Infinite Players are Fully Engaged in the World

Infinite players ‘play’ absent all fear, because they don't play to win. They simply do NOT value the world’s finite outcomes. This makes every interaction an opportunity to play with rules by revealing how rules can make ‘play’ impossible.

Finite players do NOT question the rules and, hence, often feel controlled by the rules. The infinite player understands the ego’s need for rules. Yet, because the infinite player does NOT deny his/her egocentricity, the rules are never hidden, but always revealed and fully known. It’s always the unknown rules that victimize.

Your ability to play WITH rules, as opposed to being defined BY rules, is always correlated with your ability to play WITH the ego, rather than play BY the ego. This takes vigilance, since essentially, to play WITH the ego means that it will rebel against any lack of serious intent.

Finite players are defined BY the ego’s rules. Infinite player’s play WITH the rules that the ego employs to define THEM. Essentially, to play with the rules of any game is to play WITH the ego.

Finite players take the games seriously and, therefore, fear playing in the belief that without serious intent, they may “lose.” This is why finite players are seriously enmeshed in the rules and identify with little else. This makes every interaction simply another ‘move’ in the game. Finite players fail to understand the ego’s need for rules as a way to limit play and so, often feel victimized by the games the ego requires to define who they ARE.

Are you defined by the objects you possess or by your awareness of the ego’s NEED to possess?


Infinite players are clearly cognizant of all the games available IN the world, because the world is defined exclusively by its games (to be IN the world is to always be IN a game). Yet, because they play only to engage more players, they have no fear that the rules will NOT be followed. From an absence of fear, Infinite players are able to engage deeply and are often surprised by what results, because they are NOT victimized by the ego’s demand for rules.

Does your life offer surprise or are you too prepared for that?

Finite players lack awareness of the very nature of play and, therefore, fail to experience ‘play.’ They seek only to engage those who will further their finite outcomes and thus, they remain restricted to the surface. Finite players don’t like surprises and this is why their lives are virtually scripted. They often become quite agitated by those who seem to lack the serious intent the rules demand. Finite players are always vigilant to remain close to the surface in every interaction in order to avoid the surprise that awaits in the depth. Depth is very frightening to the finite player because they cannot prepare for what the past cannot teach.

Finite players revere the past. But only because they do not trust themselves and believe that an unprepared ego (untrained) is a recipe for failure. They spend many years studying the moves of past winners in the hope of replicating “success” for their own future. To the finite player, NOW is nothing more than series of ‘wins’ that make life worthwhile until death. Finite players see little other reason for living. They live in a state of ‘suspended preparation’ and they pride themselves on their readiness to obstruct the moves of other players in order to further advance themselves. Finite players are sensitized to little else but winning and so, are desensitized to ALL else.

Infinite players are certainly aware of the past, but they see no desire to repeat it and thus, feel no compunction in breaking from convention by playing with the rules of the past. Yet, like the finite player, infinite players also do not trust themselves. However, unlike the finite player, who believes that the ego-self must be trained, the infinite player eschews training as nothing more than repeating the past in order to control the future.

Infinite players recognize that nothing IN the world can train them to become aware of what the world has NO knowledge of and, hence, can NEVER teach. Infinite players play infinitely, simply because they are open to LEARNING that which a finite world can NEVER teach and this is why they are NOT victims, nor do they have reason to victimize (what the world teaches).

Infinite players are acutely aware that all experience is simply the confluence of the relationship between the parts. It is NOT ‘individuals’ but the relationships between individuals that determines what is experienced IN the world. Infinite players do not fear even the most adverse relationships, because the experience of adversity is an invitation to fully engage the resolution that lies in the depth of understanding, which can only be accessed through relationship.

Infinite players are fully engaged in ALL relationships. This makes them fully engaged in the world, since it is through relationship that a 'world' is experienced as infinite.

Artwork by James Sebor - "I Am We"