Meeting in-person
14 years 1 month ago #3499
by Jackson
Meeting in-person was created by Jackson
I met Ian (
ianreclus
) for happy hour at Yuki Japanese restaurant in the Nob Hill area of Portland after work yesterday. He had a chance to introduce me to his friend Solomon, who he met through a meditation group here. We arranged the get-together because Ian and I have been talking a lot about qi gung and energy work in general, and Solomon has some experience with these things. Solomon is in his last year of studies in natural medicine, happens to have quite a bit of meditation experience, and is well acquainted with Daniel Ingram’s work, as well as the goings on at the DhO and KFDh over the years. It’s fair to say that we had a wide variety of conversation topics to choose from 
I’m a bit of a chatterbox, so I ended up doing more than my fair share of the talking. I think I we all would have benefitted more from the conversation if I would have listened more, as usual. That said, it has been good for me to learn how to talk about practice in-person. The majority of conversations I have regarding meditation/spiritual practice have occurred online, and that continues to be the case. Ian’s move to Portland has provided the opportunity for this habit to get balanced out. Being able to see the nonverbal cues of the people I converse with, in both speaking and listening, has provided a wonderful platform for personal growth in this area.
I won’t provide the details of our discussion, because writing down would do it justice. But, I can provide some of the things we talked about…
Nutrition and practice. (Does it matter?)
Is perfection possible? (Is it even the point?)
Dealing with sticky spots in practice.
Clarifying terms (e.g. “causal state”, “Witness”, and some others).
Daniel Ingram’s “carrot hanging from a stick” (i.e. being “enlightened” or “done”).
How understanding the way energy works in the body can aid other forms of practice.
Different ways of administering/ingesting herbs.
Difficulties in trying to use local herbs instead of the established Chinese varieties.
Are sticky spots karmic blockages (subtle body-based) or due to organic system functioning (gross body-based)? Is there really a distinction? (I’d love to get more into that one.)
Rumi’s “Guest House” as insight practice.
We only conversed for a little under two hours. Still, it’s amazing how much comes up when you don’t have to type everything out!
I sincerely wish it were possible to get more members of this forum to spend time together in-person. I imagine we would all have a really, really good time.
I’m a bit of a chatterbox, so I ended up doing more than my fair share of the talking. I think I we all would have benefitted more from the conversation if I would have listened more, as usual. That said, it has been good for me to learn how to talk about practice in-person. The majority of conversations I have regarding meditation/spiritual practice have occurred online, and that continues to be the case. Ian’s move to Portland has provided the opportunity for this habit to get balanced out. Being able to see the nonverbal cues of the people I converse with, in both speaking and listening, has provided a wonderful platform for personal growth in this area.
I won’t provide the details of our discussion, because writing down would do it justice. But, I can provide some of the things we talked about…
Nutrition and practice. (Does it matter?)
Is perfection possible? (Is it even the point?)
Dealing with sticky spots in practice.
Clarifying terms (e.g. “causal state”, “Witness”, and some others).
Daniel Ingram’s “carrot hanging from a stick” (i.e. being “enlightened” or “done”).
How understanding the way energy works in the body can aid other forms of practice.
Different ways of administering/ingesting herbs.
Difficulties in trying to use local herbs instead of the established Chinese varieties.
Are sticky spots karmic blockages (subtle body-based) or due to organic system functioning (gross body-based)? Is there really a distinction? (I’d love to get more into that one.)
Rumi’s “Guest House” as insight practice.
We only conversed for a little under two hours. Still, it’s amazing how much comes up when you don’t have to type everything out!
I sincerely wish it were possible to get more members of this forum to spend time together in-person. I imagine we would all have a really, really good time.
14 years 1 month ago #3501
by Chris Marti
Replied by Chris Marti on topic Meeting in-person
Jackson got religion
14 years 1 month ago #3504
by Ona Kiser
Replied by Ona Kiser on topic Meeting in-person
I keep in touch with a lot of dharma colleagues through regular skype video calls, which is not too far from having coffee in person. Sometimes we even have coffee. 
I find it much better than email etc because you can include gesture and so on. As close to face-to-face as some of us get very often, living thousands of miles apart. We've tried a few group skype calls but the technology is a bit clunky and the video problems made it distracting. The only better thing is that in person you can go on and on for hours, while doing many other things. That said, I sometimes chat on skype while making dinner, washing dishes, and so on. Burning up the bandwidth.
I find it much better than email etc because you can include gesture and so on. As close to face-to-face as some of us get very often, living thousands of miles apart. We've tried a few group skype calls but the technology is a bit clunky and the video problems made it distracting. The only better thing is that in person you can go on and on for hours, while doing many other things. That said, I sometimes chat on skype while making dinner, washing dishes, and so on. Burning up the bandwidth.
13 years 9 months ago #3512
by duane_eugene_miller
Any chance DFRC might add a mp3 or audio upload section for these sorts of conversations? Then you/we could talk and listen as much as we wanted/needed.
I really gained a lot from listening to the Hurricane Ranch talks on Ingram's site and Vincent Horn's interviews on Buddhist Geeks. It's really great to be able to hear how jazzed up they all are about this stuff. Very motivating and destroys some of the misconceptions that Buddhists are all spaced out hippies.
Just a thought:)
Replied by duane_eugene_miller on topic Meeting in-person
I think I we all would have benefitted more from the conversation if I would have listened more, as usual.
-awouldbehipster
Any chance DFRC might add a mp3 or audio upload section for these sorts of conversations? Then you/we could talk and listen as much as we wanted/needed.
I really gained a lot from listening to the Hurricane Ranch talks on Ingram's site and Vincent Horn's interviews on Buddhist Geeks. It's really great to be able to hear how jazzed up they all are about this stuff. Very motivating and destroys some of the misconceptions that Buddhists are all spaced out hippies.
Just a thought:)