June 7, 2025

Where are you going?

Are you going towards a better future? A future in which you have more?

Most of us spend our lives looking for something better, more, safer, sexier, richer.

It’s the game of the mind… The mind wants to survive, and for that, it will sacrifice your life. It will have you run from one task to the other, never being here, always wanting to be there, spending your life creating a bunch of stuff, but never enjoying it, but in order to get more stuff.

To survive, the mind runs on the idea that more stuff will be better, safer, more fulfilling.

So you spend your life accumulating (and when you are fortunate to get to the end of that game, you tend to see how empty it is) and striving for more.

You get a house, now you want a bigger house, so you work some more to get the bigger house, as the old one doesn’t satisfy your mind anymore.

You get a job, and now you see other people with a better job, so you work more to get a better job, one that pays you more.

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.” — Jim Carrey

You could say that the mind plays a constant game of not this.

What do you want? Not this, I want that!

And when you have that, the mind will say, no, not this—I want that!

And on and on it goes.

Here’s the story of the fisherman, which shows the flaws of the mind game:

The businessman and the fisherman

One day, a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach, with his fishing pole propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the sparkling blue surf. He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.

About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach, trying to relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family.

“You aren’t going to catch many fish that way,” said the businessman to the fisherman.

“You should be working rather than lying on the beach!”

The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled, and replied, “And what will my reward be?”

“Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!” was the businessman’s answer.

“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman, still smiling.

The businessman replied, “You will make money and you’ll be able to buy a boat, which will then result in larger catches of fish!”

“And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman again.

The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman’s questions. “You can buy a bigger boat, and hire some people to work for you!” he said.

“And then what will my reward be?” repeated the fisherman.

The businessman was getting angry. “Don’t you understand? You can build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all your employees catch fish for you!”

Once again, the fisherman asked, “And then what will my reward be?”

The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman, “Don’t you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting on this beach, looking at the sunset. You won’t have a care in the world!”

The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “And what do you think I’m doing right now?”

You get to the end of this game, and you will realize that what was driving the mind never, ever will be satisfied, and what is driving the mind is a game you can never win (in the end, we won’t survive).

So what’s the alternative?

One way people have tried is to simply give up playing altogether.

Away with stuff! They say, and renounce the world.

You are free to do so.

And for most people, this won’t work either.

But there is an alternative that can work—one that gives you a say over what your life will be used for.

A choice to have a say over your life. How? By being willing to take the stand that you have a say over your life.

To have that as a possibility, you will have to be willing to give up the game of your mind. You will have to give up being safe, and having certainty (looking for certainty is just more of the survival game of the mind and will always carry you out from where you are right now into the future, which, not here, which might be able to tell you certainty)

For most of us, as we are deeply identified with the game of more, this feels like death.

We build our character based on this game, we sacrificed love based on that game, health based on that game, relationships based on that game… and now you tell me to give that up?!?!

Yes.

And when you do, a new possibility arises:

The possibility of being satisfied with what is.

Of enjoying the playing of the game for the sake of playing the game, not for the sake of getting over there, as if over there is better, but for the pure love of playing, for the pure enjoyment of expressing yourself.

The playing of the game becomes the goal. So you are always already there, always already satisfied, and start to live your life from being satisfied, rather than demanding that life should satisfy you.

The game of the mind is doing things to.

The game of yourself is Self-Expression for no other reason than to express the Self.