Link: https://beiner.substack.com/p/life-is-a-game-and-the-bad-guys-are?publication_id=559390&post_id=172399953

Have you ever met someone who seems like they’re playing a version of themselves? Behind their smiles or tears is another person, but try as you might you can’t reach them. Maybe you’ve played that game yourself. Maybe we all have.

We’ve built society around this game, and points are won by knowing the right rules and roles. It’s a game in which growth and consumption are worth more than truth and authenticity. Even so, if you ask people if human life is worth more than corporate profits, most will choose life.

So why would we play a game if we know in our hearts it doesn’t really matter?

The answer may lie in a myth you know, but have never heard. Its threads can be found in Vedanta, Sufism and Zen. It has been told by Meister Eckhart, Carl Jung, and The Matrix.

The myth emerges again and again to remind us how agonising and contradictory it is to be a human, and how to free ourselves from the games we get stuck in.

Once you hear it, it’s hard to forget.