The Infinite Game – Put it into Practice
Simon Sinek has written a bestseller: The Infinite Game. As he says himself, the central idea comes from an influential 1986 book by Professor James P. Carse: Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility.
This is not about sports games, but an approach to life. Sinek, for example, works out this simple concept for the business world, as it can be applied to all areas of life.
Let me say it up front: Integral movement as well as RIVERS and Open Hands are infinite games.
IN A NUTSHELL ACCORDING TO JAMES P. CARSE
A few quotes should serve as an introduction:
"There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite, the other infinite. A finite game is played with the aim of winning, an infinite game with the aim of continuing to play."
"The rules of a finite game must not change, the rules of an infinite game must change."
"Finite players play within limits, infinite players play with limits."
"Finite players are serious, infinite players are playful."
"Finite players win titles, infinite players have nothing but their names [which are given]."
"A finite player consumes time, an infinite player creates time."
"The finite player wants to win eternal life, the infinite player strives for eternal birth."
THE GAME
First of all, we need to understand the meaning of the game. This also happens in a nutshell. Simon Sinek rightly remarks at the beginning of his book that it is surprising that the book is needed at all. The same applies to books and to words about the game in general. And yet we need them. The Book of Movement devotes an entire chapter to play and also deals with infinite play.
It is surprising to have to talk about it because play is the method of evolution par excellence for driving itself forward. Play is the be-all and end-all when it comes to development, be it evolutionary, be it individual, be it physical, be it cognitive, and yes, as we will see in a moment, be it spiritual. Development happens through play. In the most natural way imaginable.
I would like to cite two experiences as to why the emphasis on play is so important in our time. The first experience comes from my work with children. There are children for whom you can open up play areas and adventure spaces (and these don't have to be spaces for movement, they can be Lego, a doll or a toy car) and they are at a loss. Because they don't play at home. They have no toys other than a screen. They have no social input and interaction as often both parents are at work. Play develops through the play instinct, and this is an instinct like any other. But even the instinct-driven, central tool of evolution can atrophy. That is shocking. Neurology also talks about neuroplasticity, i.e. that new neuronal connections can be established. However, if the foundations for this are not laid in an organic, natural, playful development, developments in later phases of life are extremely difficult to catch up on or are no longer possible.
Another experience comes directly from the Corsica courses and has to do with the fact that in many participants' minds spirituality and physicality are ultimately separate things, and therefore also spirituality and play, mindfulness and play. Concepts of mindfulness and spirituality are one-sidedly linked to slow movements and states of calm, stillness and a sense of well-being. This separation is often camouflaged with spiritual concepts from traditions that are either misunderstood as finite games or are actually finite games - I will come back to this later. This separation makes it impossible to recognize and acknowledge the value of play. Here we see the deep dualistic divide that permeates our culture down to the very depths of our minds. This happens invisibly and unnoticed because it is deeply inculturated. It is exactly the rift that integral movement can overcome and heal. This overcoming and the immense healing and quality of life that results is a central vision and confidence of the integral movement and the Corsica retreats. A vision that cannot be conveyed to the divided mind - because it is embodied, but also because it is infinite. It can only be realized by involving the body, and this realization can only happen by walking a path that makes it possible to experience again and again that there is no division, no separation in any form.
James Carse talks about this error and its consequences:
"To be playful is not to be trivial or frivolous or to pretend that nothing of significance is happening. On the contrary, when we are playful with each other, we relate to each other as free persons, and the relationship is open to surprises; everything that happens has meaning."
THE GAME IN INTEGRAL MOVEMENT
Corsica retreats are deeply imbued with integral dynamics and, more concretely, with the methodology of integral movement and the RIVERS method. This methodology and method is not an imposed meta-system, but works from the bottom up, from the roots. To be more precise, it is the soil. This is because integral dynamics, integral movement and RIVERS emerged from below, from embodied cognition. In the context of integral dynamics, we describe this primal dynamic with ten verbs. Ten open, infinite, mutually influencing processes.
RIVERS has four areas: BASES, RIDDLES, RHYTHMS and PLAY. (More about the individual areas can be found here.) The BASES can be replaced by many other movement methods. At best, they can complement other methods. However, the other three aspects are irreplaceable.
PLAY, the actual play, is therefore a part of the integral movement and, for example, of the Corsica Retreats. More precisely, the areas of RIDDLES, RHYTHMS and PLAY are all infinite games. They are all PLAY. The foundation of integral movement and MOVEMENT ADVENTURES is infinite play. In the jargon of integral dynamics, what I mentioned earlier as a central vision and confidence, the overcoming of the separation of body and mind, leads to the process of infinition.
THE INFINITE IN THE MOMENT
How does infinite play manifest itself in integral movement? Wherever we look, we find infinite play. In every exercise, in every movement, in every setting. Because the infinitive (infinity) is already present in the form of the verbs in the roots. As we find the infinitive setting in all aspects, I can and will only give a few examples below. I don't want to explain, but rather lead the way. Let's take some statements by James P. Carse as starting points and relate them to integral movement and MOVEMENT ADVENTURES.
FROM PUSH TO OPEN
"The rules of an infinite game are changed to prevent anyone from winning the game and to get as many people into the game as possible."
This is perhaps the most vivid example: Over the years, there was a shift from Push Hands (Tuishou) to Open Hands as a central element of PLAY. Push hands has a clear goal: to push the opponent off balance or not to be pushed off balance. Open Hands is an open process that has a completely different goal, namely that the game between two players can become even more dynamic without ever coming to an end. The setting itself, the "technique" and everything else is exactly the same. But there is this small, all-altering difference in the mind-setting.
The beauty of it is that it only takes one infinite player. The other one can try to produce his finite game. The infinite player will still play the game in an infinite setting and will influence the game and (possibly) transform it.
"Infinite players do not oppose the actions of others, but initiate their own actions in such a way that others will respond by initiating their own actions."
(More on the change from push hands to open hands can also be found here: Levels of Martial Arts).
TRANSFORMATION INSTEAD OF DEFINITION: EMBODIED INFINITY
"Because infinite players prepare to be surprised by the future, they play with complete openness. It is not an openness in the sense of frankness, but an openness in the sense of vulnerability. It is not about revealing one's unchanging identity, the true self that has always been there, but about revealing one's incessant growth, the dynamic self that has yet to become. The infinite player expects not only to be entertained by surprise, but to be transformed by it, for surprise does not change some abstract past, but its own personal past."
The dynamic self is always dialogical and therefore more than self. Integral movement is always a dialog. This does not necessarily have to take place with another person. An integral solo practice is also a dialog with the verbs-teachers, with the space, the ground, nature. Integral movement is de-selfing in the sense that the focus is not on the self, but on the relationship. Whether there is a true self that has always been there is a metaphysical question. Integral movement is post-metaphysical because it overcomes the duality of meta and physical and integrates it into a completely different form of "response". An answer that does not stand as a point of view, but is embodied from moment to moment as a flow in relationship and interconnectedness.
It is therefore only logical that integral movement does not invest in the spiritual mainstream, which says: "It is always about making conscious and being conscious. Consciousness heals. Consciousness is salvation." Human beings are incredibly complex, and only very little of this complexity ever becomes conscious. The unconscious is the source of our potential development and intuition, of structured creativity and healing. It is not about consciousness, but about the unfolding and embodiment (and thus embodied awareness in the moment, not as a thought concept) of the immensity that we are. If we want to define "self", then in the Infinity Game it is constant unfolding.
"The finite player wants to gain eternal life, the infinite player strives for eternal birth."
In other words, he/she seeks and finds incessant unfolding. Not in the sense of optimization, but of realizing the potential of the moment.
OPENNESS IS EVERYTHING
"In infinite play... [one plays] in the direction of the open, the horizon, in the direction of surprise, where there is nothing to plan. It's a kind of game that requires complete vulnerability."
Infinite players know (or learn very quickly): As soon as we start moving, the whole person starts moving, in all its complexity. The process is open, what and who comes out of it is open. If we are open and remain open, we constantly surprise ourselves. This requires a willingness to be vulnerable. Vulnerability becomes strength. Vulnerability is the gateway to transformation.
Opening happens within the framework of integral movement in the Köbi dynamic: centering, opening, widening, encountering, integrating. Only by centering are we a player at all. Opening is never an end in itself, but leads through expansion into encounter and integration. If you had to reduce the dynamic to one aspect, it would be opening. Opening up is always a risk. It is always about letting go of ideas about how and who we are, what has to happen, how we or others should behave. Opening shapes. Opening shapes our form. And therefore the whole person.
"Surprise is the reason for the end of the finite game; it is the reason for the continuation of the infinite game."
SIMPLY HUMAN
"When a person is known only by name [rather than by titles won through finite games], the attention of others is focused on an open future. We simply cannot know what to expect. When we address each other by name [instead of titles], we ignore all scripts and open up the possibility that our relationship becomes deeply reciprocal. That I can't predict your future now is exactly what makes mine unpredictable. Our futures merge into each other. What is your future and what is mine becomes ours. We prepare each other for surprises. Titles are abstractions; names are always concrete."
So we come into the integral movement or MOVEMENT ADVENTURES with our names, which we have not given ourselves. We do not come as teachers or students, advanced or beginners, not as masters, gurus, knowers... We come as human beings. Only this enables true dialog, be it between people, be it between the practitioner and the movement or between the practitioner and a verb like "to center", be it with the landscape, with nature. That is why I am a mediator, not a teacher, let alone a master or guru.
The discussion about masters and gurus in the West is manifold, and I think the solution lies in the infinite game. All other attempts are finite attempts at solutions that only generate losers.
TRADITIONS CAN ONLY BE INFINITE - BUT OFTEN THEY ARE NOT
In this context, it is also worth taking a brief look at traditions. When we look at large flows, generalizations are inevitable. But generalizing, we can say that those methods that are rooted in a doctrine of liberation are finite games. That is Buddhism, Hinduism and (common, misunderstood) Christianity. Mind you, these are very many traditions and paths: most meditation paths and all yoga paths. They all strive for liberation. Participants with such a mind-set are finite players. Those who strive for the infinite within the framework of such traditions - they call it enlightenment, liberation, awakening, salvation - are playing the finite game. Such participants need leaders who bear "realized masters" or similar titles; they cannot cope with simple people. They need a projection surface for their finite game, which disguises itself as liberation into the infinite, the absolute. People with names are not suitable for these projections, only people with titles.
Not only the spiritual paths to liberation are finite games. Most martial arts are also finite games. Because it's all about winning. This is the case with 100% of martial arts and 99% of all martial arts. The exception with the one percent is Aikido - and Open Hands.
Learning a Taiji form, learning a yoga flow, learning a Qigong set, stringing together Aikido techniques, learning the handstand and so on: finite games. Finite players therefore always need more of them, even more variety. For infinite players, these are vessels of infinity. Therefore, an absolute minimum of intelligently selected vessels is enough for them.
Therapy methods that deal with solving problems and traumas - with solving the past - are also finite games. The same goes for most sports. If they are not about immediate winning, then they are usually about optimization, another finite game.
Daoism may perhaps provide a counterbalance here, and with it Daoist qigong. However, what this tradition, like the other Eastern traditions, lacks at its core is the element of evolution, which was first installed by the West and which is worth integrating (Book of Movement).
This does not mean that all those who move within these traditions and paths are finite players. It means that those who move in a finite tradition, but are inexplicably not at peace with it, can find a new home in integral movement, RIVERS, the Corsica MOVEMENT ADVENTURE, without having to give up their traditions and paths. Because they are probably infinite players.
Similarly, the infinite games such as Aikido, Open Hands, integral movement and the MOVEMENT ADVENTURES can be misused for finite goals. For example, if you only move in these methods to prove something to yourself or others.
"Just as an infinite game has rules, a culture has a tradition. Since the rules of an infinite game are freely agreed and freely changed, a cultural tradition is both adopted and transformed in its adoption."
Now one can reply that all these millennia-old paths have no end, neither in the individual nor as a path in itself. In fact, there are conservative and propulsive forces in every tradition. Every tradition is a river and from there infinite. But the mind-setting of the flow itself can still be finite.
In terms of the individual, one can argue that these paths are infinite games, as one can always optimize oneself even more. However, optimization arises from a finite setting because it has a clear goal that must be achieved, if not sooner, then certainly later. The opposite of optimization is cultivation. And this is the core of integral movement.
"Being prepared for surprise means being trained. Being prepared for surprise means being trained."
Paraphrased: "To be armed against surprise is to be optimized. Being prepared for surprise means being cultivated."
CULTURE AND CULTIVATION
"Culture is an infinite game. Culture has no boundaries. Anyone can be part of a culture - anywhere and at any time."
Culture is an expression of cultivation. Cultivation is the central, decisive dynamic of the integral movement. It is what makes integral movement much more than sport, performance or therapy, and it is what makes RIVERS or the MOVEMENT ADVENTURES much more than "the joy of movement outdoors".
Cultivational dynamics are at the heart of the dynamics that make up infinite play.
SIMILAR, BUT NOT THE SAME: INFINITE UNREPEATABILITY
"An infinite game cannot be brought to an end because it cannot be repeated. Unrepeatability is generally a characteristic of culture."
Every Corsica week, every MOVEMENT ADVENTURE is completely different. This has always been the case, although the basic structure is always the same. For finite players who come back, this can be a problem. They come with ideas and expectations, nurtured from the past, be it from previous weeks or from books. These expectations are then often not fulfilled. For infinite players, on the other hand, this otherness is the pure joy, the wonder, the astonishment of these days. They come as blank slates and leave richly endowed, only to return blank slates the following year. (The finite players can also come undescribed, the consumers who "just come and see what the week brings, with no expectations". Except for the unspoken expectation that they will be served without having to get involved. That's no good). The undescribed infinite players contribute and get involved.
"Infinite players can't say when their game started, and they don't care. They don't care for the reason that their game is not bound by time. In fact, the only purpose of the game is to prevent it from coming to an end, to keep everyone in the game."
The Corsica Weeks started in 2004, but they had a long history. Mine started at the latest in 1988, when I began to move in the traditions. However, exploring movement was a big, passionate topic even as a child. But the history of MOVEMENT ADVENTURES goes back much further. As I suggest in Journey to the Impossible, all the way back to the ancient Greeks. And even further: to prehistoric times, to the beginnings of evolution. This is not speculative, but pure reality. We explore the evolution of the body and mind and cultivate it, are part of it. This is the aspect of natural movement that forms the physiological core of integral movement (Book of Movement chapter Movement).
This is an external temporal factor that constitutes MOVEMENT ADVENTURES. There is also an internal or inner temporal factor that we explore and cultivate in the MOVEMENT ADVENTURES and through integral movement, and this leads into the non-temporal, into time freedom. A state in which the non-linearity of time is realized and expressed in a holomovement.
Where there is freedom of time, there is transcendence of space. Corsica is a finite island, the effect of MOVEMENT ADVENTURES goes far beyond these boundaries and far into the human being.
"[It] does not mean that the game ends with death; on the contrary, infinite players offer their death as an opportunity to continue the game. Therefore, they do not play for their own lives; they live for their own game. But since this game always takes place with others, it is obvious that infinite players both live and die for the continued life of others."
JOURNEY TO THE IMPOSSIBLE
Journey to the Impossible is the name of the book that emerged from MOVEMENT ADVENTURES. For finite players, this prospect - "Journey to the impossible?" - is hopeless and therefore not worth the journey. For infinite players, it is the ultimate motivation. It is the great adventure of realizing the impossible at every moment. Although the journey to Corsica is a finite journey, the journey we make with and in our bodies and in dialogic exchange in Corsica is an infinite one.
Sinek:
"In infinite games, players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined end point. In an infinite game, there are no winners or losers; there is only a forward and a backward."
I am infinitely looking forward to this.
And finally, C.G. Jung:
"The decisive question for man is: Are you related to the infinite or not? That is the criterion of his life."
Are you an infinite player? If you've made it this far: definitely. If not: maybe you are.
This is not a title anyway. Let's get rid of the term right now.