radical games

Last Sunday I took a trip over to Banyen Book and Sounds on West 4th and Dunbar. I dont often get out to Bayen because it is out of the way, but whenever I go I buy lots of books. I went with a goal this time of getting some of the required readings for my yoga teacher training. I managed to get three books one of them being, The Yoga of Breath: A Step-by-Step Guide to Pramayama by Richerd Rosen. Pranayama is essentially breath work, for those who are not familiar with it, Yogas ultimate goal is to prepare us for Pranayama and Meditation. I wasnt too excited about getting a book on breathing, I generally enjoy to focus on my breath during asana practice and then be finished with it when I am done.

I began reading Rosens book this morning and I came across a quote that made my body leap and want to run around the room:
"But James Carse, In his book Finite and Infinite Games, reminds us that to be playful is not to be 'trivial or frivolous, or to act as though nothing of consequence will happen. On the contrary, when we are playful with each other we relate as free persons, and the relationship is open to surprise; everything that happens is of consequence, for seriousness is a dread of the unpredictable outcome of open possibility. To be serious is to press for a specified conclusion. To be playful is to allow for possibility whatever the cost to oneself.' "

Woah.

When I read that I feel like Carse is saying something profoundly radical, something that many people would knock down and walk past. I had to read the quote four times to really begin to realise how huge his statement was. To be playful or child-like, let go of a predetermined out come. When I worked at lululemon, we used to do yoga demos in the store all the time. Jey a woman I worked with is a meditation instructor and wanted to do a meditation demo in the mall. So her and I sat in the middle of metrotown mall and meditated. I remember her sitting down, and with honest excitement saying, "this is so radical". Sitting in the middle of a public space and meditating, it was radical. Sitting through our surroundings, judging eyes and perception. I feel like there are so many radical people out there who are welcome to the idea of 'open possibility'. Of the playful nature that we have embodied inside all of us. Radical people who talk with strangers, give money the homeless, fight for an idea. In my studies I have come across different people talking about life as a game as childs-play. Carse took that idea to another level, being radical enough to explain this idea to people stuck in systems of our world. Systems with predetermined outcomes, ideas.

Some times I read things and they jump out of the page at me with the truth that they hold. My favorite part is that the truth comes from so many different spaces and times. There is truth in so many different things that it seems hard to subscribe to one book. I am excited to read about breathing for another 300 pages, if I can get this excited by Chapter one, I feel like the book contains lots of wisdom inside its pages.