The Heart of the Lotus is a solo game in which the Lotus symbolizes an awakened life. It represents a life rooted in truth, energized by love, experiencing spiritual, as well as material, fulfillment. This is a game of self-discovery aimed at revealing the core reality of such a life. It offers a way to answer the question, “Who are you, really?” 

Sufis point to self-knowledge as both the means and ends of mystic realization. This knowledge, however, is of a different order than the library of facts and formulations collected by the intellect. It is knowledge arising from “being”, from an openness to the deeper resonnances of direct experience. Moreover, this knowledge does not insist on conclusions; it is a knowing which, although clear and reliable, does not assert its own finality. Murshid Fazal Inayat-Khan, the late founder of the Sufi Way, urged us to base our experiential reality on an emergent “working hypothesis”; and to prove (or disprove) that reality through action. 

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This game offers a way to develop that fluid self-awareness through action research. It aims to reveal the self at the heart of the many selves we are called upon to be in our lives through activities called “life probes”.  The “who” revealed through these active inquiries is not an easily definable entity, so the Heart of the Lotus does not offer conclusions. Rather it helps illuminate the center of our perceptions, thoughts, feelings and actions by exploring five primary directions in which an awakened life grows (just as each petal of a lotus flower grows in a different direction) 

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1. Health, Wellbeing — “The Apple” 

2. Relationships, Intimacy — “The Rose” 

3. Occupation, Life Purpose —”The Glove”

4. Spirituality, Magic — “The Flame”

5. Personomics, Service — “The Tree” 

 

Each of these lines of development is represented by a glyph, symbolic of that particular focus. Click on the cards at right for more details.