When I Play as Being, I am exploring; I am on a journey with few tools and no signage. I stumble upon things, I make discoveries, I have realisations. In this randomness, the best thing, I have found, is that I share realisations with others and I share in their realisations. The Play as Being cohort moves on and shares and we all grow. But...
Life is short. Perhaps. At least this one is for sure. Do I have the time for such exploration? For every step towards the goal - whatever that may be - there are twenty stumbles, dead ends and simply general randomness . Such indirect meanderings are luxuries I cannot afford. Though I will continue to walk this path with my friends, I know I cannot rely on it alone.
Fortunately for me, I don't have to rely on the exploration of Play as Being alone. I have a Guide that knows the path well. It is well laid out and well trodden. There is no risk of meandering. It is direct and it works. I just follow that Guide's comprehensive instructions and I forge ahead.
But what of my comrades? Who can tell what is best for them? What will become of them? For some I see a flowering and the discoveries they make with Play as Being are leading to other things. Again, neither I nor they leave the practice of Play but instead we are inspired to explore outside the play. And some will in time, no doubt, find their own Guides and thence their own direct routes.
The odd thing, if it is odd, about all of this is that the core Play as Being technique has existed for a very long time. For centuries it has been known by different names and has been described in different words. The 9 seconds in 15 minutes is new, sure, but it is not the core practice, only a method for applying the practice. The actual practice of Playing as being Being is very old.
So the compassion in me reaches out. I am wondering whether the subversive nature of perception that playing as being (by whatever name) can potentially bring can exist safely for people in isolation from any encompassing practice. Many find it stunning, life changing and even disturbing to see, for the first time, what is actually beyond what convention calls reality. To suddenly glimpse the scale of the delusion we have been labouring under can be a massive shock. The assumption of peace or elation may be counterbalanced by the perception of all that needless suffering.
So I am starting to wonder what extra support Play as Being practitioners may need. I am wondering what extra instruction they might benefit from. On the other hand, I know full well that that would run counter to the idea of scientific experiment and the areligious basis on which the project is founded. Yet the only support environments I know of for this are religious, and I know that making a point of those would doubtless be off-putting to many and cut down the potential diversity of the cohort...
Well, I am just thinking aloud.
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Storm, you bring up an absolutely essential point. Thank you for doing so! And yes, I agree, we are all in need of help and guidance. I feel strongly that Play as Being should not provide one kind of guidance, one kind of method, whether scientific or contemplative or otherwise. But that doesn't mean there should be none. Rather, there can be many, and the challenge for all of us is then to see the Play as Being aspect in the many!
ReplyDeleteThe upcoming wiki will give us the chance to start exploring this. I see the wiki as a garden in which a thousand flowers will bloom. Some of those flowers will be inspired by ancient teachings, directly or indirectly, while some will be new. Some flowers will attract a lot of attention, with a group of PaB enthusiasts gathering around them, while others will just blossom, waiting to be appreciated, sooner or later, perhaps only by web readers of the wiki.
In addition to all that pluralism, I also have two specific answers to your very valid concerns. One is that I sense/see/know that Being itself is somehow guiding us. Another is that among us Stim certainly has the background and experience to advise us. He introduced me to Being in very concrete ways. And given that he himself combines various living lineages, Play as Being does not stand in a vacuum, but is itself part of living and unbroken lineages. Usually I prefer not to focus on that, given the open nature of PaB, but it is an essential aspect, without which PaB would be ungrounded.
Your thoughts resonate with some of my own experience: meanderings which feel unique and mostly creative at times diverge from what seems to be the 'stream' of the Playasbeing group.
ReplyDeleteSometimes that leaves a sense of 'alone on this part of the journey' which can feel 'in the shadow' rather than 'in the presence' of the general PaB direction. Again, this may be creative but at times feels isolating.
Feels like much more to say in this area, but must make this brief right now. Thanks for bringing this up...feels like opening up something very important
Always appreciate your postings.
Maxine