{"id":2478,"date":"2011-03-10T14:57:21","date_gmt":"2011-03-10T21:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/?p=2478"},"modified":"2011-03-10T14:57:34","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T21:57:34","slug":"time-to-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/?p=2478","title":{"rendered":"Time to Think …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The absence of something is rarely noticed.\u00a0 We are hardly ever grateful for the pebble we don’t have in our shoe, or the sinus headache that hasn’t slam dunked our head in the last month.\u00a0 Our attention is drawn instead to that which is up close and personal.\u00a0 The annoying yelps of an over excited pup when Fedex comes to the door, or the helps and pleas of an overly hormonal off spring who isn’t getting enough face time because you seem to be buried in facebook.<\/p>\n

Unless you are punching a time-clock at work when nonattendance becomes a matter of bean counting, absence takes on a whole different Zen if your daily activity consists of moving from one warm window to the next as the sun makes its way around the house.\u00a0 So when I decided to take a two day hiatus from a 3D social networking game (game in this case being aptly grouped with other four letter words as IMVU<\/a> is truly a mind fuck) it was an excellent opportunity to go deeper into the practice of self-inquiry.<\/p>\n

In Zen we ask ourselves the question \u2026 \u00a0Is it True?\u00a0 Or \u201cWho\u201d is having this experience.\u00a0 When enmeshed in a 3D gaming app the inquiry becomes that much clearer \u2026 as well as that much more difficult to decipher.\u00a0 During my two days (more aptly described a daze) when I was committed to not logging into the virtual world, I was able to step back and give myself a bit of distance to see what it is that draws me into the Lila.\u00a0 With my youngest now in high school the drama of teenage angst is a clear and present danger and the parallel with what I have seen with mid-life crisis in the middle of a virtual world of sex and rock n\u2019 roll is striking.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If FarmTown<\/a> is click therapy, IMVU<\/a> is regression therapy as it takes us back to a time when the sting of bio-chemical meat market mayhem rules.\u00a0 From the Pavlovian triggers of invitation door bell alerts to the developers\u2019 shrewd business practices that manipulate your retail therapy habits \u2026 the \u201cgame\u201d draws you in to the web of lies, spies and the ultimate disguise of a sexy svelte avatar who can bend and twist her top heavy frame into the most amazing poses.<\/p>\n

For those who would ask HOW could we get so caught up in a silly game, I would point out that the water cooler gossip, rush hour traffic jam, ex-spouse sparring match or the over cooked rice that ruined the meal on the one day you wanted everything to be perfect \u2026 are also just as pointless to cry over as the virtual world\u2019s disco floor dynamics that on some nights leave you bleeding love<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While my family seemed thrilled that Mom was logging off of the drama for a few days (not seeing that it was really only exchanging one virtual drama for one nuclear family fallout \u201cwhat cell phone plan are we going to choose\u201d).\u00a0 My IMVU family was missing me at the hot tubs, cuddle couches and dance hall sambas that have now come to define a normal night in this parallel world.<\/p>\n

During my brief hiatus, I wrote to a few of my gaming friends to let them know I would not be logged in.\u00a0 Because let\u2019s face it when a sick chick goes MIA everyone thinks she\u2019s dead.\u00a0 I told folks that I needed time to \u201cthink\u201d — which if the English language was consistent would also be a four letter word.<\/p>\n

Time away to think.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learned since that phrase carries with it several assumptions, because of course in the absence of information we all make up stories.\u00a0 First that there must be a problem.\u00a0 Second that you need to fix something once you figure out what said problem is.\u00a0 Third I suppose is that you will in some way, shape or form, return as a \u201cnew and improved\u201d avatar.<\/p>\n

But what if in all the thought, analysis and monkey mind that you come up against \u2026 you see only that there is nothing to fix (despite the angst), nowhere to go (even though it seems like you are running away) and no one needed to put the eggshell back together Sir Humpty because all of it is proper compost and fodder for the new sprouts that are beginning to see the Light even though it feels like you are under a ton of dung.<\/p>\n

In this case it is the absence of malice<\/em> that was perhaps most clear during my self-imposed 3D interruption.\u00a0 In a Life that is at once both intimate and isolated, to be able to see that there is no one to blame and no one needed to hold a candle to our Light is the gift of presence.\u00a0 And as I log back in to play with my friends and dance the night away I am grateful for not having a pebble in my shoe (or in this case my virtual stiletto heels.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The absence of something is rarely noticed.\u00a0 We are hardly ever grateful for the pebble<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dharma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2478"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2486,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478\/revisions\/2486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}