Best experienced on a computer screen rather than a mobile device.
BEFORE WE BEGIN: We’ve called this experiential activity a game rather than a thought experiment to emphasize its playful and imaginative aspects. Experiments tend to focus on serious, verifiable outcomes whereas a game harkens back to the innocence of childhood. In those glory days we were not overly concerned with the distinction between real and imagined. Divinity, however we might think of it, is surely imagined, not a tangible thing. But, as in our childhood, “imagined” doesn't mean unreal. So, in this game, the reality of the god we imagine is found in a dimension beyond time and space.
INTRODUCTION
The premise of this game is that most of us are naturally “religious”, if by that we mean sincerely trying to live in accord with certain values that we believe to be sacrosanct, if not sacred. You know that you’re religious, in this sense, if you experience that universal hallmark of religiosity—guilt. It’s probably safe to say that very few people are perfect practitioners of their religion, whatever it may be. So even an avowed atheist may feel ashamed when she fails to live up to her most revered standards.
The God Game—with all due respect for the importance of the word, God, for many— is an imaginative process through which we may see, and presumably therefore practice, our personal religion more fully and faithfully. It takes as its starting point the idea that the central purpose of any religion is “deliverance”. Let’s define this as being freed from boredom, fear, depression, meaningless suffering, etc. through a living relationship with something greater than the small ego-restricted self. Whether we think of ourselves as religious or not, we are probably on this quest for liberation. Becoming more aware of, and aligned with, the road we are traveling in that pursuit—our personal “religion”—will likely enhance that journey.
There are a few prerequisites for playing this game effectively. As you will see, the game presupposes a level of self awareness which allows us to accurately identify the core values and motivations that drive our behaviors. And it requires sufficient ongoing attentiveness to observe these drivers as they manifest in the things we do and the results we get.
Most of all, to play this game we must adopt a stance of moral neutrality (without violating our deepest principles). This means that WHILE IN THE GAME we regard all human behaviors as neither intrinsically good or inherently bad. Our culture casts the shadow of shame on such things as greed, selfishness, hedonism, licentiousness, etc. But in the God Game we suspend those judgments for the moment so that we can see that, in and of themselves, these are simply drives through which a variety of things can be accomplished. And that each of us tends to favor some motivational sources over others.
Abandoning cultural notions of virtue and vice while in the game can allow us to connect more fully with what it is we actually “worship” in our lives, as seen in the choices we make and the things we do. This “moral neutrality” is not necessarily a preferable way of life. (Although one might consider…?) It is simply an aspect of this game.
THE GAME
YOUR IDEALS
We begin by identifying our “deity”. If we accept the premise that we are naturally religious—in the sense that we strive to live in accord with certain values—then we could ask about the source of those values. What is the basis of their authority in our lives? What is it that evokes our commitment to THESE values rather than others?
This inquiry may lead us to the heart of what drives each of us, personally. It may illuminate that which gives a particular life meaning and purpose. This inquiry can reveal the “god” we implicitly worship every day through our deeds if not through our words. We begin to see that DEUS by defining the ideals of our personal religion—the principles to which we are evidently dedicated.
In the busy, distracted lives many of us lead it may be difficult to say we are dedicated to anything. We may feel that our energy gets distributed—and diluted—across a range of responsibilities, activities and concerns. But, given how tiring many days can be, we seem to be dedicated to SOMETHING. Perhaps it’s just to this busy distracted, sometimes mindless, existence. Whether we acknowledge it or not and whether we are proud of it or not, there is something essential winding us up and getting us going. This honest self-appraisal is the first challenge we meet in the God Game. Think of this as your first “move” on a game board.
Move 1 — See the ideals that ACTUALLY motivate you every day.
Ideals are different from standards, codes of behavior, or commandments. They are the ultimate values from which these rules are derived. An ideal is the constant polestar by which we navigate our lives regardless of the situation. But an ideal is not just “up there in the heavens”, it is the basis—the ground zero—of our choices and decision making.
Below are some examples of ideals in the context of The God Game. It must be noted that in this game none of these ideals is higher or better or more “spiritual” than any other. How we value them is ENTIRELY A PERSONAL MATTER. For this reason they are presented below as a word cloud rather than as a list.
Here are some ways to see these ideals in terms of how they often show up in our lives. The descriptions include both positive and negative traits, But as suggested above try to stay neutral especially when you feel a twinge of recognition.
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Security—vigilance/paranoia, financial security, personal safety, …
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Adventure—travel, quest for knowledge, boredom avoidance, curiosity…
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Health—physical, mental and emotional wellbeing, hypochondria…
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Pleasure—the “good life”, escapism, enjoyment, comfort...
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Inner Life—spiritual awareness, insight & wisdom, fantasizing…
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Humaneness—kindness, sensitivity to criticism, helpfulness, compassion…
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Status—leadership, influence, power grabbing, leaving a legacy…
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Connectedness—intimate relations, family, friendships, gossiping…
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Accomplishment—achieving goals, workaholism, worldly success, personal fulfillment…
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Creativity—exaggeration, dramatization, drawn to working in arts or crafts…
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Aliveness—feeling inspired and energized, extremism, chasing the next “high”...
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Esoterica—magical thinking, plumbing the depths of reality, seeing behind the veil…
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Expertise—honing skills, showing off, meeting benchmarks, sharing knowledge…
Please don’t feel limited to this list of ideals and these descriptions. You may prefer to add others or redefine these in your own words.
Chances are that you can immediately relate to some of these but not to others. So select the five or six that resonate the most for you and write them down. Now study these by listing, under each of the ideals you’ve chosen, a few recent events or things you’ve done that demonstrate how your behavior is motivated by that ideal. List at least three instances for each ideal, but the more you can list the better.
Move 2 — Develop your understanding of your ideals.
Again, IT’S VITAL, IN THIS PROCESS, TO REMAIN NEUTRAL. In this game space, no event or behavior is inherently better or more spiritual than any other. This is not moral relativism but a heightened objectivity, acknowledging that we only ever see a small portion of the picture. Inayat Khan offers this understanding of ideals in The Sufi Message. In Vol 11, Mysticism, chapter 8 he tells the story of an honorable thief who, although making his living as a robber, was true to his principles. He writes, “In the end this very man became a great murshid, and those around him became his mureeds.” [https://wahiduddin.net/mv2/XI/XI_III_8.htm]
Take your time writing this list then set it aside for a few days. During that time observe your behavior and note when these ideals are in play and how they shape or even determine what you do. Then you might come back and add these new entries to your list.
HINT: The main challenges in this “move” will likely be remembering to observe your impulses, motivations and actions dispassionately. It may help to use a “talisman”, a small special object which you carry in your pocket or keep on your desk as a reminder. To imbue this object with that energy it would be good to select it beforehand, and have it at hand while you develop your understanding of the ideals you chose.
YOUR TRINITY
After a few days, come back to your list to prepare for your next “move”. Pick a time and place in which you can enter a contemplative space. Bring your talisman, your list of ideals and the notes you’ve made with you. The next “move” involves carefully reviewing your list and then selecting THREE of the five or six ideals you’ve been tracking. This is the forming of the trinity of your religion.
Move 3 — Define your Trinity.
Take your time to be sure you're selecting the three that actually govern your life, not those you feel you should govern your behaviors or those you wish would. If you manage to stay in a contemplative mood you may find that these three select themselves. As you review your notes you may find that a few of these sort of pop off the page at you.
Your selection doesn’t negate the importance of the other ideals. It simply prioritizes the ideals in terms of those which you have found to recur the most or have the strongest influence on your behavior. Again, stay relaxed, take your time, be completely honest. Place these three on the triangle (like the one below). You may experience a flash of recognition when you look at your trinity. If this “move” has been successful you may feel something akin to looking in the mirror.
As before, let this “sink in” for a few days. A good way to do this is to establish a mini practice of daily reviewing your trinity in a creative way. You can do this by actually redrawing your triangle—using colors, differnt words, quotations, images, icons and so on. Some examples of this are provided below.
HINT. Keep your talisman “charged”, now seeing it as a physical emblem of your trinity. Each time you touch it you may remember one or another of the creative renderings you’ve made of your trinity.
YOUR GOD
However you depict your trinity, the center of the triangle will always be empty. But in the God Game this space is seen as unfilled rather than vacant—a subtle but vital distinction. This is the metaphysical center of your trinity, the place where your three ideals meet and overlap. It remains unfilled because this nexus cannot be defined by ideas or words. This is the indescribable “heart” of your personal religion. We could even call it the central unifying principle of your life. In other words, it’s the deity of your religion.
While this emptiness is to be left unfilled, it would prove difficult to follow a religion without some formulation of its divinity. As Pir Elias is fond of reminding us… “The heart needs a Thou” —a way to address the source of everything. Only emptiness is big enough to accommodate everything that was, is or shall be, but without a name through which to invoke it, it would be all but impossible to cultivate our ongoing relationship with that divinity. So this is the next “move”: Finding a name that is meaningful enough to focus our devotion, yet open enough to accommodate our ever-emergent realization.
Move 4 — Name your divinity.
Naming the indescribable heart of your religion—your god—is a delicate process. Ideally, you’re looking for a word (or perhaps even just a sound) that feels good on the tongue, evokes a meaningful yet ever-fluid understanding and opens a resonance in the heart. So this may be a trial and error process.
It bears repeating that although we need a name, this name only serves as an indicator, a fluid descriptor not a definer. In his Notes from the Open Path (May, 2024) Pir Elias offers a fresh, heartfelt way to approach this problem. That story is included below but it might be better not to read it until after you’ve gone through this process.
This “move” is, admittedly, not easy, not something most of us have ever done before. Where to begin? As an aid in this process, the word cloud below suggests a number of entry points. They are not necessarily “god names”, rather they’re themes for contemplation derived from classical Sufi teachings. But please see these simply as first steps. For this “move” to be successful the name you settle on must feel RIGHT TO YOU.
You may decide on an existing theological name, or a common name (Jane, Harry?) or make up your own. After all, Allah, Bramah, Ahura Mazda, Yahweh, etc. are made up names. Or as in Pir Elias’ story you may use a word in which you have discovered a deeper personal meaning. You might be tempted to write the name you settle on in the center of the trinity. But leaving the center unfilled can remind us that this name is not really a word or idea.
NEXT MOVE
The naming of our deity concludes (and is the prize of) this game. But there are a number of ways to invite what has been learned through this process to continue to flow into and enhance our lives. We can simply continue to be aware of our motivational cores, how they shape our experience and determine our outcomes. Seeing these more clearly offers the possibility of “course correction”; adjusting our approach in certain situations so that we might better achieve the deliverance mentioned at the beginning of the game. This may entail rethinking the ideals which form our trinity.
We might also continue to play with the idea of a personal religion. For example, we might imagine how the personal deity we discovered might state its “commandments”. And explore what happens when we attempt to live by those rather than by the “Thou shalt not’s” we are all familiar with. What if our deity’s commandments were encouragements rather than prohibitions? And again, will these lead us to deliverance or to continued ensnarement?
Finally, pulling the veil of the game aside, the central purpose of this thought experiment is awareness within the embrace of complete self-acceptance. If there is truly a divinity within us, it is likely that our notion of “god” will be as unique as each of us is. And so its revelation (“activation” might be a better term here) awaits our fully stepping into who we are right now; who we are aside from the “shoulds” our culture imposes. By engaging this as a game we give ourselves permission to discover, reevaluate, and adjust our “moves” accordingly. Then we may find the deliverance we seek in the vast fields of untapped possibilities each of us embodies.
Notes from the Open Path - May 2024
Pir Elias Amidon
Is God Dead?
“God is dead,” the headline read. I was shocked. I decided I must go to His funeral. But the cemetery was difficult to find; when I finally got there the service was already over and everyone had left. I found the grave — it was marked with a simple stone that said: “God” and underneath were the words, “May He rest in peace.”
I stood there feeling a bit confused. I didn’t know what to feel. I closed my eyes. After a while I felt someone next to me. I opened my eyes and there was a little girl standing next to me, staring at the gravestone.
She looked up at me and asked, “Family, or friend?”
I said, “Both.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” she said kindly.
We were both silent for a while, and then I asked, “Do you know what He died of?”
“His name,” she answered, “and His pronoun.”
“Oh,” I said, “that’s a shame.”
“It’s all right,” she said, “it was bound to happen.” She giggled and then scampered off through the cemetery and was gone.
I felt more bewildered than ever. Could it really be true? No God anymore? My mind reeled with visions of all the people everywhere who would be so lonely without having God to comfort them, who would be deprived of His presence when things got rough. No more “Praise the Lord!” No more “Thank God!” No more “If God wills.”
Distraught, I sat on the grass behind the grave and cried — not just for God having died but for all the people who would feel bereft now without Him. The sadness felt so enormous.
I heard something and looked up. The little girl had come back and was standing in front of me.
“Why are you crying?” she asked. I told her.
I couldn’t believe it — she giggled! And then she twirled around in a perfect pirouette, and when she came to a stop, she looked straight at me and said, “Silly man!”
She laughed again and then broke into the most amazing little dance, first hopping from one foot to another in a big circle like she was playing hop-scotch, then the hops turned into skips interspersed with cartwheels — she was good at it — sometimes stopping in the middle of her dance to look right at me… and all the while she talked — half singing — and this is what she said:
“God isn’t really dead, silly man! How could that be? He just doesn’t want, He really doesn’t want to be called names anymore – not “God,” not “Lord,” not “Allah” or “Yahweh” or “Brahma,” or any of those old, made-up God-names. They make Him sound so — so — so there, like he lives in a house or up in the air. And he really really doesn’t like the name “He.” How would you like it, to be called a “he” if you weren’t one? I know I just did it, I said He didn’t like it and called Him a “He!” Silly me!
“I’ve thought and I’ve thought,” she sang as she hopped, “and I’ve wondered all night and I’ve wondered all day, wondering and wondering what name I could say. I know it’s not “He,” and I know it’s not “She,” and it’s definitely, certainly not “It.” Any name at all doesn’t fit!”
She plunked herself down on the grass beside me to catch her breath. We were both quiet for a while.
“There is a name I really like,” she said at last. “But it’s not really a name, not the kind of name people use for names, but I even like it because of that.”
“What is it?” I asked her.
She looked at me, and then at her little hands, and then out across the pleasant cemetery. It was springtime, the air was light, early green leaves were waving in the trees, a few people were walking along paths or standing by graves, some of them crying softly, some placing bright yellow flowers against the headstones, a few birds were sailing by.
When she spoke, her voice was very quiet. “This,” she whispered. “This. That’s — God’s — real — name. This.” She said it so quietly it sounded like the biggest sound I ever heard.
Then she jumped up and looked at me. “This!” she sang happily. She whirled around with her hands in the air. “This!" She began to skip again in a circle, singing “I’m This, and you’re This, and he’s This, and she’s This, and we’re This, and they’re This, and It’s — All — This!" She giggled, happy with herself, and then skipped away singing her new tune.