2008.07.10 01:00 - To Be a Human Being

That night, at 1 am, I walked up to the pavilion and found Fael and Bertrum, both already seated there.

Fael Illyar: Hi Pema
Pema Pera: Hi Fael!
Pema Pera: Hi Bert!
Bertrum Quan: Hi Pema, Fael.
Fael Illyar: Hi Bert :)
Pema Pera: Thanks, Fael, for the writeup for the wiki!
Pema Pera: Haven't had time to go through and respond to all the emails -- hope to do so soon
Fael Illyar: It needed some fixing already :)
Fael Illyar: I forgot that most people will want to use Word automatically... copy&paste from that makes for ... well ... not nice.
Pema Pera: it's impossible to predict what someone will and will not understand and yes -- brrrr -- word . . . . words fail me!
Pema Pera: I think everything that has text should be in ascii period -- for many reasons, not in the least for historians a hundred years from now who want to read documents!
Pema Pera: but I'm sure I'm in a minority . . . .
Faenik: ah :)
Fael Illyar: I'd prefer having the all the pages look the same in the wiki. copy&paste from Word makes that a bit ... umm ... hard
Fael Illyar: it brings too much crap with it
Pema Pera: to say it politely :)
Fael Illyar: I think I'll try the process from my Windows virtual machine for yesterday's 1pm log when I get up to that.
Pema Pera: I agree, but do you think we can ask people to work around word if that is all they know -- if they have sold their sould to Bill Gates, or at least the writings of their soul?
Pema Pera: ah, that's great to try it out, thanks!
Fael Illyar: Surely they can handle Notepad at least?
Pema Pera: I hope so, we'll see -- only one way to find out :)
Pema Pera: Sorry, Bertrum, I'll from the Open Source corner of the world, so better not to let me get started about microsoft :-)
Fael Illyar: ... me too :P
Pema Pera: *I'm
Fael Illyar: but I have less to say about Microsoft in total I think.
Pema Pera: we need somebody to defend microsoft for balance, do you think you can play that role?
Pema Pera: you=Bert?
Pema Pera: :>)
Bertrum Quan: Defend MFST?
Pema Pera ponders the meaning of a new acronym . . .
Bertrum Quan: MSFT is the abbreviation on the stock exchange.
Pema Pera admits his near-total lack of knowledge of stocks . . .
Pema Pera: Well, a mono-culture is unhealthy, in agriculture and in world wide software, for many reasons, but as I said, I'd better not get started -- will be hard to stop :>)
Faenik: ah :)

I mentioned Adams' blog.

Pema Pera: I read Adam's log now, Fael
Pema Pera: describing differences with your view, as she saw it
Pema Pera: but haven't met Adams here since
Pema Pera: I look forward to ask a few questions
Pema Pera: I think it is wonderful how she continues to probe, no matter how unclear something is, keeps asking herself questions, keep writing down something even if there seems to be nothing to say -- she is a shining example for all of us in that respect!
Pema Pera: It seems that very few people have the guts to do that, somehow, easy as it may seem -- and easy as it really is.
Fael Illyar: That can work and I saw more support for the idea reading this site http://pathwaytohappiness.com/ yesterday.
Fael Illyar: I was thinking I might not get much out of the page but it surprised me.
Fael Illyar: about how can I be so thick as to not notice that being happy equals expressing love for something/someone.
Bertrum Quan: Compassion too...
Fael Illyar: I get the feeling that is similar.
Fael Illyar: or perhaps even the same
Faenik loves wells!
Pema Pera: and gratitde, which happened to be the theme of the meeting 6 hours ago :)
Pema Pera: *gratitude
Pema Pera: gratitude as the base for patience, love, and other qualitities
Pema Pera: Bertrum, have you read Adams' weblog?
Fael Illyar: I don't think they need a base, really :)
Pema Pera: ultimately not, I agree -- perhaps pointer or scaffold is a better word
Fael Illyar: Might be useful for getting them out of the hole people tend to hide them to.
Pema Pera: :)
Pema Pera: I know, since I'm one of them too :-)
Faenik is a hairy black ball with eyes and ears.
Fael Illyar: Well, yes, naturally :P
Pema Pera: yes :)
Bertrum Quan: Would you like to summarize the earlier session?
Pema Pera: you mean about gratitude? Hard, we approached from many angles . . .
Pema Pera: from gratitude for specific things to gratitude to be alive to gratitude to just be
Bertrum Quan: I do not see gratitude as equal to love/compassion
Bertrum Quan: The impulses are very different.
Pema Pera: not equal, no
Bertrum Quan: You seemed to be equating them earlier...
Pema Pera: sorry, that was not my intention
Bertrum Quan: Does the Adams blog attempt to define the quality of gratitude in this way>
Pema Pera: no, that is independent: we talked about gratitude 6 hours ago, and
Fael Illyar: I think Adams is keeping her blog mostly as a journal for herself.
Pema Pera: I talked about Adams blog as a separate strand :)
Pema Pera: http://rubblebornthoughts.wordpress.com/
Pema Pera: is her blog
Pema Pera: very much worth reading
Bertrum Quan: I've read some of her entires. Not her most recent.
Faenik: なるほど^^
Pema Pera: more than anyone else in the Play as Being group does she both do and show what she does, with respect to the 9-sec practice
Pema Pera: showing the nature of exploration / research
Pema Pera: groping in the dark and not giving up

Bertrum pointed out personal differences.

Bertrum Quan: People process differently, Pema.
Bertrum Quan: We blog is certainly one way...
Bertrum Quan: Her blog is certainly one valid process...
Pema Pera: Oh yes, I'm not saying everybody should do that -- but she does show more than anyone else in detail what it is she does
Pema Pera: which I think can be very helpful and stimulating for others
Pema Pera: both those who feel to want to try something similar
Pema Pera: and those who like to process differently
Pema Pera: perhaps it can stimulate them to describe and share and express how they process differently with us as well
Bertrum Quan: Yes, that's true. Anothe benefit of keeping a journal in this way can have beneficial healing qulaities.
Bertrum Quan: I read some research on that subject.
Fael Illyar: Even though the rest of us don't put our thoughts on the blog. I think Adams is getting input from more than just a few of us as a result.
Bertrum Quan: Yes that true as well...
Pema Pera: yes, that is clear, and she often acknowledges that
Pema Pera: The key notion of PaB is continuity -- to keep doing something simple in a regular way
Faenik: なるほど^^
Pema Pera: and the opposite of continuity is halting -- either because you think you have found an answer, or because you think you can't find an answer
Pema Pera: "ah, now I know!" or "ah, I just don't know"
Pema Pera: those are both putting an end to in investigation.
Pema Pera: PaB helps us to have the courage and determination to continue -- with a lot of help from our friends!
Pema Pera: I agree, Bertrum, writing is just one tool
Pema Pera: but it seems to be quite a powerful one, and worth a try for a while
Fael Illyar: Being at the meetings is another
Pema Pera: yes, very much so!
Bertrum Quan: Remember, the oral tradition pre-dates the written... that is also in play in the PaB is essential.
Pema Pera: after all, we are writing here too :-)
Pema Pera: and is has an oral quality at the same time
Bertrum Quan: Not writing in the same way...
Pema Pera: interesting mix
Pema Pera: yes, sorry, "after all, we are writing here too :-)" was in answer to Fael
Pema Pera: (sentence orders sometimes confusing)
Fael Illyar: True, this is writing too ... also logged :)
Pema Pera: what is fascinating about Adams' approach is that she is writing in a way that is pretty close to how we are writing here -- like a kind of dialogue . . . with herself, perhaps. or us indirectly, or Being, or . . . .
Pema Pera: not the same as our dialogue here, but certainly not altogether different either
Bertrum Quan: I think it is considerably different in this respect...
Faenik: indeed?
Bertrum Quan: But that leads me to ask you to consider that humanities side of all of this...
Fael Illyar: More questions than answers though :)

Bertrum then brought up humanities and arts.

Bertrum Quan: Yes. Another approach. Our 1AM session yesterday focued on science/engineering and math as approaches. Why not also explore the humanities and arts?
Pema Pera: oh, sure, arts is important -- I'm trying to remember now which session it was in which we talked about art extensively
Faenik loves wells!
Pema Pera: and humanities for sure -- many novels contain deep descriptions of what we're struggling with
Bertrum Quan: Certainly the literary arts ...poetry may come even closer. But music, sculture... all of it.
Pema Pera: ah, you brought up, art, I see, that was a day and 6 hours ago!
Pema Pera: Yes, and we talked about it then
Pema Pera: yes, indeed, music can be very direct, for sure.
Faenik: could be
Bertrum Quan: All of these are what we humans have,,, they form the whole of our collective beings...
Bertrum Quan: That's when you take the summation of what it means to be a human being.
Bertrum Quan: This is not to say that I didn't find your conversation with Fael absolutely engaging. I di find it so,
Bertrum Quan: did
Fael Illyar: Ah, right, about that, I was hoping to continue that one sometime :) I think it was rather unfinished :)
Pema Pera: Being speaks to us, so to speak, in and as everything -- but as you said, we process things differently. Some find in logic a path to see more of Being, others arts (including practices like martial arts!), or various kind of contemplative practices
Pema Pera: others just in walking around an seeing
Pema Pera: looking
Pema Pera: appreciating
Pema Pera: and there gratitude can play a role too, and much else
Pema Pera: Fael, I'd love to continue
Pema Pera: but the hour is close to up now
Pema Pera: Do you want to continue tomorrow, right from the start?
Pema Pera: 1 am is a quiet time, so we won't inconvenient others, hopefully
Fael Illyar: That'd work. Alternatively, it could be another meeting today.
Pema Pera: let's see, 6 hours from now?
Pema Pera: Ah, then I only have half an hour
Pema Pera: since an astro meeting half an hour afterward
Pema Pera: we could start then, or wait for later
Pema Pera: btw, Bertrum, it would be wonderful if you and/or others would start an art corner on our PaB wiki, to lay links and see how art can help -- and perhaps Fael and I a math corner?
Fael Illyar: 1PM would work.
Fael Illyar: if you can make it
Fael Illyar: was that night in Japan?
Fael Illyar: oh, I think it is
Fael Illyar: ok, not that one
Faenik: ah :)
Bertrum Quan: Why not 1AM?
Fael Illyar: Well, that works but I might occasionally be unable to make it.
Pema Pera: yes, 1 pm is 5 am for me
Pema Pera: we can start in 6 horus
Pema Pera: hours
Pema Pera: (if others let us :)
Fael Illyar: 5 hours :P
Pema Pera: and continue in more seriousness 23 hours from now
Pema Pera: yes, 5 hours
Pema Pera: so that would be 7 am
Pema Pera: and continue on 1 am tomorrow
Pema Pera: nice talking with both of us!
Fael Illyar: Ok, see you later Pema :)
Pema Pera: and Bert, seriously, if you'd like to start something art wise on the wiki
Bertrum Quan: bye Pema
Pema Pera: you are free to create pages and poitners there
Pema Pera: see you soon, Bert, Fael!
Bertrum Quan: See you soon.