The Game (Summary)
It's not a complicated mathematical algorithm. Like everything profound, at its core, it is really VERY simple.
Beneath everything, there is a driving force that few people are able to work with and most, in fact, spend their entire lives resisting. This force is as reliable and as black and white as gravity. To work with it, you need to be willing to leave everything behind that you think you know, everything that you think you need, and everything that you think you are. Everything...career, relationships, money, family, none of these go with you on this journey. You need to abandon everything you are attached to and set out to discover your Truth.
This will make more sense to you later:
In short, you need to be willing to give up everything in order to gain absolutely Nothing.
If you understand that the universe is friendly and is constantly providing clues with everything that happens to you. If you can view everyone you meet as a teacher. If you can set aside all fear and confront your own ugly and nasty demons then the Truth will NOT be denied you.
The Truth of who you really are will set you free and you will see the game for what it is.
Once you do this, you can no longer be a victim in the game. You will have a direct insight into the fact that you are responsible for absolutely EVERYTHING in your life. When you stop judging, attachments will fall away. When you see, experience and know that you are the source of it all, there will be no more questions.
Life is a puzzle you do alone...at night...with the lights off...and you don’t even know what the puzzle is going to be.
No one ever said it was easy but it is easier once you know the nature of the game.
No one can help you because these puzzles are like snowflakes, no two are alike.
You have to do the math for yourself.
There are no short-cuts, no cheat codes.
It's a solo gig. In this game you must become your own Guru.
Anyone that says otherwise is not talking about the same thing.
Don’t take my word for it look for yourself. Think for yourself.
The game doesn't start until you start thinking for yourself.
You are both the dreamer AND the dream character.
You are the character in the book, AND you are the author.
You are the actor in the play AND the playwright.
You are: Mario AND the Programmer.
The Game (Long Version)
MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES: Entertainment or enlightenment?
Excerpt from Paradoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology, Vol. 4: Spring 2012
Summary
This article is a look into the very nature of being, using contemporary movie and video game analogies for easy access to existential concepts. This cutting-edge query combines humor, modern language, compelling analogies, current scientific knowledge and a liberal dose of nondual philosophy. The invitation here is to find the courage to make a true paradigm shift in how you see the world in general and yourself in particular.
Movies And Video Games: Entertainment or Enlightenment?
You have probably seen the movies The Matrix, The Truman Show, Inception and Tron (1982 or 2010). These movies are great for allowing you to view reality very differently than how your day to day "reality" occurs for you.
But what if all these movies were illustrating a more real account of "reality" than you are experiencing now? What if (like so many other things) you are just too close to the source with your current perspective to see it? Now you might resist this by saying …. "No, Chad. I know my reality is 'real.' I have to go to [insert the thing you spend most of your waking hours doing here – school or work, for example]. I have to make money to pay my bills. I have to go to school so I can get a job...etc. If I pinch myself I feel pain, so this must be real."
Yes, yes… I get it … I used to tell myself the stories however, please consider the possibility that your perspective skews your perception. Your reaction at this moment might be to immediately launch a recital, years in the making, of all the reasons, justifications and explanations for why you do what you do and how it can't be any different for you.
What if I told you any reason or justification you could offer about any part of your life is made up B.S. that YOU'VE invented to pigeonhole yourself exactly where you are now? What if I told you your "reality" is much more malleable than you ever thought? What if I told you that you have infinitely more freedom than you currently can perceive? What if, from my perspective, it seems to me like you are in a jail cell? You constantly complain about your captivity, but you've overlooked the unlocked cell door. What if I told you that your cell door has never been locked and there are no guards? What if you were free to go? Would you stay in the familiar cell, or would you brave a whole new world you never knew existed like Truman eventually did at the conclusion of The Truman Show?
Before we proceed, let's remove the hypothetical from this conversation. Now I am telling you:
You are in a jail cell complaining about your captivity. The door is unlocked, there are no guards...no one's in charge and you are free to go. If you like your captivity and the familiarity of your cell, then ignore all this crazy talk, take the blue pill and go back to your regular life. You will forget all of this soon enough. On the other hand, if you have a nagging suspicion (as Truman did) that what's on the surface of life just doesn't add up, then you should keep reading. When used appropriately, the concepts I am going to address here can be your red pill, your ticket to freeing your mind, which is your only captor.
First things first: Who are you?
On a road trip, the first things you need to know are where you are starting from and where you want to go. An effective, efficient road trip cannot happen without clearly designating these two locations. A meandering, random, non-efficient trip can happen without a destination, but a road trip cannot happen without a declared starting point.
To “pass go” on this journey, first there are two metaphysical questions you must ask. They are simple yet profound and every bit as important to your awakening as the start and finish locations are to the road trip. These questions have probably been around as long as there has been language to ask them. The questions are: Who are you? where are you? The movies The Matrix and Tron are both great inquiries into these questions. A lesser known movie with Ryan Reynolds made in 2007 called "The Nines" is my personal favorite. Metaphysical concepts cloaked in movie storylines abound in these well thought out works. If you haven't seen them, I can't recommend them enough. If you have seen them, I recommend seeing them again after reading this.
Let's dive into the question of "Who are you?" or, more appropriately phrased from your vantage point "Who am I?" This was, in fact, Ramana Maharishi's favorite inquiry, and he prescribed it to many people in his one-on-one talks.
In the movie Tron, the main character is sucked into a video game and then "forced to play" various games. From his perspective while he's in the game, it all seems very real. It sure looks like he could "die." Certain parts of the movie were downright scary for him. Perhaps not too dissimilar from your life. Do you have things you "have to do"? And are there some things in your life that seem pretty scary? Much of The Matrix and The 13th Floor take place in a simulated reality. In The Matrix, this is all explained in black and white to Neo by Morpheus. Situated in a white room (the construct), Morpheus explains to Neo how things are created in it, and then offers a mind-blowing demonstration. This begs the question: How do we know this isn’t the way “reality” happens for us, too? Perhaps there is more to The Matrix than a cool Sci Fi story. Have you ever wondered why such a seemingly far out movie is so popular? Ever wonder why it's more popular with younger people? Ask anyone 30 or under, have they seen The Matrix and, if so, what were their thoughts on it. I have done this, and what I find is most younger people (25-35) really like it and, when asked why, they can't explain it. It seems to just resonate with people. Perhaps they are unknowingly relating to the underlying metaphysical currents.
Werner Heisenberg, the German theoretical physicist who contributed greatly to what we now know as Quantum Mechanics, said “Atoms are not things. They are only tendencies.” So let’s follow the logic here for a bit. If everything you interact with (including you) is made up of atoms, and atoms are notthings, then WTF Werner?! What are you? And what are all these things you have been playing with your whole life?
OK, let's forget the metaphysical jargon briefly and simply look at your hand for a moment. What is it? It is made up of molecules and atoms, but if atoms are merely tendencies, how can you have a hand that is made of "tendencies?" How can a hand made up of a collection of tendencies interact with other things that are only tendencies too?
Let's dive in a little more. Within atoms we seem to have protons, neutrons and electrons Scientists also tell us that you cannot nail an electron down in three dimensional space. We have the ability to see that small, but what they find is that the electrons don't want to cooperate. Consider the simplest of atoms...the Hydrogen atom which has one electron whizzing around a nucleus. All we can say about it is, at a given point in time, the probability of the electron being in quadrant A is X and in quadrant B is Y and so on. We cannot definitively say that the electron actually IS at this X,Y and Z coordinate.
As you go even smaller, quantum mechanics tells us that atoms are made of quarks which are billions of times smaller than the Hydrogen atom itself. At the present time, it is widely believed that quarks are the smallest units in the universe. They are the cosmic building blocks. Quantum is the Latin term for "unit." Scientists have also discovered that it is not possible to chop up time and space infinitely. The universe (space and time) comes at us in logical measurable units. These are quantum amounts. A movie projector projects film at 24 frames per second. However, when you break it down to the frame level, you can’t have a smaller unit than one frame. In the computer/video game world, no matter how good the graphics are, if you keep zooming in, you're still going to end up at a single pixel. Because a pixel is one dot, it's the smallest unit of the computer screen. If you zoom out and view lots of dots, they form into a picture or text, something for you to interact with.
First things first: Where are you?
The 13th Floor is a movie that is just as good as The Matrix for conveying metaphysical concepts. Its premise is based on a computer simulation of reality. A person enters this world by having his/her consciousness transferred from his/her body into a character in the simulation. Once in the computer simulation, everything that occurs seems to be just as "real" as anything experienced outside of the simulation.
Here's the point: There was no way to tell the difference between the "real world" and the "simulation." In The 13th Floor, the characters only knew who they really were when they were outside the simulation. But what if, right now, in the present moment, you are in a computer simulation and have forgotten everything that you had known before you entered the simulation?
Is that even possible?
There is a great scene in The Matrix where Cypher is talking to Agent Smith. The dialogue goes like this:
Agent Smith: Do we have a deal, Mr. Reagan?
Cypher: [Cuts a piece of steak and holds it in front of him] I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I have learned? [Eats the piece of steak and sighs contently] Ignorance is bliss.
Agent Smith: Then we have a deal?
Cypher: I don't wanna remember nothing. Nothing, you understand? And I wanna be rich. You know, someone important … like an actor.
Agent Smith: Whatever you want, Mr. Reagan.
Cypher: All right, then. Put my body back into the power plant, reinsert me back into the Matrix, I'll get you what you want.
Cypher sets it up from the beginning that, when he entered the Matrix, he would not remember anything. Why would he do this? For the same reason why you don't want your friend to tell you about the ending of a movie that you are about to see. It's much more fun NOT knowing . . . or in Cypher's case, NOT remembering.
Your life only seems real because you are so close to it. You never get a different view point, and it keeps showing up for you in a consistent manner. Einstein said "Reality is merely an illusion albeit a very persistent one." Perhaps your reality is no more real than the dream you had last night. I've had dreams that were so "real" I woke up in a cold sweat with my heart thumping like I just ran a 10K. When I was a kid I would sometimes have nightmares, and I would be so scared I wet the bed. There is no denying the "realness" of the dream from the dreamer's perspective inside the dream. If you would have entered my dream (like they were able to do in the movie Inception) and told me it was all "just a dream" and none of it was "real," I would have slugged you or written you off as a lunatic. From my dream perspective, it was all very "real."
Consider from an unbiased perspective your reality is just as real as a video game. Perhaps YOU are the cosmic programmer (Consciousness), and you built a kind of computer (Time and Space) to play a game on. You wrote every line of code that makes the game come to life. You created many characters (people) to make it all seem real. You created intricate storylines to make it all compelling, fun and even scary. Out of nothing, you created the concept of duality. (e.g. This is good I want more of it. This is bad I want less of it.). Duality was absolutely necessary and the most brilliant rule ever coded and introduced in the game. Why? Because it's the ultimate way to keep the game moving and interesting (a.k.a. "playable").
With the stage set, then you (as a point of consciousness) entered the game (Tron style) and purposefully chose one character [insert your name here] as the vantage point to have all perceptions arise from. You really wanted to experience this game from every angle so you did this again and again. (Recently you just exceeded seven billion vantage points!)
The really amazing thing you did was to consciously choose (like Cypher in The Matrix) to forget who and what you really are. Once the stage was set, you started the game. With so much going on in the game (an almost infinite number of distractions), the real game is to see if you can undo the programming....that you, yourself, had put in the game....and to realize who you are and where you are. Guru’s call this enlightenment. I call it the best game ever. Look around and judge for yourself.
This is the ultimate Game of all games, and I can tell you from experience, once you start playing this game, there's really no other game to play.
Life changing, super massively important key point:
Who you are is consciousness with limited awareness in a fictional character with certain attributes. You have placed yourself in a simulation (an amazingly realistic 3D holographic video game) that YOU created. Your avatar (or ‘Mario’ character) has a fixed perspective arising from your character's unique vantage point. Your Mario character loves to judge and categorize things and place either a “Good” label or a “Bad” label on EVERYTHING. The point of this game is to discover who you are and where you are.
When you get this with every fiber of your being (and not just get it intellectually). Then and only then does your game truly begin!
All I ever needed to know about Enlightenment I learned from a 12 year old....and a video game:
The tough questions in life aren't really that tough. They could be answered by a Mario- mastering 12-year old talking about the latest video game.
Here is a mock conversation between you and 12-year old Johnny (while he plays his favorite game).
You: Hey Johnny, what are you doing?
Johnny: Playing my new game.
You: Looks like fun!
Johnny: YES IT IS!
(Notice a few things at this point: Johnny is having fun. He may not beat every board the first time, but this adds to (and does not detract from) the fun of the game. He wouldn't want to beat every board the first time. The point of any video game is to be fun for the player, and Johnny is definitely having fun.
You: So who are you?
Johnny: I'm Mario. See me right there!
You: Oh, you are Mario. I see. Well, where are you?
Johnny: I'm in a castle now and trying to save the princess. This screen is really hard. I can't wait to get past it.
(Notice how Johnny has collapsed his so-called "real world" with the video game reality? Also notice he has already started to complain about his situation! Sound familiar?)
Now, since you want to ask Johnny what's the meaning of life from the context of the video game, you say:
You: Johnny, what's the point of this game?
Johnny: To save the princess. But I have to get past a lot to do that! I haven't done it yet.
(Notice: Johnny has bought into the fact that there is a princess to save, and he wants to save her.)
Without believing that there is something "to do," there is no game for Johnny. Since the conditioning/false belief system has been accepted by Johnny, he now thinks there is something he "needs to do" and he is on task….and it’s fun for him! Also notice that, from the current screen Johnny is on, there is NO princess. The princess is out of his awareness. The Princess is a made up concept. In short, he's playing a game and trying to save a princess that doesn't actually exist in his world now.)
You: Oh I see.
Consider the metaphysical possibility that you are Mario in a virtual world that YOU created and that you then entered to experience what it offered, and then you zapped yourself with a 'Men in Black' style "memory eraser."
The details of this analogy keep going and going. Quantum mechanics tells us that nothing is solid and that everything is energy and vibration. In order to have something take shape in the world of form, an observer is needed. After all, what's the video game without Mario?
When you look at something in your world, it looks like something: a chair, a table, a person, a dog, etc. When you are not looking at it, the matter becomes spread out and uncoalesced. In other words, it has no finite form. Let me repeat that. Our sharpest scientists are telling us that, if your awareness is NOT on something, then that "something" has no finite form.
These basic rules of quantum mechanics apply to all subatomic particles. When we look at them, they exist as dots of matter. When we look away, they lose their physical form. You, as the Observer, just by having your awareness in the room, are causing the collapse of all possibilities into a single reality.
So if you asked a quantum physicist the age old question "If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?" he would probably answer "What tree?" Without an observer, nothing takes form. Without Mario, there is no game. When Mario is on board #42, there is no reason for the computer to render board #43 or #44. And so it doesn't.
Mario can't run fast enough to ever see an unrendered board. "Just-in-time-rendering" of Mario's world keeps the game seeming real for the player and keeps his attention. Perhaps this is true of your own reality, too? "Just-in-time-rendering" of your reality answers the questions in a way that is congruent with what we are seeing experimentally with quantum mechanics.
In short, maybe nothing in your world is rendered until your own awareness acts upon it. Back to Einstein: "Reality is merely an illusion albeit a very persistent one."
What makes your reality seem so real is just like Mario's world. If Mario goes backwards to a previous board everything is exactly how he left it. The computer remembers everything down to the smallest detail. This is absolutely necessary in order to keep the illusion from falling apart and violating the rules of logic. Above all, it has to keep the player interested by making it easy for him to engage in its dramas. Remember that the number one rule of all video games is to keep the game playable. If you lose the player’s interest, the player stops playing and the game is over.
There is a very narrow band that all good games exist within. They can't be too hard or too easy. They must have just the right number of pitfalls or villains. If they become too predictable, too easy (or too hard), they lose the player's interest and the game stops.
Maybe video games are the cosmic clue to how reality works here for you, too? Don't take my word for this, as there is a way to find out for certain: Do the thought experiments for yourself.
If you want to know what's really happening here, you have to ask yourself these tough questions. No one can give you the answers, and you must think them out for yourself.
This is a solo gig, “a one player only game”, where you stop thinking there is anything outside of you and you turn the spotlight inward. It's probably not going to happen overnight, but if you let your desire for truth take the driver’s seat, I guarantee you it will drive you home. You simply need to stay out of the way and minimize the backseat driving! Remember, this is an experiential activity, and you need to investigate it for yourself.
There is no "me" out here who is separate from "you." I am literally just a character on this board of YOUR game. I am showing up here and now to deliver this message because you are ready to play a different game here in the human amusement park of life.
I will leave you with my view of what reality is, and how you can play the game differently if you so choose. Knowing what the game really is and playing the game the way I am now has led me to enjoying the game so much more. I would contend that if you shift your perspective in this manner, your game will become much more "playable" too. This is not to say that you will suddenly have a million dollars and rock star popularity, but when the shitstorms of life occur, you will have the tools to step back and see the game for what it is…..an amazing, super, "playable" game that YOU designed.
. . . You are Mario . . . AND the Programmer.
Summary
This article is a look into the very nature of being, using contemporary movie and video game analogies for easy access to existential concepts. This cutting-edge query combines humor, modern language, compelling analogies, current scientific knowledge and a liberal dose of nondual philosophy. The invitation here is to find the courage to make a true paradigm shift in how you see the world in general and yourself in particular.
Movies And Video Games: Entertainment or Enlightenment?
You have probably seen the movies The Matrix, The Truman Show, Inception and Tron (1982 or 2010). These movies are great for allowing you to view reality very differently than how your day to day "reality" occurs for you.
But what if all these movies were illustrating a more real account of "reality" than you are experiencing now? What if (like so many other things) you are just too close to the source with your current perspective to see it? Now you might resist this by saying …. "No, Chad. I know my reality is 'real.' I have to go to [insert the thing you spend most of your waking hours doing here – school or work, for example]. I have to make money to pay my bills. I have to go to school so I can get a job...etc. If I pinch myself I feel pain, so this must be real."
Yes, yes… I get it … I used to tell myself the stories however, please consider the possibility that your perspective skews your perception. Your reaction at this moment might be to immediately launch a recital, years in the making, of all the reasons, justifications and explanations for why you do what you do and how it can't be any different for you.
What if I told you any reason or justification you could offer about any part of your life is made up B.S. that YOU'VE invented to pigeonhole yourself exactly where you are now? What if I told you your "reality" is much more malleable than you ever thought? What if I told you that you have infinitely more freedom than you currently can perceive? What if, from my perspective, it seems to me like you are in a jail cell? You constantly complain about your captivity, but you've overlooked the unlocked cell door. What if I told you that your cell door has never been locked and there are no guards? What if you were free to go? Would you stay in the familiar cell, or would you brave a whole new world you never knew existed like Truman eventually did at the conclusion of The Truman Show?
Before we proceed, let's remove the hypothetical from this conversation. Now I am telling you:
You are in a jail cell complaining about your captivity. The door is unlocked, there are no guards...no one's in charge and you are free to go. If you like your captivity and the familiarity of your cell, then ignore all this crazy talk, take the blue pill and go back to your regular life. You will forget all of this soon enough. On the other hand, if you have a nagging suspicion (as Truman did) that what's on the surface of life just doesn't add up, then you should keep reading. When used appropriately, the concepts I am going to address here can be your red pill, your ticket to freeing your mind, which is your only captor.
First things first: Who are you?
On a road trip, the first things you need to know are where you are starting from and where you want to go. An effective, efficient road trip cannot happen without clearly designating these two locations. A meandering, random, non-efficient trip can happen without a destination, but a road trip cannot happen without a declared starting point.
To “pass go” on this journey, first there are two metaphysical questions you must ask. They are simple yet profound and every bit as important to your awakening as the start and finish locations are to the road trip. These questions have probably been around as long as there has been language to ask them. The questions are: Who are you? where are you? The movies The Matrix and Tron are both great inquiries into these questions. A lesser known movie with Ryan Reynolds made in 2007 called "The Nines" is my personal favorite. Metaphysical concepts cloaked in movie storylines abound in these well thought out works. If you haven't seen them, I can't recommend them enough. If you have seen them, I recommend seeing them again after reading this.
Let's dive into the question of "Who are you?" or, more appropriately phrased from your vantage point "Who am I?" This was, in fact, Ramana Maharishi's favorite inquiry, and he prescribed it to many people in his one-on-one talks.
In the movie Tron, the main character is sucked into a video game and then "forced to play" various games. From his perspective while he's in the game, it all seems very real. It sure looks like he could "die." Certain parts of the movie were downright scary for him. Perhaps not too dissimilar from your life. Do you have things you "have to do"? And are there some things in your life that seem pretty scary? Much of The Matrix and The 13th Floor take place in a simulated reality. In The Matrix, this is all explained in black and white to Neo by Morpheus. Situated in a white room (the construct), Morpheus explains to Neo how things are created in it, and then offers a mind-blowing demonstration. This begs the question: How do we know this isn’t the way “reality” happens for us, too? Perhaps there is more to The Matrix than a cool Sci Fi story. Have you ever wondered why such a seemingly far out movie is so popular? Ever wonder why it's more popular with younger people? Ask anyone 30 or under, have they seen The Matrix and, if so, what were their thoughts on it. I have done this, and what I find is most younger people (25-35) really like it and, when asked why, they can't explain it. It seems to just resonate with people. Perhaps they are unknowingly relating to the underlying metaphysical currents.
Werner Heisenberg, the German theoretical physicist who contributed greatly to what we now know as Quantum Mechanics, said “Atoms are not things. They are only tendencies.” So let’s follow the logic here for a bit. If everything you interact with (including you) is made up of atoms, and atoms are notthings, then WTF Werner?! What are you? And what are all these things you have been playing with your whole life?
OK, let's forget the metaphysical jargon briefly and simply look at your hand for a moment. What is it? It is made up of molecules and atoms, but if atoms are merely tendencies, how can you have a hand that is made of "tendencies?" How can a hand made up of a collection of tendencies interact with other things that are only tendencies too?
Let's dive in a little more. Within atoms we seem to have protons, neutrons and electrons Scientists also tell us that you cannot nail an electron down in three dimensional space. We have the ability to see that small, but what they find is that the electrons don't want to cooperate. Consider the simplest of atoms...the Hydrogen atom which has one electron whizzing around a nucleus. All we can say about it is, at a given point in time, the probability of the electron being in quadrant A is X and in quadrant B is Y and so on. We cannot definitively say that the electron actually IS at this X,Y and Z coordinate.
As you go even smaller, quantum mechanics tells us that atoms are made of quarks which are billions of times smaller than the Hydrogen atom itself. At the present time, it is widely believed that quarks are the smallest units in the universe. They are the cosmic building blocks. Quantum is the Latin term for "unit." Scientists have also discovered that it is not possible to chop up time and space infinitely. The universe (space and time) comes at us in logical measurable units. These are quantum amounts. A movie projector projects film at 24 frames per second. However, when you break it down to the frame level, you can’t have a smaller unit than one frame. In the computer/video game world, no matter how good the graphics are, if you keep zooming in, you're still going to end up at a single pixel. Because a pixel is one dot, it's the smallest unit of the computer screen. If you zoom out and view lots of dots, they form into a picture or text, something for you to interact with.
First things first: Where are you?
The 13th Floor is a movie that is just as good as The Matrix for conveying metaphysical concepts. Its premise is based on a computer simulation of reality. A person enters this world by having his/her consciousness transferred from his/her body into a character in the simulation. Once in the computer simulation, everything that occurs seems to be just as "real" as anything experienced outside of the simulation.
Here's the point: There was no way to tell the difference between the "real world" and the "simulation." In The 13th Floor, the characters only knew who they really were when they were outside the simulation. But what if, right now, in the present moment, you are in a computer simulation and have forgotten everything that you had known before you entered the simulation?
Is that even possible?
There is a great scene in The Matrix where Cypher is talking to Agent Smith. The dialogue goes like this:
Agent Smith: Do we have a deal, Mr. Reagan?
Cypher: [Cuts a piece of steak and holds it in front of him] I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I have learned? [Eats the piece of steak and sighs contently] Ignorance is bliss.
Agent Smith: Then we have a deal?
Cypher: I don't wanna remember nothing. Nothing, you understand? And I wanna be rich. You know, someone important … like an actor.
Agent Smith: Whatever you want, Mr. Reagan.
Cypher: All right, then. Put my body back into the power plant, reinsert me back into the Matrix, I'll get you what you want.
Cypher sets it up from the beginning that, when he entered the Matrix, he would not remember anything. Why would he do this? For the same reason why you don't want your friend to tell you about the ending of a movie that you are about to see. It's much more fun NOT knowing . . . or in Cypher's case, NOT remembering.
Your life only seems real because you are so close to it. You never get a different view point, and it keeps showing up for you in a consistent manner. Einstein said "Reality is merely an illusion albeit a very persistent one." Perhaps your reality is no more real than the dream you had last night. I've had dreams that were so "real" I woke up in a cold sweat with my heart thumping like I just ran a 10K. When I was a kid I would sometimes have nightmares, and I would be so scared I wet the bed. There is no denying the "realness" of the dream from the dreamer's perspective inside the dream. If you would have entered my dream (like they were able to do in the movie Inception) and told me it was all "just a dream" and none of it was "real," I would have slugged you or written you off as a lunatic. From my dream perspective, it was all very "real."
Consider from an unbiased perspective your reality is just as real as a video game. Perhaps YOU are the cosmic programmer (Consciousness), and you built a kind of computer (Time and Space) to play a game on. You wrote every line of code that makes the game come to life. You created many characters (people) to make it all seem real. You created intricate storylines to make it all compelling, fun and even scary. Out of nothing, you created the concept of duality. (e.g. This is good I want more of it. This is bad I want less of it.). Duality was absolutely necessary and the most brilliant rule ever coded and introduced in the game. Why? Because it's the ultimate way to keep the game moving and interesting (a.k.a. "playable").
With the stage set, then you (as a point of consciousness) entered the game (Tron style) and purposefully chose one character [insert your name here] as the vantage point to have all perceptions arise from. You really wanted to experience this game from every angle so you did this again and again. (Recently you just exceeded seven billion vantage points!)
The really amazing thing you did was to consciously choose (like Cypher in The Matrix) to forget who and what you really are. Once the stage was set, you started the game. With so much going on in the game (an almost infinite number of distractions), the real game is to see if you can undo the programming....that you, yourself, had put in the game....and to realize who you are and where you are. Guru’s call this enlightenment. I call it the best game ever. Look around and judge for yourself.
This is the ultimate Game of all games, and I can tell you from experience, once you start playing this game, there's really no other game to play.
Life changing, super massively important key point:
Who you are is consciousness with limited awareness in a fictional character with certain attributes. You have placed yourself in a simulation (an amazingly realistic 3D holographic video game) that YOU created. Your avatar (or ‘Mario’ character) has a fixed perspective arising from your character's unique vantage point. Your Mario character loves to judge and categorize things and place either a “Good” label or a “Bad” label on EVERYTHING. The point of this game is to discover who you are and where you are.
When you get this with every fiber of your being (and not just get it intellectually). Then and only then does your game truly begin!
All I ever needed to know about Enlightenment I learned from a 12 year old....and a video game:
The tough questions in life aren't really that tough. They could be answered by a Mario- mastering 12-year old talking about the latest video game.
Here is a mock conversation between you and 12-year old Johnny (while he plays his favorite game).
You: Hey Johnny, what are you doing?
Johnny: Playing my new game.
You: Looks like fun!
Johnny: YES IT IS!
(Notice a few things at this point: Johnny is having fun. He may not beat every board the first time, but this adds to (and does not detract from) the fun of the game. He wouldn't want to beat every board the first time. The point of any video game is to be fun for the player, and Johnny is definitely having fun.
You: So who are you?
Johnny: I'm Mario. See me right there!
You: Oh, you are Mario. I see. Well, where are you?
Johnny: I'm in a castle now and trying to save the princess. This screen is really hard. I can't wait to get past it.
(Notice how Johnny has collapsed his so-called "real world" with the video game reality? Also notice he has already started to complain about his situation! Sound familiar?)
Now, since you want to ask Johnny what's the meaning of life from the context of the video game, you say:
You: Johnny, what's the point of this game?
Johnny: To save the princess. But I have to get past a lot to do that! I haven't done it yet.
(Notice: Johnny has bought into the fact that there is a princess to save, and he wants to save her.)
Without believing that there is something "to do," there is no game for Johnny. Since the conditioning/false belief system has been accepted by Johnny, he now thinks there is something he "needs to do" and he is on task….and it’s fun for him! Also notice that, from the current screen Johnny is on, there is NO princess. The princess is out of his awareness. The Princess is a made up concept. In short, he's playing a game and trying to save a princess that doesn't actually exist in his world now.)
You: Oh I see.
Consider the metaphysical possibility that you are Mario in a virtual world that YOU created and that you then entered to experience what it offered, and then you zapped yourself with a 'Men in Black' style "memory eraser."
The details of this analogy keep going and going. Quantum mechanics tells us that nothing is solid and that everything is energy and vibration. In order to have something take shape in the world of form, an observer is needed. After all, what's the video game without Mario?
When you look at something in your world, it looks like something: a chair, a table, a person, a dog, etc. When you are not looking at it, the matter becomes spread out and uncoalesced. In other words, it has no finite form. Let me repeat that. Our sharpest scientists are telling us that, if your awareness is NOT on something, then that "something" has no finite form.
These basic rules of quantum mechanics apply to all subatomic particles. When we look at them, they exist as dots of matter. When we look away, they lose their physical form. You, as the Observer, just by having your awareness in the room, are causing the collapse of all possibilities into a single reality.
So if you asked a quantum physicist the age old question "If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?" he would probably answer "What tree?" Without an observer, nothing takes form. Without Mario, there is no game. When Mario is on board #42, there is no reason for the computer to render board #43 or #44. And so it doesn't.
Mario can't run fast enough to ever see an unrendered board. "Just-in-time-rendering" of Mario's world keeps the game seeming real for the player and keeps his attention. Perhaps this is true of your own reality, too? "Just-in-time-rendering" of your reality answers the questions in a way that is congruent with what we are seeing experimentally with quantum mechanics.
In short, maybe nothing in your world is rendered until your own awareness acts upon it. Back to Einstein: "Reality is merely an illusion albeit a very persistent one."
What makes your reality seem so real is just like Mario's world. If Mario goes backwards to a previous board everything is exactly how he left it. The computer remembers everything down to the smallest detail. This is absolutely necessary in order to keep the illusion from falling apart and violating the rules of logic. Above all, it has to keep the player interested by making it easy for him to engage in its dramas. Remember that the number one rule of all video games is to keep the game playable. If you lose the player’s interest, the player stops playing and the game is over.
There is a very narrow band that all good games exist within. They can't be too hard or too easy. They must have just the right number of pitfalls or villains. If they become too predictable, too easy (or too hard), they lose the player's interest and the game stops.
Maybe video games are the cosmic clue to how reality works here for you, too? Don't take my word for this, as there is a way to find out for certain: Do the thought experiments for yourself.
If you want to know what's really happening here, you have to ask yourself these tough questions. No one can give you the answers, and you must think them out for yourself.
This is a solo gig, “a one player only game”, where you stop thinking there is anything outside of you and you turn the spotlight inward. It's probably not going to happen overnight, but if you let your desire for truth take the driver’s seat, I guarantee you it will drive you home. You simply need to stay out of the way and minimize the backseat driving! Remember, this is an experiential activity, and you need to investigate it for yourself.
There is no "me" out here who is separate from "you." I am literally just a character on this board of YOUR game. I am showing up here and now to deliver this message because you are ready to play a different game here in the human amusement park of life.
- There's nothing that "you have to do".
- No one's in charge.
- Let go, play and have fun. It really is your game.
I will leave you with my view of what reality is, and how you can play the game differently if you so choose. Knowing what the game really is and playing the game the way I am now has led me to enjoying the game so much more. I would contend that if you shift your perspective in this manner, your game will become much more "playable" too. This is not to say that you will suddenly have a million dollars and rock star popularity, but when the shitstorms of life occur, you will have the tools to step back and see the game for what it is…..an amazing, super, "playable" game that YOU designed.
. . . You are Mario . . . AND the Programmer.