Care2.org Act on Banning Drilling

While I was busy raising a family, then starting a career, the world turned and churned even though I wasn’t paying attention.  I filtered information that came to me so it only concerned science and technology. Now, that my kids are grown, my career is doing well, and I have the energy, I decided to poke my head out in the world to see what was going on. UGH! Mayhem, freedoms being violated, ignorance running rampant, and the loonies seem to be taking over.

Historically and by definition non-believers, such as Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, and Secular Buddhists stood for nothing. Non-believers just went about their lives as though religion didn’t exist, at least not much, and paid little attention to the topic. In recent years, however, that has changed.

Redwood Forest

I have been in Second Life for 6 years. I started there as a part of my job, leading talks for Java developers. But it didn’t take long before I developed a personal interest in that multiverse, started exploring the many places there, and the variety of communities. Pretty much, any interest you have will be of interest to others, and very likely there is at the least a group devoted to it, and at the most an entire sim or several.

Joining groups is a good way to get invites to events for your various interests. I had joined several for my interest in Buddhism. And interestingly, I found that the Buddhist world in Second Life closely mirrored the one outside, in the physical world.

All the Buddhist places I visited were made to look Asian, with big statues of Buddhas everywhere, prayer flags, mediation cushions, and sand gardens. That’s all fine and lovely. Really pretty stuff. But my trip through Buddhism had taken a slightly different route personally.

Though I started in Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism like so many others, I decided I didn’t agree with the teachings, and I moved onto Zen. While that was a slightly better fit, I still found it too laden with ritual, especially Asian rituals, and not on the practical level I thought the Buddha’s teachings to be.

Later, I discovered Theravada Buddhism, but again it is steeped in Asian ritual and some superstitions I don’t agree with. What I wanted was to practice the valuable Buddhist tools and path, without cultural infiltrations, metaphysical beliefs and superstitions, and the praying and chanting.

Watermill/Waterfall Area

Second Life, I discovered, had a group called the Skeptical Buddhist Sangha. The title enticed me, and when I went to their discussions I found myself right at home, talking about teachings, but in a skeptical manner, not just accepting everything as is. This, to my mind, was much closer to what the Buddha taught, and is more in alignment with modern day people.

The Skeptical Buddhist Sangha’s discussions are great, and there was a small piece of land to go with it. But when I bought a SIM, I thought it would be neat to create an entire community, with an environment that reflected the needs of modern day Secular Buddhists, who don’t follow a specific tradition, and embraced the concerns of today, such as our ecology.

So, I created the Secular/Skeptical Buddhist Community island to augment the Skeptical Buddhist Sangha. There we have regular meditations with both chairs and cushions. You won’t find statues of Buddha all over the place, as we want to discourage the practice of praying to the Buddha, and making him some kind of god. In addition, there are home rentals, where we ask folks to hold the 5 precepts.

Mindful Gardening Area

In addition, we also have a wonderful Redwood Forest, a fun drum and dance circle, a mindful gardening area, yoga and tai chi for mindful movement, a Scientific Research area, and several areas that are just beautiful to sit in and watch wildlife. And, of course, there is a group you can join, Secular Buddhist Land.

We have wind turbines and solar panels to energize the place, are growing hemp fields for cloth, paper products, plywood and biodegrable plastic, and provide transportation via free horses, bikes, canoes, and rowboats.

We hope to grow this community of Secular/Skeptical Buddhist, who want to study and practice the teachings, and enjoy socializing and living on the island. It’s been fun and creative to try to put together the kind of environment we feel reflects who we are in this modern day world.

Secular/Skeptical Buddhist Community Island

Events Calendar

Skeptical Buddhist Sangha

Facebook Page

Transformed to Winter

Change is easy in Second Life. I just transformed my SIM from a lovely, sunny tropical paradise into a winter wonderland. All it took was swapping out a few textures, and the entire landscape morphed from the sandy beaches to fluffy white snow. With the installation of a few weather generators, I can create rain, snow, and even lightning. Virtual change is fun and easy. In-person, change is also on the horizon in all kinds of ways, but for many people it’s not so easy.

No matter how one feels about President Obama’s stance on various issues, it’s become clear he is an initiator of change. I must admit, I am impressed with the way he and his staff have embraced virtual technologies to make it easy for people to help in his campaigns. Additionally, while his messaging is going out to the public on all typical streams, they’re also going out on all the social networks. At the bottom right navigation on his web site is Obama Everywhere, which lists 16 virtual tools you can use to follow him. Never in the past have we had a president who is so accessible, who answers emails.

It’s refreshing to see a president embrace technology so thoroughly and take advantage of its strengths. You don’t need to suffer through the news to get to hear Obama speak on an issue. His site has many of his recent talks, and you can search him on YouTube.

“Reform” is top priority for President Obama, and he makes this clear on his site and in his messaging.

I like change. Real improvement and growth can only come from change. We’ve watched over the last few decades as the Internet went from a cryptic, confusing place, to a virtual environment with many types of social networking tools. This all came through change.

Virtual mediums have not only made it easier for the president to address so many, but it’s made it easier for us to get our opinions and concerns out there, to commiserate with others, and to get clarification on issues.

If you want to get involved politically, it’s never been easier. President Obama’s site makes it easy for you to find out how you can help with various programs in your area, how you can find out about other volunteers in your area, and a letter you can sign to get Congress to support this plan health reform.

Really, if you think about it, there is nothing in the universe that does not change. To cling to old ideas, beliefs, and hanging onto tired out systems because they are familiar or because of fear of the unknown, just creates more unhappiness and stress.

President Obama’s site is called Organizing for America. The first paragraph reads:

“Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America, is building on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering communities across the country to bring about our agenda of change.”

Agenda of change . . . I like that, both virtually and in-person.

Working on Blog

Recently I purchased a SIM in Second Life, meaning a huge chuck of land I’ve called Dana’s Islands of Paradise. So, for the past few weeks I’ve been busy terraforming, shaping the place into a tropical paradise. It’s been a lot of fun raising and lowering plots of land, reshaping mountains, and smoothing out sandy beaches.

It’s not hard to understand why many people feel overwhelmed, confused, and lost upon entering Second Life. It is a multiverse of many worlds, and it’s not apparent from doing the beginner’s tutorial just where a person might fit in, or where to start to find the right niche for oneself. But I encourage folks, especially the social types, not to give up.

Me by my pond

In Second Life people often refer to life outside SL as RL, for real life. But according to the dictionary, the word real has these definitions:

Twitter Searches in Seesmic

In The Usefulness of Twitter, I talked a bit about the useful of Twitter concerning finding great product reviews, getting product support, and finding communities of  interest. All of this is done through saving Searches.

I was hesitant to use Twitter. It seemed like just a wild stream of useless blather and banter, people throwing their boring thoughts out into the ether. There is that in tweets. But there is more.

I’m often asked what’s the point of owning a home or land in Second Life? It’s certainly a valid question. You sure don’t need to have a home or land. You can just as easily find a place you like, and put your avatar there when you log off, so when you log back on, that’s where you’ll appear. There are plenty of public sandboxes and changing rooms to use when you buy new clothes or hair.

Even so, many of us want a place we can call our home base, a place where we own the rights, where we can have privacy, where we can play, learn to script or build, or even work. It’s nice to own a place you can decorate to your taste, then change it around as often as you like.

I have rented apartments and houses in Second Life, but I enjoy owning land even more. The avatar Dana Oceanlane most closely resembles my physical life, and so when I decided to buy a homestead, I did it under her name. My other avatars also come here to use this space as home, but when I want to kick back and relax in SL, it’s usually with Dana Oceanlane.

Relaxing by the waterfall

I’ve owned land in the past in SL, but this time I took a little more time to research the various types of land available, and settled on a half SIM Homestead. Homesteads cost less because you are only allowed 20 avatars on a full SIM, and 10 on a half SIM. You also get a smaller prim allowance. The reason is these SIMs are set up to be low traffic, fairly private areas that contain mostly land. It’s ideal for those of us who want to emulate  nature, and enjoy privacy.

I found a few SIMs that were flat, square plots of sand, with the islands being close together. No thanks. I found land for sale on the mainland that cost less, but I’d have to put up with ugly buildings from neighbors. I really wanted something where I could enjoy the view, play with some terraforming, and not have to worry about neighbors. So, a Homestead is ideal for me. I found a great island, and half of it was for sale. This gave me a little over 16 K square miles, with an 1875 prim allowance, which is plenty!

To my delight, this land  was already terraformed nicely. Scripts had been set up so as soon as I purchased it, everything went right into my name and I had the permissions I needed to set up the place like home.

House shopping is a lot of fun, but after awhile can become grueling. Lag is bad on the SIMs where homes are already rezzed, and after awhile houses start looking a lot alike. But I found the perfect house for me, then set off to do some furniture shopping.

Last, but not least, I shopped for animals, both wild life and pets. I have three dogs, one of which is an adorable puppy who plays with his bone, chases a ball, sleeps in his bed, and pees on his newspaper. My husky Zooley growls and barks when he looks out the windows, and outside, Zack, my tiger roams the property and swims in the ponds.

I enjoy watching the ducks, the loon, and the swans, all of which dunk their heads to feed. I have dragonflies and humming birds, as well as butterflies flying around.

Now, between going to Buddhist talks and meditations, role playing in the Star Wars SIMs, and blowing Linden dollars like there’s no tomorrow, I sit and fish or just watch the wild life, which is surprisingly entertaining and not unlike their physical counterparts.

No, it’s not the same as being out in physical nature, nor is my home the same as my physical home. But it’s a lot of fun in all kinds of ways.

Come by and visit when you get a chance!