10-12 Tell Me A Story

A group of fairly intrepid explorers gathers in a circle at regular intervals with no set agenda, and engage in an age-old activity - telling stories.

In this case the circle is the Play As Being pavilion, and at this time of year it has a ring of virtual ice around it, and beyond that, the safe, smooth horizon of a virtual world.

The surround is pretty predictable and familiar by now, although on occasion, there have been surreal and unexpected virtual appearances taking place here.  I'm visualizing, however, the effect of switching the virtual crystal pool with a virtual campfire, and the arctic-light twilight of Second Life for some real darkness.  Darkness that would make these avatars huddle a little closer, and think twice about stumbling out into the unknown.

2009.12.10 01:00 - Food for Thought

The late-night slot (relative to SL, that is) is sometimes quiet, sometimes turns into a long wide-ranging discussion, and often has a kind of "off duty" feeling, in that the 90-second pause is gaily disregarded.  I'm not sure why that is, exactly, because it's only really 1AM in the USA Pacific Time zone.

We've been talking customs, culture, politics, economics, philosophy, ecology, language, habits... no one's said anything about Being :)

It's interesting how many of the above topics have to do, in one way or another, with food.  Some say we're all part of a great chain of being in which everything eats and is, in turn, eaten.  So it looks like we're exploring Being after all.

2009.12.10 07:00 - Lonely mountain sunrise

In which an intrepid Guardian finds his watch uninterrupted by other sentient beings, and has opportunity to keep his own counsel.

2009.12.10 13:00 - feeling no-time?

It begins with a story of a strange teleportation - if your viewer or sim crash, you can end up who knows where.  We kind of relish the breakdowns in an artificial world.

Then out of the blue comes a "beginner's mind" question - among the very best type of question, according to local customs:

 

Lia Rikugun: I may have a question
Agatha Macbeth: We may have an answer
Bertram Jacobus: please, ask lia !
Lia Rikugun: :) I hope so

how do I feel no-time?

Lia Rikugun: I was thinking about time today
Lia Rikugun: and trying to feel no-time
Lia Rikugun: to lose the sense of linearity

The group kicks this idea around for a while.  Where to go, how to do it, what's it like metaphorically.

how can we shift our experience of time?

Calvino Rabeni: A question is, what can you do that shifts your experience of time in some way?
Lia Rikugun: hm, you could see everything as appearances :)

The "Bell" provides an opportunity for first-hand experience.  I am wondering if anyone will venture to describe things directly, subject to cross-examination - "So, Mr. Rabeni, you say that on the afternoon of 2009/12/10 you claim to have had a direct experience of No Time.  Can you describe for the jury precisely what transpired?"

Not today, I'm afraid.  But we have a lot of supporting testimony from guest witnesses:

• Floating in the ocean puts in an appearance.
• The idea of going where nothing is happening puts in an appearance.
• Phenomenology puts in an appearance.
  
• Battling samurai and Wild West gunslingers put in an appearance.

Alfred Kelberry: the funny thing about pheno, it starts like a scientific method, but ends up with the world the opponent :)

Note to self - got to watch that, Grasshopper.  Opponent can chop off head with samurai sword.

Wol Euler: Calvino reminded me of one of my favourite films, The Yakuza; I'd been reading the wikipedia article about it
Agatha Macbeth: Japanese mafia, yes?
Alfred Kelberry: i mean, the movie
Wol Euler: yes, and no
Wol Euler: it's a Western :)
Agatha Macbeth: Most of them are....
Wol Euler: in that it addresses the Western themes of duty and honour and comradeship.

That could have been a juicy topic after "no-time", but unfortunately, there was no time for it.

2009.12.10 19:00

2009.12.11 01:00 - Nothing Happens

... Another lone guardian bearing witness.  I am fairly sure your own experience of nothing happening would be more of a thrill to you, than reading the contents of the above session.

2009.12.11 07:00 - Appreciating Hajj (A Bedtime Story)

Eliza Madrigal: Well, what were you thinking about today? That might help...
Pema Pera: oh, let's see, differential equations, uhh, . . . .
Eliza Madrigal: Oh, I definitely do not have differential equation stories...
Pema Pera: . . . how pleasant the rain sounded on my umbrella . . .

... That was fresh to hear about, Pema, and I can easily imagine there were little bits of "no time" between the individual droplets of rain.

doug Sosa: yes, i've really taken the 9 sec as a kind of rabbits foot i can stroke at any time.
Pema Pera: I have a quote from 2009/11/30 7 pm:
Pema Pera: doug Sosa: i am in an intense converation withtwo othrs. try the 9 sec. suddenly it is not me and two of them, it is three of us.
Pema Pera: that is nothing less that Being Seeing !

 ...  I knew this 9-second thing would come in handy at some point!

Then we get a Topic Of Substance:

Pema asks Sophia what she's been up to, which leads us into the rest of this session...

Pema Pera: Sophia, it's good to see you again! How have you been?
Eliza Madrigal: And if you walk through the piles, the snow scatters about :)
sophia Placebo: good to see you too , im still alive thankfully
Eliza Madrigal smiles
Pema Pera smiles too
Pema Pera: did you travel for a while?
sophia Placebo: :) i went to Hajj hmm 10 days in mekka
Pema Pera: that must have been an extraordinary experiene!
Eliza Madrigal: Oh, will you tell us about it, Sophia?
Pema Pera: *ce
sophia Placebo: on all levels
sophia Placebo: oh Eliza you need to be there to feel it right

... (some very physically evocative descriptions) ...

sophia Placebo: yep so it is a spiritual journey that is represented or acted physically in short

The rest of the session involved what seemed to me, a kind of inter-religious dialogue that I found poignant and thought-provoking.

2009.12.11 13:00 - long friday session

 

2009.12.11 19:00 - The Limits of Empiricism

2009.12.12 01:00

2009.12.12 07:00

2009.12.12 13:00 - Living is Creating all the time