Jnana / True awareness

Knowledge of the right, and insight into the proper means of realizing the right in daily existence, are the two essential attributes of gyana. Gyana is an uplifting force, an arrow that takes the player to the eighth row and the plane of bliss, beyond the chakras. The player who under­stands his role in the game, and the nature of the course of action that will enable him to fulfill that role, lives in bliss.

The player realizes this wisdom only after the experience of clarity of consciousness. Only by suspending value judgments can the transmu­tation of energy that lifts him to the fifth chakra take place.

Gyana is not liberation. The player has yet to free himself from all those things that have clouded his mind. But he does know that the blocks can be removed, that Cosmic Consciousness is an attainable goal. Some Hindu philosophers see gyana as the direct path to moksha, Cos­mic Consciousness. But in this game it leads to bliss. The player must still realize the plane of cosmic good and needs a throw of two to escape the cycle of rebirth. But there is nothing wrong. He can return to earth and play the game again.

Gyana then is awareness, not realization. Gyana is the understand­ing of the laws of existence and the awareness of a means to synchro­nize with them. The fourth chakra has already established balance; consciousness has been clarified. A true penetration into the world of concepts becomes possible. The player ceases to be attached to forms of expression and becomes drawn to the essence, the process of insight. Old relationships take on entirely new perspectives when viewed through the clear light of unobstructed consciousness. The cause of bondage is maya. The cause of liberation from maya to bliss is gyana.

As long as the player identifies himself as an individual, independent being he has karmas, and this is the cause of bondage. Gyana makes it clear that by reducing the scope and area of karma he can begin to estab­lish himself in bliss. This is insight into the game itself.

In the first three chakras the player has been lost in the realms of delusion, fantasy, and power. Each course of action that inspired hope in him left the player in the end tired and painful. Finally, in the fourth chakra, he began to establish a sense of balance within himself. Then, with clarity of consciousness, he waded into the upward flow of energy that lifted him from the fourth chakra into the fifth. With balance, he sees his goal as attainable and adjusts his life in accordance with his insight into the process of fulfillment.

Gyana is a blank page. Whatever is written on its surface is only the illusion of ahamkara, ego.* Illusion is ever changing and thus is tempo­ral. Only the page itself lasts, is atemporal. The page that remains after the writing has long since faded is gyana. This is the wisdom that makes the player understand the karmic writing on that blank page. To the degree the player desires, it is he who inscribes writing on his page. What gyana dictates is that it be kept intact, handed over as it was given.

Gyana is rightly placed in the fifth chakra, because here is the source of those billions of blank pages that are the essence of the world’s religious teachings. In the fifth chakra, communication with others becomes the main concern. The player seeks to convey the essence of his own insights into the game while simultaneously realizing the futility of the task.

• The wisest course of action, then, would have been to leave this square blank. But there is an arrow in it. And, of course, the author feels the bliss of the experience, and he really cannot help expression, just as (iod could not when he said, “Let there he light.”