Life Is a Game

Life is a game in which the end goal is happiness. It’s unlike any other game. We start out with the winning formula, although we don’t yet understand it, then it’s slowly hidden from us, covered in layers of beliefs imposed upon us. It’s then our job to uncover the formula once again by shedding those unnecessary layers. But even if we uncover it, the game isn’t over. We have to continue playing and keep the formula exposed and free of the beliefs that smother it, and we have to nourish it with the beliefs that help it grow. When we nourish it with the right beliefs, the happiness we had as children pales in comparison to what we can achieve. It’s like comparing a solo instrumentalist to the Vienna Philharmonic. Although a soloist can create beautiful music, the creations of a symphony orchestra are deeper and more fulfilling.

The winning formula can’t be specifically defined, but it can be described in a number of ways. Basically, think of what it’s like to be a young child. He doesn’t focus on the past or the future, but only the present moment. He is fully himself, not caring even in the slightest what others think of him. He is honest as honest can be, crying when he’s sad, smiling when he’s happy, and laughing with abandon. He looks upon the world with wonder. Everything is new and amazing and beautiful. He does not worry about anything. He lives very simply and is elated just because he exists.

As we grow up, our natural-born happiness is diminished as we are taught how to be someone who fits into society and abides by the established rules and social customs, even (especially?) the arbitrary ones. If we are to fit in, it is advantageous not to be our natural selves because, odds are, we wouldn’t fit in. When we are true to our unique selves as we start growing up, the rest of the herd looks upon us with disdain. “Who does he think he is!?” In order to fit in we have to care what others think of us. We have to lie to avoid offending them and to avoid their knowing that we may have broken a rule. We get used to the world and take it for granted so it’s not the amazing place it once was. Life becomes more complex as our responsibilities grow and we struggle to meet what’s expected of us. Listening to what everyone tells us we should do is an easy way to forget we ever had the cheat codes for the game of life. And that’s fine, as long as it’s just a phase. It’s all part of the human experience. But eventually, we need to grow down, lest we lose the game.

And if we do grow down, our happiness can be a much deeper one because we understand it and appreciate it. We struggled, we worked through it, we’re now winning the game, and we know it. Although a child is happy, he doesn’t know what it’s like to be anything else. Since we do, we can appreciate it. Same goes for absolutely everything in life. The duality is necessary. Good/evil, hot/cold, happy/sad. If it weren’t for the bad stuff we wouldn’t think the good stuff were so good.

Let’s think of some of the things we do as normal human beings, but from a fresh perspective. When we do this it’s easier to see life as a big, hilarious game.

 

Sex

I’m a man so I will describe what it’s like as a man who seeks sex.

I go through puberty, my balls drop, my genitals (those funny-looking things that seem out of place on the human body) grow rapidly, I start growing pubes (and worrying about whether my friends have more pubes than I do – lol), and all of a sudden I have this almost uncontrollable urge to stick my penis into a vagina. All of a sudden talking to girls becomes more difficult because I’m thinking about them as vagina creatures instead of just people.

We tell our friends whom we like and they tell their friends the same, then all the friends talk and get back to us and if we both like each other then we’re a couple! We do fun things together and laugh but the whole purpose of it, at least evolutionarily speaking, is sex. Sticking that penis into that vagina repeatedly until semen shoots out and fertilizes the egg and we make another one of us, and so civilization goes on.

Once past the puberty phase it becomes even more complicated. We go on dates, do things together, but the stakes are higher. Society tells us we are supposed to get married and have kids and buy a house and cars and save up for our kids’ college educations and all the rest of it. So throughout our dates, consciously or subconsciously, the thought is there: is this the person I want to spend the rest of my life with? What will our kids be like? But in the end, it’s really all about sex. And at its core, sex is how we ensure that the game of life goes on with new players.

 

School

We go to a place with other people our age to have older people teach us what they’ve learned from people older than they are…and this process goes back forever. The knowledge we acquire now is the product of thousands of generations of players in this game. And we’re learning it so we can: 1. Make the game more pleasurable and easier for future players; 2. Teach the knowledge we acquire to newer players. We think school is intended to make it easier for us to win the game of life, but that’s not true. Most of what we learn is geared to the benefit of society and civilization. Realizing this is advantageous in our quest to win the game.

 

Jobs

Gross. Most of us go to a place we’d rather not be and do some stupid shit for someone else so we can have those pieces of paper (or numbers in a computer) which are worth nothing themselves, but only what is agreed upon by society, and these pieces of paper allow us to buy things. Then we give other people those pieces of paper or those numbers and they buy other things.

Is any of this starting to sound like a game?

 

Friends

We meet people and we like them and they like us so we keep them around and do fun stuff with them.

 

Days

We label each day of the week and depending on what day it is, we feel different. Mondays suck, Fridays are pretty good, Saturdays and Sundays are the best. But the days themselves are no different from each other. We just label them so the game can be a bit more organized.

 

Alcohol

We put poison into our bodies to numb our minds, lower our inhibitions, and enhance our emotions. This poison is universally accepted in society so we don’t even think of it as poison. Although it seems like it’s a cheat code for the game, that’s only true in the very short term. If consumed in excess, alcohol will poison our entire lives and make winning the game impossible.

(Note: I poison myself regularly.)

 

Pets

We buy animals to be our companions even though we can’t really communicate with them. We own them and if we don’t take care of them they will die, and they make us feel better than we would feel without them. They’re one of the simpler cheat codes to the game. Like a feather/cape in Super Mario Brothers.

 

Politics

What a joke! Politicians are all on the same side (which is not our side) and we think it matters for whom we vote. We hate other people for voting for the opposing side even though both sides have equally valid arguments, dependent upon personal values and life stories. You might even feel a certain level of hate for me if I tell you that I no longer vote.

 

Farts

If you’ve been reading here for a while and/or have read any of my toilet humor fiction, such as The Egg Tosser, you know I’m not shy in admitting that I think farts are hilarious. If you don’t agree then you’re lying or you’re not a human. I’ve said before aliens and zombies are not allowed here on dingtwist.com. Last warning.

The sound of a fart is not only innately hilarious, but it comes from our buttholes! They smell like actual shit! People’s faces look hilarious when they smell farts. Really, everything about farts is hilarious. If you have the balls or vaginal fortitude to rip loud farts in public, it’s a little known cheat code to the game of life. It will make everyone laugh.

 

The game of life is dynamic. We can go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows then back again and back again and back again through no fault of our own, but due to external circumstances. We can dominate many levels and just scrape by in others, or spend years losing the same level over and over and eventually die without even seeing the higher levels. No individual plays the same levels either, although they can be similar. Interesting also that no one else knows whether or not we’re winning. He can only guess.

Some may think a certain celebrity is winning the game of life because he has fame and fortune, but maybe he’s miserable inside and just puts on a front for the cameras and the people who know him. As he lies in bed at night, he’s sad. Only he knows if he’s winning. Some may think a homeless man who begs on the streets is losing, but maybe he has a deep inner happiness that the wealthy people who ignore him have never experienced. Only he knows if he’s winning.

And sometimes we don’t even know where we stand in the game, or even that it is a game. It’s complicated.

We are born happy because we are pure consciousness without layers of beliefs imposed upon us by others. Depending upon which beliefs we use to armor our consciousness, happiness may or may not be possible. If they are negative beliefs, it’s our job to rid ourselves of them. If they are positive beliefs, we need to nurture them and keep adding new ones to ensure that we continue to win the game. One of the easiest ways to win the game is to assault your mind with positivity.

Some beliefs are trivial and some are of vital importance. Some are so powerful that they can make happiness possible or impossible regardless of the rest of them.

For example, if we believe, as I have said many times here, that we are eternal consciousnesses temporarily housed in our physical shells, and that this life is in many ways no more significant or real in the grand scheme of things than a dream is to our current lives, then it’s impossible to be overall unhappy as long as we nurture this belief and work to keep it in the forefront of our thoughts as we proceed through each day.

If we believe that we are unlovable and unworthy, and this belief pervades our daily thoughts, this single belief can outweigh all the rest and make happiness impossible.

Many players make the mistake of thinking our outward life situations give rise to happiness. If that were true, then the rich and famous would all be happy, and the poor and unknown would all be unhappy. Obviously, that’s not the case. It’s the stuff in our heads that determines whether or not we’re happy, regardless of the outward appearance of our lives. Fortunately, we can control what goes in there, what stays, and what gets evicted.

Imagine walking down the street and having all kinds of different beliefs flying at you from all directions. You see a negative one coming at you so you do a karate chop, it falls dead onto the pavement, and you forget about it. You see a wispy, beautiful belief floating in your direction so you take it in your hands, put it into your shirt pocket, and keep it close to your heart, constantly checking to make sure it hasn’t fallen out.

Sometimes a bad belief, like if only I had ____ then I could be happy, can be really sexy and we want to keep it and see how it feels to own it and hold it close even though it has the potential to rot us from the inside out. And sometimes a good one, like I should be grateful for everything in my life, looks weak and emaciated so we don’t really want anything to do with it even though it has the potential to blossom into something beautiful. It’s not an easy game. But then, no game worth playing is easy.

Is the world full of lack and suffering, or is it full of abundance and happiness? A solid argument could be made either way. We have the power to adopt one belief or another. To win the game of life, we must armor ourselves with positive beliefs and shun the negative ones. The same goes for people. A negative person has a constant outward flow of negativity. It’s exhausting to karate chop so continuously. We may become exhausted and allow some of those negative beliefs to stick to us like parasites, to conceal the winning formula and drain us of energy better spent on creative endeavors. It takes very little effort, on the other hand, to fill our pockets with the positivity flowing from positive people. We can do that all day long and late into the night, then wake up at the crack of dawn feeling completely refreshed and do it all over again. Let’s do that one.