Treeleaf, Zazen + the Hololens

[lorax]

Wow! And here i am on my wife's I pad while my computer is in the hospital! Reliable hardware at the user's end will be critical. Still exciting thoughts for our future.

[Roland]

Treeleaf, Zazen + the Hololens

Wow! And here i am on my wife's I pad while my computer is in the hospital! Reliable hardware at the user's end will be critical. Still exciting thoughts for our future.

Yes, cost should be an important consideration for rolling out a more immersive virtual zendo. For first experiments it's less an issue as prices go down and this is meant to be a slow moving project. Mark Zuckerberg has a vision for a deeply immersive layer on Facebook and works incrementally: buying Oculus Rift and now introducing 360 degrees video on the timelines. His time horizon is ten years.

Gassho

Roland
#SatToday

[MyoHo]

Some time ago "Second life" was a big hype. A revolution. It was going to change our lives forever. I tried it out for a while but wonder if it is still there? I can see a second life Zendo, sure it is far from what Jundo has in mind. Anyone familiar with that program?

Gassho

Peter

Verstuurd vanaf mijn GT-I9300 met Tapatalk

[Kokuu]

Hi MyoHo

Several Buddhist teachers tried teaching at the zendo in Second Life as an experiment but it didn't really take off. Most people were of the opinion it was pointless adding another layer of complexity on top of podcasts and video teachings that were already available online.

Gassho
Kokuu
#sattoday

[Kotei]

Hi MyoHo,

there is/was? a "Kannonji Zen Retreat" in Secondlife.
https://secondlife.com/destination/kannonji-zen-retreat.
Myself, rooted in the ooold text-only multiplayer role-playing MUDs, felt things like graphical 'games' and meeting places as a limitation in expressing oneself somehow. It's in a way so much easier to create things in a text-only world... Well... that's changing. Me and the technical possibilities.

Gassho,
Ralf sattoday.

[Kokuu]

Apparently, one Jundo Cohen was among those teachers giving talks in Second Life! Some people get everywhere!

http://www.lionsroar.com/a-precious-second-life-online/


Gassho
Kokuu
#st

[Kairu]

As a gamer myself (when time permits) I believe Ralf makes a good point. A virtual zendo, perhaps a remake of Jundos own zendo, would be very nice. Then everyone who could afford it would have a game pad and an occulus rift on.

I can't say how wearing a rift and doing zazen would feel, but I'm absolutely sure the hololense would feel more comfortable.

Kyle
Sattoday

Sent from my LG-D851 using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Apparently, one Jundo Cohen was among those teachers giving talks in Second Life! Some people get everywhere!

http://www.lionsroar.com/a-precious-second-life-online/


Gassho
Kokuu
#st

Ah, yes, Second Life Jundo, designed for me for my Zazenkai at Kannonji ... (this one has 6-Pack Abs under the robes, which is something I kinda liked ) ...

The experience left me with a feeling of strong and weak points for a Sangha in Second Life.

The good points were the wild creativity ... where I was sitting in a space with people whose self-expressive avatars were wilder than anything in the Lotus Sutra (see Fugen's talk) or the bar scene in Star Wars (also see Fugen's talk). People could be who they felt they wanted to be. Also, the anonymity may have made a very safe space for some folks. Folks in this shot look pretty ordinary (apart from the meditating tiger), but I recall sitting with some horned creature, fairies, a dog-woman and such ... rather neat ...




The negative points were actually the same ... where the extreme anonymity almost felt like people hiding behind masks, the extreme fetishization of costume and appearance was really a kind of materialistic fashion show, and there was almost a sense that people were running to their "new self" in a new world because they did not know how to be at home with their "first self" in this world. I felt that it was making barriers. Buddhism does not need a "second self", but rather a "first self/non self". We need to learn that this world is a real-fiction, and not just put another fiction on top.

Maybe it is because I was not raised with games as much as people a few years younger, but I was not so comfortable with the artificial environment.

Gassho, Jundo

SatToday

[mrgeckocgs]

I think the second life format could work with a few tweaks. Get rid of this fancy avatar stuff. Who you are is who you are, in computer bytes as well as life, your avatar matches you. If I only ever interact with you on second life there should be a really good chance I could pick you out of a lineup in real life. It sounds like Jundo's wouldn't have six pack abs, and mine would be really tall and way over weight, maybe even have the controls a little off to represent the big dumb ox part of my motor controls.

Take it one step further have the i.r. motion controller from a Wii, Xbox, or Playstation make ones avatar mimic what you are doing in real time. If I start to node off so does the avatar. Then the person with the Keisaku can trigger a loud noise in my system to refocus my attention.

I agree the space would be best if it mimicked a real place like Jundo's place, that we get to see in videos.

[CK732]

I love the idea [emoji7] about 6 months ago someone told me about a teaching platform that he uses to teach Tai Chi where everyone is live and can interact from their spaces. I don't know if there were videos stored for later review but I'm sure that can be done so that every time zone can have access. But it's still not as cool as the Holo Zendo that's just awesome

Gassho
Clarisse Sat2Day



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RichardH]

snip..The negative points were actually the same ... where the extreme anonymity almost felt like people hiding behind masks, the extreme fetishization of costume and appearance was really a kind of materialistic fashion show, and there was almost a sense that people were running to their "new self" in a new world because they did not know how to be at home with their "first self" in this world. I felt that it was making barriers. Buddhism does not need a "second self", but rather a "first self/non self". We need to learn that this world is a real-fiction, and not just put another fiction on top.....snip

This was my clear sense of it as well. A second life on top of the first one. Spending a little time there a few years ago two things stood out... First Life is infinitely more interesting...and has better resolution and frame rate, ...and you have to be careful who you talk to. Someone with a fantasy costume wanted to go off and explore with me. A short conversation revealed it to be a young girl, a young girl talking to a strange man in his forties on the internet. I told her to be careful and never went back.

Somehow this online sangha has to not add any layers, but connect. I think virtual space is interesting and fun, but connecting first life space as clearly and efficiently as possible seems like the way to go. Actual faces and eyes, and tears, and smiles.....

Gassho
Daizan

sat today

[Jundo]

Well, our 3D Zazenkai will probably make the 3D bread sticks look exciting ...

(Sorry that this is not visible outside the US and Canada)

http://on.cc.com/1MhkFJa

Canada

http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/blogs/2015/10/daily-show-todays-technology-now

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Hotetsu]

Kinda reminds me of the cyberspace described in the novel, Snow Crash.

Gassho,
Hotetsu

#SatToday

Sent from my LGMS345 using Tapatalk

[Roland]

Treeleaf, Zazen + the Hololens

Second Life still exists and the company behind it, Linden Lab, develops a new version which will fit nicely with the Oculus Rift. The big advantage of that virtual place is that you mentally share the same place, wherever you are. I prefer a solution which would have the same advantage but without the avatar mask. I think a combination of 360 degree video capturing, 3D immersiveness and realtime connections will make this possible.

Gassho
Roland
#SatToday

[Roland]

Maybe we won't have to wait ten years after all. Read this post about the (very cheap and lightweight) Google Cardboard VR goggles: Google Cardboard hits 15 million installs There are now already many 360 degrees videos on YouTube which can be watched using Cardboard (disclaimer: I've yet to buy these goggles to try this out). Now just suppose it would be possible to have a Google Hangout using a 360 cardboard.JPG

Anyway, we could now already do some crowdfunding to buy a 360 degrees camera for our physical temple, use that to record the sessions (alongside the normal hangout-recording) and watch the recording afterwards on YouTube using the Google Cardboard.

But maybe I first should try out the Cardboard goggles. They are cheap, but I guess the quality is less compared to the far more expensive Oculus Rift. If others already tried those things, let us know!

cardboard.JPG

Gassho,

Roland
#SatToday