Infinite Play: “A Joyful Participation in the Sorrows of the World”

The ego-self is one serious dude, yo!

Egocentricity thrives on taking life seriously through some heavy duty serious beliefs, cause if “you” weren’t serious about what you believed, then what the fook would you be?

Free?

Egocentric seriousness demands accurate predictions from which to adequately prepare for every eventuality.

“You” went to school for umpteen years, learnin’ all manner of serious sheit, as a means to better negotiate your “world,” and everything you learned was to aid you in accurate “prediction.” Hence, an ego-self that can accurately predict expected outcomes is more capable of winning the egocentric games required to give "life" meaning. Accurate prediction of outcomes results in more efficient “preparations” for achieving the desired outcome . Of course, the ‘desired outcomes’ always conform to egocentric perception (whether or not that perception is “true” has been historically open to debate).

Clearly, egos don’t like SURPRISE. 

This is because “surprise” does NOT conform to predictability and, thus, does not allow for adequate preparation. You didn’t finish 18 yrs of mind-numbing "education" to further your capacity to be “surprised” by life. Your mind control was facilitated with the express purpose of adequately preparing for what “you” were taught to predict, based on what was predicted in the past (with adjustments made for specific "time" periods), so as to accumulate as many ‘desired outcomes’ as possible. How else would you realize your "aliveness," if you weren't out there grabbing all that "gusto" you were taught to "grab."

However, you’re now fooking bored outa your wits with experiencing everything you expect based on preparing for your predictions. Now you're startin' to wonder if the games are worth playing

In fact, I know a “transgender” teenager, who can look forward to incredible “surprises” throughout life, if able to detach from expected outcomes and predictable desires. However, if the conditioned expectation of “happiness” continues to rule the mind, then this teenager-come-adult will struggle and suffer through preparing for the seriousness of the games and NEVER attaining the expected outcomes as taught. The problem is and has always been the egos need to conform to achieving outcomes the world informs are very serious. If this teenager can learn to play infinitely, he will fooking fly! However, if he chooses to become victim to a world that demands conformance to finite expectations... he will suffer.

Your experience of “desensitization” is a direct result of your incessant avoidance of SURPRISE due to your FEAR of experiencing the 'Meaninglessness of Nothing.' The egocentric self-construct demands all perception fit the appropriate boxes so that the outcomes arrive as predicted. This often involves years of very SERIOUS WORK.

I have a friend who claims to be a Buddhist and he takes that claim very SERIOUSLY. He works very hard at preparing for what he was taught to predict based on the ideology he chose TO BELIEVE. Years of meditation and other spiritual "practices" (mostly to deal with his guilt for every time he had swatted a fly) are his means of preparing for his 'learned' predictions. As the prediction states, one must adequately prepare for dissolving karma, else one can only predict (expect) further suffering through the cycles of birth and death (he really wishes I would take this stuff seriously, rather than giggle all the time).

Egocentricity thrives on the serious preparation that comes from adequate prediction and all religio-spirituality is entirely constructed on predictive models of “success.” Without an expectation of “success", egos would not seriously play the games the world prescribes as necessary to seriously acknowledge that “you” seriously exist.

However, there is a way to play all “life” games in which seriousness is completely trumped by the expectation of “surprise.” Unfortunately, this is difficult for finite players because there’s actually nothing to DO and serious egos are easily identified by all the finite things they DO that are supposed to make “life worth living.”

In my ongoing study of the infinite player, it’s clear they lack the expected “seriousness” necessary to demonstrate a desire to “win” in the egocentric games they play. Yet, what is also clear is that they tend to expect “surprise” by detaching from all outcomes, but still continue to play in all the games you and I take seriously.

Infinite players tend to exhibit a “joyful participation in the sorrows of the world” (Joseph Campbell).

The infinite player realizes the incredible power of the mind. By tapping this power, they realize that any THINKING that merely serves to reference and reinforce an “outside” world is powerless, because you have been taught what to believe about an “outside” world that reflects ONLY the past. Infinite players realize the essential non-existence of past thinking and need NOT be victimized by a "world" that is neither "inside" nor "outside." Yet, for the finite player the "world" seems to determine ALL thought, and not the reverse, and it must always remain rigidly "outside" the mind.

This makes THOUGHT very serious indeed, demanding your victimization to the nothingness of all meaning.

Nevertheless, eventually, one day you will finally ask yourself "why do I take NOTHINGNESS so damn seriously."

It seems that this is, undeniably, the first step in playing infinitely in a finite world.

Are you up to it?

 Artwork by Travis Louie