A different kind of Change.
Life’s metagame is a universal system for inner change.
The game of Quidditch is a simple metaphor for Life. On the surface Harry Potter’s Quidditch is like most games — teams compete within the rules to score goals, whichever team scores the most goals wins. What’s different (apart from being played on flying broomsticks) is that Quidditch is a game within a game. There is another game, a metagame, that is governed by different rules, played by “Seeker’s” whose sole objective is to catch a golden snitch — a mythical golden orb with wings. If a team catches the golden snitch they win, no matter how many goals either side has scored.
Life’s metagame.
In life, most people play according to rules set by society — our laws, our culture, and our religions, unaware of the natural laws that supersede these man-made rules. Similar to “Seekers” chasing the snitch, which is a metaphor for Truth, life’s metagame is ‘the’ game that matters. It’s the inner game of self-awareness played by people who use Truth as a guide to overcome the deceptiveness of their senses as they navigate life’s survival of the fittest.
Fitness & Truth are not the same thing. We didn’t evolve for Truth, we’re wired to chase pleasure and avoid pain. Our minds cause us to experience reality subjectively — experiencing reality as we are, rather than as it is. This is what it means to be human — we desire progress, happiness & status.
The downside is that we are never satisfied, always wanting more. Even though we’re dissatisfied with who we are, we find it difficult to change. For many, life is a struggle, and full of suffering — where mental illness, substance abuse, and obesity are amplified by society’s imperative to ‘fix’ ourselves.
Dis-identifying with your mind.
Life’s metagame is the natural way to rise above human suffering by living free from mind’s interference — where you see reality objectively, ie the world as it is, not as you perceive it to be. Meditation & mindfulness attempt this indirectly but Self-awareness is a direct approach for releasing your identification with the mind. You realize that you can use your mind as the incredible tool that it is, without Being it. You still experience thoughts & feelings but are no longer compelled to Be them.
Life’s metagame is the realisation that it’s possible to live without suffering — by thoroughly accepting our transience, our vulnerabilities and our imperfections we can choose to live life as robustly with them as without them. This resolves the contradiction of striving for excellence and embracing our imperfections through paradox.
Different rules apply for the physical world and our inner world. Progress in the physical world engages the mind in solving problems, setting goals, creating solutions & achieving objectives. Progress in the inner world comes by solving problems through insight that’s free from mind’s interference.
Life’s metagame is an inner game of consciousness, mind & thought. Awareness transcends the mind’s ego & intellect to reveal the Truth that naturally realigns your desire from immediate relief to long-term fulfilment. Courageously accepting the Truth then ensures that these Insights are turned into Action.
Problems are inevitable, suffering is optional.
Life is full of problems & challenges, this is inevitable. How we experience life is determined by whether we choose to be vulnerable and face into our problems rather than avoid them by trying to ‘fix’ or forget about them.
The paradox is that most problems cease to exist if you courageously find the kernel of fear at the core of the problem, free from mind’s interference — this is what it means to catch the golden snitch. Most people don’t because they avoid being vulnerable — choosing instead to protect their self-image by focusing ‘out there’ on future goals & external solutions. Even with the best intentions, without skin in the game you’re destined to living forever in a cycle of hope & disappointment.
As in Quidditch, Enlightenment is the real prize no matter how you keep score in your everyday life.
#lifesmetagame #theenlightenmentmethod
