Day 60

Day 60 06/22/2010 -

Dear All,

Day 60 today, only 40 more days to go till the Nova Scotia retreat.

Yesterday Bleu led a fabulous opening of the inspiring Being in/as Time
exhibit that she had organized. It was attended by about 20 guardians.
During the one and a half hours of the meeting, many of us got a chance
to talk about the SL-based photos that we had contributed.

Bleu asked me to introduce the Time part of the exhibit topic, and I
tried to keep it brief. All I said was:

[14:09] Pema Pera: Time is such a mystery to me that all I want to do
is point out how little we know about it
[14:09] Pema Pera: One possible starting point for an exploration is
to look at how Being plays us
[14:09] Pema Pera: it may be that time, whatever it is, is what
expresses Being in allowing Being to play us
[14:10] Pema Pera: so instead of us taking a stance of ownership of
time (I have time, I don't have enough time)
[14:10] Pema Pera: we could acknowledge time as playing us -- as the
second in command of Being, so to speak (all metaphorical of
course)

I'd like to say just a bit more, and then talk with you all about it,
during a theme meeting later this week, on Friday, June 25, 7 am SLT.
Eliza, guardian for that slot, has kindly agreed to be co-moderator.

I have one question for all of you: if you have time and interest,
please try to do the following experiment/exercise/exploration in RL,
before joining us on Friday morning in SL:

Look around in your environment, and pick up a simple natural
object, a stone or a piece of wood, or anything that speaks to you.
Put it in front of you, relax, and look at it for a while, gently,
with soft eyes. Perhaps you can just look with the eyes of your
heart, whatever that may mean for you. Don't hurry, just gently
watch the object for a while.

Once you have become comfortable with the object, feel/sense how
time is presenting this object, in all its particularity. Let
time present the object anew at each and every moment. While
focusing on that momentary newness, try to also feel some of the
timelessness and completeness of each presentation. You don't have
to just stare, you can pick up the little thing, feels its weight
and texture, befriend and greet it in any way you like. Sure, it
is timeless, but so are you, and that may be a good place to meet!

Finally, when you're really at ease with the whole situation,
slowly extend your consideration beyond the particular object to
include more and more of its surroundings. You can start with
what is given in its immediate neighborhood, what it rests on,
what surrounds it. See all of that, too, as given by time. And
little by little, you can extend that context to include more and
more, as far as the eye can see and beyond, finally including the
whole Earth and ultimately the whole universe in which the object
is embedded.

See everything as presented by time, anew in each moment, the
object and the whole world that supports it. Is there a way in
which it makes sense to see the object _as_ time in some sense?
Can you see time as playing the object perhaps? You can explore
what it may mean to let Being play through time as the object and
the whole Universe around the object. Being letting time play you
play as Being.

Well, that's a lot, for sure! Better not to try it all at once, or
you might overdose. :-) You can start your first session, just a few
minutes, say, with the suggestions in the first paragraph. Then a few
more minutes, perhaps later in the day, on the second paragraph. And
so on, whatever feels right for you.

And no rush! We'll talk about our initial impressions on Friday, but
I'd be more than happy to come back to this exploration a number of
times. I feel it can be a really rich entry into a different world
in which time can take on quite a different meaning from our normal
clock time or I'm-just-too-busy-today time. Why not invite some magic
into your life by looking at what is closest and yet strangest: time!

See you Friday morning,
Pema