Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Infinite Players are Fully Engaged in the World

james-sebor-1 Infinite players ‘play’ absent all fear, because they don't play to win. They simply do NOT value the world’s finite outcomes. This makes every interaction an opportunity to play with rules by revealing how rules can make ‘play’ impossible.

Finite players do NOT question the rules and, hence, often feel controlled by the rules. The infinite player understands the ego’s need for rules. Yet, because the infinite player does NOT deny his/her egocentricity, the rules are never hidden, but always revealed and fully known. It’s always the unknown rules that victimize.

Your ability to play WITH rules, as opposed to being defined BY rules, is always correlated with your ability to play WITH the ego, rather than play BY the ego. This takes vigilance, since essentially, to play WITH the ego means that it will rebel against any lack of serious intent.

Finite players are defined BY the ego’s rules. Infinite player’s play WITH the rules that the ego employs to define THEM. Essentially, to play with the rules of any game is to play WITH the ego.

Finite players take the games seriously and, therefore, fear playing in the belief that without serious intent, they may “lose.” This is why finite players are seriously enmeshed in the rules and identify with little else. This makes every interaction simply another ‘move’ in the game. Finite players fail to understand the ego’s need for rules as a way to limit play and so, often feel victimized by the games the ego requires to define who they ARE.

Are you defined by the objects you possess or by your awareness of the ego’s NEED to possess?


Infinite players are clearly cognizant of all the games available IN the world, because the world is defined exclusively by its games (to be IN the world is to always be IN a game). Yet, because they play only to engage more players, they have no fear that the rules will NOT be followed. From an absence of fear, Infinite players are able to engage deeply and are often surprised by what results, because they are NOT victimized by the ego’s demand for rules.

Does your life offer surprise or are you too prepared for that?

Finite players lack awareness of the very nature of play and, therefore, fail to experience ‘play.’ They seek only to engage those who will further their finite outcomes and thus, they remain restricted to the surface. Finite players don’t like surprises and this is why their lives are virtually scripted. They often become quite agitated by those who seem to lack the serious intent the rules demand. Finite players are always vigilant to remain close to the surface in every interaction in order to avoid the surprise that awaits in the depth. Depth is very frightening to the finite player because they cannot prepare for what the past cannot teach.

Finite players revere the past. But only because they do not trust themselves and believe that an unprepared ego (untrained) is a recipe for failure. They spend many years studying the moves of past winners in the hope of replicating “success” for their own future. To the finite player, NOW is nothing more than series of ‘wins’ that make life worthwhile until death. Finite players see little other reason for living. They live in a state of ‘suspended preparation’ and they pride themselves on their readiness to obstruct the moves of other players in order to further advance themselves. Finite players are sensitized to little else but winning and so, are desensitized to ALL else.

Infinite players are certainly aware of the past, but they see no desire to repeat it and thus, feel no compunction in breaking from convention by playing with the rules of the past. Yet, like the finite player, infinite players also do not trust themselves. However, unlike the finite player, who believes that the ego-self must be trained, the infinite player eschews training as nothing more than repeating the past in order to control the future.

Infinite players recognize that nothing IN the world can train them to become aware of what the world has NO knowledge of and, hence, can NEVER teach. Infinite players play infinitely, simply because they are open to LEARNING that which a finite world can NEVER teach and this is why they are NOT victims, nor do they have reason to victimize (what the world teaches).

Infinite players are acutely aware that all experience is simply the confluence of the relationship between the parts. It is NOT ‘individuals’ but the relationships between individuals that determines what is experienced IN the world. Infinite players do not fear even the most adverse relationships, because the experience of adversity is an invitation to fully engage the resolution that lies in the depth of understanding, which can only be accessed through relationship.

Infinite players are fully engaged in ALL relationships. This makes them fully engaged in the world, since it is through relationship that a 'world' is experienced as infinite.

Artwork by James Sebor - "I Am We"

5 comments:

  1. This is a really good post. Recently, my mind has been insisting on clarification, and I do like the sense of deeper clarification in this post. Memory has its usefulness in practical affairs, but the choice would be, then, to be bound by repetition or progress from it.

    I don't know, sometimes life is like a chess game, but I suppose it would be a matter of knowing when to put the board away or at least set it aside to see what might be discovered without it. It's been a discovery to take an impartial look at one's reaction to any given thing and really see what is at play in the brain. It's actually rather astonishing. But then I come back to what is observing the ego? What is it that begs the question? What offers the choice? What sees more clearly? Is the ego merely something that will acquiesce to that "other" voice or rebel against it? To make that choice between the constriction of finite and the endless possibility of infinite? I've been the walking question machine lately. And like anyone can answer. Oy. But I suppose in all these recent inquiries my mind has taken to, it must be a search for something finite and that is kind of scary. But then, one question leads to another and well, it's just the way it goes, so just go with it, I suppose.

    "Infinite players recognize that nothing IN the world can train them to become aware of what the world has NO knowledge of and, hence, can NEVER teach. Infinite players play infinitely, simply because they are open to LEARNING that which a finite world can NEVER teach and this is why they are NOT victims, nor do they have reason to victimize (what the world teaches)"

    Brilliant.

    It's hard to be solid in a world of floating contradictions. Even the world in one's own head.

    Again, really good post.

    Blessings,
    Nahnni

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  2. hi Mike and Nahnni
    I like this post too...

    Nahnni - you said
    "But then I come back to what is observing the ego? What is it that begs the question? What offers the choice? What sees more clearly? Is the ego merely something that will acquiesce to that "other" voice or rebel against it?"

    i like that musing/question. I think that what it is that begs the question, that sees more clearly can be simply another voice of ego... because the voices of ego can and do seem to rebel against itself... as part of confusion or learning...

    i think the aspect of clarity does not actually have a judgement about choice... rather the ego could make a more informed decision based on a larger degree of awareness that arises within that nonjudgemental clarity - ... then there is the opportunity to use ego and the relational world of choice in a skillful way rather than in a repeating habitual way... and this brings the talk into the real space of being in the world - not just in one's head.

    hi Mike - as far as memory goes - i think there is no need to dismiss memory as not useful... sometimes it is skillful to access memory - and make a decision to act (or act differently) in regard to memory... after all - every moment is unique in its causes and conditions... and sometimes it is useless to draw on the past - and sometimes it is useful...

    either way - it is still play.

    love
    c

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  3. Hey Guys,

    Good to hear from you!

    Nahnni: "But then I come back to what is observing the ego? What is it that begs the question? What offers the choice? What sees more clearly?"

    Dunno and usually don't try to speculate. Although I have employed the concept of "Deep Spirit" which I imagine is deeper while ego is surface. But, of course, that's only ego talkin.

    Arpita: "as far as memory goes - i think there is no need to dismiss memory as not useful... sometimes it is skillful to access memory - and make a decision to act (or act differently) in regard to memory..."

    Indeed, in the world one cannot be without it and we consider memory necessary to make accurate judgments on the future. Unfortunately, my tentative feeling is that memory is exactly why we don't make accurate judgments on the future, but merely repeat the past. It seems to me that when you really look closely you'll find that when the past is superimposed upon each moment, each moment merely repeats itself again and again. It seems unique and different on the surface, but alas, the patterns are merely compulsively repeated.

    Or so it seems...
    mikeS

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  4. Hi Mike,

    "But, of course, that's only ego talkin"

    Why? Why is that only ego talking? I suppose one might say the ego is instrumental in attempting to define something, but that does not mean that the "something" does not exist, for is it not "observed" by ego that something "observes" it? I don't know. Could all be a sort of mirage, maybe, or could be what we give a name to as "Deep Spirit", "Soul" or "Higher Mind". Just wondering. Thanks.

    Blessings,
    Nahnni

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  5. "I suppose one might say the ego is instrumental in attempting to define something, but that does not mean that the "something" does not exist, for is it not "observed" by ego that something "observes" it?"

    Maybe the ego simply must work at deconstructing itself (un-defining) and, since it is composed primarily of fear, as fear recedes the ego becomes more open to what it cannot know as it is presently composed. It seems all we can do is deconstruct the fear...

    ...and hope for the best!
    mikeS

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