Thursday August 31, 2017
Master Zuigan called to himself every day, “Master!” and answered, “Yes, sir!” Then he would say, “Be wide awake!” and answer, “Yes, sir!” “Henceforth, never be deceived by others!” “No, sir, I won’t!”
He was playing at being two people; but he knew it, and that made all the difference! When I play at being two people and I’m not conscious of it, then I really am divided in two, and I don’t know who’s asleep and who’s awake. Zuigan knew. With him it was conscious play, and therefore he could stop playing whenever he wished. The unconscious games are the ones that control me and that never end. There are games I have been playing all my life: “I’m an innocent victim”, or “I can trust no one”, or “Everyone ought to be helping me”, or “Nobody cares”, or “I’ll never have enough”, or “I’m not one of them, anyway!” or “The world is gone to hell,” or “Nobody understands me”, or “I should be in charge here”, or “What’s the use?”
These, and a thousand others, are ways of being asleep. All real religious teachers, whatever their differences, have one thing in common: they all say, “Wake up!” Sometimes a psychotherapist will try to help someone make these unconscious games conscious. The whole world, you might say, is trying to wake up. Perhaps it’s still early morning in human civilization!
When Zuigan said to himself, “Never be deceived by others,” I presume he didn’t mean only people. He also meant circumstances. Don’t be deceived by anything. But ultimately it’s not circumstances that deceive us; it’s only we who can deceive ourselves.
