There are many game-changers operating now at every level of our reality. The current global financial instability, and the possibility of the dollar losing its status as the world’s reserve currency, is a game-changer of major proportions. Therefore, people who should know better are in denial of the imminence of such alterations of our economic reality. Since the magnitude of such events, and their consequences, cannot be fully grasped, it is better not to think about them.
Climate change is another gigantic game-changer. Al Gore has famously called it “an inconvenient truth.” Peak oil is another game-changer. We could create a long list of game-changers that we have all heard about in the public arenas of politics, public health, the social order in general, as well as in the sciences. We may have heard about them, but we probably do not want to think about them. Until we no longer have that luxury.
There are also, of course, game-changers occurring in people’s daily lives. Losing a job, the end of a marriage, the diagnosis of a major illness—we are all aware of such daily game-changing horrors that can bring an end to the kind of life we have been living, or of life itself, for our particular organism. Even positive game-changers can be stressful. Having a child, getting a promotion at work, receiving an inheritance, can all bring about a disorientation that can lead to acting-out, anxiety attacks, and emotional collapse. For human beings, suicidal thoughts can all too easily erupt from the unconscious, as a way to escape intolerable feelings of guilt, shame, inadequacy, and terror—even if there is no rational basis for such feelings. We are far more fragile creatures than we want to recognize. This recognition is also a game-changer.
Fragility exists at every level now. We are even aware that the entire web of life on Earth is now in danger of collapsing, due to the ongoing die-off of millions of species as a result of advancing “civilization”. By cutting down the forests, contaminating the streams, oceans, and the atmosphere, damming the rivers, laying asphalt over the most fertile land, overgrowing the human population, creating massive amounts of radioactive and other toxic waste without sane disposal protocols, stockpiling weapons of incalculable destructiveness, and other inaccurate karma, humans are on the point of destroying our planet’s once-flourishing biosphere.
Among these many game-changers, there are also others that are rarely spoken of in conventional social circles. The question of the presence on Earth of extraterrestrials, for example, is a major game-changer. Many people feel the need to ridicule such an idea, even though Hollywood has long been raking in jackpots on the basis of widespread interest in such a phenomenon and its implications. But although we are happy to see a fictional film about aliens, even scary and evil ones, we generally do not want to engage in serious investigation of this possibility. And once we do open to the possibility, then our belief in our understanding of reality can easily become unhinged.
We must recognize that for intelligent beings to have arrived on Earth, they must have extraordinary propulsion systems. Due to the vast distances between us and other interstellar life forms, they must have made use of beyond-light-speed mechanisms, or inter-dimensional continua, such as wormholes or other kinds of portals through space-time, or even non-physical teleportation, that render nearly all our scientific theories obsolete.
Of course, there may not be any alien visitors. Most of the reports of ET contact can be written off as delusion, hoax, disinformation or misinformation. Photographs can be cleverly altered so that even experts can be fooled. Teams of well-trained humans working in the dead of night under the direction of inspired mathematical artists may have made some of the thousands of extraordinary crop circles that remain enigmas to most people. Some alien abduction stories may be hallucinations or sleep disorders. Others may be the products of the feverish minds of writers desperate for fame and fortune. People can blur the line between fantasy and fact in their own lives and their own minds so well that lie-detector tests cannot tell the difference. Psychoanalysis has convincingly explained how such delusions can easily be mistaken for reality. Of course, others have convincingly explained how psychoanalysis is itself a delusion.
But once one has allowed the evidence to open one’s mind to the possible existence of more highly advanced beings on or near the planet, we have entered a new reality. The game of life has by that very admission of possibility been changed. It is a relatively small step from there to making actual contact. Yet it is the equivalent of entering a parallel universe. Our own identity will become alien. The ego’s bubble will pop. We will have lost our once-comfortable illusion of dominance of the food chain forever. At this moment in the flux of time, nearly every element of reality we have taken for granted and built our lives on is melting away. And more surprises are showing up every day. Where will it stop? Where is the Rock of Ages that we could once depend on?
So the final game-changer is the fact that reality itself has become recognized as a fantasy. It is in fact a recently manufactured concept. The idea of an objective reality, existing separately from mind, is part of the discourse of modernity. The objective world, res extensa, is first conceived as the stage set for the Cartesian theater of the mind, res cogitans. But this idea two centuries later becomes inverted so that mind is seen as a random by-product of the chance interactions of matter. But in the ancient cultures, it was understood that the world is God’s creation, and the Creator still permeates the creation as well as transcending it. The panentheism of metaphysical thought was universal at the esoteric core of the world’s wisdom traditions, and that idea was the basis of the maintenance of ethical, aesthetic, and psychological integrity. The loss of that mystical recognition has been a game-changer for human nature.
Of course, the science of Sat Yoga has for millennia counseled human beings that the world is only consciousness, that the universe has the structure of a dream. This is the meaning of the concept of Maya. Perhaps at long last, we are as a species becoming lucid dreamers. Then we can enter fully into the divine Lila; we can play the game at God’s level. All the game-changers that an infinite intelligence could throw at us cannot prevent us from realizing that our essence is beyond the game. In fact, the radical changing of all our games that is now occurring may be the way the Cosmic Intelligence is provoking our awakening to the true nature of the Real. Our ultimate salvation through recognition of, and union with, the Cosmic Mind, is now our only hope of retaining our sanity. Our choice is between mysticism and psychosis. The muddled middle ground of secular sensate capitalist couch-potato narcissistic uncreative unloving and meaningless existence is dropping into the abyss.
The Rock of Ages is still here, still functioning as the Ground of our Being. But we cannot reach that safe ground merely through opening our hymnbooks and chanting. To reach the security of the yonder shore of the noumenal Real requires the game-changer of humility, of willingness to drop the pretensions and demands of the ego. There is a portal to the highest dimension, to the throne of God, to the Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Light, and to the security of the Absolute’s eternal presence and love. That portal becomes visible once the ego has dissolved. The last game-changer is located in your own heart. When you have dismantled the wall between your heart and the heart of God, then the game is won forever. You have the power to change the whole game, from one of vexation, horror, perverse lust and demonic hatred to one of blessings, grace, and infinite divine beauty. May your victory through surrender to the Supreme One be celebrated soon.
Namaste,
Shunyamurti
Climate change is another gigantic game-changer. Al Gore has famously called it “an inconvenient truth.” Peak oil is another game-changer. We could create a long list of game-changers that we have all heard about in the public arenas of politics, public health, the social order in general, as well as in the sciences. We may have heard about them, but we probably do not want to think about them. Until we no longer have that luxury.
There are also, of course, game-changers occurring in people’s daily lives. Losing a job, the end of a marriage, the diagnosis of a major illness—we are all aware of such daily game-changing horrors that can bring an end to the kind of life we have been living, or of life itself, for our particular organism. Even positive game-changers can be stressful. Having a child, getting a promotion at work, receiving an inheritance, can all bring about a disorientation that can lead to acting-out, anxiety attacks, and emotional collapse. For human beings, suicidal thoughts can all too easily erupt from the unconscious, as a way to escape intolerable feelings of guilt, shame, inadequacy, and terror—even if there is no rational basis for such feelings. We are far more fragile creatures than we want to recognize. This recognition is also a game-changer.
Fragility exists at every level now. We are even aware that the entire web of life on Earth is now in danger of collapsing, due to the ongoing die-off of millions of species as a result of advancing “civilization”. By cutting down the forests, contaminating the streams, oceans, and the atmosphere, damming the rivers, laying asphalt over the most fertile land, overgrowing the human population, creating massive amounts of radioactive and other toxic waste without sane disposal protocols, stockpiling weapons of incalculable destructiveness, and other inaccurate karma, humans are on the point of destroying our planet’s once-flourishing biosphere.
Among these many game-changers, there are also others that are rarely spoken of in conventional social circles. The question of the presence on Earth of extraterrestrials, for example, is a major game-changer. Many people feel the need to ridicule such an idea, even though Hollywood has long been raking in jackpots on the basis of widespread interest in such a phenomenon and its implications. But although we are happy to see a fictional film about aliens, even scary and evil ones, we generally do not want to engage in serious investigation of this possibility. And once we do open to the possibility, then our belief in our understanding of reality can easily become unhinged.
We must recognize that for intelligent beings to have arrived on Earth, they must have extraordinary propulsion systems. Due to the vast distances between us and other interstellar life forms, they must have made use of beyond-light-speed mechanisms, or inter-dimensional continua, such as wormholes or other kinds of portals through space-time, or even non-physical teleportation, that render nearly all our scientific theories obsolete.
Of course, there may not be any alien visitors. Most of the reports of ET contact can be written off as delusion, hoax, disinformation or misinformation. Photographs can be cleverly altered so that even experts can be fooled. Teams of well-trained humans working in the dead of night under the direction of inspired mathematical artists may have made some of the thousands of extraordinary crop circles that remain enigmas to most people. Some alien abduction stories may be hallucinations or sleep disorders. Others may be the products of the feverish minds of writers desperate for fame and fortune. People can blur the line between fantasy and fact in their own lives and their own minds so well that lie-detector tests cannot tell the difference. Psychoanalysis has convincingly explained how such delusions can easily be mistaken for reality. Of course, others have convincingly explained how psychoanalysis is itself a delusion.
But once one has allowed the evidence to open one’s mind to the possible existence of more highly advanced beings on or near the planet, we have entered a new reality. The game of life has by that very admission of possibility been changed. It is a relatively small step from there to making actual contact. Yet it is the equivalent of entering a parallel universe. Our own identity will become alien. The ego’s bubble will pop. We will have lost our once-comfortable illusion of dominance of the food chain forever. At this moment in the flux of time, nearly every element of reality we have taken for granted and built our lives on is melting away. And more surprises are showing up every day. Where will it stop? Where is the Rock of Ages that we could once depend on?
So the final game-changer is the fact that reality itself has become recognized as a fantasy. It is in fact a recently manufactured concept. The idea of an objective reality, existing separately from mind, is part of the discourse of modernity. The objective world, res extensa, is first conceived as the stage set for the Cartesian theater of the mind, res cogitans. But this idea two centuries later becomes inverted so that mind is seen as a random by-product of the chance interactions of matter. But in the ancient cultures, it was understood that the world is God’s creation, and the Creator still permeates the creation as well as transcending it. The panentheism of metaphysical thought was universal at the esoteric core of the world’s wisdom traditions, and that idea was the basis of the maintenance of ethical, aesthetic, and psychological integrity. The loss of that mystical recognition has been a game-changer for human nature.
Of course, the science of Sat Yoga has for millennia counseled human beings that the world is only consciousness, that the universe has the structure of a dream. This is the meaning of the concept of Maya. Perhaps at long last, we are as a species becoming lucid dreamers. Then we can enter fully into the divine Lila; we can play the game at God’s level. All the game-changers that an infinite intelligence could throw at us cannot prevent us from realizing that our essence is beyond the game. In fact, the radical changing of all our games that is now occurring may be the way the Cosmic Intelligence is provoking our awakening to the true nature of the Real. Our ultimate salvation through recognition of, and union with, the Cosmic Mind, is now our only hope of retaining our sanity. Our choice is between mysticism and psychosis. The muddled middle ground of secular sensate capitalist couch-potato narcissistic uncreative unloving and meaningless existence is dropping into the abyss.
The Rock of Ages is still here, still functioning as the Ground of our Being. But we cannot reach that safe ground merely through opening our hymnbooks and chanting. To reach the security of the yonder shore of the noumenal Real requires the game-changer of humility, of willingness to drop the pretensions and demands of the ego. There is a portal to the highest dimension, to the throne of God, to the Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Light, and to the security of the Absolute’s eternal presence and love. That portal becomes visible once the ego has dissolved. The last game-changer is located in your own heart. When you have dismantled the wall between your heart and the heart of God, then the game is won forever. You have the power to change the whole game, from one of vexation, horror, perverse lust and demonic hatred to one of blessings, grace, and infinite divine beauty. May your victory through surrender to the Supreme One be celebrated soon.
Namaste,
Shunyamurti