2012.01.08 19:00 - Vital Center

The Guardian for this meeting was PlayAsBeing. The comments are by PlayAsBeing.

Aphrodite Macbain: Hiya Cal- god evening!
Aphrodite Macbain: good
Calvino Rabeni: Hi Aphro, good evening to you !
Aphrodite Macbain: Just been watching Persuasion
Aphrodite Macbain: for the second time
Calvino Rabeni: What is that about?
--BELL--

Aphrodite Macbain: Jane Austen novel - reenactment
Aphrodite Macbain: great commentary on the society of her world
Aphrodite Macbain: 19th century
Aphrodite Macbain: BBC puts out some really good stuff
Calvino Rabeni: Good evening, Paradise
Aphrodite Macbain: Hi Paradise
Paradise Tennant: smiles and waves hiya aph .. cal : )))
Aphrodite Macbain: I'm finding this week really slow; dragging
Aphrodite Macbain: things begin next week!
Calvino Rabeni: It must be enjoyable and instructive?
Aphrodite Macbain: Persuasion
Aphrodite Macbain: ?
Calvino Rabeni: Yes
Aphrodite Macbain: yes- it's well acted and well presented - full of subtleties
Aphrodite Macbain: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844330/
Aphrodite Macbain: have you seen it Paradise?
Paradise Tennant: oh yes very big jane austen fan . have seen every version of her work :)
Paradise Tennant: and visited her house in bath .. very little rooms .. sat in the pump room and looked at the chandeliers which she would have danced under
Aphrodite Macbain: They are the sort of film/video I can watch over and over again
Paradise Tennant: squinted my eyes and tried to see them dance :)
Paradise Tennant: yes
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Paradise Tennant: they are rich in texture
Paradise Tennant: she was a wonderfully human observer :)
Paradise Tennant: find them like bed time stories
Aphrodite Macbain: Hate the style of clothing -the women look like they run around in nighties
Paradise Tennant: ooo but very comfortable
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Aphrodite Macbain: yes
Paradise Tennant: mostly linen or cotton no stays no fainting
Aphrodite Macbain: Saw A week (?) with Marylin last night.
Aphrodite Macbain: Not quite the same thing but really good
Paradise Tennant: and .. if in some aspects display a woman's figure very nicely
Aphrodite Macbain: the empire style
Paradise Tennant: loved the hair styles ..
Calvino Rabeni: How was A Week With Marilyn?
Paradise Tennant: and the little booties and capes and ribbons everywhere
Aphrodite Macbain: would hide a "multitutde of sins"
Aphrodite Macbain: excellent - the person who played Marylin was excellent.
Aphrodite Macbain: very bubbly
Paradise Tennant: smiles she was a wonderful comedian :)
Aphrodite Macbain: but full of insecurities and sadness
Paradise Tennant: one of our goddesses
Aphrodite Macbain: yes.
Calvino Rabeni: Did she live up to the myth?
Paradise Tennant: I think she gave unstintingly of herself and got lost in the end :)
Aphrodite Macbain: yes, I think so, not completely but pretty close
Aphrodite Macbain: yes - didnt reaslize her mother was in an insane asylum and she never knew her father
Aphrodite Macbain: and was adored for her personality but not for herself
Aphrodite Macbain: when she didn't become the myth, the husbands stopped loving her
Aphrodite Macbain: who were the other 3 goddesses?
Paradise Tennant: think marilyn was a naturally very feminine sexy woman .. whose bright intellect .. always was submersed to those powerful .. attributes ..
--BELL--

Aphrodite Macbain: Yes- she was terrified by Laurence Olivier
Paradise Tennant: good book if you like whimsy is "The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe by Andrew OHagan sensitive funny and wise .. paints a picture of generous funny woman .. in pain ..
Aphrodite Macbain: apparently she was a method actor- the new way of acting- and completely opposite from Olivier's Shakespearean style
Paradise Tennant: yes she was a big fan and student of strasberg :)
Aphrodite Macbain: Maf. :-)
Paradise Tennant: going to have to excuse my self have a friend in need :)
Aphrodite Macbain: Bye
Aphrodite Macbain: oh dear. Bye!
Aphrodite Macbain: poof
Aphrodite Macbain: You are in deep thought!
Calvino Rabeni: Hi ...
Tess Aristocrat: hello :0
Calvino Rabeni: um, lost in thought about ... why it crashed and would the little computer allow me to come back
Calvino Rabeni: Hello Tess
Aphrodite Macbain: Hiya Tess!
Aphrodite Macbain: Did you get my email Tess?
Aphrodite Macbain: Have you been getting emails?
Aphrodite Macbain: from PAB?
Calvino Rabeni: The scary thing is, how much I've grown to overlook computer glitches ..a process of gradual desensitisation
Aphrodite Macbain: nods. You mean you ignore them rather than trying to fix them?
Tess Aristocrat: I'm sorry, I have been very busy ...with work and home, I just haven't checked my email in days. :)
Aphrodite Macbain: I guess we do that with many things
Tess Aristocrat: I'll be sure to go check
Aphrodite Macbain: I want to be sure you are on the guardian list
Tess Aristocrat: ok
Aphrodite Macbain: Usually, cal, it's only when one really need something does one try and fix it
Aphrodite Macbain: It's like tidying house!
Aphrodite Macbain: Is it a glitch? a virus? or an old computer Cal?
Calvino Rabeni: Not old ... SL overheats it
Aphrodite Macbain: maybe you need a larger graphics card
Tess Aristocrat: Have you updated 'Java' ? That is, if you run windows
--BELL--

Tess Aristocrat: Also, from what I've read, once you update java, go into your add/remove programs and remove all the old 'javas' as they are no longer needed and could also pose a security risk for a trojan
Tess Aristocrat: Luci! :)
Aphrodite Macbain: good advice
Aphrodite Macbain: Hiya Luci!
Lucinda Lavender: hello:)
Lucinda Lavender: How is this evening with you all?
Aphrodite Macbain: quiet, calm and rainy
Tess Aristocrat: It's great here :)
Tess Aristocrat: yes, rain here too :)
Tess Aristocrat: I like it
Calvino Rabeni: Technically, "jinxed"
Lucinda Lavender: I have just bee researching how to buy or make a stuffed mole....
Aphrodite Macbain: Is there someone who can come and fix it Cal?
Lucinda Lavender: sorry to hear that Cal
Aphrodite Macbain: a stuffed mole? as in shrew?
Lucinda Lavender: what is the nature of the jinx?
Calvino Rabeni: Mylaptop crashed, and before i could reboot it, my lamp bulb burned out.
Lucinda Lavender: !
Lucinda Lavender: a stuffed mole
Lucinda Lavender: yes
Aphrodite Macbain: you have a ghost in your machine
Lucinda Lavender: do you remember the tale about the Mitten?
Aphrodite Macbain: with an accent on the e?
Calvino Rabeni: Someone sent a picture but it was sideways and wouldn't rotate, though every other one would
Aphrodite Macbain: weird
Tess Aristocrat: Could be you just need to let it cool off?
Aphrodite Macbain: vaguely Luci
Lucinda Lavender: where all these animals try to get into a mitten and then at the end a mouse causes it to split open
Tess Aristocrat: depends on the parameters they set for that particular jpeg
Aphrodite Macbain: maybe it needed to be reduced in size?
Calvino Rabeni: It will restart after cooling, but would overheat again probably next time I run SL
Tess Aristocrat: awww..sweet
Calvino Rabeni: Could be, Tess, yess
Aphrodite Macbain: sweet?
Aphrodite Macbain: :-)
Tess Aristocrat: *sweet, talking about Luci's story
Aphrodite Macbain: what has that got to do with a mole?
Tess Aristocrat: Also, for Cal, go into task manager and see what all is running
Lucinda Lavender: well there is a mole who climbs in too
Aphrodite Macbain: oh.
Aphrodite Macbain: I um see
Lucinda Lavender: so I wanted to set up a station at school with a mitten and the animals
Aphrodite Macbain: Is there a moral to the story?
Lucinda Lavender: suprise that the smallest has the biggest effect...or...we can all get along...
Tess Aristocrat: for instance, if you have SL Voice running...and you're not using 'voice' you can end that without losing SL
Aphrodite Macbain: dont count your mittens until they hatch?
Lucinda Lavender: :))
Aphrodite Macbain: or explode
Lucinda Lavender: yep
Aphrodite Macbain: lucky kids
Aphrodite Macbain: are you making it out of some textile?
Lucinda Lavender: not too many moles available at theis hour on a sunday night
Tess Aristocrat: *wonders who is under the mole in the mitten and if, when they look up, all they can see is 'molasses'
Aphrodite Macbain imagines a little mole with a funny nose
Lucinda Lavender: I found a cat toy that will have to substitute for a day or so
Tess Aristocrat: hahaha
Aphrodite Macbain: lol Tess!
Lucinda Lavender: Tess:)
Tess Aristocrat: I bet you must love your job luci
Aphrodite Macbain: Yes I have a few nice mice here you could use
Lucinda Lavender: really...you do Aph?
Lucinda Lavender: I do love it
Aphrodite Macbain: yes- my cats are bored with them now
Tess Aristocrat: :)
Aphrodite Macbain: they used to be stuffed with catnip but the smell has gone
Lucinda Lavender: today mycat played with a tiny shred of plastic...
Lucinda Lavender: suprised me
Tess Aristocrat: hahaha
Aphrodite Macbain: yes- mine plays with a plastic straw.
Lucinda Lavender: the loop that many things are hung by in stores
Aphrodite Macbain: I wonder what it is about plastic... maybe the sound
Tess Aristocrat: yes
Lucinda Lavender: and it's lightness
Tess Aristocrat: or cellophane..
Aphrodite Macbain: straws roll very satisfyingly
Lucinda Lavender: true
--BELL--

Aphrodite Macbain: Have any of you read Time, Space and Knowledge yet?
Aphrodite Macbain: I am slowly working my way through it
Aphrodite Macbain: as I gather it is in someways the basis for PaB's philosophy
Tess Aristocrat: I just finished a novel called 11/22/63 ...it was 849 pages long
Lucinda Lavender: I have not...:)
Aphrodite Macbain: Have you Cal?
Aphrodite Macbain: Looks again at the concepts of time, space and knowledge
Aphrodite Macbain: written 30 years ago but still relevant
Tess Aristocrat: Is it pretty interesting?
Aphrodite Macbain: yes but hard going
Aphrodite Macbain: translated from Tibetan!
Aphrodite Macbain: turns those old concepts on their head
Tess Aristocrat: :)
Lucinda Lavender: brb..
Calvino Rabeni: I don't think it makes sense to me to only read it ... it is instructions for practices to be done over a long period of time. So I doubted I'd get anything from it by just reading.
Aphrodite Macbain: space-which I am reading about now, is shown to be large and infinite and all encompassing and necessary
Aphrodite Macbain: There's theory and there are exercises
Aphrodite Macbain: The theory is interestingly written and ahead of its time-but very dense
Aphrodite Macbain: Seems that Pila and Eliza have read it many times...
Aphrodite Macbain: It allows me to understand what they are getting at
Aphrodite Macbain: Anyway. I must go now.
Aphrodite Macbain: and tidy the mess that is my apartment
Calvino Rabeni: Good bye, see you last week :)
Calvino Rabeni: There was less entropy then
Aphrodite Macbain: gins (I haven't got to time yet!!)
Aphrodite Macbain: grins
Calvino Rabeni: I got on a Portlandia kick last week
Calvino Rabeni: luckily there are only about 6 episodes
Calvino Rabeni: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jT0JT3N47g
Lucinda Lavender: :)...sorry to have to go but dinner is ready...
Calvino Rabeni: Ah .. had mine
Lucinda Lavender: hi paradise
Paradise Tennant: take luci .. enjoy :)
Paradise Tennant: *care
Lucinda Lavender: yes...
Lucinda Lavender: thanks.
Paradise Tennant: smiles :) portlandia :))
Calvino Rabeni: You know it / does it seem strange?
Paradise Tennant: smiles nothing seems that strange to me ..
Paradise Tennant: or least less and less seems strange
Paradise Tennant: yes we went to the website in one of the last session .. pickling was a topic
--BELL--

Tess Aristocrat: night :)
Paradise Tennant: nite nite tess :)
Paradise Tennant: smiles at you would you like to wind down with a meditation ?
Calvino Rabeni: Yes, good idea
Paradise Tennant: what shall we focus on :)
Paradise Tennant: one sec going to light a candle in rl
Calvino Rabeni: How about Hara .. I have not been there in a while
Calvino Rabeni: Thought I am open to other possibilities too
Paradise Tennant: hara ?
Calvino Rabeni: Hara is the vital energy center in the lower abdomen... the center of one's somatic field
Paradise Tennant: smiles at you .. lol I have never been there :)))
Calvino Rabeni: :) heart sensation or space?
Paradise Tennant: ok will try to visualize that space :))
Paradise Tennant: would you like to gong ..how long are we going for :)
Calvino Rabeni: How about 15 minutes ... I can gong
Paradise Tennant: ok then 15 minutes is there a picture of Hara
Paradise Tennant:

In Japan the concept of Hara is much larger than the simple idea of abdomen and belly. Hara refers to the lower back and abdomen. The Japanese consider that the vital spirit resides in the Hara, more specifically at a point a hair's breath below the navel, known as the "Tan-Den".

Calvino Rabeni: there probably is .. it means to be aware continuously of a spot about 2 inches inside the body and below the navel  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dantian
Calvino Rabeni: and it's considered the center of the body
Calvino Rabeni: and the awareness base for immovable mind (fudoshin)
Paradise Tennant: is sitting up very straight ..trying to feel her hara :))
Calvino Rabeni: :) yes it works better when the forces in all directions are balanced around the center axis
Calvino Rabeni: so it is a reference point for all-directional space awareness
Calvino Rabeni: is 15 okay?
Paradise Tennant: sure
Paradise Tennant: I have candle going
Calvino Rabeni: ok
Calvino Rabeni: (((ting)))
Paradise Tennant: .. dog is content this is putting off his bath time :)
Calvino Rabeni: nods
Calvino Rabeni: (((gonggg)))
--BELL--

Paradise Tennant: smiles
Paradise Tennant: that was interesting .. not sure I have ever meditated on a space within me :) before
Paradise Tennant: hiya stev :)
stevenaia Michinaga: greetings
Calvino Rabeni: Good eve, Stevenaia
Paradise Tennant: we just did a hara meditation stev :)
stevenaia Michinaga: hi Cal, sounded lovely PAradise, space within
Calvino Rabeni: yes it's non-conceptual
Paradise Tennant: made for a different experience
Paradise Tennant: more of a balancing focus kind of feel ..
Calvino Rabeni: yes, evening (making even) and settling
Paradise Tennant: found I was sitting very erect trying to sense that space
Calvino Rabeni: that's natural for it, don't you think?
Paradise Tennant: yes
Calvino Rabeni: we seem to have a built-in intelligence to do such things without instruction
Paradise Tennant: finding ourselves :)
Paradise Tennant: or parts of ourselves
Calvino Rabeni: maybe there's a natural way to be that would happen unless we learn to do otherwise and keep at it
stevenaia Michinaga: the capacity is always there , jsut a matter of recognizing it
Paradise Tennant: being aware in a focused way .. exclusive ..to that space
Paradise Tennant: smiles
Calvino Rabeni: Maybe a state of minimal effort, like water finding its way downhill to the lake or sea
Paradise Tennant: just putting your mind there .. makes you feel it see it .. more clearly
Paradise Tennant: http://www.shiatsuman.com/the_hara.html
Calvino Rabeni: yes, like sitting on a high spot
Calvino Rabeni: or bringing things together into relationship
Paradise Tennant: yes a sense of balance .. was part of it
--BELL--

Paradise Tennant: took karate as a teenager and we did .. something very akin to Hara breathing :))
Calvino Rabeni: It seems a fundamental part of asian martial arts
stevenaia Michinaga: I must be off, thanks for the discussion
stevenaia Michinaga: have a good week
Paradise Tennant: yes .. a discipline approach to overall body training
Paradise Tennant: yes I should scoot too
Calvino Rabeni: Good to see you Stevenaia, take care
stevenaia Michinaga: thx
Paradise Tennant: after midnight here :) and I have a little dog who would like to look at the moon :) we have a waxing gibbous moon tonight very lovely :)
Paradise Tennant: thanks cal for sharing that :) enjoyed it very much and will work on it again :)
Calvino Rabeni: It is very full, riding a river of cloud
Paradise Tennant: yes
Calvino Rabeni: :)
Calvino Rabeni: YW be well
Paradise Tennant: namaste .. sweet dreams :) may your hara be strong :)
Calvino Rabeni: smiles
Calvino Rabeni: and yours as well\