Time passes and Second life is just that... A second life... some other thing that doesn't hold much interest. Living in the modern world we all seem so busy... doing, doing, doing... How shall we fit this Second Life into our already too full first life? It might just be me, and my wife, and my friends... that all seem to be busy, busy people? Why is it that everyone seems to be so busy? What are we actually doing with our time? What is it that takes up so much of our lives? Maybe we work a lot, probably not less than 50% of our waking lives? Then there is travel to and from our work, keeping up with our friends, housework, answering emails, socialising? What about volunteering at your meditation centre or charitable cause? something worth while at least! But what about the big picture? What are we actually doing with our lives? Why is it that we are here? It seems to me that not many people have even looked that deeply into it. Most people seem to sleep walk through their lives, going from one pleasurable experience to the next, trying to avoid anything painful or disturbing or uncomfortable, unless it is happening to someone else and we are quite sure that they are actors... Second Life is no exception to this. With an online currency valued at about 250 units (Linden) to US$1 and buying about the same unit for unit as in the First Life world (50L for a pair of shoes = US$50 for a pair of shoes) it seems so bizarre that people who are actually logged onto this 'Game' are actually intentionally engaging their online persona in banal, pointless activities for fractions of cents an hour! This suggests to me that they have as little idea about why they are in this Second Life as they have about their First Life... Could we be lacking on a Worldwide level an actual purpose to our existance? Could we collectively be searching and not finding? could we be following the line thinking that those at the front already have what we haven't? Without actually examining this at any depth how will we ever know that we are not satisfied by the persuit of Money, Fame, Property, Sex, Alcohol, Drugs, even by the capture of another human being as our personal companion??? So what is it that we are doing here??? Aren't we trying to find our true nature? Our true potential? What would that look like if we could collectively find that together? All in one moment and keep moving forward from there? Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing, wouldn't it be a wonderful world to live in then? Wouldn't that be the True Second Life of Humanity... Casting off this culture of ego, of limitation, of lack and wanting... Instead creating together a Culture of Unity, Oneness, Love and Care for the whole, the whole of Humanity and the Universe!!! Lets start now! I suggest that Second Life is a good medium to explore this coming together, beyond geographic separation, beyond gender separation, beyond age and physical differences... Lets start now!

I decided that I would only go online with second life as much as I could afford in time to blog my experiences, thus keeping the time drain of this experiment to a minimum. One of the things I found about this game was it's instantly addictive nature. I was well aware that it was a potentially life eating experience... The sheer beauty of the game environment and the possibilties at hand do hold a huge allure. After my first night online I felt a shifting of my attention back to this 'game'. I had to make agreements with myself as to how long I would spend online and what I had to acheive workwise before I was allowed to. An hour seemed to be a reasonable amount of time and all of my work seemed to be a reasonable amount of work... This was to be a strictly leisure time engagement... But just how much leisure time is there when you are trying to start a new business, have a relationship, are in a band and have spiritual practice to keep up with? How much engagement will it take to find out just what the potential of such an environment is? How not to get sucked into the distractions of the virtual world? Clear goals and targets seems to be the most sane and measurable way of gauging progress... The primary goal to make contacts and gain the gig. A big job in itself... contacting the right people, negotiating the terms... getting people to attend the gig... Surely that will include promotion in game and out of game... what would this look like? How to impress upon those who spend so much time in game that the real world is a dirty tired place by comparrison? How much time is a reasonable amount of time to spend on such a persuit? How long before I need to bring the others into the game to start preparing them for the performance? Logistics of the performace? I really know nothing about the capabilities of the game environment... Is it possible to have movie screens in game? What about projectors? I've already seen club lighting and lazers... will Jody perform live as his Avitar or will we rely on some other method? Where will the possibilities end? And how much time will it take to acheive it?

So last night I was told, among other things, that I had been chosen as the online representative of the evolutionary multi-media performance group 'Neosonic' (of which I have been a member for over a year). I was instructed to get myself into Second Life and organise a gig... That was more or less the sum total of my instructions. Now as a reformed and self-confessed Game Geek I approached this with trepidation. I had heard reports of the game being all consuming and addictive... This was not going to be my best area of defence. Still as possibly the most net savvy of our four I was keen to do my part and explore the possibilities of presenting what we believe to be the most evolutionary and forward thinking multi-media act around in the most cutting edge and revolutionary computer game environment known to man (and woman). The difficulties started straight away, with trying to choose a name for my Avatar, one of the few things in game that would not be changeable later... I didn't want to escape my First Life identity so tried to choose something that was similar (being given a list of last names and the opportunity to type anything at all as a first name). Simon being relatively common, it was seemingly impossible to find any combination to go with that (since every name is unique in Second Life, there will be no two individuals named alike...). I eventually found a name that was accepted and Sonic Anderton was born! I was transported to Avatar island where all newbies come to learn the ropes... Like walking! Navigating menus and search functions and FLYING!!! By this time my wife was looking over my shoulder saying 'I want to do that too!' After a brief exploration of the island by foot and air, I set about morphine my head into a vague resemblance of me... A bunch of sliders that were not designed by the team from Mac... At which time a female character with pig tails and a very short skirt approached me and tried to gain my attention. At this point I remembered the rumours of online coupling and experimentation... Given the virtually total freedom of this game world, realistic looking scenery and players avatars, growing online economy and commerce... It is interesting to see that we are just as obsessed by external appearances, power and sex as we are in the seemingly real world of our First Lives... I wondered just how our virtual concert would be received?

My question is not whether it should be allowed or not but whether the resultant humanoid will really be alive? With a Soul? Or will it somehow be more Animal than Human? What will be the implications on our culture? More second rate citizens? Or an Uber-race? (The film Gattaca?) To me this opens up the question of where does life come from? Does the miracle of life still happen in a test tube in a lab somewhere? Are we talking living human eggs being impregnated with another's DNA? Then does the life belong to another that is stolen by the Alien DNA? And what of the lives of those that are Cloned? To whom do they belong? (The film The Trueman Show?) Or is this missing the point altogether? It this a part of human development and evolution? We can't uninvent the wheel, we can't take an idea out of consciousness... Just like the whole GM crop thing, it will most likely have to run it's course and we will learn from it, for better or worse... And if we look at this in the context of human development, that it is another individual capable of enriching our world view and aiding the development of humanity (in so much as any other individual is capable) Then what is the harm in it? But what if companies/governments intend to create a race of super killers or of mindless workers... What then of human rights? (the book The Cloud Atlas?) Will this further widen the gap in human rights between the have's and the havenot's? How this will turn out really depends on how we as a whole, the Human Family, choose to deal with this issue, will we cry outrage and prohibition? Burning illegal humans? Or will we rise up and embrace these new beings (what ever they look like) as being equal to all others? This is really about how big is our perspective, where are we operating from and to what ends? How will we act and what will we do about it? That, I feel, is the answer to this question

The 5 fundamental Tenents of Evolutionary Enlightenment So with this class the course came to a close. Ending on the 5 fundamental tenents of the Enlightened Perspective we are focused on and guided by the larger picture of what is it like to think and be in the Enlightened Perspective. Even when we are not feeling that we have a choice or that we are connected to the Authentic Self, we can still choose to take the Enlightened perspective on through the 5 fundamental Tenents, which in brief and in my own words are as follows: Clarity of Intention - If we really want to be free we have to be clear and dedicated to the path that will lead us to liberation. When we are clear and set on our goal all of the difficulties and challenges we face along the way will not put us off our goal of full and true liberation. Law of Volitionality - We are all responsible for our actions, all of them, even the unconscious ones... At some deep level of our being we are always making a choice. By becoming consciously aware of our choices, even at the deepest level we stop being a victim and start to truly live. Face Everything, Avoid Nothing - If we want to overcome the delusions of the ego we have to face everything and avoid nothing. Otherwise we will never be free from the illusion of separation. Truth of Impersonality - None of our human experience is in any way experienced only by us as individuals. All of our experiences have in some way been experienced over and over again through the entire spectrum of human existance. We are experiencing the processes of our human conditioning. For the Sake of the Whole - When we realise that liberation is nothing if it is an individual pursuit, we have to pursue liberation for the sake of the whole of the human race. This really means to realise the need to bring about a cultural and spiritual revolution in what ever way (we find best to engage with), in order to raise the level of consciousness of all humans in order to create a better future. This is my interpretation of the tenants. I am sure that my depth of understanding will broaden and deepen over time. And I'm also sure that I will receive feedback if any of my comments are wide of the mark. This course has been such an amazing experience! My understanding of Andrew's teachings has grown so much in this last month. I found the study material each week so useful in developing this understanding. I feel a little lost now that I don't have a clear direction in which to go. Except to engage with live and with my choosing faculty at all times, to keep reading, listening and exploring. And never to believe that 'I KNOW' even for an instant. I was talking with another of the course participants after the class and we both marveled at the concept of never reaching perfection, that there is never an end to development... After all, once you have reached perfection what is there to live for? With nothing else to learn, nothing new to know, nothing more to acheive? Unfortunately in our cynical post-post modern world, this is how too many people already feel. That there really is nothing new out there. This mediated culture has robbed us of our innocence. So it is truly lucky that Andrew's teachings are here to guide us to salvation.

Session 4 – the Ego and the Authentic Self 14 March 2007 In this session we explored the Ego and the Authentic Self. As a post-post modern homo-sapiens sapiens I know a thing or two about the Ego. The Ego in Andrew Cohen’s teachings can be equated to the part of us that doesn’t want to change, doesn’t want to evolve, doesn’t want to get up in the morning when the alarm rings. This is the complete opposite to the Authentic Self, the manifestation of the Evolutionary Impulse at the level of Consciousness. This is the part of us that is and has always been free. A free flowing expression of all the highest aspirations of the human being. I have experienced what I would call the Authentic Self, first and most strongly through the Drug experiences of my youth. I recall that same freedom and energy while tripping on Acid and Magic Mushrooms. The interconnectedness of all beings, the magical quality of life, the feeling that everything is as it should be. Of course I also realised that this phenomenon was NOT merely the by-product of a chemical reaction in the brain, but at that developmental level I wasn’t able to replicate this without the use of those substances. In fact I didn’t even have a name for what was happening, and more than this my friends didn’t seem to think of it as more than a drug experience. As I near the end of my third decade of life on this planet, drug taking doesn’t fit into my life or world view beyond a glass or two of wine with a meal. But I still feel the urge to connect with that expression of the primordial drive that is manifest in the Authentic Self. Thankfully through Meditation on the Ground of Being we are all able to make contact with this part of ourselves and cultivate that connection. I also have had plenty of experience of the Ego. The self-sabotage, the destructive behaviour, the inertia, the will to keep things as they are... The seeming lack of choice of the Ego ‘But this is the way I am’ When I’m in that place I feel powerless to change my life, but feel a desperate need to do just that, to escape, to run away, to self-destruct. Everything is wrong, or at least enough things are to make life seem very miserable. Perspective shrinks to include me and my problems and not much else. It’s not a very nice place to be. As I become more aware of this mechanism in my experience I am more able to identify and examine what is occurring. And that is where the choice comes in. When we have identified the Ego and the Authentic Self we can actually make a choice about where we wish to live, what we want to identify with. This illuminates the Choosing Faculty. Or ME. Because we always have a choice! However hard it is to see it, we always have a choice. To act in a certain way or not to. To identify with the fears and desires of the Ego or to take the expansive perspective of the Authentic Self… It’s a fight, an on going battle with the Ego. It’s not about winning, it’s about never giving up the struggle!

Meditation and the Ground of Being The third session of the course explored Andrew Cohen’s approach to Meditation. Which is that Meditation is a Metaphor for Enlightenment. The instructions were very simple, to Be Still, to Be Relaxed and to Be Alert. With the additional instruction of taking no relationship to the contents of Consciousness, or simply ‘Thoughts’ themselves we embarked on a guided meditation. I found that during the giving of instructions it was much easier to remain Still, Relaxed and Alert, taking little or no notice of my thoughts, rather being there engaging with what was happening in the room. Once I started to Meditate I found that my mind would wander to different things such as work, personal considerations, ideas for the future… And sometime later I would become aware that I wasn’t taking No Relationship to my thoughts but actually engaging with them. The instruction was to simply drop the thought and to continue being relaxed, still and alert… I was not particularly successful with this, sometimes struggling to return to the peaceful place I had felt myself in before and sometimes even nodding off momentarily. However towards the end of the class during the longer guided meditation I found that I had indeed managed to take no relationship to my thoughts, while still being alert, but only for a moment as I then thought ‘Great, I’ve not been paying attention to my thoughts!’ Thus starting the process all over again. But for that moment I was aware of a vastness, a non-moving silence that was both deep and without space, this I recognised from my first experience of Meditation with Andrew Cohen’s methods last summer. Since then I have continued to Meditate but without such a powerful experience of this phenomenon. At some point I realised that while that whole larger space was opening below me (or my conscious mind) I was actually still thinking quite a lot and have taken to engaging with those thoughts again. I realise that my position must be to Delete those thoughts and to make my true alliance with that empty ground.

IEE course Session 2 March 1, 2007 Perspective Is Everything In this class we discussed the importance of perspective and how it has a huge effect on the way that we act and see ourselves in the picture of our existence. As a species we are currently locked into a narcissistic self-interested egotistical mindset, where the individual is highest and their needs come first at whatever cost to the environment, ecosystem and other (usually, but not always, unseen) beings. Our culture has developed out of the freedom and ideals of the Sixties into a monster as we enter the new Millennium. We are generally a populace of separate entities focused on self-fulfillment and egotistical gains. This has caused a huge amount of damage to our planet with major crises looming; global warming, deforestation, mass extinction, over population, HIV-Aids to name but a few. In other words we will all soon be in very deep water, with nothing to paddle, not much to eat and probably dieing of Aids. The best way I can see humanity coming through this is for a major change in consciousness, where a sizeable group raise up to a level in consciousness where we naturally start to take account of the bigger picture. Where we realise at a deep level that we cannot go on exploiting the worlds resources, suppressing our brothers and sisters, thinking only of ourselves in the short-term, of believing that we can exist in isolation from the catastrophes happening around us. And more than this, that we also find a new kind of morality, a new spiritual path, that shows us the higher path to take to a better life for all. Of course this starts now, with me. What am I doing to help this manifest in the world today?? I, like many contemporary seekers and searchers, have a tendency towards a separate self-sense centered in Ego and Inertia, despite knowing at an intellectual level that there really is no separation between us. Mary Everlyn Tucker’s Cosmocentric view really opens this up and allows the individual to fall into their rightful place in the larger picture. Through taking this Cosmocentric perspective I have seen how my habit of taking (seeming) refuge in this separate cutoff place has only caused pain and suffering to myself and others. Through keeping my perspective large and expansive I have been able to see through this illusion of safety and security. Though the answer is not so simple… Consistency seems to be key in this as well as perspective. After all what is the point of having that large expansive perspective only some of the time? It’s like bring enlightened on a part-time basis and therefore not really enlightened at all.

IEE Course Session 1: 21st Feb 2007 Having been involved with Andrew Cohen’s teachings and EnlightenNext in London for more than 6 months now, I felt that I had developed a fairly good understanding of Andrews teachings through attending a weekend retreat, a teaching evening and having read several of his books, read ‘What is Enlightenment’ magazine as well as listening to audios and watching clips on WIE unbound. I hadn’t thought very much about this course before attending, as due to work commitments I wasn’t sure if I would be able to attend until the very last minute. So having arrived directly from an intense work situation I hadn’t engaged with my pre-conceived ideas about what I thought I already knew. This turned out to be extremely lucky as I was able to listen to the course content in the first lesson without any held ideas of ‘Oh, I know this already’. I found the session to be well structured, offering even complete newcomers a chance to familiarise themselves with the context we would be working with, then building on this and expanding throughout the session. The PowerPoint presentation looked amazing and was well laid out. I was struck by the simplicity and the clarity of the video and audio, to outline the points being made. I particularly found the instructions from Andrew on finding the place in our experience before we start to process and evaluate extremely powerful. I found that I do indeed process every piece of stimulus and make a judgment on it before I am even aware of it in myself. It was somewhat uncomfortable, even painful at first to listen to this without any sort of filtering (from my ego?) but this soon passed and I realised that this was really just a very raw feeling of actually hearing something completely, without being distracted by sound quality, acoustics or my own interpretation of what was being said, although that was still present in another part of my experience. After this I found the diagram of the subject-object-observation model very powerful, illustration the conundrum of how consciousness can observe itself. I found myself thinking about the fact that we are all linked by this same experience of consciousness, no matter how different our other experiences may seem. This really is the universal leveler, making us all one at a very deep level. All in all I found this session to be extremely eye opening, giving an amazing depth to Andrews already deep teachings. I found my context and perspective to have expanded to a whole new level. I am looking forward to the coming weeks and to the other courses that will surely follow. Thank you so much Patrick and the EnlightenNext team who made this course possible! Added on 22/03/07 Because this started as my homework to Patrick and evolved into my Zaadz and Myspace blogs, this first writeup didn't so much go into what the session was about as a summary of my experience. So for the benefit of readers I will just write a little bit now: What is Enlightenment? In this session we explored the notion that Enlightenment can be defined in the Traditional Eastern sense as a state experience, where a deep and liberation experience reveals the secrets of the universe to the beholder, and in the view of Evolutionary Enlightenment, which states that Enlightenment is also a Perspective. Where a state experience can come and go, a vast and expansive perspective is something that develops and is inhabited through choice and engagement. So in this new understanding of Enlightenment, anyone can develop and take on the Enlightened Perspective and thus develops their own capacity for experiencing the Enlightened View. And in this way are actually better equipt to deal with situations in a more free and encompassing manner right now, in each moment as it unfolds, by maintaining as vast a perspective as possible. That feels better. Needed to include that ;-) Hope it helped 8-)