Doodle Jump to Enlightenment

So, recently I downloaded my first iphone game. It’s called “Doodle Jump.” What a revelation!

Confession: I haven’t played a video game, (if they are still even called “video games”) since Space Invaders came out on those arcade machines with the eerie green screens.

After just a couple of games, I realized that Doodle Jump is a perfect little microcosm of Nature, and a great mirror and teacher, for those on a spiritual path. If you approach it the right way, of course.

As with any game, there is a mixture of fate and free will. There are built in laws that govern the natural world of the game. Your best chance for survival is to learn the laws of gravity, acceleration, and so on and then adapt your behavior to take advantage of these. This requires  strategy, precision, agility, discernment and split second adaptability. Just like life.

But you can never master the laws totally. And they aren’t consistent in every situation. There are gap moments when you’re left asking: “What just happened?”

One thing you are reminded of (or learn for the first time) playing Doodle Jump is that sometimes you run out of options other than to die. You’re just hanging out in space on your one island of so-called safety, and there is no next step other than DOWN. That is so Tantrik. Who made this game, anyway?

Sometimes grace intervenes and you effortlessly zoom to a new level of awareness. On other occasions, you grab at an opportunity to advance, only to discover that if you had just waited a fraction of a second longer, a better opportunity would have come along. Drat!

You have some very karmic choices in Doodle Jump. When obstacles arise, you can choose aggressive (higher points/more dangerous) versus nonaggressive (lower points/safer) ways of advancing. Of course, if this really were a game of Self-realization, the nonaggressive routes would earn higher points. Note to Lima Sky, the game developers!

It’s also not possible to stand totally still in Doodle Jump. Your location and situation keep changing even if you do nothing.

But the thing I like most about playing Doodle Jump, other than the fact that it’s so utterly charming, is how it calls forth your fixations and presents them to you for reflection. Yes, just like a good teacher acting as a mirror, playing Doodle Jump can teach you a lot about your particular karmic flavor of relating to the world.

The central teaching in both Indian Tantrik and Buddhist traditions about human karmic vision is called “the Six Lokas” or Six Realms. These are the fundamental flavors of samsara – suffering. The six realms are humungous categories with tons of variety. So don’t take my realm tour of Doodle Jump too, too seriously.

The Six Realm Fixations a la Doodle Jump

God Realm – “I have transcended the desire to play Doodle Jump.” Real meaning: Won’t play Doodle Jump because too afraid to recognize the inevitability of death.

Titan Realm – “I will beat you, Doodle Jump, and your silly little laws. Ha!”

Human Realm – “Must understand how Doodle Jump works.”  See the fabulous human realm  “practical analysis” of Doodle Jump here.

Animal Realm – “It’s all going too fast. Wish there were a place to lie down and rest.”

Hungry Ghost Realm -  “I never get the rocket booster.”

Hell Realm – “What the fuck is wrong with this game, anyway? It’s so unfair!”

Someone on the Doodle Jump Facebook page asked if there was an end to the game, a Doodle Jump heaven. Well, the high scorer has already reached nearly 4 million points. Which reminds me of something Anandamayi Ma said: “Even Rishi is only a stage.”

In Ma’s love,
Shambhavi, whose highest score so far is 16,021

How to Use a Spiritual Name

If you have a spiritual name, try to use it in your everyday life. Names are invocations. Each time a person says your name, it is a blessing for you and for them. Together, you invoke the wisdom virtues inherent in that name.

My name is somewhat hard for people to pronounce. But I have noticed that when a person says it correctly for the first time, there is a broad smile. It feels good! more…

Jailbreak your “I pod” – an interview with Shambhavi Sarasvati

This interview took place on a gray January day in Portland, Oregon.

What is Self-realization?

Shambhavi: The term is pretty literal. It means realizing your Self in the largest sense. Every day we realize our ’small I’ self. We embody ’small I’ all the time with our basic defensiveness toward life. ‘Small I’ stays small by hanging onto fears, habits of separation and conceptual knowing. When we break out of the prison of our defensive “I pod,” we can begin to recognize and embody a more spontaneous, wise and pervasive Self. This larger Self is called Shiva nature or Buddha nature, or whatever. It includes the entire cosmos. more…

How to Find a Tantrik Guru

If you have done even a little bit of exploration of an authentic Tantrik tradition, you know that the Guru-disciple relationship is the central practice.

Yes, we work with mantra and yantra. We practice kriya yoga and ayurvedic self-care. We do dream practice, mind training and nonconceptual meditation. But the heart of everything is Guru Yoga.

Guru Yoga means working with the teacher to awaken within yourself a memory of the natural state. Then you use your practices to develop your connection to that transmission and make it your own home.

Most of us need a teacher who has walked the path before us and can guide us. Otherwise, we may take long detours, or fall into a ditch of fixation masquerading as real understanding.

But how can we find a good teacher? This is a question I get more than any other. more…