Rules, Illusions, Frameworks, and GamePlay
By Kristen N. Fox
Becoming “dis-illusioned”, while it sounds undesirable, is actually one of the hallmark’s of the shift in consciousness. In other words, where we used to believe wholeheartedly that the props, scenes, and players were simply REAL or LIFE, we’re now opening our awareness to the very framework within which this play is taking place, and we’re the directors!
Within this ‘play’ of physical reality, one of the grandest illusions we have tended to believe is that, to put it bluntly, we are all playing by the same rules. But what happens when you are, for instance, patiently waiting in line at the bank, and someone cuts in at the front of the line, takes care of their business, and leaves, seemingly with no concern for “the rules”? Perhaps we judge them as wrong or at the very least, scowl at them and mutter about them with the person next to you. But here we have an example of a person who is NOT following the same rules as you, and ‘getting away’ with it.
What does this mean? In conscious creation terms, this person is sharing SOME of your beliefs in that apparently they also believe in banks, but this person has obviously different beliefs about how things are done. However, the most important aspect here isn’t that this other person has cut in line and broken major societal faux pas. The important part is that you have created a person who is NOT playing by the rules while you are, and you are experiencing, even if slight, feelings of anger about it.
Why be angry? In this case, anger can be telling you that if YOU have to follow the rules, EVERYONE should have to. But who made these rules to begin with? And why are they RULES at all? The only effective answer is that these rules are rules YOU have internalized as your own. To change your interaction, you must change your beliefs and expectations and release judgment about your choices.
“But the ‘rules’ are a part of society,” you might say. “Didn’t I agree to these rules when I decided to come here? Isn’t that why I chose the parents and birth situation that I did?” Well, yes, but as the famous saying goes, “That was then, this is now.” Whatever rules you agree to NOW are just that, those you agree to NOW. The past has no jurisdiction over you unless you allow it to.
“But,” you add with a question in your eyes, “wouldn’t that be like changing the game rules in the middle of play?” Yes, again. Kids do it all the time. In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin (a small boy) and his stuffed tiger Hobbes play their own version of baseball, and each of them is continually making up new rules to benefit their own play. The difference here is that we don’t have to end up scuffling with each other, fighting for rules or what beliefs are best. While Calvin and Hobbes compete to win OVER each other, changing our beliefs and working in harmony with our inner beings opens the door of opportunity for EVERYONE in your reality.
Here’s another analogy. You are playing checkers, deep in your game with your opponent, so deep that you are unaware of anything else going on in your reality. But little by little you start to hear shouts, or cheering, and you start to look up from your checkerboard between plays. Suddenly you realize that you’ve been playing checkers in the bleachers of a baseball game! You also realize that while you’ve gotten really good at checkers, the game play has become a bit predictable and boring for you. (Which is why your attention started to drift in the first place.)
Your checkers opponent, however, is still deeply immersed in the game and wants only to play a good game of checkers. You may feel a bit guilty to say that you feel like you’ve mastered checkers to the extent you wanted to and are ready to move on because you’ve come to like and respect your opponent. You barely have to THINK about what moves to make – this is no longer fun or a challenge for you. You may feel like you’re supposed to finish the game before you stop playing. This is all YOUR choice, of course, and you must do what you feel is best, but also remember, there is ALWAYS another game of checkers to play – completion in YOUR new sense of self doesn’t always conform to the game rules of the game you are leaving behind. And leaving that game of checkers actually opens up the board for someone else who really WANTS to play.
So, you step away from the game board. Your opponent may give you nasty looks, just as you may have given that person who cut in line at the bank. What is being illustrated here though, is not simply a breach of rules or etiquette, but a NEW WAY of doing or approaching or believing in something.
Now back to our line breaker at the bank. While you were perceiving them as cutting in line, THEY may have created a situation where the person at the front of the line, for whatever reason, told THEM to go first. That line breaker’s beliefs may simply be those that support their FLOW in the moment. Since they found no fulfillment in waiting in line, they created an alternate situation where they could do exactly what they wanted to do, without having to do everything that you believed people were “supposed” to do.
Is this “cheating”? If you believe in rules for the sake of rules, then any breaking would be considered cheating. But, if you believe that rules, or beliefs, or even frameworks of interaction exist because we choose them to achieve certain experiences, then “cheating” suddenly becomes a flexibility in focus. You aren’t cheating as much as you are simply stepping away from the checkerboard and onto a baseball diamond.
And of course, you are the one who created the rules for checkers AND for baseball in the first place, even if it seems like they just ARE, and despite the illusions, we each play our own game. Why not choose the game that brings you the most joy?
[Originally published in The Edge, December 1999.]