Tag Archives: Life

Making Lemonade

Posted by on February 26, 2012 No comments

There’s an old saying “When life gives you Lemons, make Lemonade”.  It’s good advice and I’ve had time to reflect on it, given that life has indeed chosen to give me Lemons of late.  I’m going to post my thoughts on this with the hope that they will be beneficial for someone.

I found it very beneficial to take the view that these things can serve as a valuable lesson, if one decides to make the effort to learn from them.  It’s very easy to point out the faults of others, to deride them and place oneself above them.  To my disquiet, I became more aware of myself doing that and resolved to stop doing it.  As the situation I was in drew further on, I found that I was being moved to meditate on humility and finding compassion for others, whereas before I might not have been so understanding or compassionate.

Of course, my own faults were there too and their karma came into play, which taught me the importance of honestly acknowledging one’s own faults and resolving to address them.  This process of acknowledging your own faults builds humility, I found that it helped me in my efforts to view others and their faults and shortcomings in a more compassionate way.  It’s always worth remembering that while someone may not have your experience or skillset and seem helpless to you, the same is true from their perspective if the roles are reversed.  Remember what it was like for you when you were starting out.

Now the challenge is to apply all of this!

Second Life – A flawed masterpiece.

Posted by on January 15, 2012 No comments

For the last couple of years, I’ve been involved in the virtual world of Second Life. For the most part, this has been a rewarding experience. Although I have over time become more aware of some of the flaws. It’s been a disheartening thing, seeing a platform that I believe has real potential being held back by these flaws. Happily, the creators of Second Life under the guidance of Rod Humble are working to make the technology more accessible and easier to use, which is excellent news, and have plans to drive the world forward.

I see Second Life being used by numerous artists and other creatives. People the world over are able to tour art galleries and view works of sculpture. Further to this, Second Life makes art exhibits happen that are just not possible anywhere else. Concerts can be held and DJs can play virtual sets. I’ve listened to artists from across the world performing live from their own homes, so I know first hand that there is a live music scene in Second Life. All of this is available to you, as long as you have an internet connection. Remote location, or physical disability need present no obstacle to fulfilling Second Life.

Of course, my more usual field of comment is agnosticism, religion and spirituality. This area is most certainly catered for in Second Life. In my early days, I found a region called “Bodhi” which was well constructed and hid snippets of Dharma in gems around the landscape. Bodhi is now gone, to the best of my knowledge, but there are plenty of other places. The Skeptical Buddhists Sangha and Kannonji are just two such places with discussion and talks. Consulting the inworld search yields many more.  The odds are, if you enter your faith or lack thereof into Second Life search, it will be there.

In addition to this, there are many centres of learning, not just focussing on inworld skills but things of use outside of Second Life. You can also find support groups inworld for any number of things, and I find myself reflecting that if Second Life saves even one person through these groups. Or when it enables people to grow and reach nearer their potential through these classes, then it’s all been well worth it

The Life of The Buddha

Posted by on March 23, 2009 No comments

Well, I had an interesting experience in Secondlife last night, at a sim called “The Buddha Center” they showed a BBC video on the life of the Buddha.  As aide from the odd technical hiccup it was an enjoyable experience and when I found the video on YouTube, I thought I’d share it with everybody!

It’s 50 minutes in length, so be sure you have a cup of Tea when you click play, and the DVD purchase notice will vanish after the first 30 seconds or so.  :-)

Looking for meaning.

Posted by on February 10, 2009 No comments

I’ve been reflecting on the phrase “The Meaning of Life” recently. The feeling arose within me that a meaning would remove all uncertainty from our lives, and it would also absolve us of responsibility for finding our own direction in life.

But as surely as we would lose the responibility, we also would lose the power to change the story, to take control. Let’s consider an opposite idea then, what if there isn’t a meaning in the way we like to think? I think that the meaning is to live mindfully in the moment, no matter what you happen to be doing.

OK, consider, if life is lived in the moment. So by looking for a meaning of life outside of the moment, from some external source, does our search mean we then miss the meaning?

The prime of your life?

Posted by on February 8, 2009 No comments

A couple of people I know were talking the other day, one of them has just turned 24 and felt he was “getting old”. They were then saying that from mid-20′s to mid-30′s were the “best years, the prime, of your life”.

I’m thinking about blind acceptance of “common wisdom”, even when a little reflection will show it for the sham that it is. Surely, being in “your prime” is entirely attitude, there’s so much more to it than simple physical condition or age. In any event, our technology and extending lifespans are rewriting the rules as we go.

But even purely in physical condition terms, I’ve seen people at least 10 years older than me walk into the gym and match the younger gym rats in terms of performance.

Perhaps the notion of “prime of life” is inaccurate? I think it’s not the possession of a physical or mental condition, but its expression. It’s not what you’ve got but how you use it?

Seperation of the Metaverse

Posted by on February 3, 2009 2 comments

If you read me regularly, you’ll know I’m a Secondlifer.  I’m happy being involved in the Metaverse, and I think it can make positive changes in the way we communicate and interact.

What interests me recently, is the amount of people who absolutely seperate “Second Life” (SL) from “Real Life” (RL).  In short, the total denial of the outside world.

I think that we can, due to this seperation, risk losing sight of our ethics in SL.  That’s a thought, does the Dharma go with us into the virtual?  In my mind the answer is a firm yes, as even though you have a virtual representation (an “Avatar”) it’s the same mind doing the piloting, you’re still you.  Regardless of whether behaviour is virtual or not, it can still be unskillful in the Buddhist sense.

SL is a very complex, flexible, powerful platform.  There’s a lot of potential for both good and bad in there.    It’s easy to get lost and to deny the outside world, but also to start neglecting our real needs and those of our nearest and dearest.  It’s also possible to hurt them very deeply, romantic affairs in SL do happen and there have been some that have hit the media when they ended in divorces.

I think that other worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft) are like application software, but SL is like an operating system, you can build worlds and applications within it.  I’ve explored virtual landscapes and cities and seen entire imaginary worlds inside SL, I’ve attended meetings of more than one virtual Buddhist group.  I’ve also created things in there, I have an idea of what it could do and that’s far more than any mere game.

It’s very important that we approach this whole thing carefully, this virtual universe is not seperate, wishful thinking won’t change that and using it to “escape” our real world issues is very ill advised.  I know that SL can be used to raise awareness of world issues and I do believe that SL is at it’s best when used to enhance our Real World communication ability especially in Education.

But to simply use it as a fantasist escape and to try to enforce some sort of schizophrenic seperation from reality?  I think that misses out a huge amount of it’s potential and opens some very dangerous doors indeed.