--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > We got to talking about why we all came here regularly to drink (none > seemed terribly interested in the establishment's main product), and of > course everyone mentioned the obvious -- the decor, and its Old World > elegance. We're talking a *lovely* bar, reflecting all of the best of > Dutch tradition, but also decorated with authentic Asian art. We're > talking statues of Buddhas and dakinis and gods and goddesses that rival > any in the Asian Wing of Amsterdam's most famous art museum. The "moving > decor," in the form of some of the most beautiful women any of us had > ever seen, was of course mentioned, and didn't hurt. But finally it was > the rock star who nailed it, and who thus jump-started the real meat of > the good conversation that followed it. He said, in his distinctive > lower-class British accent, "I come here because I always have just the > BEST conversations here."
This sort of reminds me of what I would often hear growing up from friends, or older guys. "I read Playboy for the articles" I would be willing to bet that the main reason someone would patronize a brothel, or a bar within a brothel, would be to make their way up the food chain for an assignation. I am not judging that. But, by putting yourself in that environment, you are saying, "Come on to me". Maybe you get your jollies by just having the come on, without a strong intention to consummate, but that also says something, and I think it is guaranteed that consummation is not to far away. I discount that the driving reason is the "conversation" > was said afterwards as I have from all of the talks I've ever heard from > any of my spiritual teachers combined. The conversation just *nailed* > the fact that for all four of us -- on completely different paths or the > lack of one -- we all had found a similar path: we just *loved* good > conversations. In our respective memories, we "punctuated our life > story" with the good conversations we've had. > > Besides Yab Yum, the power place that has generated the most > consistently good conversations for me is the bar at the La Posada hotel > in Santa Fe. Again, it's a lovely bar, decor-wise. The hotel occupies > one of the oldest mansions in Santa Fe; one of Santa Fe's richest > families lived in the mansion for many years. The matron of this family > -- Julia -- committed suicide there and has been repeatedly viewed as > still hanging around, as a ghost. That alone makes for an interesting > bar. > > [ To avoid any "Now he's saying he sees ghosts" nonsense, I shall state > for the record that I never once saw Julia, even though this bar and > hotel were among my most frequent hangouts in Santa Fe. I even went to > the trouble of staying in her former room one night, because that was > where the ghost made her most frequent appearances. Stayed up much of > the night waiting. Didn't see a damned thing. The only > out-of-the-ordinary thing I can report is that when I woke up the next > morning my hat was filled with urine. But that could have happened at > any of the hotels I stay in. :-) ] > > I loved this bar because it encapsulated for me one of the things I > loved most about Santa Fe: its essential, bottom-line sense of equality. > At this bar -- and in Santa Fe itself -- it didn't really matter Who You > Were In Who's Who; all that mattered was who you were. All of the > regulars wore the same jeans and T-shirts. You couldn't tell by looking > at them whether they owned the multi-million dollar palace on the hill, > or were one of the workmen helping to rebuild it, or were the drug > dealer shared by both. And you couldn't tell from their conversations, > either, because it never came up. Your value at this particular bar was > whether you could hold up your end of the conversation. Period. > > I learned a lot in that bar, on subjects ranging from politics to God, > and not once did I hear anyone bring up their "path," or spiritual > pedigree. If a former spiritual teacher or organization was ever > referenced, it was just in passing, never "for effect," as if to say, > "Hey, I studied with such-and-such...you should go 'Whoa' and weight my > words more heavily because of this." I can honestly say that from my > side the names Maharishi and Rama were never uttered in this bar. And I > had good conversations there anyway. > > *Everybody's* got a path. And IMO we can learn from all of them. To > believe otherwise -- and that one should mainly (or only) hang with > those who share your particular path -- seems to me to be an excellent > method for closing oneself off from the opportunity to learn from others > on different paths. >
