I know it sounds obvious, but by virtue of our humanity we are all playing the game of life, whether we think about it or not, in astonishing energetic interactions of cosmic proportions.

There’s a word in Sanskrit: SAT-CHIT-ANANDA

SAT:  the absolute being, the essence that is pure, timeless and never changes.

CHIT:  the true consciousness

ANANDA:  joyfulness and pure bliss.

So, by Eastern philosophy there is nothing that is outside of us, for we are one with the universe. Everything is connected. We are the one energy that’s everywhere and aware of itself, in a state of bliss.

Perhaps somewhere along the way you asked yourself: Who am I? Why am I here? What does existence mean to me? These are the fundamental questions that most people want answers to.

Religion has tried to give us the answers. Some have postulated the doctrine that we must be ‘good’. Do not sin and the kingdom of heaven shall be yours.  These rules that have been set out for us are rather black and white, with no room for grey. The aim of the game of black and white is that white must win. The game of life is one of duality, and seeming opposites.

We all need to eat, sleep, love, work, play, take care of ourselves and our loved ones, so we all play the game… It’s up to us if we are a pawn, a bishop, a knight, a rook, a queen or a king!

Black and white, joy and sorrow, right and wrong, good and evil. However, every coin has two sides. You can’t know one without the other, as each gives context to the other. In order to play the game we create these separations of the mind. We decide our preferences as we go. Ideally we find balance and equilibrium somewhere in the middle.

Traditional religion has rather set us up to fail, because it’s impossible for white to always win. We’ve already established that you must play the game, but you can’t win it in the indoctrinated sense.  Sadly, some play too hard and decide to opt out before their game is up.  ,

We are straddling two worlds. Jesus told us, ‘You are in the world, but not of the world.’

That is the conundrum of the human condition. The nature of our physicality means we have to separate things and events, and draw the boundaries for what’s me and what isn’t me. Doing this however, puts us between a rock and a hard place, because the polarity only exists in our minds.

Buying and selling, giving and receiving, hot and cold, living and dying are all one thing. Bees and flowers are not separate. They are an eco-system that can only survive with each other. You could argue they also need the soil, worms, microbes, water and sunshine.

Physics calls the ‘one thing’ the Unified Field. Humanity could be compared to billions of water droplets from the same ocean. Individual: yet made from the same ingredients and from the same source.

Dividing things is helpful from the point of view that it enables us to go about our daily lives, stay safe, and make choices. The downside is that we risk becoming too separated and feel either alienated or in opposition from others. Social conventions magnify these perceived separations.

“Our entire biological system, the brain and the earth itself, work on the same frequencies.” ~ Nicola Tesla

If someone asked you, how big is the sun? What would you say? ‘Well, it’s a massive burning ball of gas in the sky,’ or you might even go as far as to say, ‘it’s the extent of its light.’  Yet again, you could say, ‘Its beams of light are still travelling millions and millions of light years away.’

In reality there are no separate events. When did you begin? Was it with your conception, or your birth? Or did you come into being when your parents met, or perhaps when their parents met and all your ancestors going back to the dawn of time…? Maybe our souls have never not existed? We have our ideas about reality that are convenient for us, but in reality everything is one thing.

Lovely poem by Simon Welsh – The Zero Point Field:

You cannot know what it’s like to feel good without having felt bad and vice versa.  We can do things so we feel good more often than we don’t (and who wouldn’t want to if they are a conscious being), but to deny that bad exists and to resist it sets us up for frustration and anxiety. This is when we have to be aware of what kind of game we are playing and not play so hard. It’s a choice how hard we play, but our awareness self regulates us if we know where to direct it. Watch with awareness how you divide your world into ‘this’ and ‘that’.

To resist reality only causes more suffering.  I’ve been there, done that, and got the T-shirt on that one! To accept the full spectrum of what life immerses us in gives us the choice of how to react. If we are in sync with spiritual laws we will always feel that oneness that we pretend isn’t there. Have you ever had that complete and perfect feeling that you belong, that sense of connection with everything? However you are feeling right now is what oneness feels like. You can never-not be oneness. The whole spectrum of human emotion is how it feels.

To get past our minds which are conditioned to compartmentalise information is to get past resistance. Whoever wrote the script for Star Trek was a genius. “Resistance is futile.” Resisting life causes fear, anxiety, depression and alienation. Acceptance of ‘what is’ in the present moment is key.

Attachments cause us suffering. But to be a human being means that we have attachments, (unless you are hermit). We all have attachments to people, to places, to things, to ideas. Life would be dull and boring without these attachments (I honestly don’t think we could live effectively without them), but the double-bind is that we must learn to relinquish them as and when the time comes. Whatever you love will change over time. That’s the root of our human condition. The question isn’t whether you are going to suffer, but how you deal with it.  There are times when we should all relax and play a softer version of our game.

From Harry Palmer’s book, Private Lessons:

“Adversarial games bring out the worst in human beings. Among successful adversarial traits are brutality, ruthlessness, deception, intolerance and exploitation. The resulting balance that adversaries create is more a wasteland of despair than fertile ground for life.

Inwardly the adversarial model is battle between desire and resistance, right and wrong, being a winner or a loser. The inner balance in an adversarial mind is stressful and unstable.

There must be a better way, and there is: Cooperation.

Let me offer you an ancient way of looking at opponents that does not lead to conflict. Think of opponents as depending upon each other. Instead of conflict, they complete each other. No up without down, no light without dark, no happiness without suffering… Everything has its season. When the competitive state of mind is honoured with trust and patience, it softens and comes to recognise the greater cycle of give and take.”

The brilliant author, journalist, researcher and lecturer Lynne McTaggart talks about the universe in an exceptional presentation that bridges science and spirituality at the LESA 2013 summit:

If we are not aware of the kind of game we are playing we react to situations by putting our stuff automatically either into the white pile or the black pile. When we are in the ‘witness mode’ we can observe how we create our personal game and adjust our strategy and the way we play accordingly.

Whilst we may have had to yield outwardly to worldly circumstance, we do not have to weaken inwardly.

“A Human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to enhance all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~ Albert Einstein

You don’t need understanding to master the game of life. The only ingredient you need is awareness, which is our innate Self. May we all gain awareness of who we are behind the mask of mind.