RFers on Second Life (virtual)

[lilithu]

Originally Posted by Scarlett Wampus

Fascinating. I just think I got a dose of the fantasy role-playing element of SL.

I was flying around when I noticed a Japanese style garden below me. I explored it a bit and found places to practice massage and a shrine to meditate next to. After sitting for a few minutes and wondering why anyone would want to emulate something like massage in SL the owner/creator of the place arrived, bowed and greeted me in Japanese. Luckily he spoke French and English too so we could chat. It turned out he was a Kyudo archery enthusiast and had built a virtual training hall for it in SL! He told me to follow him and he walked me to it. I waited outside until I'd taken my shoes off which pleased him then he proceeded to get his bow and fire arrows at the targets. A little while later he showed me pictures of his teachers that decorated the walls. We chatted about the benefits of martial discipline for a while and he gave me a marker for a place to practice virtual Tai Chi! His neighbour started calling him so he had to leave after that.

That such things happen on RL is all so odd and kind of wonderful too. I've think I've got mild cyber-culture shock.

Well the promise of SL is that it's more than just fantasy/role playing. The promise is that it can be a virtual space where people from all over the world can meet "face-to-face" to conduct their business, whether that be actual business or hobbies/organizing/etc. And where people can train/practice to do things in virtual space that they might not be able to do in real space.

You know several times I have sat in the UUSL space on the zazen cushions with the sounds of the water falling and the birds chirping and the wind blowing, and I think... this is weird, why not just go outside and sit and listen to real nature? Why not actually meditate? But yesterday, in the moments of silence sitting with you and UU_sage and others, there were moments when it seemed to make sense to me in an odd way.

[Feathers in Hair]

There is flying? And zazen cushions?! Ack- you're killing me!

[Scarlett Wampus]

Originally Posted by lilithu

You know several times I have sat in the UUSL space on the zazen cushions with the sounds of the water falling and the birds chirping and the wind blowing, and I think... this is weird, why not just go outside and sit and listen to real nature? Why not actually meditate? But yesterday, in the moments of silence sitting with you and UU_sage and others, there were moments when it seemed to make sense to me in an odd way.

Now that I'm finding my feet I feel similar. For instance, I've found there are classes in specialised IT training that are relevant to me and I've just joined a meditation discussion group ran by a lay monk. I didn't search for these things I bumped into individuals who led me to them and that's partly why SL makes more sense to me now.

Feathers in Hair there is flying and even flying Zazen cushions if you want

[Kungfuzed]

Well, now that I've got a new computer I'm finally on SL. I'm Kungfuzed Kidd and got completely lost today. I wandered around teleporting from place to place for about 3 hours. I really need someone to show me the ropes. I still have a cheesy default avatar and haven't customized anything yet. Seems like everywhere I went there was hardly anyone around. It was the middle of the day so maybe there's more people there in the evening, but I work evenings now. So far I haven't found anything to do there. Everywhere I go it's either a mall or a beach. Let's all get togther sometime in SL.