The Game

I follow Seth's Blog and though I don't always read it, I did yesterday.  The title was, "Four stages of the game," and he writes:

• You don't even realize there's a game. (And any contest, market, project or engagement is at some level a game).
• You start getting involved and it feels like a matter of life or death. Every slight cuts deeply, every win feels permanent. "This is the most important meeting of my life..."
• You realize that it's a game and you play it with strategy. There's enough remove for you to realize that winning is important but that continuing to play is more important than that. And playing well is most important.
• You get bored with the game, because you've seen it before. Sometimes people at this stage quit, other times they sabotage their work merely to make the game feel the way it used to.
• And then a new, different game begins.

I love how it is titled "Four stages..." and he has 5 things listed. This connotes the cyclical nature of the game, similarly as explained by explained by Alan Watts in "Game of Black-and-White":

I have this saying, which was surely said by someone else before:

When we are all one, we've all won (the game, that is).  Remember, you must be present to win. 

Embracing this Moment

This weekend we held the first offering of the workshop, Embracing the Other, which incorporated partner yoga and writing in the exploration of the boundaries of self and other. I can't speak for anyone's experience but my own, but it appeared that the workshop was a positive experience for the attendees. What I love about creating and presenting these workshops is that it tricks me into becoming more aware of my own othering, even if it becomes a bit uncomfortable. Fear of miscommunication, fear of fruitless efforts, fear of my own darkness emerge and I meet them, get to know their face and mannerisms and maybe even gain some insight as to why they are the way they are. 

I have started to see just a little bit more how even the grandest fears are a product of the one side-sided view of things as "this and that" (dualism).  Though distinction is natural and necessary...it's not the whole story.  

Perceiving the self in the other can be quite tricky, but not impossible. When we can embrace what's right in front of us, what's been placed in our bowl*, is when we invite for just one moment to let the lines dissolve.  

*I've been reading Sue Bender's Everyday Sacred.  Simple and Inspiring.