THE GAME

Xeno sat opposite his best friend, his gaze fixed on Largon, though not really looking at his friend, for he was deep in thought. He was thinking about existence as he had known it for as long as he could remember and how everything had changed.
When he and Largon had first met. He remembered that moment well...
We were both positioned in front of an arched portal where I, Xeno had brought Largon to look at the inscription written above it.
I had visited there before on my own and was intrigued by the mystery. So much so, that I had spent many disturbed moments pondering it's meaning, even though it's meaning was quite clear.. Step through the arch!! But the question remained... What then?!
It all seemed very strange to me, so deciding that two heads were better than one, I had approached Largon, for Largon was renowned for his ability to "sort wheat from chaff" and get to the meat of a matter.
Largon read the text and I set it out for the reader as it is written, so that you also, may ponder it's message.

"THOU CAN NOT CONSIDER THYSELF
TRULY WORTHY OF BEING WHERE THOU ART
UNTIL YE HAVE PASSED THROUGH
THIS PORTAL AND THEN TO BE THERE ONCE AGAIN.
UNTIL YE HAVE DONE THUS, THE RIDDLE WILL REMAIN"

Up to that moment my existence had been idyllic, as it had been for all who I had ever known.
It was a state of existence I accepted or rather, never even questioned, for to accept something, one has to make a comparison with something else and there was nothing else! That is, until now.
I remembered also, as though it was only a moment ago, that the portal arch was supported by two pillars, which were also inscribed.
The inscriptions ran from top to bottom.

I was thinking about that day Largon and I had sat in the very same place sipping Orta, a golden colored nectar, under gently clouded azure skies, when I was snapped out of my reverie. Largon was speaking in a soft yet vibrant voice. I caught the last few words.... Something about selfishness. Apologizing for my lack of attention I asked for a repeat of what was said.

Largon replied "no matter, I was just saying you should understand that there is no such thing as selflessness, for all actions are selfish.

Let us take for example the heroic act of the man that jumps into a river to save a drowning child, yet he himself cannot swim and so doing, drowns and loses any further chance of participating in that particular game of living on Earth.  Yes Xeno, it is said 'That no greater love hath he, than that lays down his life for another".   But where is the love, when it was an act of selfishness?

But Largon I said, how on earth can giving up the most precious thing you have, that is your very life, be an act of selfishness?  Yes indeed, he replied, how on Earth?   Yet you are here, are you not?  You see Xeno, when one is in that particular scenario, there are many choices that can be made and those choices or decisions will depend on many and varied factors, all of which, I leave to your fertile imagination.

Let us take but one example of the decision made in the scenario just described, bearing in mind, that he has no recollection of ever being where we are now.
Joe is an average guy, no Great Saint nor Great Sinner either..... Excuse my mirth. It's about Saints and Sinners, more about that later... As I said, Joe is/was, an average guy, with a wife and two kids. He has a good job, sits on the P.T.A. and is a member of the local Council. You may fill in the host of other details that make up this kind of existence.  Whilst taking his usual jog along the tow path, he suddenly hears a scream for help, and there is a child in mortal danger of being drowned, of losing her mortal life. He has to make a decision fast. He thinks, "do I dive in ?... I may drown in my attempt , and still not save the child, for I can not swim !
There's no one else around, so I can't let someone else save her. I must jump in and take my chances. I cannot run away and be branded a coward and I could not live with myself if I don't try."
The threat of having to live with himself, compells him to act. (If he has a problem living with himself ; who is He?.) If he doesn't try, it would be worse than loosing his mortal life. So in the final analysis, he was considering what was easiest for himself, not what was best or out of love for the child. Is that selfish...Or what?.

Now Xeno do not misunderstand me. I am not judging any actions here, only endeavoring to teach you what impact words can have in your present earth life..."Oh, he or she, is such an unselfish person" .. ha, ha!"
Largo I do see your point in this instance, but tell me are there other instances where this reasoning would apply?
"Yes, Xeno there are many, but they might not be as obvious as the example described. Take inherited for  example. I have no quarrel with the statement "he/she inherited that nose from the father", but I do have a problem with this statement. "He/she has a vicious temper, inherited from her father. As in the previous example (i.e. unselfish), if the word is repeated often enough in a given context, it becomes accepted and believed and once believed, it becomes inherent in that individuals character by default. Most certainly it becomes permanent, unless it is attended to. If not, then it lives as long as its host and then it is, or seemingly is, an acceptable justification for unacceptable behavior. How can anything come right, accepting such a premise? If one has a bad temper, it can be tempered as soon as one recognizes it in oneself. Not just carry on being bad tempered and do nothing about it, just because everyone (and that's a generality if ever there was one) knows it is not your fault ... You can't help it, as you inherited the trait. This is total nonsense. Who originated it? He/she who originated it can just as easily temper it, and the same goes for any other person utilizing it afterwards!

The message here is, "stop trying to put a blame label, on a package that does not exist". For then it becomes an exercise in spreading alarm and despondency and that is fuel for the fire of total confusion, that already exists on Earth".

Whilst Largon was speaking, I was recalling an incident in my last sojourn on Earth.

I was engaged in battle, on the plains of Siberia with some Mongols, who were looking for new territory to acquire as well as other spoils of war, which was usually included women to use horribly, men, women and children, to capture as slaves and any precious objects they could lay their hands on.
They were barbarians, with no sense of decency or fairness in battle.  Were merciless murderers and torturers, but fierce and implacable in battle. Of these things I was aware. My army was encamped far from the area I proposed to meet the enemy in battle.
My scouts, having come in and informed me of the whereabouts of the approaching foe, I planned to leave, ready for the conflict, before dawn the following morning and meet the enemy on a plain with which I was familiar and leaving all things not needed for the coming battle, far in my rear. I must add here that the Mongol Chieftain had been pre-warned of my prowess as a soldier and knew full well, that the outcome of any engagement with me was not to be a forgone conclusion.
I left for battle, before dawn that day, confident that victory would be ours. We sighted the enemy some hours before noon and prepared a pincer movement which would encircle their main force, with the intention of annihilating them first and then proceeding to mop up any further resistance that might show up.
We had come within hailing distance of the opposing horde, when a rider from my rearguard back at camp, came to me with news. Terrible news.
A large force of the enemy had been laying in wait close to our camp and having allowed sufficient time to pass, for our army to be well on the way, had attacked and overpowered the strong but small resistance. It was now busy, ransacking the camp.
This news almost caused me to faint at the enormity of the situation. My beloved wife was at their mercy and the Mongol Chieftain had read me well, for without further thought, I turned back, leaving my army in charge of a General and rode like the wind, back to defend my dear wife.

I rode into a camp smoldering after being put to the torch. A pall of smoke hung in the air as I darted here and there looking for survivors, but could see none. Then I saw movement. It was a wagon wheel revolving slowly on an upturned wagon and something in white cloth attached to that slowly turning wheel.....I knew.
I knew that my worst fears were realized.  It was my beautiful, lovely, dear wife roped to that wheel. As I drew closer, oblivious to my surroundings, I saw that she had been brutally beaten and raped. Crying out in anguish, I leaped from my horse and threw myself upon her lifeless body, wrapping my arms around her through the spokes of the wheel. There I lay mortified by my discovery, paralyzed by uncontrollable grief, and blaming myself for this horror that my darling had suffered. I should have known that not all people were like myself and played by the rules. Then I felt the lance penetrate my back, but my grief was such, I felt no pain and lo, here I sit with my friend Largon teaching me not to apply and extend to others, the virtues, morals and ethics that I hold dear. And so, two lives were affected, my then wife and I. She had painfully learned, albeit erroneously, that men were not to be trusted and thus, going through later incarnations making the lives of those men she became intimate with, 'Hell on Earth' and thereby creating chaos for them and herself.  All this, derived from an inability to perceive the reality of a situation.
We were to meet again. How blissful, yet so heartbreaking .....blissful, for true love never dies. No!  Not ever......and heartbreaking too, for as much as she loved me, she trusted me not and that was doubly heartrending for me.
I was trying to make amends for my past actions, by laying my soul bare to my dearest, in order to prove that she would never (again), come to harm should she trust me. All the while, she was treating men as betrayers of women and sought only to exact revenge on them, because of my stupidity, for that's what it was. To make matters worse, my absolute openness was used by her, as a weapon to pierce my most tender emotions.  I had no defense and wanted  none. For deep down,  intuitively,  I knew that one day we would meet yet again and I would be paid for my folly.  On my part, I would always respect women and treat them gently, regardless, for I would always wonder, is this she?
Until the time once again came, to move on and to spare the reader, a lengthy discourse on that particular incarnation, the end result was the clearing of and the knowledge of wrong perception, which leads to aberrational action.

I have further lessons to learn, for that is what it is all about ......... there are no disasters or failures, only lessons to learn and there is no skipping grades. If the lesson is not learned, then back we go to start again.
But take heart.  We learn countless, diverse lessons in one semester and in view of the fact that time only exists in the physical universe, it does not matter how long it takes to learn.
It is particularly difficult to get a correct perspective of the way things are, when one is on Earth, because the whole of thinking, is orientated toward a basic error. One uses phrases such as,  "Somebody lost their life there", when they should in fact say, "Some life lost their body there".
Time is an equation of relevance, which is not applicable to me at this moment, but it will soon be, for I am keen to return and think that I will know where that mysterious "stop and consider", feeling comes from, just when I am about to make an important decision....

Don't you think so Largon?