📍 Coordinates: The Nest 🪺, Argentina.
📖 Reading Time: ~4 minutes.
🍵 Vibecheck: You’re receiving this because you have been previously subscribed to The Edge of Being newsletter. This is still that publication, just with an update. Enjoy! I’m excited. ⚡️
My friends, a new chapter is upon us:
Welcome to Serious Play.
This is the next chapter of my work. The refinement of my teaching. The essence of my attitude. The evolution of my intention.
This space will continue to have the content and pieces you’ve come to know and love, but under a new identity. A new, more refined ethos.
The Edge of Being was fun, and an important starting point.
But it misses the mark in many ways. Too much ego in it as some ‘far-off explorer of consciousness’. To be clear, consciousness study will continue to be a significant theme, but the Edge of Being didn’t capture the essence of my message well enough.
Serious Play moves considerably closer.
If you want to hear me riff on this, check out this clip I did with Carlos of The Truth podcast a few months ago.
The prompt was:
“Do you have an idea for a new grand narrative that could possibly bring us together?”
It’s about 6 minutes, from 1:36:00–1:42:00. The link should start at that time.
Serious Play is my answer—my living thesis—to nearly any and every major question in life.
What is reality? Serious Play.
How should I live? Serious Play.
What is culture? Serious Play.
What is civilization? Serious Play.
How do you heal trauma? Serious Play.
What is psychedelic therapy? Serious Play.
How should you engage with the Infinite Game? Serious Play.
What is religion? Serious Play.
Why do you need religion? Serious Play.
What is language? Serious Play.
How do I find and embody meaning? Serious Play.
What is the point of art? Serious Play.
How do I enter flow state? Serious Play.
When do I feel most alive? Serious Play.
What is the essence of Zen? Serious Play.
What attitude makes people most charismatic? Serious Play.
What are relationships? Sex? Serious Play.
What is evolution doing? Serious Play.
How can I be more creative? Serious Play.
How do you solve the mental health crisis? Serious Play.
What value should society orient around? Serious Play.
How do you transform your identity? Serious Play.
How do you embody your philosophy? Serious Play.
From the transformation of the individual, to the evolution of civilization, and beyond to the great metaphysical mythologies of Reality — the answer always comes back to Serious Play.
So many of our major obstacles and opportunities, individual and collective, are largely due to being imbalanced towards too serious or too playful. It is finding the middle way that is the challenge and the solution.
Future pieces will explore what I mean by seriousness, playfulness, and the combination thereof.
“There is only one Infinite Game.” — James Carse, ending line of Finite & Infinite Games.
Life is the Infinite Game.
It is a game. But it is not trivial.
Games are a vehicle for Mastery. They are unique in that they are played for their own sake. Not for an outcome, but for the act of play itself.
Life is the archetypal Infinite Game. It is an activity done for no purpose other than itself.
Playful in its essence. Enthralling in its existence. It is an act so complete it is done for its own sake.
The act of playing is the reward. The game is the desired outcome. To win, to succeed, is to play the game.
You are a Player within the Ultimate Arena. You are the Performer on the Ultimate Stage.
Your life is your masterpiece.
The artistic expression of your Being. Just like there is an artistry to mastery, there is a mastery of artistry.
Like the ballerina about to go on stage for the final performance, like the painter preparing their magnum opus, like the athlete walking on for the gold medal match — the performance here is not trivial.
But unlike most modern sports, nothing is at stake here. There is no medal to win because the game never ends. It is an Infinite Game.
What is the ideal Way of Being, the most appropriate existential orientation given this? Serious Play.
Serious Play is how you dance with the One Infinite Game.
Life is inherently playful. But you must not forget that it is beautiful to take games seriously. To invest in them, to suspend your disbelief, to challenge and push your limits, to see just exactly how good you are, and to cultivate yourself.
Most individuals fall onto one side of the spectrum, I’ve fallen on both. Some people focus on play, and never end up pushing themselves to the edges of their capabilities. They go their entire lives without composing their masterpiece.
Others get lost in the seriousness. They forget that they are voluntarily playing the most beautiful game in existence. It’s a weird experience when someone is far too serious in Monopoly, as if they’ve forgotten it’s just a game.
We must find the balance.
Master the art of being seriously playful.
I’m excited to dig in. Expect more essays, videos, maybe a few podcasts(!), and a lot more coming through under this vision.
For now, thank you so much for being with me on this weird, wild, and wonderful ride together. Let’s continue onward now, in the spirit of Serious Play.
💛🦁 EB.
Love this new direction Eric!