Eliza: Taking a Look

How Do We Play as Being?

When this question came up during retreat I thought "What a funny question."
Funny, because it seems such an obvious one to ask I've not really done so.

So I took at a look at myself... there at thecomputer...

What am I doing?
What do I value most?

What I found is thatfor me, PlayasBeing is very mucha Practice, in the same sense of the word
as going to daily Mass might be for a person in another time. I 'prepare' to come to the computer,
to engage with othersin anopen way...to really listen... often to let Being shine a searchlight on
my heart.

To let down my guards.
To appreciate the company... the warmth.
To play in that. :)

We don't often allow ourselves this kind of thing. It seems like a luxury, or an extra...
a vacation from "real life." Andas much as we don't easily let ourselves freelyexplore & converse beyond
the 'usual' havings and doings ("Hi I'm Eliza, the avatar of a mother of three"), we tend to lose sight
of 'others' in exactly the same way ("What do you *think?", even "How do you feel?" )...

So coming to a session is a way to challenge that. Then the further challenge comes in the form of
the nine/ninety second pauses, which continually shine a light on a tendency toescape from that
openness, back into our little boxes of 'what I think I have', or 'what I think I know' ... in other words, for for
whatever can measured & packaged in some way... something the little person at the center of the universe,
can *do* something with. :)

So, in sessions, we can pause to see "Oh, I'm asleep at the wheel!" ...  there
but not there. Then its possible to wake up... to return. What could be more important than the *person* sitting there with me? That in itself is a way of going back to the start, in a sense, which I learned this week, is also the way of continually 'starting at the end'. It is *right here, right now* all of the time. :)

"Practice" isn't really something that can be packaged, but a living process with others.

:) So... to sum up (though I could go on and on), during this retreat discussion about what it means to
'play as being', it was beautiful to notice that 'starting at the end' is a vital component of not just a
large-scale kind of "PaB vision", but of each and every session, each and every encounter ... every pause.   

Simple. Its about connection. 

We arrive to a session 'ready' to recognize one another, to give benefit of the doubt, first... to deeply listen
and just play/just see what may come. Even our being present in silence, is an open gesture of appreciation.
Then... from that place we can certainly enjoy and appreciate all the doings and havings and thinkings.
Not to mention ridiculousnesses and onigokko. :)

being-to-being, expressing Being. I guess it is a kind of innocence.

One thing I feel comforted and humored to notice, is that I think we already ARE in the habit of
regarding/honoring the sessions and time with one other. Why else would we feel compelled to type
 "Be right back" when we run to the kitchen for tea? ;-) 

Still, it does seem helpful to dwell on and revisit such a question from time to time.