2009.03.11 19:00 - Ganesh, the elephant boy

The Guardian for this meeting was stevenaia Michinaga. The comments are by stevenaia Michinaga.

Pila Mulligan,Adelene Dawner and I spend the meeting discussing Hindu deities and and webcomic

stevenaia Michinaga: hi Pila

Pila Mulligan: hi Steve

Pila Mulligan: how are you?

stevenaia Michinaga: good, was a bit tired earlier, so if I nod out you know why

Pila Mulligan: :)

stevenaia Michinaga: you mentioned the other night about Hinduism and Buddhism, didn't Buddhism evolve from Hinduism

Pila Mulligan: in the sense the Christianity followed Judaism, insofar as I understand it -- they came form the same locales and ideas

stevenaia Michinaga: thought so, have dome much religious study, you seem familiar with aspects of many

Pila Mulligan: Buddhists are just the smartest religion in the world, as far as I can see, and Hindus are a mishamsh of numerous ideas

stevenaia Michinaga: *some

Pila Mulligan: but I love the Hindu gods -- especially Ganesh

Pila Mulligan: the elephant boy

stevenaia Michinaga: Gods, representing aspects of the spirit world?

Pila Mulligan: well, Gods in the old greek sense too

Pila Mulligan: like Zeus et al

Pila Mulligan: the Hindu trinity is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva

Pila Mulligan: Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the preserver and Shiva is the destroyer

stevenaia Michinaga: What? the christian trinity isn;t unique..grins

Pila Mulligan: :)

Pila Mulligan: it is unique if you listen to Christian intellectuals :)

stevenaia Michinaga: of course

Adelene Dawner: what now, Pila?

stevenaia Michinaga: hello Ade

Pila Mulligan: hi Ade

stevenaia Michinaga: pet pet

Pila Mulligan: how be ye?

stevenaia Michinaga: pick a lap, any lap

Adelene Dawner: but, but, dun wanna pick ^.^

stevenaia Michinaga: n.p.

Pila Mulligan: we had just begun to name the Hindu pantheon :)

stevenaia Michinaga: of which I know just about nothing

Adelene Dawner: Ah ^.^

Pila Mulligan: Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the preserver and Shiva is the destroyer

Pila Mulligan: the best known deities of India are probably Krishna and Rama -- they are avatars of Vishnu

Adelene Dawner: If you say so.

stevenaia Michinaga: yes, they used to visit me at the airports in the 70's

Pila Mulligan: the two most beloved classics of India are their stories -- the Ramayana and the Mahabarata

Pila Mulligan: the coolest god ever invented is Ganesh, the elephant boy, son of Shiva

stevenaia Michinaga: what's his claim to fame?

Adelene Dawner: Now Ganesh, I know, 'cause one of his avatars is a character in a webcomic I follow. And yes, he's awesome. ^.^

Pila Mulligan: probably that there are more festivals for Ganesh than any other god in history :)

Pila Mulligan: he is truly adorable

stevenaia Michinaga: a party god?

Pila Mulligan: his first roll actually is god of the bath :)

Pila Mulligan: role*

stevenaia Michinaga: nots

Pila Mulligan: as the story goes ....

stevenaia Michinaga: nods

stevenaia Michinaga: rather

Pila Mulligan:

   

Shiva was off on one of his god campaigns, leaving his wife Shakti at home
unbeknownst to Shiva, while he was gone for many god years, shakti bore his son, Ganesh
at that time Ganesh was just a regular god-boy
so Shiva comes home from his battles
and it just so happens that Shakti, not expecting him, had gone to take a bath
and she had told Ganesh to guard the door while she was bathing
so the boy is standing before the door when Shiva and all his warriors approach the house
Shiva starts to enter the house and Ganesh says my mom told me to guard the door
Shiva orders Ganesh to stand aside and Ganesh gives him a stinky look
so Shiva tells one of his warriors to remove the boy from the door
but the warrior is unable to remove Ganesh
so shiva draws his sword and chops off the boys head and goes inside
 when he finds Shakti in the bathtub, she tells him Ganesh is their son
so Shiva goes back outside and chops the head off his favorite elephant and puts it on the boys shoulders
hence we have Ganesh as he appears now :)

   

stevenaia Michinaga: great stories, Pila

Pila Mulligan: :)

Pila Mulligan: Ganesh is the coolest god ever

stevenaia Michinaga: so he lives again with the head of an elephant?

Pila Mulligan: yep -- and he becomes the unquestioned favorite deity of India

Pila Mulligan: in terms of festivals

Pila Mulligan: I probably have half a dozen ganesh statutes around my house, and that is a paltry number compared to houses in India

Pila Mulligan: it is just a cheerful image

Pila Mulligan: what is the webcomic you mentioned Ade?

Adelene Dawner: Ursula Vernon's Digger.

Pila Mulligan: wish I could gte broadband :)

Pila Mulligan: get*

stevenaia Michinaga: images on Google images

Adelene Dawner: The archive is paid-account only for the last few months, but most of the archive is free, and the whole thing it going to be opened up soon, I hear.

Adelene Dawner: http://www.diggercomic.com/

Pila Mulligan: what is the ganesh character's name?

Adelene Dawner: ohhh, new layout... and, hey! Archive!

Adelene Dawner: Just Ganesh... the avatar in question is a talking statue of Ganesh, so...

Pila Mulligan: :)

Adelene Dawner: http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=7

Pila Mulligan: wow, there he is :)

Adelene Dawner: mmhmm :)

Pila Mulligan: is the main character a mouse

Adelene Dawner: Anthropomorphic wombat. :)

Pila Mulligan: ahh, of course

Adelene Dawner: ...which is actually pretty *normal*, for Vernon's art.

Pila Mulligan: the old hominid Australian marsupial

Adelene Dawner: http://www.metalandmagic.com/modules...a915bcb89d2f69

Pila Mulligan: I got caught up reading the panels you sent, and the next ones :)

Adelene Dawner: noooo, Pila. There's, um, well over a thousand of them?

Adelene Dawner: Wait 'till you have time.

Adelene Dawner: Like, a day or two. ^.^

Adelene Dawner: *checks* okay, nearing 700. Still.

Pila Mulligan: :)

Pila Mulligan tears himself away for the cartoon

stevenaia Michinaga: hehe

Adelene Dawner: ^.^

stevenaia Michinaga: there's a reason they are so popular

Pila Mulligan: i see

Adelene Dawner: You'll enjoy it, Pila. ^.^

stevenaia Michinaga: hello Antaries

Pila Mulligan: bookmarked

Adelene Dawner: :D

stevenaia Michinaga: feel free to join us

Pila Mulligan: flew de coup

stevenaia Michinaga: noob

Adelene Dawner: Updates quite reliably on Tuesdays and Thursdays - I think we've missed less than 5, all told, including the two the week where the artist's computer was stolen.

Pila Mulligan: is that theft of intellectual property :)

Adelene Dawner: *snerk*

Pila Mulligan: I tried to interest a lawyer friend in PAB today

stevenaia Michinaga: he on SL?

Pila Mulligan: he went to divinity school before law school

Pila Mulligan: not yet

Pila Mulligan: time will tell

Pila Mulligan: old fut like myself

Adelene Dawner: :)

stevenaia Michinaga: SL comes in all ages

Adelene Dawner: I have someone to bring, too... one of these days. Not sure if she has a regular SL account tho.

Pila Mulligan: actually the suggestion was to try PaB and avoid SL :)

Adelene Dawner: One of the clients from our Teen Grid gig.

Pila Mulligan: cool

Pila Mulligan: a teen then?

Adelene Dawner: Nope. One of the organizers.

Pila Mulligan: PaB seems to be G rated

Adelene Dawner suddenly finds herself having trouble with words...

stevenaia Michinaga: hardly

Pila Mulligan: really Steve?

Adelene Dawner: Teens aren't allowed in SL-proper anyway.

Adelene Dawner: And no, definitely not G.

stevenaia Michinaga: well, so I am told...grin

Pila Mulligan: I've never seen any off color ... whoops, take it back

stevenaia Michinaga: you don;t get out much, do you Pila

Adelene Dawner: hehehe

Pila Mulligan: PaB not SL :)

stevenaia Michinaga: ok, true

Pila Mulligan: only a few times have I seen off color word sin Pab, and they have been mine :)

Pila Mulligan: shit once and fuck once actually

Pila Mulligan: otherwise, clean as a whistle here

stevenaia Michinaga: I;m shocked!!!!!

Pila Mulligan: me too

Pila Mulligan: maybe it was in IMs :)

Adelene Dawner: Anyway, she's a history person - North Dakota historical society staffer. Thought it'd be an interesting counterpoint to the no time discussions to have her here sometime. :)

Pila Mulligan: North Dakota is probably a pretty timeless place

Pila Mulligan: timeless*

stevenaia Michinaga: hello Ray

Pila Mulligan: is she an Indian Ade?

Ray Schmid: hello stevenaia

Pila Mulligan: lots of Indian history there

Ray Schmid: I'm new here

Adelene Dawner: not to the best of my knowledge.

Pila Mulligan: have a seat if you like Ray

stevenaia Michinaga: grab a notecard in the blue thing in front of you

Ray Schmid: I want to, but where are seats?

stevenaia Michinaga: there are pillows here

Ray Schmid: I found it

stevenaia Michinaga: we are a regular discussion group that meets here

Pila Mulligan: we and a few dozen more, from time to time

Ray Schmid: umm what should I do with this card

stevenaia Michinaga: read it

Ray Schmid: mm my computer is too slow

stevenaia Michinaga: we record our conversations and post them on a wiki, it that ok if we include you?

Pila Mulligan: I have the slow computer problem also Ray

Ray Schmid: I may have to use another computer. Let me see if there is any available. see you then. thanks

Pila Mulligan: ok

Pila Mulligan: sounds like an office or university

stevenaia Michinaga: n.p. we are here at 1:00 and 7:00 am and pm

stevenaia Michinaga: did he say yes to the record question?

Pila Mulligan: he did not answer yet

Adelene Dawner: gone, now.

Pila Mulligan: looking for something else to use

stevenaia Michinaga: nods

Pila Mulligan: how's tai chi Steve?

stevenaia Michinaga: beginning second 8 weeks, time to focus on the grace of it all, the teacher is good

stevenaia Michinaga: walking through water and all that :)

Pila Mulligan: I found the video I wanted to send you a month or so ago -- the one I sent was just a substitute

stevenaia Michinaga: would love to see it when you find it, half the time she wasn't facing the camera

Pila Mulligan: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...q=wu+chi&hl=en

Pila Mulligan: speaking of grace :)

stevenaia Michinaga: not exactly the form we do

Pila Mulligan: yes, this video is w style -- I think yours is closer to yang style (that was in the first video)

Pila Mulligan: wu*

stevenaia Michinaga: yes

stevenaia Michinaga: as far as I;ve taken it

Pila Mulligan: but this video shows the movement with chi really well

Adelene Dawner: mmf. words bad. home now. cya next time. *purr purr*

Pila Mulligan: you can really see how her movement is connected with her internal energy

Pila Mulligan: bye Ade

Pila Mulligan: my feeling is that in the end the value of all practices is mostly physical

stevenaia Michinaga: as is meditation for the mind

Pila Mulligan: even meditation ultimately has most of its value in the physical:)

Pila Mulligan: odd as that may sound

Pila Mulligan: but this is the world according to Pila, not any orthodoxy

stevenaia Michinaga: grins

Pila Mulligan: the opening and dropping and emptying people refer to is really physical stuff

stevenaia Michinaga: if it works for you, .....

Pila Mulligan: yep

stevenaia Michinaga: well I must go, thanks for the company

Pila Mulligan: nice to see you Steve

stevenaia Michinaga: always for me too

Pila Mulligan: aloha