2010.08.10 19:00 - Forest

 

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

 

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Paradise

Paradise Tennant: smiles hiya eos :) how are you :)

Eos Amaterasu: Pretty good...

Eos Amaterasu: et toi?

Paradise Tennant: very well thank you :) long day ..drinking green tea and eating mango ice cream :)

 

--BELL--

 

Paradise Tennant: yum

Paradise Tennant: was reading .. TSK last night .. :)

TSK = the "Time Space and Knowledge" book

Eos Amaterasu: tsk tsk

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Lucinda

Lucinda Lavender: whispering hi...

Paradise Tennant: hiya lucinda .. gtsy :)

stevenaia Michinaga: evening

Lucinda Lavender: yes...:) and to see you...

Eos Amaterasu: ~~ Stevenaia

Paradise Tennant: hiya steve :) gtsy

Lucinda Lavender: evening

stevenaia Michinaga: hi Eos, Paradise, Lucinda

 

Lucinda Lavender: I heard that there were wonderful mushrooms in the forests of the retreat...

Paradise Tennant: smiles

Eos Amaterasu: lots of mushrooms in Nova Scotia forest - humidity

Eos Amaterasu: saw a Destroying Angel (amanita verna)

Lucinda Lavender: wanted to say that there was an article on NPR today about mushrooms.

Lucinda Lavender: Hi Bruce, Ewan

Paradise Tennant: hiya bruce :))

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Bruce, ewan

Bruce Mowbray: Hello, folks!

Paradise Tennant: what kind of mushroom is a destroying angel ?

Lucinda Lavender: poisonous?

Eos Amaterasu: one of the amanitas

Eos Amaterasu: yes, deadly

Eos Amaterasu: there are chanterelles there, which the cooks use

Paradise Tennant: you would have to really know your mushrooms:)

Lucinda Lavender: In the article the mushroom expert felt his mothers cancer was healed by this mushroom that grows in old groth forests.

Lucinda Lavender: growth...

Paradise Tennant: hmm mushrooms are supposed to be a good anti carcingen :)

Lucinda Lavender: it started with "ama" as well.

Bruce Mowbray: Even the non-poisonous ones can make someone really sick, is he/she has suseptibility to that -- while everyone else eating them has no problem at all.

Bruce Mowbray: if.

Bruce Mowbray: while.

Bruce Mowbray: This happened to me with morells.

Lucinda Lavender: just thought it interesting...

Bruce Mowbray: Yes, they can be powerful medicine. Probably an excellent anti-carcinogen.

Ewan Bonham: there are many healing plants that we have not yet discovered...

Eos Amaterasu: Yes, and a Polish friend of mine in Nova Scotia picked and ate some Boletus Edulis just before driving to airport to pick up mathematician friend of his

Eos Amaterasu: by the time he and his wife got to the airport they had to ask their friend to drive them to the hospital

Bruce Mowbray: yep. That happend with me, too.

Eos Amaterasu: same plant species in different locations can be different

Bruce Mowbray: indeed, and they can affect different people in different ways.

Lucinda Lavender: ah interesting

Bruce Mowbray: BUT they were SOOOO delivious!

Eos Amaterasu: found some nice Coprinus Comatus (shaggy mane) near Crested Butte, CO once

Bruce Mowbray: delicious.

Eos Amaterasu: cooked them up on frying pan

Lucinda Lavender: wood fire?

Bruce Mowbray: yum yum yum -- I can smell them now, Eos!

Paradise Tennant: there was a whole series of books written by a researcher who lived with indians who used mushrooms as a reality relaxer is blinking on the name

Eos Amaterasu: then went into local bar, with jukebox, and heard, for the first time, Janis Joplin singing "Me and Bobby McGee"

Eos Amaterasu: peak Maslowian moment :-)

Lucinda Lavender: :)))

Bruce Mowbray: OHHHH wonderful!

Bruce Mowbray: There's a PEAK moment!

 

Eos Amaterasu: The forest at Windhorse Farm is a close expression of Being itself

Lucinda Lavender: can you say more?

Eos Amaterasu: the owner, Jim Drescher, has over the years developed a kind of forest practice

Lucinda Lavender: seems like forests have special effects...

Ewan Bonham: What kind of practice?

Eos Amaterasu: From "The Little Book of Practice": "as a longtime naturalist and meditator, he says that during the first years he was eager to tune in to the subtleties of the forest -

Eos Amaterasu: the invisible energies and secret lives of all that lived there.

Lucinda Lavender: nodding

Eos Amaterasu: At some point he realized that all he really had to do was make himself available, to "show up", and be seen rather than struggling to see."

Ewan Bonham: do you mean the ecology?

Eos Amaterasu: we could say, Being seeing

Bruce Mowbray understands this.

 

--BELL--

 

Paradise Tennant: the forest is a wonderful place to do that

Eos Amaterasu: Paradise, you'll be happy to know that our January retreat will be in New Orleans!

Paradise Tennant: smiles oooooooo

Paradise Tennant: nice and warm :)

Eos Amaterasu: music!

Paradise Tennant: yes !

Bruce Mowbray: Do you think it's possible to convey to someone who has lived her/his entire life in a city what a forest IS? Unless they go to the forest an experience it themselves?

Bruce Mowbray: and.

Bruce Mowbray: Or -- turn that arounbd:

Eos Amaterasu: I think it is our challenge to be able to bring the same kind of spirit that we find in the forest to the urban environment

Bruce Mowbray: someone who has lived his entire life in a forest -- How can you convey to that person what Second Life is?

Lucinda Lavender: nodding

Ewan Bonham: And i do think they have to spend some time there in its ambience..

Ewan Bonham: It is one thing to just see it as a visitor.

Ewan Bonham: Another to live in it for awhile..

Eos Amaterasu: diff between forest life and "RL" is as great as between "RL" and "SL"

Ewan Bonham: :)eos

Bruce Mowbray: But is there REALLY that great a difference? -- I don't think so!

Lucinda Lavender: I think so too probably

 

Lucinda Lavender: Hi Pila!

stevenaia Michinaga: hi Pila

Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Pila.

Paradise Tennant: hiya pila :)

Bruce Mowbray: good to see you again.

Ewan Bonham: Hi Pila

Pila Mulligan: greetings peak experiencers

Lucinda Lavender: :)

 

Eos Amaterasu: different worlds, different ambiences

Pila Mulligan: I got a secret message :)

Bruce Mowbray: ;-)

Eos Amaterasu: how can you speak and be from Being wherever you are?

Pila Mulligan: message: 'discussing peak expereinces"

Bruce Mowbray: I live in a forest -- literally. If it were daylight right now - I would take a photo out the window behind my computer and show you.

Bruce Mowbray: So. . . does this mean that my time here on SL is "inauthentic"?

Bruce Mowbray: (I've pretty worked up about this right now because I was just called "inauthentic" by someone at www.pantheist.net

Bruce Mowbray: I'm.

Eos Amaterasu: hmm, how odd

Lucinda Lavender: hmmm

Ewan Bonham: Hopefully, that is there and this is here..:)

Bruce Mowbray: yes -- She said that everyone in Sl was "disguising themselves" and "hiding behind make-believe avatars" -- Why don't they get real and breathe the fresh air of the forest, etc???

Eos Amaterasu: as Buckaroo Banzai said, wherever you are, there you are!

Bruce Mowbray: And here I am breathing the forest air right now -- and i could NOT get through to her.

Bruce Mowbray: grrrrr.

stevenaia Michinaga: a rather judgemental perspective

Pila Mulligan: hi Roxana

Bruce Mowbray: ha ha.

Lucinda Lavender: interesting...lucinda lavender was thinking about the importance of breathing at all...

Roxana Falconer: Hello Pila

Paradise Tennant: hiya roxana :)

Bruce Mowbray: I am aware of my own judgment, too.

Lucinda Lavender: :)

Ewan Bonham: Hi Roxana

Roxana Falconer: Hey there Lucinda, Paradise, Bruce

Bruce Mowbray: Hi, Roxana -- good to see you again so soon.

Roxana Falconer: Ewan...oh I like that name

Ewan Bonham: to me they are different...

Roxana Falconer: I told you i'd be back!

Ewan Bonham: and equally authentic..

Bruce Mowbray: yes -- I am glad to see you again.

Bruce Mowbray: Good point, Ewan.

Bruce Mowbray: go on, please.

Roxana Falconer: What is the discussion?

Bruce Mowbray: We're talking about real-life forests, people who live in cities, and whether SL is "real" or -- whether it is authentic.

Ewan Bonham: Well, when i am in sl..

Roxana Falconer: ahhh

Ewan Bonham: I feel intensity of sensations..

Ewan Bonham: As i truly see colors, shapes and have interactions..

Eos Amaterasu: playing as Being in the forest, in RL, in SL, both, ....

Roxana Falconer: wouldn't it depend on the person? Personal needs etc

Ewan Bonham: These ar very real..and i think I can feel the hearts of folks..

Bruce Mowbray agrees totally with Ewan.

Ewan Bonham: But when I am in rl such as in the woods..

 

Roxana Falconer: I haven't met anyone online that ever really was real with me

 

Ewan Bonham: The surroundings kinda penetrate into my being..

Roxana Falconer: I've chatted online since '96

Ewan Bonham: There is so much beyond wordss...more dimensional..

Bruce Mowbray: Well, Roxana -- get ready to meet some REAL people....

Roxana Falconer: I am hoping so. It's about time

Lucinda Lavender: Thinking...and the word surrender come up.

Paradise Tennant: smiles surrender always comes up :)

Bruce Mowbray: yes, Luci -- please say more.

Lucinda Lavender: thinking about how surrendering occurrs in all places...

Lucinda Lavender: when we feel safe

 

--BELL--

 

Eos Amaterasu: Awesome - we were all in the 90 secs!

Eos Amaterasu: *where* were we when we were there?

Bruce Mowbray: yes.

Roxana Falconer: Surrendering?

Eos Amaterasu: :-)

stevenaia Michinaga: smiles

Paradise Tennant: in a surrender of sorts :)

Ewan Bonham: Sensing..

Bruce Mowbray: yes, wonderful, Roxana.

Bruce Mowbray: Being with each other.

Lucinda Lavender: seeing too...

Eos Amaterasu: presence sense

Paradise Tennant: so being seeing ..surrendering together ..sounds kind of nice :)

Eos Amaterasu: feel me, feel you, feel open space, feel being suspended

Ewan Bonham: yes...feeling with each other..

Bruce Mowbray: from AVATAR (the movie): I see you."

Roxana Falconer: I would think that in order to surrender one must have trust or a sense of safety

Paradise Tennant: yes and like the word namaste .. I see the divine in you :)

Bruce Mowbray: yes, that builds. . . through continuing experience and awareness.

Eos Amaterasu: and what is it that I see when I see you....

Roxana Falconer: You know the old exercise in which you fall backwards and trusts the person behind to catch him?

Eos Amaterasu: Yes Roxana, and/or a feeling of giving up

Ewan Bonham: Yes, the Divine..

Eos Amaterasu: so choiceless

Roxana Falconer: One must give up to fall

Bruce Mowbray: yes, I have done that falling-back thing many times.

Ewan Bonham: Feels so good when I am caught..

Bruce Mowbray: so, in the 90-sec breaks, we "fall back"?

Paradise Tennant: smiles one of the highlights of being a newbie in sl .. the sheer joy of falling :)

Roxana Falconer: Right on

Lucinda Lavender: ; )

Roxana Falconer: Well I don't think I feel that way at all

Bruce Mowbray: two thumbs up on that one!

Bruce Mowbray: say more, please, Roxana.

Ewan Bonham: I am a newbie as well...but see many similarities..

Roxana Falconer: Well this is like one big exercise in learning

Roxana Falconer: and that can be tough as well as fun

Bruce Mowbray: indeed.

Eos Amaterasu thinks of the book "Zen Mind, Newbie Mind", by Suzuki Roshi

Roxana Falconer: Plus the anonymity factor can be a heady thing to deal with

Bruce Mowbray: yes.

Roxana Falconer: Perhaps too much freedom at first for some

Bruce Mowbray: I'm sure of that.

Roxana Falconer: So one must deal with total freedom which is something one does not get in real life

Ewan Bonham: Can there be too much freedom?

Roxana Falconer: My experience in internet chat says "Yes"

Bruce Mowbray: it's a balance between ridigity and chaos --- a continual finding of the balance.

Eos Amaterasu: we may think it's freedom

Roxana Falconer: But that is for certain people not all

Eos Amaterasu: there's freedom to go from one fixation to another

Roxana Falconer: It takes a very strong personal sense of self to not let it go to ones head

Ewan Bonham: Yes, we can only find that balance when we give ourselves that freedom to do so..

Eos Amaterasu: and then there's a more real freedom

Roxana Falconer: Yes Eros, exactly

Eos Amaterasu: :-)

Roxana Falconer: At least for some

Eos Amaterasu is agape with humor

Pila Mulligan: Eros ... nice typo

Roxana Falconer: However I have met those for whom the internet is a license to steal...so to speak

Bruce Mowbray: in some groups, Roxana, there emerges a sense of belonging and trust.

Roxana Falconer: I would hope so

Bruce Mowbray: not every group, to be sure.

Eos Amaterasu: just like in RL

Roxana Falconer: Yes

Ewan Bonham: Hopefully, here.

Bruce Mowbray: it emerges out of our interactions with each other over time.

Eos Amaterasu: It seems easier in some ways to find like-minded people here

Bruce Mowbray: For example. . .

Ewan Bonham: I have found myself increasingly expressing my mind and heart here.

Bruce Mowbray: Ewan and I came into SL at the same time --

Roxana Falconer: As long as a person stays true to themselves then even negative experiences wind up good

Bruce Mowbray: but we didn't speak to each other for about two months -- untill somehow we both found this place.

Eos Amaterasu: the shit's it

Ewan Bonham: ã‹¡ Bruce

Bruce Mowbray: well, it's true.

Eos Amaterasu: this is a strange attractor

Bruce Mowbray: and there were all sorts of things that needed to emerge first ---

Bruce Mowbray: like common ideas and feelings and exdperiences.

Ewan Bonham: i find my more open expression has allowed itself to come into rl as well..

Eos Amaterasu listens

Bruce Mowbray: yes -- indeed so, Ewan.

Bruce Mowbray: I am a better person in RL because of my experiences in L.

Bruce Mowbray: Sl.

Roxana Falconer: I have had to learn to be more quiet in my rl

Bruce Mowbray: ;-) -- That TOO!

Roxana Falconer: There are blessings in silence

Roxana Falconer: darn it

Roxana Falconer: lol

Bruce Mowbray: mmmmmm.

stevenaia Michinaga: I think it;s easier to listen in RL after being here for a while

Ewan Bonham: ã‹¡ Rox

Roxana Falconer: yes Ewan?

Bruce Mowbray thinks --- this Roxana -- where have you been???

Ewan Bonham: I smiled in agreement with you.

Roxana Falconer: ahhhh lmao

Ewan Bonham: About blessings in silence

Bruce Mowbray: ;-)

Roxana Falconer: oh far out! *winks*

Bruce Mowbray waves and winks .

Bruce Mowbray: The people around this circle are REAL people - with REAL thoughts and experiences... and feelings for each other.

Bruce Mowbray: Some of them have spent the past week together in real life.

Paradise Tennant: smiles the lucky ones :)

Roxana Falconer: Really that is both wonderful and scary to me

Bruce Mowbray: while some of us had to stay at home....;-(

Eos Amaterasu: and now will spend 90 secs together, letting be

 

--BELL--

 

Eos Amaterasu: How was that? Reports from the open field?

Ewan Bonham: togetherness

Bruce Mowbray: a gentle sharing of silence.

Paradise Tennant: smiles ..yes focussed togetherness :)

Eos Amaterasu: 'co'

Eos Amaterasu: maybe more than just 'me' in that presencing

Paradise Tennant: smiles likes the tsk language that looks at our selves as only a tendency to consolidate ..but never really a consolidation .. in each successive moment in time .. kind of makes me smile whenever I think of that outlook .. looking down at my fingers which are not quite consolidated as I type this :)

Eos Amaterasu: we are trillions

Bruce Mowbray: a brief time to find balance again.

Ewan Bonham: and yet interconnected..

Eos Amaterasu: holds everything

Bruce Mowbray: time to renew my trust.

Bruce Mowbray: trust that we are indeed connected.

Eos Amaterasu: everything in that 90 secs is refreshed

Paradise Tennant: yes often will think of plunging into a pool surrounded by bubbles .. where it is deep and quiet

Roxana Falconer: If man is created in the image of God then we must have a connection. We weren't meant to be alone.

Roxana Falconer: We are a part of one another. Together we make a whole

Ewan Bonham: Para, and the bubbles interact with us..

Paradise Tennant: smiles at roxana :)

Bruce Mowbray seels: "Yes, and here we are."

Bruce Mowbray: feels.

Ewan Bonham: Roxana, I must recall...I am never alone..

Bruce Mowbray: separation is an illusion.

Bruce Mowbray: maybe even a delusion.

Ewan Bonham: ã‹¡ bruce

Bruce Mowbray: and yet, is it a feeling that we sometimes have.

Bruce Mowbray: alone. distant. isolated.

Eos Amaterasu: hmm, beyond meeting as well as beyond parting

Ewan Bonham: i often feel it...

Ewan Bonham: I think i know better..

Ewan Bonham: but must daily show myself...it is an illussion

Roxana Falconer: Well our aloneness is real enough in our flesh. The oneness we have is through our souls, our spirit beings

Ewan Bonham: based on old thought habits.

Paradise Tennant: metta practise is a wonderful banishment for the sense of being alone .. love connects

Roxana Falconer: So that we know though we be apart we are still with each other

Bruce Mowbray: we are one in the spirit -- as the old church song goes.

Roxana Falconer: Yes Bruce, exactly

Eos Amaterasu: when we are none in the spirit we are one in the spirit :-)

Bruce Mowbray: I am one in spirit with the forest, also.

Bruce Mowbray: My best friends are 200-year-old oaks.

Paradise Tennant: lol

Bruce Mowbray: and field mice.

Eos Amaterasu: they're much younger

Paradise Tennant: loves that .. bet they .. are great company and wonderful listeners :)

Bruce Mowbray: yep.

Bruce Mowbray: I mostly listen to them.

Bruce Mowbray: whether they also listen to me -- I'm not sure.

Bruce Mowbray: it's enough to hear them.

Ewan Bonham: lol..i would guess at another level

Bruce Mowbray: Jim Drescher knows about this stuff, I'll bet.

Eos Amaterasu: all watched over by trees of loving grace...

Eos Amaterasu: http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Richard-Brautigan/72

Roxana Falconer: I have never had that connection to nature. But I am filled with a sense of purpose. As if this world as expressed in nature is man's responsibility to honor and care for.

Bruce Mowbray: although I've never met him.

Roxana Falconer: It is a sacred trust

Eos Amaterasu: this pavilion is in a way such a forest place... a clearing of Being

Bruce Mowbray: There are some truly wonderful sims devoted to nature in SL.

Ewan Bonham: nods

Roxana Falconer: I rode horse yesterday which was wonderful

Ewan Bonham: Where?

Bruce Mowbray: yes, I feel that being at the PaB pavillion is a very real part of my spiritual prqactice.

Roxana Falconer: I'd have to check. A friend tp'd me there

Ewan Bonham: yes...real..

 

--BELL--

 

Ewan Bonham: Rox...I would like that experience.

Ewan Bonham: tx

Ewan Bonham: ty

Roxana Falconer: Well I checked an can't tell. I'll ask my friend about the palce

Roxana Falconer: Ok I sent her a message

 

Pila Mulligan: /must slip off to RL ... nice to see everyone, bye for now

Paradise Tennant: smiles

Roxana Falconer: Bye Pila

Paradise Tennant: good nite pila namaste :)

Bruce Mowbray: good night, Pila -- thanks for a wonderful group this afternoon!

Bruce Mowbray: (Pila and arabella and I had a great session on the I Ching today)

Paradise Tennant: sigh I should scoot too .. long day .. be well everyone .... thank you all for sharing .. as always really enjoyed the company :)

Bruce Mowbray: ok, Para -- enjoy your evening.

Roxana Falconer: Paradise, blessings to you!

Eos Amaterasu: ~~

stevenaia Michinaga: night

Paradise Tennant: smiles and goes poufie :)

Bruce Mowbray: ;-)

stevenaia Michinaga: nice to meet you roxana, hope to see you agaib

stevenaia Michinaga: n

Roxana Falconer: Same to you Stevenia!

Eos Amaterasu: bye Steve

Roxana Falconer: Call me Roxy

Bruce Mowbray thinks: WHaT a beautiful dress!

Roxana Falconer: please

Lucinda Lavender: night all...

Bruce Mowbray: g'night, steve.

Roxana Falconer: NIght Lucinda

Eos Amaterasu: bye luci

Bruce Mowbray: g'night, Luci! and thank you.

Bruce Mowbray: g'night, Ewan -- and thanks, as always.

Ewan Bonham: Thank you all...really a breath of fresh air in these meetings..

Lucinda Lavender: ah...oops

Roxana Falconer: Goodnight Ewan and Luci

Eos Amaterasu: luci jumps into the sky with diamonds

Lucinda Lavender: had a phone call...

Lucinda Lavender: yes!

Eos Amaterasu hopes skies will clear tomorrow for Perseids

Bruce Mowbray: yes -- I'm hoping for clear skies for the meteor shower, too.

Lucinda Lavender: hope so too...bet you can see them fromquieter places of less light?

Bruce Mowbray: the next two nights.

Bruce Mowbray: we have NO lights out here! (thank goodness).

Eos Amaterasu: lucky you!

Bruce Mowbray: yes, indeed.

Eos Amaterasu: however, our little pool in front of the house sometimes captures the moon!

Roxana Falconer: Where are you from ?

Bruce Mowbray: When I first came here tonight, I was quite angry.

Bruce Mowbray: Now I feel calm and settled and balanced again.

Bruce Mowbray: I live in southern Ohio, Roxy.

Roxana Falconer: In farm country then?

Bruce Mowbray: oh yes --- we get one car an hour down the road -- at most.

Roxana Falconer: I have lived it the country. I am glad I did

Bruce Mowbray: I sometimes cannot tell the difference between the backiground sounds in Sl and the sounds outside my window.

Bruce Mowbray: owls and everything.

Roxana Falconer: That has to be very soothing

Eos Amaterasu: ditto, Bruce

Lucinda Lavender: pondering the moon reflected...

Bruce Mowbray: yep.... and I need that.

Eos Amaterasu: moon reflected in pool; forest imaged in heart

Lucinda Lavender: bye for now...:)

Eos Amaterasu: beling playing in self

Eos Amaterasu: bye luci

Bruce Mowbray: bye, Luci -- see you again soon.

Roxana Falconer: Bye Luci

Lucinda Lavender: thank you yes...

Eos Amaterasu: Okay, I perhaps should go too - after minuit, ici

Bruce Mowbray: You folks had some sort of wonderful week.

Bruce Mowbray: ok -- me too.

Bruce Mowbray: good night, Eos.

Roxana Falconer: I guess this is the time to move on

Eos Amaterasu: yes.... thnx for this wonderful hour!

Roxana Falconer: It was very enjoyable

Eos Amaterasu: Ciao!

Bruce Mowbray: ok, Roxy. I do hope you'll joing our group again soon.

Roxana Falconer: Blessings to you both!

Bruce Mowbray: and blessings to you too.

Bruce Mowbray: Good night.

Roxana Falconer: Oh I am sure to do that

Roxana Falconer: NIght