The

A Zen expert shows how it may

Zen

be played and mastered

Game
in the modern world.

by Dr. Jonathan Hey

The Zen Game

Copyright of Manuscript: Dr Jonathan Hey, 1984

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The Zen Game

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.

The final words of Dr Jonathan Hey

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An Introduction
In this book you will find a series of short pieces written by a Zen master on topics as wide ranging as education, sex, creativity and religion. He might as easily have included washing-up, commuting and clothes for Zen excludes nothing. Its working place is the mundane, its effect is to transmute it into the miraculous. Do not expect, however, to find a technique for achieving this. Zen is not keen on methods. Instead you will find the lucid mind of a man who lives fearlessly in the present moment. He does not ask how things could or should be but shows how they are. Released from all other considerations, love is revealed, unqualified, unsentimental and quite unlike the Wests popular conception of it. You may find the title The Zen Game surprising. Can anything so serious be treated so lightly? Isnt Zen quite literally a matter of life or death? Well, yes it is. But the truth of Zen is often expressed in paradox and we might benefit by considering these apparently opposite statements: Zen is vital to our lives - but it can be seen as a game. As such, it is played by a Zen master and a novice. There are no rules. Zen has no creed nor code of behaviour, it is not a religion nor a philosophy. So to answer the question, what is the game and how is it played? we must have at least a theoretical understanding of what a Zen master is. I know the author, Dr Hey, would like to be clear about one thing: he was not a master of anyone. He neither wanted nor sought power over people. It might sound like another paradox but he was, in fact, master of nothing. Perhaps it would be better to call him an expert or an adept for, in a sense, it was through expertise that he was freed from the dominance of ego. Ordinarily, ego controls the game, pulls all the strings and loads the dice. Not so with a Zen master. He no longer has an ego. If you wish to use other terms, he is self-realised, he has attained his Buddha nature, he lives in non-duality. You will not need me to tell you that such people are rare. Dr Hey was even rarer because he was English. Though this is neither here nor there, it does have the added benefit that English was his mother tongue and Zen is often (but by no means exclusively) expressed in the precise use of language. How he played the Zen Game varied from novice to novice - it might be a conversation, a silent gesture, the sharing of a meal, a clip round the ear, but the aim was always the same: in Dr Heys words to act as a spiritual midwife.

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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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CONTENTS

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Martial Arts

Over the last twenty or thirty years, oriental martial arts - judo, kendo, tiachi, karate and kung-fu - have become very popular in the West. For the majority their interest is based on a need for personal power. As games of power the martial arts have great appeal, promising a mixture of physical, mental, or even spiritual, attainments. Played thus they are no different from other diversionary ego-games. At a deeper level, however, they become a variant of the Zen Game itself. The essence of these games is spontaneity in action and reaction. Free from a sense of dominance or submissiveness, free from the fear of pain or the pleasure of inflicting it, the true fighter wins his fight in the mind and expresses this through the body. Great physical strength and skill count for nothing if the inner state of being of the fighter is dominated by ego. To see this truth and to be able to realise it during ones training is to become a fighter indeed. The real fight is fought within, using techniques that are metaphors of the martial arts themselves. This should precede or accompany physical training. Without it, a fighter is at once both vulnerable and a danger to others - a potentially destructive machine controlled by a psychotic. The ultimate fighter is one who has mastered both the techniques of fighting and the Zen Game itself. Having no need to fight, he is invincible: fighting is not an act of self-indulgence, but an expression of his being. An ultimate fighter is an expert who teaches the Zen Game to novices through the medium of fighting.

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Permissiveness and Morality

The explosion of interest in Zen in the West is a phenomenon of the middle decades of this century. In the USA it peaked in the fifties, sixties and seventies, where it coincided with the permissive movement. The greater freedom of self-expression characterised by this movement led many of its followers to Zen - the ultimate in self-knowledge and spontaneity of being. The two games became hopelessly confused. Dropout zen is not Zen; hip zen is not Zen; unconventionality is not Zen; impulsive, but egodirected, self-expression is not Zen. The permissive movement may be important in the narrower context of 20th century social evolution in the West. However, from the Zen point of view it is just another diversionary Game. To play it for its own sake is no better, and no worse, than playing any other diversionary Game. To play it in the belief that it is a western version of the Zen Game is to devalue the latter and perhaps to contribute to its decline. Mastery of the Zen Game leads to a spontaneity of being and behaviour that is very appealing to those who feel emotionally, psychologically or spiritually constrained by social mores in a wider sense. Some see it as a general release from social pressures and patterns, others as permitting a licence for particular emotions held in check by these pressures. Zen provides neither kind of release. It provides release from ego itself, the source of all such distorted wishes and desires. The spontaneity of Zen is beyond morality, immortality and amorality: it derives from the very source of being; there is thus no need for justification of its actions.

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Aptitude for Play and Mastery of the Game
Aptitudes vary from individual to individual. Musicality, intelligence, sociability, cruelty, are assumed to depend for this variation in degree on innate inherited capacity, social environment, or an interaction between the two. History suggests that this is true of the aptitude for the Zen Game. Experts were - and are - apparently as rare as musical prodigies or intellectual geniuses. Only a small proportion of the population become novices in the serious sense of the word. Were these experts born with an aptitude without which they could not have achieved mastery of the Game? Could anyone in the hands of an expert ultimately become one? The answers to these questions are not, and may never be, known. It is sufficient to know that an expert is able to see when a person is ready to play the Game. It is of no consequence to the expert whether genes, social happenstance or destiny have produced the state of readiness which he detects: he simply responds to what he sees. History also reveals that only a small proportion of those who become novices subsequently become experts. Why is this? Can an expert be wrong in his original assessment of aptitude for the Game? Or is the nature of the transition from novice to expert such that only a few of those with the potential to achieve it actually do so? The strength and nature of the aptitude for play does not change. However, the strength and nature of the ego-based diversionary games that block the expression of the aptitude for play do vary - from moment to moment and year to year. It is the task of the expert to assist the novice in developing his intuitive awareness of these variations and thus to transcend their dominance. But the novice also varies in his ability to respond to the experts assistance. His ego will use all its subtlety and power to retain its influence. It will use every argument to convince the novice that the task is either too difficult or not worth pursuing, that the expert is not giving him the assistance he needs or is helping him too much, that the expert may not even really be an expert and the Zen Game itself may be a sham. The success of these blocking tactics will determine the novices ultimate fate. A novice puts himself almost beyond the experts reach if he allows himself to be beguiled into using the apparatus of ego in order to try to escape its grip. His aptitude for the Zen Game may thus never be

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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.

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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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Relationship between Expert and Novice
The novices attitude towards the expert is based on a sense of inequality, almost total trust and confidence in the experts abilities, and an intense rapport in comparison with which other interactions seem superficial, stereotyped and sterile. The expert is the ultimate representation of what the novice wants to be. Unable to see the true source of the experts special powers of mind and body, the novice allows himself to create an almost superhuman image. This enhances the novices sense of respect, awe and the inequality between them. It also often includes a sense of abnegation of responsibility: the expert understands everything and will pick the moment for particular moves in the Game. The novice has but to wait patiently in passive readiness, trusting in the expert to implement his perfect Game plan. The expert does not see himself as superior to the novice. Such comparisons are one of egos most beguiling games. He uses the novices attitudes in whatever way he knows intentively will best provoke the intuitive insight which is the sole aim of the Game. He may appear cruel, harsh and impossibly demanding; or kind, endlessly patient and understanding. He may switch from mode to mode with startling suddenness. The novice is often driven to distraction by such behaviour, which indeed has a peculiarly disorienting effect. Yet he knows that the special bond with the expert is never threatened by such variation in the mode of play. This is not to say that the anger shown by the expert is not real anger but a sham enacted for the purpose of play. The experts play is not premeditated: his anger and his laughter represent his spontaneous response to the novice; they have a freshness and force that speaks directly to the novices own intuitive level of being, reinforcing the rapport between them and encouraging the novice to yet greater efforts to master the Game. It is not possible for any novice to attach himself to any expert: there is a deeper aspect of the relationship between expert and novice. In approaching an expert, a novice is usually dominated by his egos views on the expert and on what he himself wants to be. Yet at a deeper level of consciousness he knows when he meets an expert with whom he will be able to play. He may not realise this consciously at all, but it will be expressed in his eyes and in other ways. The expert not only sees this, but is fully aware of his own reaction to the novice. However serious a novice may be in his wish to play the Game, an expert will not agree to playing with him unless that rapport is there.

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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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Love
Love is one of the most potent diversionary games. It is the expression of one of the fundamental forces of human nature: the impulse towards mutual relationship. It frequently diverts the novice from the true aim of the Game and may influence in a more direct way his interaction with the expert. For the novice the purity of the movement that is love is contaminated by the emotions of attachment: possessiveness; wish fulfilment; too specified a sense of self leading to an ego structured projection of what relationship should be or to what it actually is. This results in numerous aberrant forms of play. One of the commonest is a cloying aspect of compassion: apparently serenely tolerant of the crassness of his fellow beings, the novice evinces a deep respect for everything in general and other people in particular. He is courteous, amicable, always ready humbly to advise those less wise than himself on how to live their lives. Attached to the notion of non-attachment, his energies are frittered away in games of spiritual snobbery. If he is able to use his awareness to escape this level of the love Game, he may well then succumb to playing the love Game with the expert. This is all the more likely when an expert has been involved in his escape from the grosser forms of play. It may be expressed as total devotion to the expert and his works and to his elevation almost to the rank of demi-god. This is as unwarranted as it is unhealthy. The projection of an ego-ideal onto the expert blinds the novice both to himself and to the true nature of the expert. Such blindness is the antithesis of love. Ultimately, the novice comes to realise the basis of these ego-based love games: self-love. This realisation may however prove to be the most subtle trap of all. Though it may take many different forms, its essence is always the same. He delights in the refinement of his hard-won level of play; though apparently dedicated to transcending it, he finds the sense of personal power beguiling and exhilarating. He clings, lovingly, to the self he knows because he fears the end-Game that could take him beyond it. For many novices this spiritual narcissism represents the final stumbling block. The expert is, above all, human. Love is for him a fundamental expression of his being in relation to others. It infuses all his interactions. Because it is intrinsic to, rattier than imposed upon, each interaction, it contains no element of expectation or constraint. It is at once the most liberating and

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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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Sex
Sex is, or should be, a particular physical and mental expression of love. It is expressed as such only by those who have mastered the Zen Game. All other expressions of sex are, in one sense or another, perversions regardless of how they are viewed by contemporary society. Driven by their genes and cultural conditioning, those not seeking mastery of the Zen Game vary widely in the forms of sexual expression they adopt. Their behaviour and their attitudes are almost entirely ego-dominated. Many achieve successful and enjoyable relationships within these constraints; many do not. The complex interaction of biological urge with social conditioning and an egodominated sense of self results in the vast psychopathology of sex which has become so overt and prominent a theme of western society in the last hundred years. Although one of the most widely played of all diversionary games in society in general, the physical expression of sex is less of a diversion for novices than the psychological aspects of interpersonal interaction. These often contain sexual elements, but usually in subtle guise. While ego is still present, most novices have a considerable sensitivity to its actions when they become seriously interested in playing the Zen Game. Why is this? Is it a consequence of the early stages of playing the Game, or is it a predisposition common to potential players and which emerges at a particular stage of the Game? The expert is not concerned to know the answer to this - or any other -question in a general sense. For him the novices awareness of his individual sexual nature and of the forces which formed it is of paramount importance. The expert will know at once whether a novice is attempting to use the Zen Game in order to solve or avoid an ego-based problem. While mastery of the Zen Game transcends all sexual, and other, problems, the covert or overt operation of will to try to achieve it for that purpose can never succeed. The novice must see this if he is to master the Game; it is the task of the expert to help him do so. A novice may bring a sexual element into his interaction with the expert. This is usually a facet of his view of the expert as representing an ego-based ideal and is frequently based on the notion of the expert as a potency figure. This can lead to a fixation inimical to further play. For the expert sex is, like all expressions of his being, utterly natural. Devoid of possessiveness, repressed desire, conceits or uncertainties, he is free to express sexually according to his fundamental nature, age and love

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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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Health
The Zen Game can significantly affect mental and physical health. Most novices are aware of the links between body and mind and are beyond egos cruder attempts to use these to subvert play. This enables them to cope with the immense psychological and physical stress associated with the Game. Palpitations, insomnia, indigestion, anxiety and other conventional stressrelated or psychosomatic conditions are therefore very rare in novices. The psychological stress associated with playing the Zen Game is not devoid of ego, but has a wider basis. Awe at the prospect of mastering the Game produces both fear and courage at much deeper levels of being. At these levels their nature is different: fear does not generate illness as a retreat; courage is not an ego-fabricated emotion flawed by vulnerability. The psychological drama of the Zen Game is played out in a way that leaves the body very much to itself. Though left to itself, the body does not wholly escape from the stress of play. This is not generally negative, but constitutes a positive support for the mind in its titanic struggle. Sleep may be fragmentary but is deeply refreshing; resistance to infection may not only not be compromised but may be enhanced; muscle tone improves; hormone systems work efficiently; the nervous system is fully energised and the reflexes sharp. Occasionally, however, mind inflicts its turmoil on the body. Fasting or poor diet, prolonged periods of meditation or concentration on the desperate drive to master the Game regardless of the physical or psychological consequences, can lead to a deterioration in health. Yet the body is able to withstand these abuses much more effectively than it would if ego were more rampantly at work. Mastery of the Game leads to a rapid return to health. Experts are not immortal nor are they beyond illness. Cancer, heart attack and stroke occur, though not as a result of self-abuse through smoking or unbalanced diet. These diseases may often contain an inherited genetic predisposition; experts are not exempt from these, though the interaction between inherited genes and environment, which is often what precipitates disease, is often very different leading to delay in onset or even to the non-activation of the disease. The physical and mental ground state of the expert are mutually beneficial. Devoid of the ego-driven vortices of expectation, his hormonal, immune, and cardiovascular systems are neither pushed into endless overdrive nor depressed. Free from ego-based fear, his nervous system is

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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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Good and Evil

The ego is the origin of the sense of good and evil. It arises from egos sense of separation from and control of its world. Through the operation of will and self-interest, the ego projects its values on to the world. The formation of these values during the development of the individual and their interaction with those of others produces an abstract and arbitrary sense of good and evil. Conscience, morality, religion, humanism, aesthetics, are just as much distortions of the expression of Mans true nature as cruelty, corruption, violence, and barbarism. Man is both the creator and the arbiter of good and evil. Novices are frequently beguiled by the manifestations of good and evil. Compassion and non-violence are preferable to self-interest and the use of force. Passive contemplation is seen as more in accord with the rules of the Game than frenetic activity driven by egos requirements. Altruism and poverty are superior to self-assertion and attachments. Only by progressive purification can ones store of good karma be sufficient to merit mastery of the Game. Egos innate tendency to abstract and to polarise aspects of reality in this way is thus often a major element of play. The expert is beyond good and evil. For him there is no framework against which to assess his actions since there is no aspect of self either to generate it or to make such assessments. However, he cannot escape the judgements of himself and themselves of those who have not achieved mastery of the Game. These judgements do not bind him since he cannot be bound. He is aware of their power and uses it in play. He lays bare the framework of value-judgements used by the novice. His aim is not the progressive dismantlement of the framework, but its total and instantaneous abandonment.

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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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Meditation
Meditation is a state of mind. The techniques of meditation vary widely: egodominated concentration on a thought, breathing pattern or sounds to the exclusion of almost all other sensory input; an indulgent mental freewheeling inducing deep relaxation; the induction of particular electrophysiological states through biofeedback techniques. They are often very effective in reducing the mental stress of everyday life and this in turn may be of benefit to the body: the immune system may fight infections more effectively; the digestive system may function better; sleep may be less disturbed; the hormone system involved in the physical stress reaction may be less active, reducing wear and tear on the heart and other organs and hence the likelihood of stroke or heart attack. Many novices and potential novices make effective use of these forms of meditation. However, while they remain dominated by ego, they may become dependent upon meditation to the exclusion of the consciousness- widening process of playing the Zen Game. Meditation has a long and important association with the Zen Game, but only as a means to an end, never as an end in itself. Even played in the context of the Zen Game and with expert guidance, there are dangers. These lie in the ego-based attitude to the use of meditation. Control of mind and body, and through this control of ones interactions and fate, is the purpose for which ego exists. Ego can be extremely subtle in its expression in meditation. The novice may think its operation diminished or even temporarily suspended. This is not so: it has modified its activity but is nevertheless still effectively in control. The most subtle of its games is to beguile itself with the notion of a progressive approach to mastery of the Game. Through regular meditation, the mind is progressively purified until it attains its goal. The persistence of this intention precludes such attainment and this is precisely what ego wants: meditation is debased to a diversionary Game and ego rules triumphant. The dangers of meditation have been well recognised by experts through the ages. Experts are totally ruthless in confronting novices with their tendency to use meditation as a diversion. The way in which an expert does this may then lead the novice to the only form of meditation from which final liberation is possible. Though its content varies from novice to novice, the aim is constant: the development of such an acute sensitivity to the workings of ego that the novice is able to push the system to destruction once and finally. It is one of the many paradoxes of the Zen Game that one is closest to mastery only when one feels furthest from it. When a mind-puzzle, or koan, has brought one to the point where egos actions in relation to the puzzle are seen with a profound non-judgemental

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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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Natural and Supernatural
No-one who has not mastered the Game knows the full nature and extent of the powers of mind. The truth of telepathy, psychomesis, clairvoyancy, spiritual healing and other so-called supernatural abilities is impossible to disentangle from delusion, wishful thinking and outright fraud. Belief in the existence of such abilities is, however, widespread. Many take this as sufficient proof of their reality. Minds powers are both greater and lesser than ego imagines. Whether expressed through the pseudo-objectivity of science or the indulgent emotionality of religion and belief, mind is never fully grasped. Mind is a totality: it is existentially unnecessary either to analyse or to identify with its component process. Ego exists because this fundamental truth is not perceived directly: because this fundamental truth is not perceived directly, ego exists. The novice sees the expert as being of great power. Not only has he attained the almost unattainable - mastery of the Game - he also demonstrates continually his uncanny ability to read minds and to predict the future. He is never in doubt. His thoughts and actions, emanating from a deep pure well of wisdom, have the directness and power of gravity, the total appropriateness derived from his complete accord with the flow. These perceived powers may be a major part of the attraction of playing the Game; but they, too, are distortions of the experts true nature. The mind exists for communication. Its sensory perceptiveness and its ability to see what it perceives are more extensive and more subtle than those who have not mastered the Game can comprehend. There is nothing supernatural about them: in the expert, mind simply functions to the full extent of its natural abilities. Because he is free of the framework of ego, but deeply aware of its nature and operation, his sensitivity to the thoughts and feelings of those still in its grip is acute to a degree that seems at times supernatural. His deep empathy with others and his total accord with the flow appear to give him the power to foresee events. This he has, but not in some mystical way based on the literal seeing of future events as pictures or images in his mind. It is precisely his awareness of the present that shows him - in that present - the unfolding of the future. The experts true power, which is formidable to those unable to express it in themselves, is the power of mind in the completeness of its nature.

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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
In those dominated by ego, emotion is generated by the tension that arises from the fear and the operation of will associated with egos way of working. Egos control is never as complete as it would like to believe. An immense amount of energy is required to impose its values and its wishes on a recalcitrant world and to maintain the fiction of its success in doing so. This gives rise to vast fears. The enormous energy associated with these fears finds expression in a myriad of ways. It may be thrust into the minds basement only to emerge in hidden forms through mental or physical illness, unexplained desires or sublimational aspirations. At the conscious level it is the origin of almost all emotional expression. Anger, sadness, joy are never simply that: they are contaminated at source with the energy of that fundamental fear. Ego-based emotion is highly addictive. It is the main safety valve for the tensions that represent the costs of egos benefits. The distorted pleasure ego derives from expressing destructive anger, wallowing in sadness or catharsis, clinging pathetically to feelings of happiness, reinforces the process. Ego is thus able to convert one of its major weaknesses into an apparent advantage and thus strengthen its control. Most people are driven by their emotions most of the time. Many imagine that they have them under effective control. Superficially this may seem to be so. But the enormous latent tensions and the sudden and dramatic ways in which these can break forth, or be called forth, both in individuals and in societies, shows this to be false. The expert is not beyond emotion. However, free from ego, he is also free from the fears and tensions associated with it. His emotions have a radically different quality. They are not distorted by or supercharged with the energy generated by the ego process: they are integral to the situation in which they are expressed. This shows in the spontaneity with which they come and go and in their intensity. Anger is total anger, while it lasts; it has the purity and force of a thunderstorm. Sadness is keen as the north wind but, like the wind, is ungraspable. Joy has the brightness of summer sunshine, without any trace of regret at the prospect of night. Emotion is a major obstacle for the novice. Novices often see play mainly as a fight to conquer and control their emotions: their goal a state of blissful and unruffled contemplation infinitely superior to the emotions of their fellow men. This unnatural emotional state is egos cunning response to the desperate need for some counterbalance to cruder expressions of

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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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Time and Space

Ego has definite notions of time and space. Time is a product of its ceaseless wish to become and to achieve; space is the sense of the psychological and physical arenas in which it carries out its operations. Both embody the sense of separateness that is fundamental to egos existence. They are key components of the framework that ego projects on to the world. For the expert, time is the unfolding of himself and the universe; space is the free movement of his spirit. Time is, but does not pass; space is not an emptiness that must be filled. Past and future exist only in the now; here and there are not different places in the empty awareness of the void in which he has his being. The relentless pressure of time often conditions the novices approach to play. His ego forces him to evaluate his progress and to find it wanting. It insinuates expectations about what might be a reasonable length of time over which to try to achieve mastery of the Game. It knows that the very act of setting a timetable will preclude its implementation and so perpetuate its own existence. The novice also often finds himself unable to relinquish the concepts and plans that fill his psychological space. Ego grasps onto the contents of mind: it knows that true emptiness is synonymous with its own extinction.

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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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Thought and Action
Thought is action. The full force and beauty of this lie beyond semantic truism and are experienced only by those who have mastered the Game. For novices, much of their thought is about action. Such thought is full of egobased emotion and the conflict associated with this. Intellect, conscience and subconscious desires fill the novices mind with spurious doubts, compulsions and certainties. He knows intuitively that this multi- facetted and internally inconsistent framework is not the fundamental basis for thought or action, but he feels that he cannot free himself from its dominating influence. This often leads to immense frustration and turbulence of mind. The fear and anger associated with this state may be so distressing as to drive the novice to abandon play. For those who have the spiritual courage to continue, the nature of the struggle eventually changes, often quite suddenly. The emphasis of uncertainty and doubt shifts from the content of thought to the process of thinking itself. Thinking at the level of form rather than content represents awareness on the threshold of mastery of the Game. Form is to content as seeing is to looking, hearing to listening. Preoccupation with doubts about aspects of self-image and expression is replaced by a deeper sense of doubt. This is based not on irresolution and indecisiveness, but on the intuitive awareness that all thought and action is flawed that does not arise spontaneously from the deepest level of being. The sense of inner space is characteristic of this awareness. Within this space, the movement and process of thought are more clearly perceived. This leads to paradoxical effects; as the scope of awareness expands, the nature of what is seen changes. This insight liberates action, but not simply the potential actions blocked by ego-induced paralysis of mind; action itself is subtly but profoundly different. It is direct, but free from the driven and compulsive quality of egodominated action. It has great intensity and focus but not the fixity and sense of exclusion associated with ego. It flows from the spiritual not the intellectual certainty that nothing matters in the way that ego would have one believe, that egos dramas and obsessions are diversions calculated to prevent true freedom of thought and action. When it reaches the ultimate depths of being, this awareness culminates in mastery of the Game. It doesnt matter what one does, but how one does it. How one does it changes what one does.

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Freedom and Inevitability

Destiny and freedom of choice are two of egos more potent constructs. Destiny is used to justify egos decisions by externalising them. It also enhances egos sense of self-importance: personalising the world or a force immanent to it continually re-affirms its own sense of selfhood by echoing it on a grander scale. Freedom of choice enhances egos sense of power and control. Though fundamentally incompatible, ego clings tenaciously to both notions. This reveals one of egos major weaknesses: its uncertainty about its relationship with the world. Ego oscillates between the infantile desire to be cared for and supported by its world and the mature wish to be independent and in control of the world rather than controlled by it. The novice is aware, intellectually, of the nature and power of these constructs. He is also aware, at a deeper level of being, that he must not allow himself to be trapped into wanting to be free of them or into believing that whether or not he will ever be truly free is predetermined and inevitable. To be free of such entrapping attachments requires a special action of the mind. As the consciousness of the dilemma of both wanting and not wanting to be free, wanting and not wanting to be the subject of a benign destiny, deepens, the novice becomes increasingly aware of the flow of his own being and of the world around him. For the expert, this flow is his being: he makes no ego-based distinction between himself and the world around him. His consciousness is beyond the notions of freedom and predetermination. There is in him no sense of a need to be free: he is not aware of himself as an entity that stands in relation to other things from which it could be free. Freedom and inevitability are neither forces outside himself, nor properties within him that he must develop and exercise; they are pure expressions of the flow of his being.

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Energy and Effort
Ego sees energy as the fuel for its operations and effort as an inescapable concomitant of the use of energy. Energy and effort are fundamental constructs in egos apparatus of control. Ego plays a subtle role as the regulator of energy. It represents energy as limited in supply, as the psychological equivalent of physiological energy. It usurps to itself judgement of how much, or how little, energy is available for particular activities. If it sees an activity as a threat to its dominance, it will flood consciousness with the notion that more energy is required than is available and that the effort needed is therefore too great. Energy is made available only for the safe operations of will. There is a high price to be paid for egos conception and controlled use of energy. Enormous tensions accumulate and these are associated with vast levels of suppressed and thwarted energy. Periodically, this distorted energy bursts forth, often in destructive ways, both at the level of the individual and of groups or entire societies. Ego is ambivalent towards these outbursts: the potential threat to its control is taken seriously, yet it also revels in the risk and in the aberrant behaviour patterns associated with them. It uses both to reinforce its control. Sooner or later the novice begins to see the pervasiveness of egos notions of energy and effort in his attempts at play. Egos commonest stratagem is to foster a sense of inadequacy in order to frustrate play. It presents an image of the enormous levels of energy and effort needed to achieve mastery. It portrays experts as possessing superhuman levels of energy, impossible to emulate. It plays on the emotions, stirring up anger, envy, despair and frustration. It temporises by conjuring up the concept of achieving mastery by means of a progressive build-up of energy over an ever-extending timescale. At the same time it toys with a spurious sense of purpose: it protests its total commitment to the Game while taking perverse pleasure at the success of its self-delusion. This divided sense of self is the very essence of ego: transcending it is the quintessence of the Game. For novices on the brink of mastery of the Game, egos strategies are much clearer; the problem is how to be free of them. The sense of insufficient energy and effort is replaced by a realisation of the enormous energy ego invests in preserving its dominance and its very existence. The novice sees, intuitively not intellectually, that his approach to play has been conditioned by ego and that this will never culminate in mastery of the Game. The emphasis shifts fundamentally from what should I do and how can I find the necessary energy? to I see what I must not do and that

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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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