"Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy." Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Many lunar loops ago, when I was younger, so much younger than today, I could quite often be found sitting in front of a computer screen, not writing spectacular nonsense as I do now, but playing on a computer game called Baldur's Gate. This game is based on Dungeons and Dragons. If you do not know what that is, imagine a world similar to Good Old Uncle Tolkien's Middle Earth in which you are playing the main character, pitting your wits against all kinds of villains, mosters, quests and puzzles.
Although these kind of games do have a definite beginning and end, they can go on for months and so it is possible to become lost in this 'second life', like reading an enthralling epic novel in which you get to decide (at least to some extent) the direction the plot will take. Game playing would be accompanied by a whole gamut of emotions from victorious elation to swearing out loud, keyboard throwing frustration.
In various places on the merry supermind we call the Internet, are located web sites whose sole purpose is to tell people how to cheat at these games. You could, for instance, enter secret codes used by the game developers to get yourself absurd amounts of money or make your character prematurely mega-powerful. These kind of sites unashamedly advertise that they are providing us with 'cheats and spoilers'.
The second name is very apt, because using any of these cheats tends to spoil the game. It becomes way too easy. There is no challenge any more. There is no more adventure. There are no more surprises. You win, and you win very easily, but the victory is a hollow one. Like a child whose parents give them whatever they want, whenever they want, your game character has been spoilt.
"Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way." Douglas Pagels
Take a look around the jolly mind mesh a little further, and lo and behold, there are lots of sites around offering another kind of cheats and spoilers. This time they are for a much more elaborate and complex game, the one we often call Life. Maybe some of these cheats and spoilers work. Maybe they don't. One has to try them out to find that out. I have tried a few and sometimes they do appear to work as suggested by the shiny toothed cheat dispenser.
But every time the cheats do work, just like before, The Game is spoilt, the adventure is over, the mystery is dead. Now what will Scooby and friends do?
Thank you very much for offering to spoil The Game, game cheats, but this time round, I think I will pass.
"I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me." Woody Allen
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