There is a very old game that started almost immediately, along with life. This game is older than humanity. It is older than four legged life forms. It is older, than when life first learned, how to breathe air. It is older than vertebras, bones, and even the formation of the spinal cord. This is a very old game.
And because this game is so old, its influence on evolution is very profound. This game is encoded right inside the biological sub-structure of life. Just like, how “the moon” affects all life forms, because it was always there right next to it, as life took its first fumbling steps, this game, the great game, shaped life far more profoundly than the stars. For countless millenia it walked right next to life, choosing who lived and who died.
This game has nothing to do with society, culture or civilization Because this game is older than self aware thought. It is as old as the gods, and older than the first conception of the gods by lower beings. This game is older than the Argonauts, Odysseus and even the founding of Troy. When the first chimp decided to get down from the trees and start walking on two legs, it had already played this game for a lifetime.
All animals, fishes and insects play this game. Even though it is only a game, it is a very deadly one. Because, it is often played while keeping life itself, as wager. Hence you can be sure that all lifeforms, no matter how small or primitive, take this game, seriously.
This is the Great Game of “Suspicion and Deception”.
Let us look at our world, the world of human beings. Suddenly, we see that human beings take extra delight in playing this game at all levels, with or without bitterness, with or without violence.
However, one peculiar trait of humans is the delight we take in pretence, especially in the pretence, that this game does not exist. That this game is just an unfortunate little happenstance.
Maybe, not-acknowledging the existnce of this game, is part of the-game-of-deception itself.
Human relationships, business, negotiation, war, civilizations play this game on all levels. Between groups, within groups, between families, within families.
In fact, this game is so internalized, that people often play it with themselves, between the different parts of themselves, without even realizing.
As long as competition, life and suffering exist, there is no relief from this game. The only shield is acknowledgement of the existence of this game and “seeing it for what it is”.
And that is my wish, for you. To see, that there is a great game playing all around you, so that you do not fall easy prey, to its deception.
Acknowledge the existence of the great game and you would have peeled away most of its power, of deception. That, is all that is required, for now. That is all, that you can do, for now. And that is enough.