In Journey to Ixtlan, by Carlos Castenada, Don Juan, his teacher tells him that you either make your self miserable or you make yourself strong, either way it takes about the same effort. I find that statement to be one of the most valuable teachings I have ever encountered. It has been running around in my head for more than thirty years. I hope it keeps on running.
Don Juan’s teachings have certainly informed my way of teaching and developing Lost Coin. I’ve made it part of our matrix – our ground and style- because it’s so direct, so inspiring it’s so no bullshit – true.
You either make yourself miserable or you make yourself strong. Our life, our death, our choice.
I just asked my students to join Second Life so we can have virtual meetings there at my home in Second Life. Its a great open-ended virtual world. (You can easily avoid the furry creatures who think you’re hot) Some will find my request odd, others won’t. I want it to be a kind of challenge.
You either close up and remain in what you know or you open up and embrace your changing world and life. Either way it takes about the same effort.
photo credit: scalespeeder
Each post here on this blog comes as a surprise, but this one caught me specially unprepared.
Maybe it’s because Lost Coin cannot be put in any box and has a somewhat shapeshifting nature – it always stays interesting, always fresh. (When you think it’s Zen, it turns Fourth Way, when you think it’s that it goes Castaneda etc. – turning wheel)
Now: meetings in Second Life. I’ve heard this many times before. Both by traditional education and socalled “spiritual” groups. But I’m really interested how you’re gonna go for it. Much of what I’ve seen in the online learning world is getting lost in the hype about the technology. The real magic happens when people go beyond the honey-moon infatuation stage re: Tech and start using it as tools, as in the old carrying water, chopping wood saying, only that now it’s moving data, debugging code.
And nevermind the furry creatures. Their wants and worries are equally valid.
P.S: will coordinates be made public?
@Andre
Thanks once again Andre for your insightful and supportive comments. I love SL there is so much potential there I think. I believe I was the first “Acknowledged” Zen teacher to teach on SL at a place called Zen Center. Take a look at Zen Center if you haven’t seen it.
Yes the coordinates will be available. I have a modest tatami style house but hope at some point that Lost Coin will have its own island. (If we all chip in its not to bad)
I am not going to worry about the furry things as someone just turned me into a bunch of smoke yesterday, but then who knows what the furries like:)
I am having my first interview with a student at my place this week.
Thanks again.
I have to admit re: this post I’m stuck. I love how i spend my free time. i like adventure but not necessarily of the technological kind. I know practice is about priorities, but if i have an hour or two after returning home from work, where i spend a fair amount of time on a computer, i gravitate to the outdoors. On the weekends, i jump on the computer for minutes, I’m on the computer now in fact, but it is for a moment. A moment after a hike before i head out to the garden. I wonder how i will make the time for class, for sitting, and for a computer game – knowing it is stretching me, good for me in fact – without getting grumpy – esp if the sun is out or the snow is falling? But there in lies the challenge…once i have access to my real computer again (it has been overtaken by a 16 year old who loves video games) … i will give it a try!
Oh Liz, this is what´s moving me thinking about it. There´s so much time I´m spending on working in my job, partialy in front of my computer. And then in my freetime there is sitting, reading, martial arts, and a man who,at least sometimes, desires my attention. Every new activity forces me to neglect one of my others, I´m still looking for more opportunities to realyse my arts (I like to draw and started to do Photographie).
So gaming to me looks like just something needless with a big demand on my schedule. That´s one of the reasons I rarely watch TV anymore!
But I will give it a try, especially because at the moment I´m so lucky to have a lot of extra time for my self after an operation I had (nothing serious!)- I´m not aloud to do sports or go to work for about 6 weeks. It´s a gift of a perfect timing! I just need access to my other computer, too, it has been overtaken by a 46 year old who loves to spend a lot of time with it (although not gaming)!
Of course you are right, Annette and Liz, that it will require some time to play Second Life. When Sensei asked us for joining it, I was just curious and thought why not trying this. I never have played computer games before, except Solitaire and Mahjong. Already the first step – finding a name for my avatar – was interesting and I actually spent some time with thinking about how I would like to be called. Then I chose the first appearance of my avatar. Unfortunately the whole adventure ended at that point when I found out that Second Life doesn’t run on my notebook. Too bad, I just started to catch fire…..
I think that playing Second Life and meeting people there we know for real would be an interesting experience. In my view it can be a possibility to get in touch with ourselves in a way we usually wouldn’t do and make us more conscious of our wishes and desires and how we perceive ourselves. When I am thinking about creating my avatar, what name I would give her, how I want her to look, what she will do and what she will be in Second Life I am very much on the traces of myself. Of what I would like to do and what I would like to be and what I might have been. So maybe Second Life can be a tool to get to know us better in First Life.
@Annette and Liz,
Second life is not a game. Many major corporations and universities are active on it. You are both physical people. This is to stretch your mind.
This is not really about recreation its about Lost Coins practice. Please think about it.
@Gertje
Yes Gertje you can learn quite a bit about yourself. Also – when I taught on SL I met people who were Zen students for all over the world as well as professors studying immersion and social patterns. But what I am most interested in is it is a way for all of Lost Coin to meet at the same time, as well as the learning. I appreciate your openness.
I’m finding SL very interesting. It hadn’t occurred to me that I don’t have time to learn something new (which had I thought about it, I would have decided that I DON’T have time for it, with work and everything else going on in my life). So I just plunged into it.
As far as the time it takes up goes, I find myself spending more time at it than I would like to, because the time taken there has eaten into the time I would have spent further developing my website (which is my koan/practice/project). So the solution for me is to budget my time better. Now that I’ve set up my avatar (I can tweak it little by little), and learned how to move around, I can exert some self control, and spend only as much time in SL as I feel is appropriate.
It is actually a recurring pattern of mine to become absolutely fanatical about whatever new interest or project I become involved in – and not keep up with other areas of my life.
So like everything else, it presents a new opportunity for observing myself, and taking responsibility for what I do and how I spend my time.
I’ve tried to experiment for some days with the idea that it takes the same effort to make myself miserable or to make myself strong. It brings up two things for me. First, it makes me look at negative thoughts just as energy. Seen in this way, they are becoming just another thing to play with. The second thing is, can we learn to take all this energy for just ONE thing?
I like what you are saying Chris. As for SL, it is showing me crazy stuff about real life and I haven’t even DONE anything yet! (which is one of the things it’s showing me.)
I think I know what you mean, Rebecca. I miss you all and I’d love to see you on SL. Unfortunately, my old iBpok doesn’t have the processor needed to install the SL software. It makes my mind run wild. I’m intellectualizing all over on the topic. I love to try to find solutions for technical problems. But didn’t I plan to buy a new computer anyway before this one breaks down? Ok, it’s a Mac, but it’s six years old, and even beautiful white iBooks won’t be forever. On the other hand, isn’t it snobby to buy a computer while the old one is still ok just to be able to join SL? And there were all those rumors about the computer fabrics in China. Do I care enough about the Chinese workers for not buying a new computer? How can I check if there are companies that the conditions have changed? Or I try again to find an older version of the software that works on my iBook? Aren’t technical problems more interesting than new computers (remember the Russian space platform Mir in the film Armageddon?)? But isn’t it more fun to buy a new laptop? I love computers. For the moment, I decided to keep my old iBook and try to find a way to get into SL. So, even without having the technical devices to join the party yet, I’m learning a lot about myself from SL (for example that things don’t get easier if I make them complicated).
I agree with you totally. Please write more.