Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Zen
Game
in the modern world.
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Dr Jonathan Hey 1943-1995 Dr Hey was President of the Zen Foundation from 1984-1995
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One art of living Is in knowing when to die My time is now come. Life is beautiful Each moment utterly new The true self has wings. Colours of autumn Reflect my austere being Pointing to winter.
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The idea of re-birth is not a new one and tends to be associated nowadays with born-again Christians. It is important to understand that Zen is quite different from a religious conversion with its acceptance of a system of beliefs and teachings based on those of a great leader. Zen requires no beliefs, no practise, no system. As Old Man Change, describing his enlightenment, said, Everything suddenly collapsed into awareness. Others say it is like Coming home and quietly resting. Some have burst out laughing while another found it a moment of great tenderness. All agree that it is irreversible. Thereafter the mind and nervous system work in a totally different way. Free from the past and the concept of a personal I, joy, spontaneity, unlimited energy and lucidity come almost as by-products. This is where the idea of a game is apt... a bubbling amusement is often the best way to see the wriggling of ego as it tries desperately to avoid the light shone on it by the master and the novices own attentiveness. If the light is sufficiently strong and persistent, ego will disappear like a ghost at dawn. If not, ego will continue to ensnare the novice and he must live a deathful life. Until there is enlightenment there will be what the novice calls failure and, from time to time, he will grow desperate. In fact, it is all part of the game. Take heart, the compassion and good humour of the master are nearer than may be thought. I referred earlier to the precision of a Zen masters use of language. Be warned, this book is not an easy read. It is also, alas, incomplete. Dr Hey envisaged many more essays but his increasing weakness before his death in 1995 made this impossible. We must be grateful for this slim volume and the glimpse it affords into a mind of total clarity.
A.J.B.
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Introduction Beginnings Formality Practice Life or Death The Martial Arts Permissiveness and Morality Aptitude for Play and Mastery of the Game Limits Relationship between Expert and Novice Operation of Will Love Sex Fear Education Death Humour Intelligence Habit Creativity Health Good and Evil Ego Meditation Psychology Movement Natural and Supernatural Religion Emotion Children Time and Space Attention Truth Spirit Thought and Action Freedom and Inevitability Energy and Effort
page v. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 10. 11. 13. 14. 16. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 27. 28. 29. 31. 32. 34. 35. 36. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 44. 45. 46.
Beginnings The impulse to play often arises before novice and expert meet. This impulse is largely negative in expression, but is based on a positive movement towards something that is only dimly perceived at a deep intuitive level. It is negative because there is a powerful conscious dissatisfaction with everything, ones own view of oneself most of all. The diversions of work, play, causes and self-fulfilment are perceived as ultimately worthless. The artifices of self are seen in stultifying clarity but cannot be escaped. It is positive because it does not lead to the bitter and destructive reaction caused by conventional lack of achievement. It may however cause a physical and mental isolation that can produce great strain both on the individual and those around him. There is an overwhelming intimation that escape is possible, though the route cannot be seen. This state of dynamic tension may persist and deepen or may eventually be overlaid by the clich patterns of everyday consciousness. An encounter with an expert, or with his works, may prove decisive at this stage in determining the novices ultimate fate. In principle everyone is a potential player. In practice the impulse to play arises in few individuals. Of these only a very small proportion will successfully avoid the diversions of ego and begin to play with serious purpose. The origin of the aptitude for play is a mystery which the science of the workings of the brain and mind may one day resolve. For the expert it is enough that he can recognise a potential player instantly. Once a novice has begun to play, he will never be able to stop altogether. He may distort the purity of the Game in a vain attempt to purge himself of it. More probably he will settle for a level of play that is harmlessly repetitive and suits his egos requirements. While such players may display characteristics of compassion, civility and wisdom much valued by society, they are nevertheless failures. Their failure may deter other potential players, especially if misrepresented to them as success.
Formality
The formality with which the Game is played varies widely. Gautamas Game was extremely informal, but his success soon led to the introduction of a more formal style of play. This process reached its peak in the seventeenth century when Hakuin introduced a structure that has lasted to the present day. However, at all periods there were players who did not conform to these rules; not that they consciously rebelled against them: they simply expressed their own less formal styles of play. The formal approach varies too and this led in China and Japan to the naming of different schools of play. While true experts were not sidetracked by these often divisive and diverting developments, many of their adherents were. This led to inter-school rivalry reminiscent of the inter-faction friction of Christianity. This in turn contributed to the erroneous view that Zen is a religion. But formality has its place. Some of the greatest games were played within its confines. Experts used - and use - it to increase the pressure on novices to master the Game. It was only when formality became an end in itself and lost the spontaneity brought to it by true experts that it became a negative influence on the Game to the extent that its transcendental nature was compromised in the minds of many.
Practice
The Zen Game cannot be practised like music or chess. The reason for this lies in its transcendental nature. The skill of an expert player is not, as in these other games, derived from constant repetition of and improvement in preforming set elements of the Game. The expert has left the confines of the Game altogether. In a very real sense he no longer plays it at all. Through a major discontinuity of consciousness he becomes both an expert and a nonplayer. His skill needs no practice to maintain it, nor does he derive any egobased satisfaction from displaying his talents. His skill is a reflection of what he is, not of what he can do. This may seem clear enough if the comparison excludes the musical performers, painters, chess players, mathematicians and others of genius, whose level of skill seems to be greater than that of other players in more than just degree. Some of the experts of the Zen Game also painted, composed poetry and were involved in various other art forms. These reflected their deepest natures in an integrated way and were not simply the expression of an extraordinary one-sided development or genetic endowment of a particular aptitude. The egotistical temperament of many musicians and mathematicians of genius and the brittle psychology of many chess grand masters illustrates the fundamental difference. To the Zen expert, his talent is his whole personality, not an aspect of being which forces adjustment in other areas of personality and may be as much a burden as a blessing. For the novice it is dangerously tempting to see the final goal as the culmination of his attempts at play: the more proficient he becomes, the more likely he is to become an expert. This is not so: it is the fixation on this notion which prevents immediate mastery of the Game. But does practice have absolutely no role in the final attainment of expert play? This is one of Zens greater paradoxes. Anything short of mastery is practice of a kind; but it is the persistence of the practice mode of play that precludes genuine play. Yet if this practice mode can be channelled correctly - either by oneself or by an expert - it can escape its own clutches. The object of the Game is achieved only when it is seen, with total awareness that one cannot practice in order to be. It is the quality of the novices awareness of whatever he is doing - meditating, making love, or cleaning his teeth - rather than the nature of the activity itself, which is the key to mastery.
Life or Death?
The Zen Game is a matter of life or death, both metaphorically and literally. Its ultimate aim is to replace the living death of ego-dominated games with the life of the intuitive level of being that is Zen. The power of ego-dominated games may be so great as to drive the novice to - or even beyond - the brink of death itself: if it cannot preserve its dominance, the ego prefers self destruction. The role of the expert is to interact with the novice in ways that maximise the sense of futility in playing such games and at the same time the awareness of the possibility of transcending their grip. Again and again he shows the novice how to use the power generated by ego-dominated games to create the opportunity for escape. Some novices set themselves the ultimatum: death or escape. The expert will know intuitively the strength of this resolve and whether or not it represents, for a particular novice, a potentially successful form of play. When it does so, the novices attitude towards death will already be beyond the maudlin, sentimental or histrionic; nor will death be seen in the rigour of an icily objective rationalism. Free from the grosser snares of ego, the attitude towards death can generate the energy for the psychological regeneration which is the ultimate expression of life.
developed fully. The expert will be aware of the struggle within the novice and will know when and how to assist or when the novice has, albeit temporarily, entered a period in which it would be inappropriate to continue to play. Because it would be against his own nature, the expert cannot force a novice to play in a certain way or at a particular pace. His role, which reflects his ultimate nature, is to facilitate a novices attempts to play. He is a catalyst of the spirit not an architect of the psyche.
Limits
The Zen Game is limitless in scope, yet is played within limits. These limits are of two kinds: those imposed by the novice, and those innate to the nature of the expert. The limits imposed by the novice are the product of his ego-based approach to the Game. Any sense of expectation of the direction of the Game, where and when it will end, and how it should and should not be played, both limits the range of play and may crucially affect the outcome. It is the task of the expert to understand intuitively how to use the force associated with these limits to help the novice to transcend them. The limits associated with the expert are different: they are part of his nature, not a framework of constraint for it. Their expression is also conditioned by situation: what might be appropriate to the expression of his nature in one situation may not be so in another. This illustrates a fundamental difference between novice and expert: the novice lives by a model of self, even though he may well have a love/hate relationship with it; the expert has no such model of himself; his sense of being is intrinsic to each situation.
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The link is not simply a matter of similarity or complementarity of nature, but something deeper and related to the fundamental nature of being rather than to its expression.
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Operation of Will
A novice has the will to play. He assumes that the stronger his will, the more likely, and the more rapidly, he is to master the Game. He may use his willpower to inflict great mental, physical and social privations upon himself. He may see the Game itself as a power play of the will: his own will must be strengthened but purified in order to become a match for the presumed power of the experts will. He may find himself projecting onto the expert imagined tests of will which he then seeks to pass. The expert looks upon these deviant forms of play with compassion and total understanding. He knows that they are all that stand between the novice and his mastery of the Game. With all the means at his disposal he presents this truth to the novice again and again. The novice must see the nature and operation of will intuitively, not intellectually, if he is to master the Game. Despite his total commitment to the novice, the expert has no will to play. He is beyond the ego-based need to see himself battling against himself and his environment. He and his environment are one: his actions are in perfect accord with the unfolding of his own being. Will is no longer a superficial and divisive force, but is intrinsic to the actions that arise within him. The operation of will at this level of being is irresistible in its power, exquisitely precise in its expression, yet empty of any sense of such qualities.
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the most attracting force in the universe. However, the fundamental simplicity of its nature does not result in a uniformity of expression. Its form will reflect perfectly the nature of each particular interaction: ungraspable aloofness, anger like a falling axe, mirth like a mountain torrent, compassion free as the wind. The expression of love varies not only from interaction to interaction, but also from expert to expert. Experts are not identical in their capacity to express love. What each expresses will be expressed to the uttermost of his individual nature and appropriate to each particular context.
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relationships. He is supremely sensitive to the fact that, unless in relationship with another who has mastered the Game, interacting sexually with him may cause peculiar difficulties for his partner. While this is also true of his non-sexual interactions, the special ego-based importance of sex to those who have not mastered the Game gives this added significance. This as much as the age at which mastery of the Game is often attained may explain why relatively few experts, either now or in the past, have established long-lasting relationships involving sex. Nevertheless, where a novices awareness is deep enough and where that novices nature has an innate affinity with that of the expert, a sexual relationship may represent the most appropriate form of play. For the novice the experience of shared being is one of immense depth, freedom and joy: a unique intensity of rapport of body, mind and spirit. It is limited only by the extent to which the novice is still in the grip of egodominated thought patterns. For the expert, the intimacy and the ecstasy of sex encompasses awareness of the limits upon the novices ability to express ultimate nature in the interaction. This awareness is reflected in the experts actions, but does not lessen either the quality of the intimacy or the depth of the ecstasy: it is integral to both, not a constraint upon them.
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Fear
Fear derived from the operation of ego is one of the most destructive forces in the universe. It drives Man to the most extreme distortions of his true nature. Fear of loss or of not getting what one wants, fear of not becoming what one wants to be, and fear of death, lead to the ultimate irony: fear of life itself. In its many guises fear is the justification for acts of extreme brutality or fanatical self-sacrifice. It generates the powerful emotions that wreak havoc in the lives of individuals and entire societies. It separates Man from his fellows and alienates him from himself. The novice sees the force of fear. Looking inward, he focuses his fear on the prospect of continuing his life in its grip. Compelled to face itself in this way, the nature of fear changes. It becomes more of a positive force in playing the Game than a negative and diversionary one. It leads to the mobilisation of considerable energy and emerges in the three traditional qualities needed for successful play: great doubt, great faith, great perseverance. The novices attitude to fear is to the expert a precise indicator of his level of play. The expert will often use fear in his interactions with a novice. To be brought face to face with the full force of the experts empty awareness and total being concentrates the novices attention on his own awareness in a way that can produce ultimate terror: a blend of fear of being and of non-being which, if the novice can avoid being diverted by it, can be his gateway to mastery of the Game. The expert is beyond ego-based fear. This does not mean that he is beyond emotion. Because of his non-separation from the unfolding world, he is devoid of judgements of self that engender fear or its opposite. His emotional tone will nevertheless vary with that unfolding. His attitude is not one of fixed equanimity, fearless because, foreseeing the flow of events, he is able to prepare himself in advance and thus pre-condition the immediacy of his response. This dualistic approach is however characteristic of novices wrestling with egos more subtle diversionary ploys. The expert is free to express fear, love, joy, sadness, anger, appropriate to his nature and the situation.
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Education
Education is initiation into the rules of the games played by ego. Early indoctrination in egos structured approach to itself, to others and to the world forges fetters from which few seem able to escape. Ego is immensely skilful in ensuring that education is seen primarily as the acquisition of knowledge rather than as an attempt to increase awareness of the elaborate framework into which absorbed facts, opinions and beliefs are incorporated. In the Zen Game facts, opinions and beliefs are important only to the extent that they reveal the underlying framework. Zen involves the deeducation of the novice. The novice must be able to see in much broader perspective the nature of his identification with the ego framework. The quality of attention is of paramount importance. There is a perceptual base outwith ego, but it is usually eclipsed by ego. Interaction with an expert produces a relentless pressure of awareness of the structure, ramifications and dominating tactics of ego and its framework. Ultimately this may lead to a major shift to that perceptual base. This represents mastery of the Game. Because he is extensively conditioned by ego, the novice finds it very difficult to see play in this way. He tends to view it as a special elitist training programme that will complete rather than displace his conventional education. He will learn facts and techniques necessary to advancement on the path. He must be diligent in practising methods that will expedite his progress. He sees Zen as a spiritual assault course set by the expert who, as educator, assists him in acquiring the skills vital to the successful completion of his training. It may take him years to see that the only obstacle to achieving mastery of the Game is precisely his view of it as a process of education. Free from the conventional processes of education, the expert is totally open to the lifelong and deeper process of education that his relationship with his world entails. He does not view this dualistically: his actions are part of the unfolding of the world of which he is part. Yet his awareness changes throughout his life: through that unfolding, he educates his universe and his universe educates him.
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Death
Death is so unpalatable to the ego-dominated sense of self that the natural instinct for self-preservation has become distorted into a desperate desire for an eternal and paradisal life. The hell of life on earth is bearable only with the prospect of an end to suffering and a reward for stoicism. This attitude demeans death and devalues life. The novice has usually abandoned these sentimental and solipsistic views of death by the time he is ready to play the Game in earnest with an expert. He is preoccupied with a metaphorical sense of death: the death of ego. Physical death is an irrelevance in the face of the existential challenge to escape the living death of life under the domination of ego. If he thinks about physical death at all it is, in a relatively passionless way, as an honourable way out of the dilemma that he cannot resolve in life. For the expert, physical death is part of his life. He does not speculate about the possible continuity of consciousness beyond death. Nor does he think of death as an end. The nature of his awareness enables him to see himself dying at the beginning of the process: he sees this not from the viewpoint of morbid fascination or fatalistic acceptance, but as part of his living. This awareness illuminates the process of dying in the same way as it does the process of living: the two are one. Of what is beyond death, and life, nothing can be said.
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Humour
Humour is both an aspect of mind and an attitude of spirit. As an aspect of mind it is dominated by ego. It may be expressed as the release of tension, as relatively harmless mental mischief-making or simply as the pleasure ego derives from its sense of self-hood and control. There is a darker side too: pleasure in inflicting pain and destruction on self, others and the world. All powerful though it seems, ego cannot totally eclipse the deeper humour that arises as an attitude of spirit. A fleeting perception, in himself or in an expert, of this deeper humour is often a novices first introduction to the Game. He may find its origin inexpressible but its essential nature is unmistakeable. It may contain mischief, but never malice. It may be intimidating, but is never condescending. It emanates from the deep sense of oneness with the world and of the delight in the non-dualistic awareness in which the expert has his being. It is as natural as a sunbeam through cloud.
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Intelligence
Mastery of the Zen Game is achieved not on the basis of what one knows but how one knows: the intelligence of intuitive awareness not of fact- filled brain or mind. Everyone has this intelligence, though its nature is unique to each individual. Conventional knowledge and the minds capacity to manipulate facts and thought patterns is dominated by ego. Because of its ceaseless fear of loss of its own continuity and power, ego is relentless in trying to use its intelligence to extend its understanding, and hence its control, of its world. The result, hugely accelerated in the last hundred years by science, technology and the increasing population, is the alienation of man from nature and the destruction of the delicately balanced global systems upon which all life on the planet depends. This process reveals in stark clarity the ultimate sterility and destructiveness of ego. The intelligence of the expert is not based on analytical understanding but on intuitive perception. He experiences the wetness of water, the warmth of the sun, and the beauty of relationship without the need for smashing the atom, dissecting the nervous system or categorising the movements of mind. His intelligence operates at the level of his perception. It is beyond the vanity, humility and other ego-enhancing qualities that drive the atomic physicist to try to interpret the tracks of subatomic particles, the astronomer to speculate about the evolution of the universe, or the psychiatrist to penetrate the labyrinthine maze of egos framework. His intelligence does not separate him from his world but arises from his sense of oneness with it. It is the ego-based sense of separateness that leads to the sentimental reverence and awe, indifference, or rapacious exploitatiousness that characterise Mans abuse of his intelligence. Above all, the expert has an intelligence of something that eludes all who have not mastered the Game: his intuitive insight into the human mind and spirit. It is characteristic of ego that it directs its attentions outward. Even when it does not, it looks inward with an object-related and analytical attitude that limits what it is able to see: it sees only itself. The expert is himself; this gives him the insight to see others and the world with true intelligence.
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Habit
Habit is not a property of actions or thoughts themselves, but is an attitude projected onto these from a fixed sense of self. To acknowledge intellectually the truth of Heracleitus proposition that one cannot step into the same river twice is not necessarily to express it existentially. Habit is a product of the process of abstraction by which the fiction of self is created and maintained. Abstraction selects and chooses the features of an action or thought-train to which attention is given. The selection is made on the basis of self-interest. It excludes more than it includes. It masks the wider awareness within and reduces the world to stultifying and suffocating cliche patterns. It promotes an object-relationship with the world that leads to an arrogance that is as destructive as it is blind. It dehumanises Man. It is one of the characteristics of a potential novice that he becomes aware of this perceptual myopia. The nature of his awareness is crucial to his success or failure in transcending habit. If he reacts too emotionally or too intellectually to his sense of the pervasiveness of habit, his awareness will itself be habitbased. His awareness must not contain value-judgements, hopes, fears, anger or self-pity: it must be devoid of ego if it is to lead to freedom. The expert does not abstract: having no ego-based sense of self, he is not bound by habit. He lives in the moment and is thereby truly alive. Continuity and constancy of being are fundamentally different: he knows who he is, yet has no idea of who he is. From his own bitter former experience he knows the frustration the novice feels at being in the grip of habit. He knows, too, of the terror that arises at the prospect of exchanging the safe confines of habit-dominated thoughts and actions for the nothingness of the void. His compassion for the novices dilemma and despair emerges in his use of all the ploys of the Game to assist the novice to break the bond of habit and to find himself utterly at home, yet homeless, in the void itself.
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Creativity
Is mastery of the Zen Game associated with loss of creativity? Does it entail a passive accord with the flow which is essentially uncreative? The masterpieces of Zen art and literature are regarded by many as the pinnacles of creative achievement even when judged in comparison with those produced on the basis of a different impulse or tradition. Yet this assessment fails to perceive the fundamental difference in the origin and creation of such works. Superficially the difference is obvious. In Zen- inspired art subject is most commonly drawn from the natural world. There is a marked absence of ornament: the style is austere yet immensely subtle, artless to such a degree that it makes many other art forms seem grossly overstated. At a deeper level the difference may be less obvious, but is much greater. It is perceived fully only by those who have mastered the Game. This difference lies in the act of creation itself. Many conventional artists seek to express their unconscious minds in their work: they battle with self- consciousness and the urge to impose consciously a structure determined by ego. They may delude themselves into believing that they can at times escape egos clutches. Their creations show their failure. They are characterised by the effort required to achieve them. Zen art, because it is truly spontaneous, is free both from the stultifying effects of ego and the effects of trying to escape them. It has the quality of being a happy accident, sparkling with vigour and immensely, utterly natural.
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alert and responsive to a degree rarely if ever seen in those who have not mastered the Game. His diet, sleep and exercise reflect the varying needs of his mind and body. Though some died young, the annals of the Zen Game abound with stories of the great age and vigour of many of the experts of the past. This is true of modern experts too. Their health and longevity reflect the perfect integration of body and mind and the non- divisive nature of their interaction with the world.
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Ego
Ego is the prevailing sense of self. How, when and why it arose is of interest to philosophers, psychologists and psychiatrists. So, too, is its structure and operation in health and disease. The experimental demonstration of the existence and influence of the so-called subconscious ranks as one of the major scientific achievements of the West. In the East, the divided nature of self was seen more than twenty-five centuries earlier as an existential trap into which Man had fallen and from which only mastery of what later became called the Zen Game could rescue him. The essential elements of ego are consistency, continuity and control. It is an abstract image, but is invested with selfhood as though it were real. Virtually all actions and thoughts are conditioned and controlled in relation to its qualities. It is the origin of the notion of good and evil. It delights in analysing, scheming and manipulating situations and people to its perceived advantage. It conjures up options for its own future and imagines that it has free will to choose between them. It is blind to the paradox of its own existence: that it is in the fundamental awareness of egos existence that selfhood manifests, not in the operations of ego itself. Realisation of the ultimate relativity of egos propositions and the urge to escape its limiting and negative actions often draws potential players to the Game. Through a particular type of meditation novices widen and deepen their awareness of ego. When this awareness matures, the sense of self suddenly shifts from ego to a new centre of being. This sense of self is not fixed, but dynamic, protean but not primitive, supremely aware but forgetful of itself. The expert, who has his being in this ultimate sense of self, is acutely aware of ego in those who play the Game with him. It is his nature to reflect back to the novice the nature and actions of his ego repeatedly and with the utmost clarity of awareness. He does this in a way that does not deter or dispirit the novice, but develops his intuitive wisdom. For this he uses the full resources of his own intuitive wisdom. Only the ego-less state of being of the expert generates the power and insight needed to play the Game to a successful conclusion.
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awareness, an almost imperceptible nudge from the expert triggers a psychological cataclysm in which mastery is achieved. The expert is perpetually in meditation. His mind, and his brain, work differently. His sense of time and space, and above all his sense of self, are fundamentally different. Free from the over-energised mind states induced by ego, he is serenely yet alertly responsive to situation: he is the situation and the situation is him. He is euphoric, not in the sense of ego- contrived bliss, but naturally so by virtue of his freedom from all egos contrivances. This euphoria infuses all his actions and interactions: it is present in his anger just as much as in his laughter; it colours his compassion and shows in his sadness. The depth and nature of the meditational state that accompanies mastery of the Game may be seen - by those able to see it - as a quality of empty awareness in the experts eyes.
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Psychology
The Zen Game affects both the expression of mind and the mechanisms of the brain. The thought patterns that are the framework of ego have a linear and analytical quality. The tension inherent in this framework produces enormous levels of energy. These drive egos control mechanisms. They also lead to an ambivalence that reinforces the deeper urges to transcend them. The aim of the Zen Game is to make use of this ambivalence in order to push the ego-system to the point of collapse. It does this by presenting, with ever-increasing force and clarity, the limitations of the system. Faced with its own ultimate futility, egos control is suddenly and finally broken. There is a psychological cataclysm which is associated with the often dramatic discharge of all the pent up energies generated by the ego process. As the basis of awareness shifts from the ego framework to the true source of being, neural pathways in the brain adjust too. It is thought that there is an increase in the activity of the right hemisphere of the brain, which is associated with a spatial and gestaltic approach to perception, relative to that of the left hemisphere. Research has shown that the zen state is accompanied, among other changes, by a difference in the way the brain responds to repeated stimuli. In those who have not mastered the Game, electrical activity in the brain evoked by such stimuli rapidly declines. The ego-based mind-brain decides that the stimuli are not worthy of attention and reduces its response accordingly. In experts the level of activity does not decline in this way. Each of the repeated stimuli is perceived afresh; neither brain nor mind habituates. This is an aspect of the experts being in the eternal now. The way he perceives is the way he is.
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Movement
For the novice movement is the process of ego. For the expert movement is the expression of ego-less consciousness in the eternal now. In the novice, movement is the time-based and self-directed operation of his ego framework. The expert has no such framework: movement is as unconstrained as it is purposeless. From the novices ego-dominated view of movement arises the need for the operation of will, the exercise of judgement and a particular sense of existence in time. From these in turn spring attached emotions and the strengthening of the bonds of ego. This separated and self-created sense of reality and the control of movement is a grotesquely distorted fiction, a parody of the real movement that is the unfolding of the natural self and of the universe. It is one of egos crueller deceits that it persuades the novice that its power to control movement is a force he can use to achieve mastery of the Game. The extent to which the novice is aware of this trap, even while falling into it, is often a key element in play. The expert, who is totally in tune with the novices movement, responds in a way that both reveals its nature and direction and is in accord with his own. Of all art forms, music best expresses movement. Melody, tempo, rhythm combine to produce a dynamic and subtle non-verbal expression of mood. Listening to certain kinds of music can show the novice much about the nature of movement. In Western music, the late piano sonatas and string quartets* of Beethoven reveal more strikingly than any other the movement in an awareness on the very threshold of mastery of the Game. These works are deeply personal yet universal. Desolate aloneness, exquisite grace and tenderness, profound insight, they are charged with the electrifying energy that is beyond attachment and dualism and which derives from the dance of the spirit. He was unable ultimately to transcend the limits that he perceived, but apparently settled for a sense of acceptance that was as olympian and positive as were the struggles that preceded it. He was a failure, but a magnificent one. In the music of his last years he explored himself to a depth that enables his music to communicate the movement of his awareness beyond musical idiom and mere representation. All music evokes mood: these works are unique in the western tradition in expressing the mood associated with a profound level of play. He would not have known, consciously, of the existence of the Game as such. However, the heroic passion of his unconventional nature, the many emotional and material trials and tribulations that beset him, and the
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social isolation imposed both by his nature, his ill health and his deafness, led him to it inexorably and instinctively. The immense sense of inner space in these pieces is characteristic of the state of mind in novices on the verge of mastery. Within this almost empty awareness ego still directs and colours movement; yet its control is close to collapse. The very way in which sound-thought occupies space in these pieces shows this. So, too, does the effortlessness of the rapid shifts from deep desolation to dancing delight*. The desolation is unable to monopolise consciousness as entirely as ego would wish; the delight is too fresh and clean. Pervading both is a spontaneity and non-attached quality that is beyond ego and which derives from the greater sense of self expressed fully only through mastery of the Game. As a novices awareness deepens so does his sensitivity to movement. His ability to discern the processes of ego becomes acute. If in this state he is able to avoid being diverted by the movement of ego, the centre of gravity of his consciousness will shift of its own accord to the movement that is himself: the dance of the spirit and the unfolding of the universe. For most novices this possibility exists in its clearest form in their interactions with the expert. Because of his heightened sensitivity to movement, the novice glimpses the fundamentally different origin and nature of movement in the expert. This has a powerful reinforcing effect on his sensitivity to movement. If not blocked by ego, this can lead to a cascade effect that culminates in mastery of the Game. Even when this final transition does not occur, the novice may spend moments, or much longer periods, on the brink. He experiences a deep sense of freedom and clarity of being; he perceives his own movement and that of others with acuity and compassion; his responses to events are more spontaneous and appropriate; the weasel voice of ego becomes a barely perceptible whisper. In this state, if he does not become beguiled by it, a tiny nudge from the expert is often all that is needed for final mastery.
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Religion
The Zen Game is not a religion, though many - including some novices - see it as such. The Game deals directly with reality, not indirectly with myth, metaphysics, superstition and the theological projections of ego. In place of gods, pure fictions endowed with the qualities of ego developed to a supernatural degree, the Game produces men and women utterly in tune with their own being. Humility, hope, atonement, obedience, self-sacrifice, in the face of some exteriorised agency are seen by such individuals, with compassion, as a tragic and unnecessary denial of reality. Religion is Mans notion of himself made perfect. Perfection based on the ideals of ego is a diversionary Game of considerable power, even though that perfection is not achieved in life on Earth. In the Zen Game, perfection may be grasped in the here and now. What could be more perfect than being itself; what more miraculous than eating when hungry, sleeping when tired? The total naturalness of those who have mastered the Zen Game represents the apotheosis of Mans relationship with himself and his world. Religion has no place in this relationship. Although usually beyond conventional religiosity, novices often approach experts and the Game in a religious way. This frequently provokes responses of ruthless iconoclasm: If you should meet a Buddha, kill him! The admonition is aimed at the death of ego and of the novices attitude of reverential inequality. Religion is based on belief and on faith in what one believes. Belief and faith emphasise the sense of separateness of Man from his world and the urge to transcend this which lies at the heart of religion. Godhead has a double aspect: the perfection of ego; the attainment of that dimly perceived state of being that is the aim of the Zen Game. Although ego tries to conceal it, religion is but a distorted allegory of the Zen Game.
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emotion. Many novices never go beyond this. For those who do, the path is still littered with emotional traps. Ego seizes on anything that it can use as a diversion: pride and power are two of the commonest. These ego balloons are mercilessly and deftly pricked by the expert. Eventually, deprived of all emotional straws to clutch, the novices awareness suddenly switches from being ego-based to being grounded in the true self. This is mastery of the Game.
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Children
Children are not born to immediate mastery of the Game. The undeveloped consciousness of a child is precisely that: until the physical and psychological structures of mind have formed, a child is neither expert nor novice. For most children conditioning in the ways of ego begins at birth. Children are genetically programmed to absorb from adults and their environment the information and behaviour patterns essential to their survival. Whether or not this extends to the structure and mechanisms of ego, these are acquired all too efficiently. While some children at a very early age begin to perceive the deeper sense of self beyond ego, most do not. Exposure to the Game at this stage is therefore generally inappropriate. Even for those with such intimations, it is rare to begin play; however, the prospect of play may well be registered and remain dormant until later in life contact with an expert, or some other stimulus, awakens it.
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Attention
Ego-based attention has direction: in focusing on what it wants to see, it excludes much of what is to be seen. What it does see is conditioned by preconception and the operation of will. This conditioning places the perception of the reality of self, others and the world beyond its scope. Beneath the compulsive and restricted action of attention there exists, at least in novices and potential novices, an intimation of the artificial limits within which the process appears to be confined. While this may lead to serious play and ultimately to mastery of the Game, it introduces an element of tension. This often itself becomes the object of attention increasing the tension still further. Ego strives to maintain control by diverting attention from the mechanism of attention to its content. This reduces to manageable levels the tension associated with the notion of the limited scope of attention; it also provides endless diversionary thought trains that are the very essence of ego. The expert reflects for the novice the way in which he uses attention. The novice perceives this at two levels: the level of ego, which tries desperately to divert the process; and the deeper level of awareness which, though not free to express itself fully while ego remains dominant, resonates strongly to the ego-less quality of the reflection. An approach widely used by experts to enhance this resonance is the mind-puzzle or koan. An intellectually insoluble question such as What is the sound of one hand clapping? is used to provoke a profound sense of the relativity and futility of the prevailing process of attention. When this is seen, with complete clarity, in terms of mechanism not content, the puzzle is solved and mastery of the Game is achieved. For the expert, attention is directionless, though it has movement; purposeless, though associated with appropriate action; intense, yet unfocused; timeless, though aware of the unfolding of the universe.
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Truth
Philosophers and theologians apart, most people are not concerned with the truth or otherwise of the conceptual basis of mathematics, physics, perception or religion. They know that two and two make four, that bodies are solid and thoughts are not, that a table exists in fact and not just in the mind, that belief does not need an empirical basis. Yet they feel passionately about the truth of their beliefs. Egos beliefs are vital to its sense of self, self-esteem and actions: they are fiercely defended as basic truths. Egos view of truth is an important component of the framework of constructs through which it operates. Truth is one of the major criteria by which ego judges the value of its own projections and those of others. Upheld by ego as an objective and absolute quality, it is as abstract and relative as the projections to which it is applied. To the expert truth is neither objective nor subjective: such terms are meaningless. He sees what is; he is what is: to say that his perceptions and his being are true or false is existentially irrelevant. He has no value- judgement framework separate from what is judged. His perceptions are not based on the spurious dualism of ego. The expert and the universe are beyond truth as they are beyond good and evil, here and there, past and future. The expert reflects to the novice the latters doubt about the truth of his beliefs. Arising from a state beyond truth, these reflections touch the novices awareness in a special way. His sense of doubt in the validity of his value-judgements increases, but so too does his sense that this does not matter. He is therefore not drawn into a state of vertiginous instability, but finds that he has the inner space in which both to see the futility of egos framework of beliefs and to experience the deeper awareness beyond this framework.
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Spirit
Ego imagines spirit as a metaphysical entity clothed temporarily in a body from which it will ultimately escape: a fragment of the infinite spirit to which it longs to return. This abstract concept is idealised ego: imperishable, pure and possessing great power, it represents everything that ego wishes to be. But egos ideas about spirit are not spirit. Spirit IS; it has no need to be the object of its own awareness. It is egos compulsion to give form to the formless and to build its illusory and separate world from such forms. Spirit is to mind as mind is to body. Ego confuses this inter-relationship by imposing upon it concepts of structure and function that are existentially meaningless. Spirit is expressed through mind and body, but is not separate from either. Spirit is not the origin but the essence of being. Like the wind, spirit is movement: the movement of ultimate being. It is expressed by everyone, but its expression is perceived directly and fully only by those who have mastered the Game. In those who have not mastered the Game, its expression is overlain by ego. The expert sees through ego to the spirit beyond. He communicates directly with spirit in his interactions with others. This direct response of spirit to spirit, ego can neither block nor control. It therefore concentrates on blocking conscious awareness of the interaction. In those ready to become novices, it is not completely successful even in this. As the novices sense of awareness begins to explore more and more the confines of the ego framework, its true origin in spirit is perceived. Spirit is the ultimate basis of individuality and is that intuitive awareness associated with mastery of the Game. Its individuality is innate not assumed. Spirit expresses wisdom but possesses no knowledge. It is in accord with the unfolding of the universe not through conscious identity but because it is that unfolding. Spirit is not a suprapersonal force expressed similarly through its individual exemplars. Mastery of the Game leads not to uniformity of being but to the unique expression of individuality of spirit, mind and body. A sense of the movement of spirit in the novice is an essential prerequisite for play with an expert. That movement is usually expressed through mind as great doubt, great faith and great perseverance. These are
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qualities of spirit not aspects of ego: doubt is not the endless self- questioning of ego, but the certainty that egos approach to reality is not the only option; faith is not the compulsive operation of the will, but the spirits sense of the possibility of emerging from all such compulsions; perseverance is not the sustained and energy-consuming determination to achieve a goal, but the clear recognition that, left to itself, spirit will accomplish mastery of the Game and that opportunities for leaving it to do so arise afresh from moment to moment. The expert sees this movement. He also sees the nature of the novices spirit and whether there exists between their spirits the rapport without which play would be inappropriate. The power and wisdom of the experts spirit infuse everything he does. This is true of the novice too, though he is largely unaware of it while his consciousness remains enmeshed in the framework of ego. Like eagles soaring effortlessly on the wind, both are supremely unmindful of their mastery. The novice senses this at a deep level of being, but at the level of his conscious mind this is displaced by ego which constructs a different scenario. Filled with thoughts of muscle control, wind velocity, time and purpose, he distorts reality into a grotesque caricature of itself: the eagle is no longer an eagle, but an image; the wind a hostile element to be battled against; flight a struggle to achieve its desires. Ego is the parody of spirit, its framework the parody of mind, its directed sense of movement the parody of the dance of the spirit. Simply being with an expert quickens the novices sense of awareness of the movement of spirit. The novice experiences intensely the ways in which the expert bypasses his ego framework and communicates directly with his spirit. This leads to the virtual paralysis of ego. Its final demise occurs when the movement of spirit in the novice accords precisely with that in the expert. This is supreme awakening and mastery of the Game.
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egos sense of energy is irrelevant. Mastery is to be found not in doing but in not-doing. Not-doing is not inactivity. As awareness shifts from content to form there is considerable activity of consciousness, seeing the movement of ego but not being swept along by it. Ego tries desperately to prevent, most frequently by presenting it as superhumanly difficult. When this and other ploys no longer work, consciousness attains, effortlessly, its ultimate mode of expression. The expert does not see energy as a commodity. It is an inseparable element of action, consciousness and being. Because he does not separate doer from thing done, goal from what is required to do it, what is from what should be, there is no sense of effort. The absence of this dichotomy permits the full flow of his being. Yet he does not have to summon up and spend energy: he is it. He does not have to struggle and fight to achieve his purpose: he is it.
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