28-31 Canvas

(work in progress)

Storm Nordwind: I have a book - actually in front of me now - that is a commentary on the Eight Verses,
called "Eight Steps to Happiness". It has a wonderful picture of White Tara on the cover (!), though I don't
know why as she is not referred to anywhere in the book!

Gaya Ethaniel: Don't know much but think Tara helps with overcoming obstacles ... maybe that's why?
Storm Nordwind: She is known as the compassionate mother of long life, and as the embodiment of the
ultimate wisdom of all the Buddhas. But apart from that... :)

"When others out of jealousy...
Harm me or insult me...
May I take defeat upon myself...
And offer them the victory"

Storm Nordwind: And I did just that. And the effect was miraculous.

To be truly happy in this world is a revolutionary act because true happiness depends upon
a revolution in ourselves. It is radical change of view that liberates us so that we know who we are most deeply and can acknowledge our enormous ability to love. We are liberated by the truth that every single one of us can take the time and pay attention. That is our birthright. Our own happiness can change history, and it does.
- Sharon Salzberg, "Lovingkindness"

~~

arabella Ella: well it is amazing how other stuff gets accentuated while one is silent
arabella Ella: and how it seems to me to be a sort of cleansing somehow
arabella Ella: yes purging ... cleansing ... like noticing the chaos and noise which is so superflous in life

arabella Ella: and a bit of seeing places in the vicinity this morning too
arabella Ella: meditation on some cliffs nearby watching the sea and the clouds making shade on the sea

Wol as Arabella...

Eliza Madrigal: Ara was telling us that you all meditated cliff top today?
Wol Euler: indeed we did
Wol Euler: with ice cream cones

Arabella as Arabella... 

arabella Ella: well i admit it was very difficult with a few 'temptations' along the day
arabella Ella: like random strangers ... farmers ... during the walking meditation i did
arabella Ella: they offered me peas
arabella Ella: and i gladly accepted

Calvino Rabeni: but the fluidity presents a freedom, and with that, choices
Calvino Rabeni: and the choices invoke new realms of being and their challenges of awareness
Eliza Madrigal: yes, Ara accepted the peas :)
Calvino Rabeni: just simple openings of doors
Eliza Madrigal: I don't think she broke silence in doing so, even if/though she spoke!
Calvino Rabeni: and it didn't matter either, given the quality of her awareness continued in the way that was intended

~~

Eden Haiku: I'm deep in the question: what do I really need?
Eden Haiku: Sorting out my suitcase... / I know carrying lots of stuff is out of fear of lacking something.
Eliza Madrigal nods... fear of 'what if'
Archmage Atlantis: Serendipity was my thought when you asked for a topic Eliza, ....., no doubt it relates to your topic, although how I wonder?
Eliza Madrigal: hmmm... "Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated." (from wiki)
Eden Haiku: Serendipity:I love the word. It is a bit like synchronicity is it?
Archmage Atlantis: Perhaps "fear of lacking something" is in contrast with being open to the unexpected?

Widget Whiteberry: I learned to write my dreams - when I recall them - as in first person, present tense. Then to consider that each aspect of a dream is a 'part-of-me.' / and if all I dream is part-of-me, then there are no scary 'others'

Widget Whiteberry: no anything others

Eden Haiku: But then, if I had not ordered a new laptop beacuse it rained last summer, I would never have stumble upon Sl (serendipity), never created Rrose (my twin), and never got to PaB(serendipity)

~~

arabella Ella: Eliza ... just cooked for nine avis :)
arabella Ella: avis can be quite hungry too
arabella Ella: cooked two types of pasta
arabella Ella: then ice cream with maple syrup, helwa and marshmellows
Eliza Madrigal: :) What is helwa, please?
arabella Ella: but all the avis surrounding me seem to be satisfied
Eliza Madrigal: That's wonderful :)
arabella Ella: helwa is a sweet from the middle east with crushed sesame seed, sugar and almonds
Eden Haiku: I can hear them clapping in the distance...
arabella Ella: :)
Qt Core: retreats in malta... food... not only for the soul ;-)
arabella Ella: oh yes Qt ... food for the body and food for the soul ... also food for the heart

Wol as Arabella...

arabella Ella: yes, actually it did. It's beautiful here, very stark
Eliza Madrigal: Stark?
Eden Haiku: Lots of rocks and cliffs?
Qt Core: was the wheater good ?
arabella Ella: lacking in softness, shall we say?
arabella Ella: very much so, eden.
arabella Ella: crumbly yellow stone, very near the surface, not much soil
arabella Ella: cypress and cactus and a strange feathery kind of bamboo
Eden Haiku: was very impressed to read in the log that the Hypogeum is older than the Sphinx.
arabella Ella: and almond trees in bloom!
arabella Ella: it's great, I can recommend it here.
Eden Haiku: Ah! that is a grace!

Eliza Madrigal: Hi Zon... this is a most unusual session.... there are many playasbeings speaking through Ara ....
Eden Haiku: Now it is Yakuzza being <channeled< by Ara...
Zon Quar: what do the spirits have to say..
Eden Haiku: Spirit of Yakuzza, we are listening...
arabella Ella: it is facinating to meet the real people finally obviousy
Widget Whiteberry muses on new definitions of multiple identities

Eliza Madrigal: Do you feel peaceful Yakuzza?
Eliza Madrigal: (aside from the keyboard wrestling)
arabella Ella: not right now, but it was very peaceful before
Eliza Madrigal: are you all peas-full too? giggles
Storm Nordwind is very much in favor of "whorled peas"
Bleu Oleander: :) good one!
Eden Haiku: All together for 'whorled peas' Storm!!!
Eliza Madrigal clasps hands with zon and bleu...sways... You know, we do look a little like the picture
with the earth and the little children all around...
arabella Ella: hi Ara back again
Qt Core: quite the green approach too, 88% respurce saved that way! :-)
arabella Ella: did you notice how Yaku has become so much more talkative?
Eden Haiku: Oh yes, holding Qt and Ara hands...
Eliza Madrigal smiles... yes, it must be switching to coffee from tea
Zon Quar: arent we all little children..

---User:Eliza

sophia Placebo: Hello Riddle :)
sophia Placebo: how are you ?
Riddle Sideways: 85%
sophia Placebo: brilliant ! even if it meant 85% not good , you still alive and hanging

Widget Whiteberry: Contra dancing is a form that involves many people
Widget Whiteberry: while there are only 8-10 different steps
Widget Whiteberry: the combinations of steps can be anything
Widget Whiteberry: so it gets quite complex
Widget Whiteberry: in order for this to work
Widget Whiteberry: to have long lines of people dancing together
Widget Whiteberry: to form the pattern of the dance
Widget Whiteberry: you need music to stay in sync

Riddle Sideways: in your mind you think of the greatest addition to the topic, but find no opening to share :(
Bertram Jacobus: i also experience that sometimes riddle - but isn´t for that the hint to let drop ? -
Riddle Sideways: was watching synchonized swimming lst night (daugter) and finally saw the underwater
speaker to sync them to the music
sophia Placebo: i guess we dont have music per say , we like to stream our ideas sometime and/or keep them to ourselves, we go off topic or we miss the point cuz we are slow typers:)

Eliza Madrigal: Bert, can you follow up on your 'chaos theory' thought?
Bertram Jacobus: perhaps i may say that for me such a caller is not neccessairy ... hm - but as i said : accept all people´s likes and dislikes
Widget Whiteberry: if we can learn to focus our group mind on a topic, our discussions will deepen
Bertram Jacobus: it says to me eliza that all is linked with all and so ... also talks can be seen from one standpoint, with all the fitting elements and even seemingly not fitting ones ...
Bertram Jacobus: for that, for example we already have the topic meetings ... (shall be no contradiction)
Eliza Madrigal: So what looks at first chaotic can actually be seen from a wider angle as having a pattern...
Bertram Jacobus: yes
Bertram Jacobus: and make sense
Bertram Jacobus: and even give a good feeling
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Bertram Jacobus: when we play more with the elements as being(s) ... ;-)
Eliza Madrigal: ahhh.... !
sophia Placebo: hmm
Bertram Jacobus: you may see : the retreat was quite inspiring ... ;-)
Eliza Madrigal: yes I see that :)))
sophia Placebo: more with wiget in micro level , more with bert on macro level
Bertram Jacobus: :-))
Widget Whiteberry: ☆smiles☆
Eliza Madrigal: hm, yes....
Bertram Jacobus: lol . so nicely said sophia ! (even if i don´t totally undeerstand lol - can we ever?) ... ;-)
Eliza Madrigal: on a practical level, the email group, seems one thing we could benefit from using more.... to deepen conversations? like an underwater speaker?
Widget Whiteberry: macro and micro are different views of the same phenomena
sophia Placebo: exactly

Riddle Sideways: all the same, but we just saw it from a different point of view - Bob Dylan

~~
The INK!
Ink uncaused and unaware suddenly appear beware.
Found itself on the canvas slate, and started to create,
By drawing a quill, to emptiness fill.

And the first character was sketched,
As the canvas was stretched.
The play began, when the characters on the stage ran.
If you trace the Ink, back to where do you sink?
                                 
When INK comes out from the silent hide,
Life becomes a slippery slope and ride.
When INK in stillness and silence abide,
The ebb and flow subside.

SophiaSharon Larnia: the making more solid is something Ive been grappling with for many months... am just now coming to grips with what it means
SophiaSharon Larnia: and found the poem to echo something I haven't been able to write on my own
Calvino Rabeni: How is that, Sophia - what is the important sense of it for you?
SophiaSharon Larnia: it validates how i feel about words, thats theyre inadequate for explaining things that are the most important... in writing, too, i see a side of myself that I sometimes would rather not see / it forces self awareness, but it is also a mask, it doesnt tell the true picture, at one time

Calvino Rabeni: @SSL, from earlier - the thing about language - whether written or live - is that it is an invocation, not just a description
SophiaSharon Larnia: so Ive been thinking about silence, in the sense of thoughts are like clouds in a clear blue sky, layers and layers of clouds...
SophiaSharon Larnia: invocation
Calvino Rabeni: It is something to get comfortable with - about language
Calvino Rabeni: the way it brings things into being
SophiaSharon Larnia: thats what im afraid of
Calvino Rabeni: its creative aspect - this is the yang for the "yin" of language's descriptive ability

~~

SophiaSharon Larnia: wow nice aura Eliza
Eliza Madrigal giggles... looks like a soap bubble...
Eliza Madrigal: wonder where I picked this up :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: lol
Eliza Madrigal: hahah
SophiaSharon Larnia: im enlightened now
Eliza Madrigal: This is to keep us awake... rarified air
SophiaSharon Larnia: now what??

Calvino Rabeni: And the wisdom traditions always say - to give it away creates abundance
Eliza Madrigal: that taking on others' suffering is an 'act' which expands one's capacity to be generous...
Calvino Rabeni: Airy-fairy, do you think?
Eliza Madrigal: Nope :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: not at all
Calvino Rabeni: It takes a little courage, because as noted,it works at a community level so it feels hard to start it all alone
SophiaSharon Larnia: nods
Calvino Rabeni: Perhaps then the same thing works with "enlightenment"
Calvino Rabeni: This makes sense to me :)
Eliza Madrigal: :) I think it does
SophiaSharon Larnia: put that way it is a similiar energetic exchange
Calvino Rabeni: Yes / And the possibility is it works even within oneself
SophiaSharon Larnia: much courage, resting on trust
Calvino Rabeni: Trust and abundance are a virtuous circle
Calvino Rabeni: The opposite of the vicious variety
Calvino Rabeni: Upward spiral

~~

Wol Euler looks around and grins, remembering faces and voices

Pema Pera: and yes, Wol, it does and does not make a difference, having met the person behind the avatar, in an odd way -- it is more a sense of enrichment
Wol Euler nods.
Pema Pera: but you can also go back to the sense of meeting the avatar before meeting the RL typist
Pema Pera: an interesting way of double viewing, double experiencing, a kind of degree of freedom
Wol Euler: mmhmm
Wol Euler: it enriches one's knowledge of the person, but doesn't really change it (I found, others may disagree) because we were all very much the people that we present here

doug Sosa: There is gain and loss. the extraordinay richness of the person in the flesh, and the loss of the avatar, not as avatar but as promise as to who might be behind. A little like the guy behind the curtain in OZ.
Wol Euler: mmhmm / though he is interesting in and of himself, too
Wol Euler: but there is a sense of narrowing of possibilities, yes
Wol Euler: like finally opening Schroedinger's box and looking at the cat
Pema Pera: :)
Archmage Atlantis: But the guy behind the curtain was hiding from himself, as much as he was being
doug Sosa: nice.

Wol Euler: it's odd, coming to describe it we didn't really *do* very much at all
Wol Euler: but my impression is that the days were full.
Wol Euler: I felt that I'd been away far longer than six days
Wol Euler: time was stretched in some odd ways during the retreat

Wol Euler: it was very quiet there, very little traffic, only agricultural noises of machinery and dogs
Pema Pera: yes, Arabella had found a real gem of a place for us to meet
Wol Euler: the valley was a few jhundred metres across and maybe 2km long, leading westwards to the sea
Widget Whiteberry amuses herself with the changing pattern we create round the pond
Wol Euler: so quiet that we could hear conversation from the other ridge, and sounds from the open end
Wol Euler: it was very windy, but not especially cold. The shutters and doors rattled
Eliza Madrigal smiles
arabella Ella: the wind played at being too
Wol Euler: we took blankets from the hotel, and sat in a circle wrapped up like cocooned caterpillars
Widget Whiteberry: Wol this is a lovely narrative
Wol Euler: much like being here, actually
Archmage Atlantis: For me, it was odd not to have at least some of you folks here ,
Wol Euler: people very quickly found favourite positions
Wol Euler: and I noticed that when we went to Ara's house for dinner on Friday night, people took roughly the same positoin
there that they had taken at the farmhouse

Wol Euler thinks.

That was something of a peak in the retreat, the silent day seemed to me to cement the group together: we were much more of an "us" after that, I felt.

~~

Pema Pera: the challenge will be perhaps to refrain from chit chat . . . MUCH harder than not speaking at all ! / like dieting being harder than giving up (smoking, drinking, etc)
Fael Illyar: can you define what is chit chat? :)
Pema Pera: no
Wol Euler: but you know it when you feel yourself about to say it :)
Wol Euler: at least, I learned that during the silent day.
Pema Pera: but we can collectively experiment with meaningful speech
Wol Euler: I was surprised and upset how much of what I felt like saying was pure "filler"
Pema Pera: learning to find your own inner compass
Maxine Walden: perhaps chit chat in this context might be to become swept up in the noise of the surrounding everyday city
Pema Pera: one option: think for two seconds before saying the sentence that was on the tip of your tongue
Wol Euler nods.
Pema Pera: like typing here -- deciding whether to hit return
Pema Pera: or just let it go
Maxine Walden: rather than hold space for inner discourse to emerge
Pema Pera visualizing a group of PaBers in a cafe, each with a beermat with "return" printed on it
Wol Euler: oh, that's an idea. Give out sentence tokens :) 10 per day
Wol Euler: to speak a sentence, you have to give up a token.
Pema Pera: if you go over your quota, you buy a round
Wol Euler: and then be silent
Maxine Walden: :))
Widget Whiteberry: perhaps should be a word token rather than a sentence token
Widget Whiteberry: kind of like twitter
Pema Pera: :-)
Wol Euler: :)
Riddle Sideways: hmmm both dieting and chit chat have the serious problem of when to keep month shut

       

Pema Pera: Malta itself was a big surprise: for such a small island nation, the variety was stunning
Pema Pera: within an area of roughly ten by twenty miles there was such a variety in cultural and natural history both
Pema Pera: you could walk a few hundred feet and find yourself in a different micro climate
Pema Pera: through the combination of hills and different soil and different wind patterns
Pema Pera: the visit to the hypogeum the first afternoon (while Wol was stuck in the snow) was also an early highlight: this is an underground place, constructed well over five thousand years ago, before pyramids and Stonehenge : the oldest underground temple
Pema Pera: built as if it was a normal building: with pillars and windows and a roof, all made to like like that, but carved into the walls of a natural labyrinth

Pema Pera: perhaps the most striking aspect of all that I learned was the sense of multiple aspects of reality
Pema Pera: how to put it into words . . . .
Pema Pera: the sense of being fully present within the story of daily life -- and totally accepting that aspect of what is real, and at the same time the sense of Being which transcends all stories, all realms, all that appears, and to find ways to acknowledge and appreciate both sides, simultaneously, without any kind of worry or hope or fear or expectation : very luxuriously, really :-)

Bleu Oleander: how is the sense of Being different from the story of daily life?
Pema Pera: within daily life we feel we have many needs, many plans and prospects and worries, and all that becomes transparent, so the speak, in the Light of Being
Pema Pera: the appearances are still there, but one doesn't feel bound by them to the usual degree
Bleu Oleander: different layers of being?
Pema Pera: different angles, yes, of what is the same thing ultimately
Maxine Walden: does being present in every moment of daily life, being really present there, does that seem to link with Being?
Pema Pera: in the world but not of the world -- in Christianity
Pema Pera: the two truths -- in Buddhism
Pema Pera: yes, that is a natural aspect of it, Maxine
Pema Pera: both a reflection of it, and a kind of portal into it

Pema Pera: another great experience was our walk through the Silent City at the end of the Silent Day
Pema Pera: another treat by Arabella

Pema Pera: the main point is to see what we are already doing: closing ourselves off every moment -- just relaxing that tendency is enough
Eos Amaterasu: giving in to the confidence of Being, holding your confidence in its hand
Pema Pera: !
Maxine Walden: the quiet non-arrogant confidence of Being

Pema Pera: the only way to invite that kind of direct insight is to open up for it, deemphasizing our usual own preoccupations and chatter -- we can't reach or grasp it
Lia Rikugun: the questioning is important for this
Lia Rikugun: questioning as a kind of path as eos said
Pema Pera: questioning how we keep obstructing our own insight, yes
Pema Pera: btw, one aspect of the retreat was similar to what happened in the previous two RL PaB retreats: that after a while everybody tended to have a kind of silly smile on their face, happiness without a reason; Mick was especially good at this, radiant really :-)
Wol Euler nods.

Pema Pera: so each day we already were invited to intregrate practice and daily life -- yes
Lia Rikugun: (hopefully)
Eos Amaterasu: keep that smile in the daily life activities
Pema Pera: insofar as daily life is drinking wine with good friends in ancient South European settings
Pema Pera: :-)
Wol Euler grins.
Lia Rikugun: hehe
Maxine Walden: ...bringing a smile of its own, the wine (!)
Pema Pera: and listening to Arabella's contagious laughter
Maxine Walden: amidst such wonderful surroundings
Lia Rikugun: yes!
Pema Pera: while she was telling us all "you are so stupid!!!"
arabella Ella giggles ...
Eos Amaterasu: and Maltese melodic speech
Pema Pera: yes!!
arabella Ella: oh yes the different accents each of us had!
Eos Amaterasu: interacting with the people providing us support of varous kinds
Maxine Walden: ah, what wonderful lyrical images...