Beit Binah Virtual Intentional Community, My New Project

[dauer]

Hi everyone.

I wanted to share a new project I've been involved in getting off the ground. It's really just getting off the ground. Up until now has been a lot of building and drafting of literature, and some of that is still on-going. It's a Virtual Intentional Community in Second Life. We recently held an event to allow a victim of persecution in Poland both for being Jewish and for being gay a place to tell his story. That happened here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/malachi...ild/472942370/

That's not all up now because we needed the space for other things, but the posters still are. We're also holding 6-day-a-week 20 minute sits at 12pm noon pst (gmt -8) that are open to people of all traditions, and those have been happening here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/malachi...ild/472957381/

We've only done two so far and the crowd for the second was larger than the first, some Jewish, some not, some veteran meditators, some first-timers. It's really exciting to see people taking something meaningful from it. Someone who came the first day wrote about their experience on their blog and then came back the second day, along with a couple other people who came both days.

Earlier in another space we held a four-day chol hamoed inner journey out of mitzrayim that went really well. We're going to be having a weekly parsha study starting soon with changing leadership meeting-to-meeting and also are in the process of planning an event for Lag B'Omer with a bonfire and some readings by different people and maybe something to remember R. Shimon bar Yochai. We're also finally shifting into a more democratic, participatory leadership with our first community meeting also on Lag B'Omer. At those meetings we're going to be going over community issues and also doing some personal-sharing and the study of a Jewish text on personal and spiritual development. Our first text is going to be a translation of Machshava Tova by Reb Kalonymus Kalman Shapira. There's been some interest from people closer to gmt, so very possibly we'll eventually create a separate community meeting for them and do more 2d web-based decision making.

We have a website at http://www.beitbinah.com

In SL I'm Malachi Rothschild. Cryptomorph Lake is an SL friend of mine from Australia that's been working closely with me to make this happen. We have a lot more content planned for the site like an events calendar and a number of other things. And hopefully soon we should have more of that up. We're also planning on doing more ecumenical and interfaith programs like the sit.

I suppose one of the questions this raises is the role of spirituality in a virtual world, and that's something I want to tackle head-on. I just feel like whatever it is we do, we shouldn't leave God out of it. For a while I was the GM of a restaurant in Second Life but that didn't really speak to me as much. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't something that spoke so clearly to my interests and concerns. I remember when the idea for this first came about. I was speaking to someone about this type of thing and they suggested we make it happen, so now it's happening. You can learn more about the Jewish Community in Second Life from this site:

http://www.2lifemagazine.com./

They have a pdf version of the mag. For general info about spiritual life in SL there's also this blog:

http://slfountain.wordpress.com/

There's a really beautiful build of the Great Mosque in Cordoba. The real one is currently being used as a Church but the one in SL is home to a Muslim community. I'm going to find a picture. It's one of the most beautiful builds I've seen in Second Life.

Here's one:

http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/slmosque100107.JPG

But my most favorite thing there is the lighting effects with the windows:

http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/qnewsslpic002.JPG

There are also some beautiful churches and Buddhist Temples, as well as buildings that house people of other faiths. At one time I thought of SL more as a game, but now I really see it as more of a platform, like the web, where the greatest limits are one's imagination and determination, and the limitations of the software. I don't think it's in any way a replacement for real world experiences and a big thing with Beit Binah is being able to bring something meaningful back to the real world, but it's definitely a useful tool for me.

I just wanted to share my current project, but if you have any questions about or comments on judaism in SL, beit binah, spirituality in SL, SL in general, or anything else along those lines please do share them.


Dauer

[Prober]

Cool!

Haven't really explored SL yet. Have to drop by "your place".

('Bout fell over when I saw your new pic!)

Best regards,
Mark

[Dondi]

I just feel like whatever it is we do, we shouldn't leave God out of it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, dauer, but I seem to recall that we had a discussion some time back in which you mentioned you were a Jewish atheist or agnostic or such, to which I expressed my amazement that there was such a thing. And you told me that I would be surprised. Where are you now, if you don't mind me asking?

[dauer]

Dondi,

My view really hasn't changed since then. I've never been a straight agnostic, and I'm still not. If you review other postings of mine from before and after that time I'm sure you'll find me also talking about God on a personal level. Agnosticism can be divided generally into two forms, strong and weak. Strong agnosticism is more closer to atheism while weak agnosticism is open to the possibility of God. There is also agnostic theism, which has more to do with my view of things. On this board I've said on a number of occasions that I'm an agnostic pan/panentheist and don't draw so much distinction between pantheism and panentheism, both theistic forms of monism.

Basically, I don't know if God exists, and it's not really important to me whether God does or not. As I see it, our only access to any information is subjective. Even if a group of people agree, it's just shared subjective experience. Even if all of humanity agrees, humanity still can only see the world through human eyes. It's not that I deny universal and absolute truth. It's just that if it exists, even if we could really hold it, I don't think we would really have a way of confirming we had it if we did. I do think subjective experience is very important, and finding meaning in our experiences, but that it would not be accurate and can be dangerous to confuse our experiences for the truth about the way our world really is. It is true at least on the level that it is true for us, but that doesn't mean that it is any type of universal truth.

In my experience of the world, God is very present every day. I cannot deny that personal truth. Nor do I, in the time of experiencing them, question my experiences that conform more with my theistic reality map like a sense of something "greater than" or that there really is order, even a plan, to the world, or that there is a personal God, or anything else along those lines. And I don't think about doubt very often. I actually find most theology fairly irrelevant, as I would rather dwell on my direct experiences than try very hard to justify them or make them seem more sensible, or more agreeable and cohesive with each other and with science. Outside of my direct experiences, when it comes up, I don't hesitate to say there may be no God at all and to question my subjective experience of the world entirely.

Many people end up seeing only one side of this and on this board, depending on the thread, usually one shows more than the other. However since I was probably 12 or so onward God has been a particularly integral and significant part of my life (the addition of some agnosticism came later without letting go of my personal truths due to my continued questioning and investigating), and even among Jews I am usually the Jewish guy. Before then while Judaism was an interest, it was also something I was less concerned with than after that time. At that age I declared I wanted to be a rabbi and I have still not tabled that possibility. Although I've had to leave school temporarily for personal reasons I was pursuing my bachelor's in Jewish Studies at an interdenominational Jewish college. I hope to be back within the year. Much of my personal reading revolves around religion and spirituality, Judaism imparticular. I have spiritual practices I do daily and if the topic never came up, most would assume I am quite the typical believer. I would go so far as to say that many liberal believers probably hold similar views, but are uncomfortable attaching the label agnostic to themselves. I feel it much more honest to include that in describing my beliefs as truly, I don't know whether God exists or not, and I don't really need to in order to be comfortable with my sense of reality.

Dauer

[Dondi]

Thank you, dauer, for that lengthy expose. When you speak of your "experiences" do you mean mystical or practical? Do you feel that the collective subjective experiences with your Jewish brothers and sisters embody the idea of the monomyth (as explored in the other thread) in Judaism is the important aspect of your views, the idea of a communal experience of something shared from legends of old, knowing Jews all down through history experienced the same?

I will have to agree that much of what confirms my belief in God comes down to subjective experience. But I find that the commonality of my experience coupled with those of similiar fashions give me comfort and kinda a sense of validity to what I believe. Concretely, I cannot imagine all that we see in ourselves, in nature, in the universe, could have evolved without some kind "force" guiding it, even if it is not the God of my persuasion. There are too many mysteries and wonders that stiffle the mind to lead me to believe that there isn't any intelligence in it all. I for one, don't even have problems with the concept of evolution, except that if it indeed happen, it cannot possible have happened by circumstance and coincidence, statistically speaking. But that's just me.

[dauer]

Thank you, dauer, for that lengthy expose. When you speak of your "experiences" do you mean mystical or practical?

Probably more mystical than practical. I'm not much of a pragmatist when it comes to belief. I suppose I sometimes justify my embrace of my experiences to myself sometimes on pragmatic ends, but experience is first and foremost and even if lt really seemed to serve absolutely no immediately recognizable practical purpose I would probably still continue.

It is not so much that I am fabricating the experiences for myself. My religious experiences are very real to me, and instead of rejecting that I embrace it, with the intellectual understanding that what I am embracing may contain no universal truth at all, and that that is entirely possible, which is the same way I look at all of reality, although it seems very likely to me that those ways in which all of mankind seems to more universally perceive things are true on some level, at least in our universe. In other words, unless we have no sight, we all see other humans as having the same general shape, the same visible features. My guess is that even if we could see outside of a purely human perspective, that's got to in osme way coincide with the way things are. But I don't know, and not knowing doesn't really bother me at all.

Do you feel that the collective subjective experiences with your Jewish brothers and sisters embody the idea of the monomyth (as explored in the other thread) in Judaism is the important aspect of your views

No, I was actually complaining about the monomyth as being an unsatisfying generalization with little to add except to say that there are some very basic, skeletal similarities between the myths of the world. I certainly find it fascinating, but what I get out of it could be summed up simply as, "Religious striving across the world has its basis in some common types of striving, which still do vary a bit from place to place." It's more important to me to increase Godly experiences in my life, whatever they may be, to increase my sense of holiness, of the Divine, without becoming convinced that I am finding some sort of absolute truth.

Elsewhere on this forum, and quite a while ago I believe, I think I once said that I am a seeker, but of experience rather than absolute truth.

the idea of a communal experience of something shared from legends of old, knowing Jews all down through history experienced the same?

I would say rather that I was brought up in the culture and with the myths of Judaism, and so it is like a first language in religion and spirituality. It is what comes most naturally to me when I open my lips. When I see something in Jewish terms I more naturally assimilate it, and because it is such a big part of who I am, I also want to understand what I can about it, as wholistically as possible.

Community is for me a separate issue. For me community is very important, shared experience in general. But it is more of a side benefit of Judaism I guess, of religion in general, that it involves on some level community.

But I find that the commonality of my experience coupled with those of similiar fashions give me comfort and kinda a sense of validity to what I believe.

For me there certainly is comfort in that. It fosters a common language of experience. And I would never deny the truth of anyone's experience at least on the personal level. It could be argued that because these types of beliefs are, at their slightest, the personal experiences of multiple people, that the beliefs then become more true, at least in quantity. But at least to me saying so wouldn't really be saying much, and I wouldn't want to fall into the New Agey type stuff of saying that we can, through changing our beliefs of the world, change actual reality around us. It may be possible of course like anything, but it's the type of leap of faith I generally avoid.

Concretely, I cannot imagine all that we see in ourselves, in nature, in the universe, could have evolved without some kind "force" guiding it, even if it is not the God of my persuasion.

Well, I must say that I'm not a materialist and I'm entirely open to the possibility that there's something beyond what we perceive. I would say that is the crux of my position, that we cannot really say for sure that what we perceive is really the way things are. I have just as many objections to believing any sort of atheistic materialism as I do to solid belief in God. The energy inherent in the argument of a very serious atheist, the feeling I perceive in what they say, is really not so different from what I get from a very firm believer in anything else. It's not so much that I'm rejecting God or the possibility of the supernatural. Some of my relational experiences to God could probably only be rationalized in those terms, rataionalization being of little concern to me. It's more that I don't really think it can be known with any certainty, or that there is much to be gained by believing one has such knowledge. To some it might seem that I'm a fence-sitter, or that I'm fighting against my own perceptions. But really this is a fairly natural and comfortable place to be for me that keep both my more experiential and my more rational sides happy. In that sense I don't think it's really a lot different from justification by an atheist or believer except that the approach to a comfortable place to stand is different. I've always been more inclined to, in the language of permaculture, the edges where two places meet, where the most change happens.

Even though I'm very drawn to Jewish Renewal, I'm not really happy on the most liberal end of what happens there. I prefer a place that straddles more traditional approaches to Judaism and a radical approach.

I have gone on a bit so I will just say one more thing. I think that different people have inclinations that bring that either closer to extreme conservatism on one end or radical change on hte other, and it seems that having a variety of people all over this spectrum creates a sort of equilibrium. There have been times of great change in human history and also times where things were kept mostly constant. And even in a time of great change, or a time of keeping things the same, there are always voices of dissent to express the opposite. I think that's really important. If we all were radicals the world would be pretty chaotic. And on the extreme end of conservatism, we just wouldn't go anywhere, might even more backwards. I'm closer to the radical extreme than the conservative one, but hardly at the edges of it, and even as I am very much in support of active change, it is also important to me that there's some level of continuity between the past and present. That doesn't mean that where something is at the beginning and end of a 500 year period would seem like a direct step, but that the steps in between would all have some sort of relationship to each other and in a smaller snapshot the consistency would be apparent, at least to those involved in the process of change. Not that my last paragraph has much to do with what we've been saying except to say that wholistically, as much as I think we need the liberal, the radical element in the collective of humanity, I think the conservative element is vital too.

Dauer

[pohaikawahine]

I wish you the best in your new project(s) .... it looks really interesting .... by the way your new picture replaced all the old one's in this forum .... you look like you lost a lot of weight or is it just the photo? I signed on to Beit Binah because I always have much to learn from your perspective Dauer .... am not posting much these days but I do read everything on the Judiasm site .... me ke aloha pumehana, poh

[I, Brian]

Fascinating - a dialogue community built into Second Life? Best of luck with it.

[dauer]

Hey Poh. Good to hear from you again.

you look like you lost a lot of weight or is it just the photo?

I think I actually put on a little weight that summer that my old picture was taken. The food was really good, and plentiful. And then I lost it again. Lately though, I have probably lost a little weight due to switching to a vegan diet.

Fascinating - a dialogue community built into Second Life? Best of luck with it.

Thanks Brian. We're actually trying to go beyond just dialogue toward incorporation of some spiritual practice, both Jewish and more interfaithy deep ecumenism. The interfaith silent sits are one step in that, and I'm not quite sure yet what other directions we can easily go with the deep ecumenism, but I'm looking forward to the incorporation of voice so that a group of Jews from all over the world will be able to davven together via SL. Even if everyone ends up davvening separately in order to make it more welcoming to people from different backgrounds, all with headsets on I think it would be a pretty cool experiment, and hopefully meaningful.

Dauer

[pohaikawahine]

aloha e dauer - how is your project going .... I went to check it out, but it was too complicated for me .... I am only good a simple computer stuff .... anyway, hope it is going well and it did look very interesting ....just wanted to ask.... aloha nui, poh

[dauer]

Hey Poh.

I was working closely with someone who disappeared from Second Life a number of months ago. He held the domain and the land and was managing our finances. At that time there hadn't really been anyone else stepping up to take on more responsibilities within the community, although we did have some financial backing. After the domain expired I consulted the financial sponsors, returned the land to Linden Lab and closed up the group.

Currently I'm spending a good deal of time in the Ir Shalom region, typically starting conversations on spirituality and religion with people who otherwise wouldn't be discussing such things, or at least not with the likes of me. Hopefully eventually they'll be able to get more spiritually and religiously oriented events going on there but for now, at least it attracts people I can start conversations with. I had a conversation earlier today with a rather skeptical individual about Integral Philosophy (primarily states vs stages) and the nature and definition of spirituality and later was able to talk to a young Chabadnik about our shared enjoyment of Aryeh Kaplan's compilation of Nachman of Breslov's stories and I was able to lament to him that Aryeh Kaplan was also a mathematician as I have no interest in hypercubes.

In addition to that I've been building a bit which, if my stuff sells, could help me make a little real cash on the side, and am going to start studying bushido and Japanese Buddhism a bit to help me understand better the philosophical underpinnings of the samurai-centered combat sim I've been getting involved in. To help with my building I've been looking into basic ideas, themes and features of traditional Japanese architecture. I didn't design the layout of the home I just built based on how the tatami mats might be spread out but I am planning a new build which will be designed with that in mind.

Dauer

[pohaikawahine]

dauer - my goodness, I love the new things you have become involved in and they will take you deeper into Judiasm I suspect .... I wish you the best of adventures and hope that you will post some thoughts as you move forward .... aloha nui, poh

[dauer]

I thought this would be worth sharing. We just held the opening for an interfaith art exhibit at Ir Shalom last night featuring Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, New Age and Australian Aboriginal artists. I took some photos of the event. These are the ones that feature the artists and/or their artwork:

Abby Rubinstein on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Blue Tsuki on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Gapunbulu Kidd on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Art Admirer on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Lona Shan on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Texanna Schumann on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Enjoy.

--Dauer

[Muslimwoman]

Shalom Dauer

WOW and I say again WOW. What an amazing idea, an interfaith art exhibition. Thanks for sharing the photo's, some wonderful pieces of art. The first one is very disturbing but very thought provoking.

I wish I didn't have vista

Salaam
MW

[bananabrain]

i find aboriginal art very interesting because they appear to view space in the same way as jews view time - it's an essentially spiral continuum which presents all time-layers of a given place simultaneously. by the same token, from what i know, clan lands appear to be bounded and they can only venture out of them to certain meeting points with certain other - it's a bit like only living in tuesday - you can't talk to anyone else but people who live in monday or wednesday, if that makes any sense. thus, anything that ever happens on a tuesday is one, in the same way that we consider all shabbats to be in a sense the same shabbat - the first shabbat.

b'shalom

bananabrain