Cosmologia Ludica

At first it may seem unclear how Vipassana meditation is connected to divine play. However, upon arriving at the conclusion of this story its connection becomes quite clear. This manuscript represents the struggle to find play on unfertile grounds – one of rigid, disciplined orthodoxy, and another of inner torment and challenge.

James Carse wrote a definitive book on play called, “Finite and Infinite Games.” The book explains how life is composed of two differ- ent kinds of games – finite and infinite. The basic difference between the two is that finite games are played to win, and infinite games are played merely to continue the process of play. Carse’s book provides a brilliant expansion upon these definitions, showing...

The following is an extract taken from a meditative play manual. In the complete manuscript, this manual describes meditations for various forms of play: musical, imagistic, felt, embodied. This particular meditation is devised for the play of thought with a group, perhaps with about 3-10 people. It seems as though the meditation could be performed in as little as 30 minutes, or in as much as 1-2...

The Amidah (Hebrew: העמידה) is one of the most important prayers in Jewish liturgy. It is sometimes simply called hatefila (התפילה) or the prayer. This text represents a highly revised version of the Amidah, where the prayer is not made directly to the Judaic God – Yaweh, or Elohim – but to divine play. Whether or not divine play is one cosmological force amongst many within the Judaic God’s power...

Inside of you lies your darkest darkness – a darkness even greater than fear. Fear is typically some sort of external threat, some- thing that may end your life, or a thing that brings about great tor- ture or pain. The darkest darkness, the most shadowy shadow, the most bilious evil, is something inside of you. It could be horrific thoughts or actions that you could commit to others – grave viole...

Darkness is upon me. It is here, in the room. Everything is weighty and hard. So weighty, so hard, so challenging. Such weight and heaviness. Heavy heavy heavy. Oh God of Play, where are you? Where have you gone? Even the little bits of light that you exude are so hard to see. How is it possible to bring you here when in this condition? What would make you possible? Wouldn’t the only thing that co...

Say I enter into play with a plan – to win, to prove that capitalism is evil, to play in A minor, to eliminate a disease, to cut down a tree. In each of these, divine play is cut off, negated, and not allowed to flourish. But for you, oh God of Play, all conversation, all thinking, all feel- ing, all making of music, all dance, all drawing, has one simple di- vine goal – to play. And yes, I don’t...

You are certain. You say something and what you say has a tone of absolute finality. “Oh actually this is the way things are.” How can one play with such certainty? Play is responsiveness. So then what is the responsiveness that I can give here? My options are limited. I can agree with you – “Oh yes, that is the way of things, and here is why.” I can build upon your words. We make an idea-house to...

In divine play everything bad or problematic is integrated into the play – every mistake, error, and mess up. But what happens when the mistake blurs one’s entire vision? What happens when we are living in a mistake? What happens when all is viewed as error and wrong?

How to play when there are thousand-fold worries? How to play when [fill in the blank]? When I might get stuck? When I am being graded and evaluated and judged? When my teacher doesn’t care about me? When my family is angry at me? When I’m sad and alone? When the play could make me more sad and alone? When the play could make me embarrassed and ignite childhood trauma? When I don’t have enough mon...

Oh God of Play, despite all the words of praise and dedication uttered to you, there are many instances where I cannot find you, where I cannot worship you, where you are lost to me. There are so very many moments where I do not play! I am unable to delight in movement, juxtaposition, or listening. I crave and avert. I am not open to the unknown.

Oh God of Experimentation, what are you really? Why do I desire you? What is your place in my heart? Why you? What are you doing? What is your purpose? What is your calling? Is it that you want me to endlessly make new forms? Is it that you want me to constantly seek newness? And why do you only exist for me in very specific kinds of play? Why are you hardly present when I am playing music? But wi...

Oh dearest God of Play, I must confess – there is another God in my heart. I am not a fully devoted play worshipper. Who and what is this God, you ask? Are we related? I’m not quite sure, for this God doesn’t yet have a name. This God has initially appeared in my heart as a voice that says, “Play, you are not enough for me.” In many moments of my life I feel as though play, in all its grandeur, is...

Oh divine Play, how much do I love your rules! How much do I love your structure – the boundary, the container, the holder, the vessel, the cup that holds the liquid! I love analyzing it, playing with it, sitting inside of it wondering, “Where are we?” resisting it, breaking it, re-shaping it, and playing in the new structure formed by the discarded bits of the prior one. The shape of the cup chan...

If play is a liquid, we have so far only examined the chemical com- position and molecular weight of the liquid itself – its touch, smell and color. But we have not yet begun to examine how this liquid behaves by looking at what is around it. Liquids change depending on their environment. Liquids are contained. And their containers change their behavior, their shape and their extension. We have no...

Oh God of Play, I have by now uttered so many words to describe you, to explain your boundaries and general guiding principles, to show why you are needed, to guide others into you and not the profane, and yet I have not truly evoked you. I have not yet fully dived into your actions and manner of being. I dip my head overzealously and dribble some spit onto your altar – my humble apologies oh play...

What is this profane play that I keep speaking of? You, dear reader, dearest play worshipper, must know of this most of all lest you get lost on your path towards divine worship. Most of the things we call “play” in our modern Western world can be considered blasphemous or profane. However, blasphemous play is not really “offensive” in the way that traditional blasphemy is offensive. The God of Pl...

And another question rises to your lips, dear reader, as you per- haps now consider more fully the possibility of divine play worship. This question is another of The God of Play’s essential questions: which game shall we play? But the word “game” has a more expansive meaning than the one we usually think of. All play involves playing games because all play involves rules. Even the most seemingly...

And so reader (potential play worshipper), you ask, why play? And I say back to you, why breath? Why circulate blood? Why perform any of our life functions? And you reply, but play is not a necessary part of life. We can live without play. What essential thing does play provide? What does play give us? Play doesn’t create a better world. It doesn’t help us get money or a good job. It doesn’t help...

And so, God of Play, let us now recount and respeak your teachings. You are grounded in listening and response. This is your communicative aspect – how you move and operate. Then there is an aspect of you that pertains to desire and pleasure. These are the affective requirements for play to grow – its fertile soil. Play does not crave or avert. But play is also not a negation of pleasure. There is...

Dearest God of Play, what are the other Gods in your pantheon? Listening is one. Listening is not you, but perhaps is your best friend. Or maybe it’s your cousin, or your sister, or your arm or leg. But it’s not your heart. Listening aids you. It builds upon that which you are. It assists in your primary function. But listening is not your essence. For what is listening? Listening is primal recept...

Oh God of Play!  Creator of worlds.  Heightener of depths.  Joy-bringer into the unknowns.  Dancer, smirker, smiler, scofferer, uplifter, buoyer, lightener. 

Welcome to my book. A book about play in its most serious form – play as devotional practice, as worship. I worship the God of Play, and this book is a guidebook for worshipping this de- ity. It explains the God, details its powers, its qualities, its manifold forms, and describes the weighty resistances we face which prevent us from manifesting divine play. This book is a prayer book. It con- tai...

We all spend our lives honoring the Gods in whose heavenly chorus we have danced, and we emulate those Gods in every way that we can. And as we live our lives in this emulation, so we choose a him, a her, a one to love and we fashion and treat our love like our very own god, building our love up and adorning our love as an image to honor and worship. (Phaedrus)