Life Is an Illusion - So Why Not Play With It?
- Jul 17
- 6 min read
Trapped in the Illusion
Most people are cut off from their very being, their very source. They exist, yet deny the whole purpose of their existence, trapped in an illusion of linearity and materiality and other ‘realities’ which, in truth, are simply experiences, expressions of a deeper and more loving consciousness.
And once you know that, it’s much easier, in a way. At first it’s hard because you don’t know what to do with the information. Like, so this is all an illusion - so what? I’ve still got to put bread in my mouth and a roof over my head. The information, the apparent ‘enlightenment’, feels meaningless when you’re faced with the problems of the day, the drudgery of wrangling with the illusion itself.
So What Do You Do With an Illusion?
But let’s say you know the illusion, and you know it is an illusion: so what do you do with it? Seeing the illusion is one part; understanding your role, and meaning, and direction is another. Then your process is to make it a game, a fun game, to play with what you’ve got. The ease comes because you play with whatever you have, whether what you have is money or no money, home or no home, friends or no friends. You wonder, and experiment, and play - simply because it’s only by messing around that you’re going to find anything out.
Discovering the Meaning of Your Life
In the midst of playing you discover something that no-one else can solve for you, or tell you about, or predict in any way: you discover why you are here, why you as you are, are here on the planet. You discover the meaning not of life, but of your life.
Oh and when you have that! Then it gets easier still, because you stop playing with just whatever you’ve got and you start playing that one game, the one game that is uniquely yours to play. You enjoy it and you enrich yourself with it and you become an expert, a guru, a master of your game - of being yourself, being you, here on earth. Everything you do, think, say, everything you are becomes an expression of this game, this unique and delicious game that only you play. Not alone but - solo, let’s say, interdependently, some sort of individuated mission that requires others to make the game the best it can be. Not you doing it for them or they for you, no helping of any kind between you, but reciprocity; a process of mutually assured enjoyment.
‘Hey, you’re playing that game! That’s cool! I think it might overlap with my game - whaddaya think?’ ‘Oh yes, I see it now, how we meet and cross and blend together in our play, at least for a little while! Let’s go!’
Holding Illusion and Truth at the Same Time
After your experimentation, and realising your one unique game that you are here to play, then the illusion is quite fun really. You hold at the same time the unreality and transience of the illusion and the deep, resonant, extraordinary truth of your life. You see how everything is conspiring to play with you, to play your game, just as it is conspiring with every entity that lives and breathes and experiences to play their game. The Universe is one big playground, and it’s much better when we learn to let go and play rather than sit in the corner facing the wall.
What the Playground Studies Reveal About Being Alive
There have been many studies where researchers attached location monitors and accelerometers to kids when they were in a playground, and tracked their movements to see how they interacted with each other. When there were no objects in the playground - no branches, boxes, soft play things, stuff you could build with and chuck around - the kids moved in distinct clumps. They got into a little clump early on and then stayed in their clump, plodding about, swerving to avoid the other kids in their clumps.
But when there was stuff to play with, stuff to build with and chuck around and experiment with - how it changed! Then the kids move around more, intertwine their groups, rush about, team up, catapult off in this and that direction. They create and pretend and imagine more when the playground is full of ‘loose parts’. They are more alive when there is stuff to play with.
Life Is Full of Loose Parts
And that’s what our life is like. Our reality, this physical manifestation, the illusion, is stuff to play with in the playground for the sole purpose of getting us to be more alive, more experiencing, to rush about and team up and catapult ourselves around and have so much fun while we do it.
Without the illusion - or rather, without the awareness that it is all an illusion - we are like kids in a playground where everything is fixed to the floor. We see life as unchanging, unchangeable; the status quo is immovable, permanent; and we get into our clumps and plod about and swerve to avoid anybody we aren’t clumped up with.
But when we recognise that everything around us is an illusion, is make believe, is pretend and yet it feels so real - just like when we were small and played at being on a pirate ship, and you could feel the salt water on your face and hear the gulls screaming overhead - we are suddenly presented with the option to change things. To move objects about, to play with all the things in front of us, to team up and throw things around and see what we can build and deconstruct and rebuild and dance around. The point isn’t to collect as many of these ‘loose parts’ as you can and hoard it, or to stop other people from playing with it; that’s what happens when all the equipment appears fixed, when there appears to only be one swing and one climbing frame and therefore you can’t go on it because I was already here. The point is only to play, because it feels good to play. It feels good to create. It feels good to imagine anything is possible - and then make it so.
Your Game Is Yours Alone to Solve
The unique game that you are here to play is not oppositional to anyone else’s. It does not need to clash or be painful in any way. But it is only yours, and therefore it must be figured out by you and you alone through the process of experimental play with the game of life itself. But before you get to that solution - before you even start solving it - that is where my work comes in.
You are trying to work out that painful question of direction and meaning and purpose by sitting, alone, facing a damp corner where two red-brick walls meet and staring blankly into their crevices as if they could help you fathom out the solution, while behind you stretches out an infinite playground filled with light and joy and blocks and parts and all the pieces of all the puzzles you could ever hope to play with - so many you could never get bored, even if you played with all of them ten times over.
My work as an inspirational speaker is to tap you on the shoulder, so you curve your face toward the light. What I offer is a hand to help you up, an arm around your shoulders, gently turning you to see what you’ve been missing.
But This Is What I Solve For You
And what I solve is that you thought you had to figure it out all by yourself, serious and shuttered away, staring at the wall. I solve the disappointment, the frustration, the exasperation. I solve the problem that emerges at 4am, when you lie awake staring at the light sliding over your windowpanes, and you murmur to yourself: “What am I going to do with my life?”.
As we look out over the infinite playground, I smile and say “You’re going to play!”
The only question worth asking is - what will you play first?
Knowing it's all an illusion is one thing. Knowing your game - the one that is uniquely yours to play - is another thing entirely. And you don't have to work it out alone, staring at the wall!
If you're ready to turn toward the light and reconnect with the part of you that is absolutely bursting at the seams to get into the playground, start with Pocket Guru, my free 10-day reset. Ten days at no cost, simply daily reminders to remember who you are and how to keep hold of that.
If you're ready to build a daily practice that keeps you in the game rather than facing the corner, then Everyday Faith is my 4-week course that helps you weave spiritual practise and light-hearted presence into everyday life.
And if you're ready to discover the one unique game that's yours to play, then Wild Success is my signature, two day, in-person event designed to help you find your purpose and build a real plan to play it out.
Remember, the playground is infinite, but life is not! It's time for you to get out of the corner and start having some fun.
Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash
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