2012.05.08 19:00 - Competing with stillness

The Guardian for this meeting was Eos Amaterasu. The comments are by Eos Amaterasu.

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Raffie
Raffila Millgrove: hi Eos. how you doing?
Eos Amaterasu: Pretty well. And you?
Raffila Millgrove: pretty good. ty
Raffila Millgrove: boy that session from. yesterday of this time.. gosh it made my head spin to read it.
Eos Amaterasu: The theme this week is stillness
Raffila Millgrove: everyone being very clever.
Raffila Millgrove: yes.
Raffila Millgrove: they are on the theme.
Raffila Millgrove: were on the theme. i mean. yesterday.
Raffila Millgrove: at this time.
Eos Amaterasu: it is still happening
Raffila Millgrove: yes all week.
Raffila Millgrove: you.. were thinking.. something you want to say on it?
Eos Amaterasu: Hmm... you sure you don't want to lead?
Raffila Millgrove: Eh? me.. heavens no. i just contribute irrelevant sidebars. lol
Eos Amaterasu: Stillness.... not needing to go elsewhere
Raffila Millgrove: i derailed a meet earlier this week with amazing weird stuff on this stomach .. band. to lose your tummy. I was bad enough for a whole week with that one.
Eos Amaterasu: hmm?
Raffila Millgrove: ah. not needing to go elsewhere! that is quality of stillness too, isn't it? definately.
Eos Amaterasu: As someone I know once remarked, out of a vast stillness, "you're so jumpy!"
Raffila Millgrove: at my house--we have gentle wind most days. so i notice a stillness. when none of the leaves are moving. it seems very hushed then.
Raffila Millgrove: you are jumpy, eos?
Eos Amaterasu: heh heh
Raffila Millgrove sees eos jump up and sit down again.
Raffila Millgrove: haha
Eos Amaterasu: Not very.... I don't mind doing nothing here
Eos Amaterasu: It's also nice to find micro-stillnesses everywhere
Raffila Millgrove: this... is what i was trying to comment on. not too successfully. Last night .. topic is stillness.. but everyone is jumping in and out.. very fast. many clever comments. almost antithesis of stillness.
Eos Amaterasu: bees buzzing in stillness
Raffila Millgrove: oh that hum of humming bird and of bee--it's so energetic--it does make the rest fall into still ness by comparison.
Eos Amaterasu: there can be a quality of attention, or attending, in stillness
Raffila Millgrove: you have thought a lot on this. !
Eos Amaterasu: there could be a lot happening when you really listen and watch
Raffila Millgrove: true. but as you watch/listen.. well. when i do.. i am very still. myself. so maybe that is what you mean?

Eos Amaterasu: You know what the best present anyone could give themselves would be?
Raffila Millgrove: what?
Eos Amaterasu: A three day retreat, alone, in nature, just you
Eos Amaterasu: and your mind and your feelings :-)
Eos Amaterasu: in big stillness
Eos Amaterasu: wrapped and packaged in a nice bow!
Raffila Millgrove: ah. ok. i give you permission/gift: you can go on one as soon as you can manage.
Raffila Millgrove smiles.
Raffila Millgrove: i will stay home because my own back patio with sky-mountains.. huge views.. its' like a daily retreat. in nature. very fortunate to have it right at window/door
Eos Amaterasu: that's ideal, if you live your life in the perfect natural stillness
Eos Amaterasu: Hi Santo
Raffila Millgrove: hi San. Eos wants to go on retreat.. i think you just recently come home from one yourself?
Raffila Millgrove: i missed you.
Santoshima Resident: hello you two
Santoshima Resident: yes, a short retreat
Raffila Millgrove: yes. i remember you said.. 3 hr drive maybe/ not too far away. ten day? was it?

--BELL--

Eos Amaterasu: the theme is still stillness....
Santoshima Resident: yes, for the week
Santoshima Resident: still
Santoshima Resident: and stillness
Raffila Millgrove: (btw San.. you and wester were 100 percent right on that tummy belt. 1. slouching.. got get tummy poof out 2. photoshopped 3. will only take off 1 inch in 30 days which i know would come from four minutes of exercises they have you doing each day)
Eos Amaterasu: I suggested that a solitary retreat, alone in nature, is the best present anyone can give themself
Eos Amaterasu: walk into your stillness
Santoshima Resident: raffila: mystery solved! / eos: agreed

Eos Amaterasu: Is there more stillness here at the pavilion?
Santoshima Resident: depends
Raffila Millgrove: truthfully? i rather sit in my sl garden or my rl garden.. for the stillness.
Santoshima Resident: on what one brings
Raffila Millgrove: san i mention earlier that yesterday at 7 pm.. they had this incredible lively discussion on stillness. here. so many clever comment. seem almost anthithesis of stillness. strange juxtaposition of topic and atmosphere.
Eos Amaterasu: combining dynamics and stillness is art
Raffila Millgrove: if i could add this tho. Eos.. always brings this feelign of stillness. sat here many time next to him.. very still kind of person (meant in best way)
Eos Amaterasu: :-), thnx raffie :-)

Eos Amaterasu: So Santo, re it depending on what one brings.... can you say more?
Raffila Millgrove: good balance, cause you got the silly ones like me sometimes. who are really jumpy now and then.. and you add such a nice calming presence and so does San also.
Santoshima Resident: sorry i missed your question, Eos ... just reading and thinking of it now
Raffila Millgrove waits to see what san thinks on it.
Santoshima Resident: ah ... state of mind is what i meant
Santoshima Resident: and intention
Santoshima Resident: to engage
Santoshima Resident: and connect
Santoshima Resident: and to what purpose
Eos Amaterasu: so you bring stillness as well as find it?
Santoshima Resident: being stillness
Eos Amaterasu: first dawn, the world wakes up
Raffila Millgrove: color of dawn. not so flashy as sunset.. comes faint at first. but has amazing cold hues--stunning coldness in the blues/purples of dawn.
Raffila Millgrove: also a cold pink.. strange as that sound. the pink of dawn is cold.
Eos Amaterasu: hmm, yeah, cool fresh quality
Eos Amaterasu: deep cold cool
Raffila Millgrove: funny how people extol sunset and .. dawn is equal in startling beauty.

--BELL--

Eos Amaterasu: Some literature and music has a stillness quality, through some perspective language or music offers, something transparent in which action takes place
Eos Amaterasu: like Shakespeare or George Eliot, or Mozart
Eos Amaterasu: "and though he thinks he's in a play, he is anyway" (Beatles)

Eos Amaterasu: (looks like a big bright moon up above)

Eos Amaterasu: I once received an instruction on stillness
Eos Amaterasu: (from Mr Universe)
Santoshima Resident: :)
Eos Amaterasu: I asked, "what is nowness?"
Eos Amaterasu: and the response was, "the simplicity nature of stillness"
Eos Amaterasu: still grokking that....
Santoshima Resident: what's grokking?
Eos Amaterasu: to grok: to get it in fullness
Santoshima Resident: ah
Eos Amaterasu: (from a Heinlein novel, I think)
Santoshima Resident: truly? ok
Raffila Millgrove greets Steve.
Santoshima Resident: hello stevenaia
stevenaia Michinaga: Thank you Raffi
stevenaia Michinaga: hello San and Eos
Raffila Millgrove: Please excuse me.. time for bite to eat. Enjoyed being with you both. Sorry to leave just as you arrive Steve. hugs. xo
stevenaia Michinaga: food trumps all
Santoshima Resident: bye raffila ~ take good care

--BELL--

Eos Amaterasu: Hi stevenaia, bye raffie
stevenaia Michinaga: smiles
Eos Amaterasu: we've been talking about stillness, Stevenaia
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, is it a place within or a state of Being, or both/either
Eos Amaterasu: yes
Eos Amaterasu: :-)
Eos Amaterasu: strangely seems to be an activity, as in being still.....
stevenaia Michinaga: seems to be the starting point for unstillness
Eos Amaterasu: the raff off which we're riffing
stevenaia Michinaga: where the water rush in
Eos Amaterasu: strong sense of presence
Santoshima Resident: Onomatopoeia? the word "grok" ... the sound .... doesn't match the definition, to me
Santoshima Resident: oh well
Eos Amaterasu: a mere human bias :-)
Santoshima Resident: a sound association
Santoshima Resident: no language is neutral
Santoshima Resident: all language holds bias
Eos Amaterasu: it shapes perception
Santoshima Resident: indeed, and is shaped by perception

Eos Amaterasu: Question: Do you have a stillness practice?
stevenaia Michinaga: not that I am aware of
stevenaia Michinaga: do you?
Eos Amaterasu: it probably still counts
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
stevenaia Michinaga: I suppose the 90 seconds could be
Eos Amaterasu: well yes, I think various forms of "stopping" are about that
Eos Amaterasu: I was saying earlier that the best gift you can give yourself is to do a solitary retreat, even if brief, for one day
Eos Amaterasu: that would be a dynamite practice!
Eos Amaterasu: just you and yourself :-)
Eos Amaterasu: doesn't tai chi have a lot to do with stillness?
stevenaia Michinaga: at the begining there is a meditation, isn't all meditation stillness?
Eos Amaterasu: moo
stevenaia Michinaga: it is to prepare your body and mind for what is ahead
stevenaia Michinaga: quiet the physical and mental state

Eos Amaterasu: I once did a practice called "competing with stillness"
Eos Amaterasu: a single motion of the arm, extended over 13 minutes
stevenaia Michinaga: soudns like slowness
Eos Amaterasu: it's a competition :-)

--BELL--

Eos Amaterasu: Thanks you, San and Stevenaia
stevenaia Michinaga: night Eos
Santoshima Resident: goodnight, Eos, thanks ~
Eos Amaterasu: must disappear....
stevenaia Michinaga: sweet dreams
Santoshima Resident: 'nite Stevenaia ~
stevenaia Michinaga: night