28-31 - We *Must* Start at the End

I've pulled together this year-end scribe in a reflective and celebratory mood, considering the year that has been with its many pleasures and sheddings... knowing that as I write, players are wrestling with balances, some finding themselves acutely aware and open in ways they do not feel prepared to be! Stepping back, in these sessions I can hear a common theme of 'essentials' in questions like "What is reality?", "What is beauty?", "What is true wealth?", "What is openness?", "What is Knowing?", and "What is worth the struggle?"  -Eliza

 Parting Words

When I go from hence
let this be my parting word,
that what I have seen is unsurpassable.

I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus
that expands on the ocean of light,
and thus am I blessed
---let this be my parting word.

In this playhouse of infinite forms
I have had my play
and here have I caught sight of him that is formless.

My whole body and my limbs
have thrilled with his touch who is beyond touch;
and if the end comes here, let it come
---let this be my parting word.

Rabindranath Tagore

2009.12.28 07:00 - Only time of death is uncertain 

Eden Haiku: Yes, some people are gracious even in the way they leave this world. My Mom was.
Zen Arado: mine too, surprisingly so
Zen Arado: she had pancreatic cancer too
Eden Haiku: Mom passed away because her heart was failing. She was feeble and yet loving till the end.
Thanking the nurses, saying she loved us. At one point, she had a wonderful smile like she was seeing
another world.
Zon Quar: we r not taught how to relate to death properly in our western culture
Zen Arado: mine totally accepted it
Zen Arado: was so peaceful at the end
Zen Arado: no we aren't Zon
Eden Haiku: That is a great teaching.

A loved one lets go...
dreams revealing a harsh reality,

We cannot cover our hearts in
layers enough,
to temper the freezing.

Sharing warmth in the void then
Is all we can do. -E.M.

2009.12.28 19:00 - attention and autopoiesis 

(Wonderful Tao story told by Calvino in this session.. encourage the reader to click :)

Eos Amaterasu: sometimes I get a strong sense of such a 90 sec being shared across individuals
and distance around the globe,
Wol Euler smiles
Eos Amaterasu: particular yous

Eliza Madrigal: Its a hard thing to describe, but it is certainly true that there's not much distance
doug Sosa: between..?
Eliza Madrigal: between people... that we are where our attention is
Eos Amaterasu: :-)
Eliza Madrigal: seems like a very obvious thing to say
Eos Amaterasu: so when we share suspended attention...
Eliza Madrigal: but a funny thing when you notice it, yes Eos :)
Eos Amaterasu: between the 90 secs we share each other

-2009.12.28 13:00 - "a nice simple storie" 

Zen is reading "On Having No Head" and takes us on quite a ride of a session... 

Zen Arado: sometimes it is so difficult to drop our conventional way of seeing things
Zon Quar: i think the point might be..dont be so much in ur head..
Zen Arado: it is more revolutionary than that I think Zon
Zen Arado: though that is true too...
Zon Quar: yes..going deeper it is

To wind down, a visitor tells us a 'simple story', which leads us into a discussion of imperfection which seems to flow well into a session later on 'what is beauty'... 

Nick Cassavetes: ok, one day, an angel comes to earth with the message from God: mankind is allowed a question, and will get an answer to it. In a few weeks tha angel will return, and answer...
Nick Cassavetes: all mankind gather, all the scientists, linguists, philosophers of course ... After heavy debating and think they come to the conclusion of risking it with what some may call a double question (this is not really important for the story, been a while since I told it last)
Nick Cassavetes: so the angel comes, and they ask: "What is the best question we can ask, and the answer to that?" The Angel instantly replies:

"The best question you just asked, and the answer is this" ... and he exits the scene elegantly :)

Nick Cassavetes: what do each of you think whent 'wrong' here? if anything

Calvino Rabeni: the expected description was missing
arabella Ella: nothing went wrong at all but the expectations were not met and i guess those who
asked the question may have been disappointed
Eliza Madrigal nods to Ara... yes expectation
arabella Ella: and we often have expectations in life that may be difficult or impossible to live up to
Eliza Madrigal: and wanting to be 'right' or 'best' maybe... not make an error perhaps
Nick Cassavetes: yes, I think also it reveals the intrinsic intentional character of language
Calvino Rabeni: And get to the end of questioning, have it be "over"

arabella Ella: futile human attempts at 'perfection'?
Eliza Madrigal nods... which goes back to a line from the beginning of the session, having to do with the enso... At Wiki it was ...  
The principle of controlling the balance of composition through asymmetry and irregularity is an important aspect of the Japanese aesthetic: Fukinsei (???), the denial of perfection.

Eliza Madrigal: Funny how things come around, around here :)

2009.12.29 13:00 - gaming - illusion - beauty 

arabella Ella: i like your questions on beauty Zon
arabella Ella: what do you think beauty is?

Zon Quar: answer to my desire
Bertram Jacobus: nice answer
arabella Ella: but dont your desires go beyond beauty?
arabella Ella: like when hungry and eating
arabella Ella: or when socialising and drinking alcohol
Calvino Rabeni: Some say, desire itself is founded in beauty
Zon Quar: well the food looks then delicuos / and beautiful
arabella Ella: :)
Qt Core: something i can observe (with whichever sense) and don't have the urge to analyze
Zon Quar: i think desire is basic
Calvino Rabeni: analysis may block perception of beauty / except for mathematicians :)
Bertram Jacobus: lol
arabella Ella: symmetry is often considered to be part of beauty
arabella Ella: in maths, in human faces, in art
Calvino Rabeni: ah, but a true beauty always has a touch of the uncanny / it is an essential
Qt Core: yes, but i feel thet something is nice when i don't wont to immediatly analyze that so it goes both ways
Calvino Rabeni: which tells something about beauty

2009.12.29 19:00 - Economy of Attention 

doug Sosa: yes, well, what i would like to say is, if economy doesn't show up in the 9 sec, and can then
be dropped, it isn't intersting. i don't think there is a special division of worlds between applied and pure.
(bell)

Eos Amaterasu: so from a sustainability point of view, what is true wealth?

Eos Amaterasu: Most of what we attend to is other people, their attention
Eos Amaterasu: and our attention is jumpy, a little psycho even
Eos Amaterasu: it's not different than a personal 90 secs
Eos Amaterasu: but it needs to go global
Calvino Rabeni: say more eos? what needs to go global?
Eos Amaterasu: being able to relax in attention
Eos Amaterasu: as opposed to jumping around being pulled this way and that by it
Calvino Rabeni: something like, being "at choice" with every activity? Or just certain times?
Eos Amaterasu: (maybe a "slow media" movement :-)
Calvino Rabeni: I propose a Media Sabbath.
Calvino Rabeni: No media allowed that day of the week.
Eos Amaterasu: I second that / We did that for a while at my home
Eos Amaterasu: analog sundays, no screens
Calvino Rabeni: :)
Eos Amaterasu: zeroth life
Archmage Atlantis: And on the 7th day, God rested

Calvino Rabeni: A day to not be programmed

 2009.12.29 07:00 - [insert Play here] 

Riddle Sideways: perhaps if you found yourself with a simple/playful name like riddle or something
Eliza Madrigal: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: smiles
Riddle Sideways: might find play a very good path
Eliza Madrigal: perhaps so
Adams Rubble: and then if one finds oneself with a name like Rubble.... :)
Eliza Madrigal: then there seems much to play with, Adams! :)
Riddle Sideways: it kind of gives justification to our practice

sophia Placebo: playing with words, playing with thoughts and having delight in exploring new
                        dimensions to those and new dimensions to self

Riddle Sideways: there is a chord progression that
Riddle Sideways: opens me up
SophiaSharon Larnia: thats lovely
Riddle Sideways: will be absently just playing it
Riddle Sideways: did not thoughtfully start it
Riddle Sideways: to know that I am being played
Adams Rubble: let your fingers do the walking
Riddle Sideways: (nice phrase) "Being Played"
Eliza Madrigal: accessing...opening dimensions
SophiaSharon Larnia: there is music that will do that to me too, but i cant tell you what chord
progression, just a flavor, that covers many genres
Riddle Sideways: later we went on to (try) learn many practices
Eliza Madrigal: naturally finds a place where you are, 'more fully' in a way, sharon? Help comes
from there ...
SophiaSharon Larnia: brings up an emotional reaction, while all music is not like that
Adams Rubble nods to Sharon
Adams Rubble: there is music that opens me up
SophiaSharon Larnia: can feel the heart cords being strumbed :P
Riddle Sideways: there is that 'note' that resonates on your dimension
SophiaSharon Larnia: smiles At Riddle..... yes
Riddle Sideways: who sang "there once was a note... LISTEN"

2009.12.30 07:00 -  仁 , Seeing the Real WHY (struggle session 4) 

I found this to be quite a profound session. Editing can be a struggle! ;-)  

Gaya Ethaniel: What gets in the way of establishing such a good habit for you guys?
Eliza Madrigal: hm, a surprisingly tough question Gaya!
sophia Placebo: weak will
sophia Placebo: unclear WHY
Eliza Madrigal: hmmm
Gaya Ethaniel: I don't have answers for this ... just wondering too. 
Gaya Ethaniel: This probably relates to what SophiaSharon said early on, us working against us.
Gaya Ethaniel listens.
Eliza Madrigal: Well, when we really key into the 'WHY' Sophia mentions, there isn't much that will be able to stand in the way I think?
sophia Placebo: there is :)
sophia Placebo: very hard to see real Why
sophia Placebo: some people give up
Gaya Ethaniel: hm ... so if 'why' is clear, strong will will follow naturally?

sophia Placebo: you dont need to look for fancy answer , don't decorate it :)
Gaya Ethaniel: Indeed ... no decorating.
Eliza Madrigal nods. bare essentials
sophia Placebo: last time someone asked me why do you work as doctor I said I work for money. that's is the simpler, yet the most honest answer I have
Gaya Ethaniel: It's a good occupation :)
Eliza Madrigal: and yet it is of great benefit to many... so you might have said many things
sophia Placebo: yes that's decoration

Eliza Madrigal: There is this lady in town, an art collector, who runs a place called "Lotus House", which helps homeless women learn to care for themselves...
Eliza Madrigal: in an interview she was asked why, and she said because "they are me"...
sophia Placebo: :)
Eliza Madrigal: I was struck by her answer. It was very simple
Gaya Ethaniel: They are me as in ... oh I see.
Eliza Madrigal: that's her practice... she could just buy dresses and go to parties :)
Eliza Madrigal: except that she cant
Eliza Madrigal: because she knows they are her :)

Gaya Ethaniel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius
Gaya Ethaniel: In Ethics part there is a mention of 仁 - the virtue of perfectly fulfilling one's responsibilities toward others, most often translated as "benevolence" or "humaneness"
Gaya Ethaniel: The character 仁 is made up of two parts - 人 [human] + 二 [# two]
Gaya Ethaniel: In Confucianism, 仁 is one of the core values, literally means wise, kind, compassionate, receptive etc.
Gaya Ethaniel: Isn't that interesting?
Eliza Madrigal: That's stunning, Gaya!

2009.12.30 19:00 - Creative+Collaborative 

stevenaia Michinaga: the other night it struck me that PaB is a very creative process, which aside involving ones imagination and focus (which reminds me of work, a good thing about my work)
stevenaia Michinaga: I realized that the creative process is also about dropping
stevenaia Michinaga: you cannot create an idea without changing something into something else
stevenaia Michinaga: either by integrating the idea into the next idea, or by simply tossing out one thought and replacing it with another / stevenaia Michinaga: (dropping)
Eos Amaterasu: letting go, letting come
stevenaia Michinaga: when the process of creativity becomes fluid, it is a flow, no "ownership", just motion of ideas / After all, how can you own an idea anyway, the ego owns ideas
Eliza Madrigal: seems the nature of spontaneity
stevenaia Michinaga: yes

stevenaia Michinaga: the more one does not let go, the more difficult collaboration is
Wol Euler: indeed, hard to collaborate effectively without subduing the ego (to some extent)
Eliza Madrigal nods... fear of not being noticed and acknowledged for efforts, etc
Eos Amaterasu: the openness is more rewarding than the solidity
Eliza Madrigal: yes, maybe once you see or get a sense of that...
Eliza Madrigal: and to do that have to just do that! :)

Wol Euler: so we *must* start at the end.

   

And speaking of collaborations...

Wol Euler: is this the all-day NYE party?
Eos Amaterasu: it was, or maybe it's moved here
Eliza Madrigal: :) Yes we partied like rock stars... hehe
Wol Euler: oh dear
Eos Amaterasu: like it was 1999
Eliza Madrigal: hahah
Wol Euler looks around for broken sheep and TVs
Eliza Madrigal: what happens in the village, stays in the village
Wol Euler grins.
stevenaia Michinaga: laughs

Wild parties the night before must not be condusive to early morning sessions, and Storm is left with quiet the following day...    2009.12.31 07:00 - Une aube tranquille

 Eos Amaterasu: "open space cannot be perceived by otherwise at all"

2009.12.30 13:00 - Applied PaB & Sustainability Session 2 

Eos Amaterasu: through PaB, we diminish fear of identity loss
Eos Amaterasu: and the car ads have less power
doug Sosa: notice how we get away from experience. I want to make it that ese are not issues *unless we
experience them*. And I believe they are right here in the pavaiion, or any other 'space" we might be in.
Zen Arado: so you are going to give up driving?
genesis Zhangsun: or why not lose the start up mentality of optimizing productivity for a short while and then burnout
doug Sosa: Gen, because right now we have no other model that does not disemploy people.
doug Sosa: So there is no simple answer. It is like pick up sticks.
Zen Arado: so we need better political systems?
genesis Zhangsun: exactly, but that is possible precisely because enough of us are passively agreeing to the current system
arabella Ella: there used to be a model doug but it never materialised ... more leisure time
genesis Zhangsun: who thinks 15 hours workdays are acceptable?
Widget Whiteberry: I own a car in order to get to places I need to go. Which* car I drive is wrapped up in my identity
Eos Amaterasu: exactly
doug Sosa: but hear me, if we stopped, what would be the alternative, how do we get there, how do we protect peple that
would be hurt?

Pila Mulligan: Doug, for most of us the connction with sustainability is intellectual at present, not yet experiential
Calvino Rabeni: RIght, how to make it experiential?
Eos Amaterasu: slowing down, and dropping, can shift the framing, or at least drop initial probably premature framings
doug Sosa: right pila, or so it seems. i think we DO experience it, right here in this space.
Pila Mulligan: wait: we will probably expereince it more by just waiting
genesis Zhangsun: slowing down, waiting, stopping, dropping, seeing
genesis Zhangsun: appreciating :)
genesis Zhangsun: what we have instead of what we don't have
genesis Zhangsun: and to really see what it is we have

2009.12.31 13:00 - Insides, Outsides, Depths - Wild Things 

This was a long and warm session, and it may say something about this scribe, as well as about "really seeing what we have" that from it she chose to highlight only the following:

Mickorod Renard: lots of dead badgers, squirels, pheasants and indeed even deers here too
Calvino Rabeni: Is there less wildlife in france, or are they "wiser"?
Mickorod Renard: I think the hunters kill them into extinction
Calvino Rabeni: Sounds like the inside of a german pub, Mick :)
Mickorod Renard: wheras here in uk everyone see's them as cuddly creatures / he he
Calvino Rabeni: So the hedgehog is a fierce creature ?
Mickorod Renard: yes it is
Calvino Rabeni: Parts of it are extremely sharp / Every creature has a depth of ferocity
Calvino Rabeni: I was attacked by a duck
Mickorod Renard: I had a nice family of hedgehog once,,in my garden,,but one morning I woke up and they were all torn to shreds by some other animal
Calvino Rabeni: And I learned to my surprise, it has a secret "duck fu" technique
Mickorod Renard: badger I think / yes?
Calvino Rabeni: The racoons are tough characters
Mickorod Renard: I nearly ran one over near toronto once
Mickorod Renard: Iam thinking of getting stickers to put on my car,,like ww2 fighters had on their planes
Eliza Madrigal: hedgehogs are so sweet :) / haha Mick
Eliza Madrigal: I can't imagine the creatures in Pandora will live up to our bears and hedgehogs and anhingas, much less the platypus :)
Calvino Rabeni: The "duck fu" fighting technique involves a fierce "shout of death" :)
Mickorod Renard: who does the shouting Cal,,the duck or the one attacked?
Calvino Rabeni: The duck.
Mickorod Renard: ok,,am following it now / he he/ geese are right devils
Calvino Rabeni: Every animal practices a samurai art when they must
Mickorod Renard: many farmers here have them as guard dogs

2009.12.30 01:00 - A divine play 

 Bolonath Crystal: our perceptions get their meaning by repetition and by comparison with similar perceptions from the past : we don't have any kind of experience without memory. everything would be completely new and meaningless
Zen Arado: hmmm IMO the idea is to just be open to what is and not try to interpret
: like when I have my shower in the morning ...just be aware of what I am doing
Zen Arado: and not thinking of what I am going to do today or what I did yesterday
Bolonath Crystal: but you have some idea what happens when you take a shower, zen. without memory you wouldn't even know what a shower is : nothing would have existed before this very moment
Zen Arado: or what to do with the sponge or what to do... hmmmm
Bolonath Crystal: you wouldn't even know that you have been sleeping before, when you stand in the bathroom
Calvino Rabeni: some say that things exist, because we remember them

Bolonath Crystal: these smaller selves are called 'jiva' in indian philosophy. the jiva is not free, it is a samsaric subject
Zen Arado: yes 'small self'
Zon Quar: so we r all a bit scitsofrenic..one self divided into impermanent little selves
Zon Quar: who think they r all separate
Calvino Rabeni: yes, it is fun to have lots of selves (playing devils advocate)
Bolonath Crystal: if the jiva realizes that it is in fact undivided, it becomes a 'jivanmukti', a freed self
Zen Arado: maybe more interesting :)
Zon Quar: yes,,its boring to pay football all alone
Zen Arado: but causes suffering in the end
Zon Quar: hm depends how u look at it. from the point of the little self it is suffering
Bolonath Crystal: well, also 'devided happiness' in this case would be a kind of suffering. one suffers from illusion
Zon Quar: but form the point of true self its fun

2009.12.31 01:00 - Labels and Gauging Openness 

    Lia Rikugun:  the challenge is maybe to be open but also aware

    Pema Pera: yet if we open up too fast, we hurt unnecessarily, and then it may also be more difficult
    to learn from the massive hurt -- so it's a matter of balance, as always
    Nymf Hathaway: agrees
    Zen Arado: but how to know what too fast is?
    Nymf Hathaway: You know yourself
    Lia Rikugun: my question too :)
    Pema Pera: However, opening up without seeing, without insight, may always be dangerous --
    seeing is the most important part, and opening up can then follow naturally
    Pema Pera: yes, know yourself
    Calvino Rabeni: Yes, what you can bear without losing yourself
    Calvino Rabeni: What you can assent to
    Pema Pera: and you naturally feel if it is too fast, there are no rules
    Pema Pera: feeling/sensing/seeing -- we don't have a good word for that
    Zen Arado: yes it is being more in touch with youself

    Pema Pera: but really, it is the same with everything: with fastening your shoe laces even:
    you learn to feel when it is too tight or too lose -- would be impossible to describe in a rigid set of rules
    Zen Arado: romantic love is a kind of madness I think
    Calvino Rabeni: :)
    Lia Rikugun: :)
    Pema Pera: there may be a place for madness too :)
    Calvino Rabeni: that was a traditional attitude
    Nymf Hathaway: Darwins theory :)
    Calvino Rabeni: good point pema
    Pema Pera: no rules no limits / but sense, yes, and sensing     

    Pema Pera: Starting PaB felt like quite a romantic thing to do, and quite crazy :-)

                 So, Here's to 2010! What craziness may come ...