?
Adelene Dawner: An amazingly persistent one, if so. ^.^
Adelene Dawner can't prove that she didn't have the thought or that the pillow isn't over there, either. ^.^

Pema and Geo introduced us to a book by an anonymous 14c mystical English monk who wrote a book called "Clouds of Unknowing" on December 27 07:00. Geo read us the following quote from it:

Geo Netizen: "And so I urge you, go after experience rather than knowledge. On account of pride, knowledge may often deceive you, but this gentle, loving affection will not deceive you. Knowledge tends to breed conceit, but love builds. Knowledge is full of labor, but love, full of rest."
Pema Pera: yes, that's it!
Adams Rubble: :)
Pema Pera: that's what I'm trying to point to with "appreciate the presence of appearance" . . . .

New Guardians:

Aurora Kitaj, Hana Hendrassen, Pila Mulligan, Scathach Rhiadra, Susi Alcott, Vraja Rexen and Wester Kiranov became guardians in December.