Different Game

Making money. Being wanted. Feeling safe. Winning. Having the best. Gaining respect. Achieving status. Acquiring comfort. Finding the perfect partner. Living well. Seeming right. Avoiding pain. Appearing cool. Convincing others. Searching. Controlling. Imposing. Manipulating. Lying. Pretending. Competing. Distracting. Hurting. Threatening. Conquering. Dealing. Protecting. Preserving. Excluding. Disempowering. Cheating. Attacking. Separating. Suppressing. Projecting. Discouraging. Harassing. Fragmenting. Destroying. Endangering. Hoarding. Gutting. Raping. Stealing. Killing. Celebrating. Denying. Justifying. Rationalizing. Double speaking. Personalizing. Co-opting. Reasoning. Compartmentalizing. Confusing. Reiterating. Reinforcing. Guiding. Refusing. Hiding. Accusing. Pointing. Fearing. Hating. Deciding. Naming. Dividing. Engendering through conditioning. Mastering through instilling. Wondering. Questioning. Imitating. Emulating. Learning. Accepting. Consuming. Adopting. Agreeing. Craving. Stressing. Expecting. Becoming. Slaving by knowing. Losing by succeeding. Missing by believing. Defending. Remembering? Wanting. Pursuing. Lusting. Desiring. Commodifying. Negotiating. Contracting. Engaging. Attaching. Extending. Repeating. Settling. Conditioning. Disciplining. Training. Drifting. Stabilizing. Tolerating. Role-playing. Depending. Loving! Withdrawing. Numbing. Forgetting. Ignoring. Deleting. Hardening. Closing. Suffering. Fading. Blurring. Escaping. Fantasizing. Fleeing. Running. Hiding. Seeking. Hunting. Luring. Hooking. Snagging. Enticing. Selling. Using. Hoping. Cycling. Spinning. Circling. Stalling. Assuming. Choosing. Thinking. If you wanted to escape from Oneness, you've found a way. But remember: the Other is you too. Darkness wears light’s mask. Justification is the drug du jour. Influence dictates value. And if I am being influenced internally by desire, fear, addiction or belief- am I free? I listen to pop music with lyrics about love fantasies and being tough and cool. Songs that reinforce my ideals and ideas about the world and myself. Can music serve beyond its role as a social “yes” man, as a personal soundtrack validating what we already believe about ourselves? How about a new love song? One without the words “mine” and “forever”. She turns to me and says, “would you like exclusive access to my body in exchange for providing me with the love that I refuse to give myself?” No, thank you. Perhaps we could engage in a different game? I’ll pretend I’m you. Pretend you’re me. Place the center of life itself in every manifestation you perceive. I find this difficult, until I allow my vision to be blurred to form, and my physical senses to adjust their roles from dictators to bringers of a kind of experience. If I extinguish identity then that which is indistinguishable appears. World is cheese. Mind is grater. Names are eggshells, and what's inside them is growing and changing. Are we satisfied with allowing the tools we have created- names, language, numbers, systems- to become our masters? Is there a life beyond the race toward solitary success? We are liquid competing for specific forms. If I achieve my dream, will I become happy? Who created this association? Where did my dream originate? Was I not once a dream of someone else’s? I may avoid such inquiries into the nature of my experiential reality by choosing to be distracted with the past- specifically the ancient instinctual tendency to perceive my environment as hostile and lacking in abundant resource, thereby engendering an attitude of competition for survival. But why not see life as it is? The Earth is a perfect life sustaining system sufficient in abundance to provide for every need of humanity. Add human technology, and we have all the tools we need to sustain a balanced and healthy world in perpetuity. There IS enough! Regardless, myths abound which serve to create a climate of scarcity thus determining public perception. This mass view based on fear encourages hoarding, leading to poverty for all- whether of resource or of imagination. Add to this corporate greed and unaccountability with a worldwide media at its disposal, and it all begins to make sense that we should, in order to survive and even possibly thrive, adopt a mentality of “every one for their self”. But is there another way? Does giving leave us with less? Are we willing to examine the difference between “perfection” and a chosen ideal? Is there a game other than just “getting what we want”? Let me whisper this in your ear: the game is won by losing. Face your conditioning head-on! There is no path, only arrival. If you want to be free, begin to disagree. Break the chains of certainty. Invite possibility. Ignite a Revolution of Perception. Forget to turn off the faucet of flowing forgiveness. Approach each moment with openness leaving a trail of joyous gratitude for past experience without fear of being what you are right now. Accept responsibility for your entire experience. Cultivate the courage to transcend any ideas that impose limitation. Love! Alo-Ha! Discover the joy of others’ happiness. What if the source of love is inside us? What if we determine through preference that which is right and wrong? What if we are God, unrealized? Can these questions stand, without answers? The “absolute” is a limited concept of the human mind. I am not my mind. I am free of needing a definable self. Who are we, and who are they? Though we seem so different, we’re mostly the same. We slowly open like timid flowers in a field of eachother, each in our own unique time and fashion. Billions of flowers, One field. Trillions of problems, One answer: let go. Love is the source from whence we arose; it is the mystery from which manifestation appears. It is a walk down a street of a million yous, every step bringing you face to face with yourself. Close your eyes and see what lies beyond this dream of separation. Hold a myth to the flame. So it is true… we change. Play a DIFFERENT GAME!