Awareness, as explored through the metaphor of hide-and-seek, unveils the nuanced dynamics of human existence within the divine dance. The game, childlike in its simplicity yet profound in its implications, operates with three key roles: the hider, the seeker, and the NPC (non-playing character). This exploration, however, centers solely on the hider and seeker, and more critically, the distinction between awareness and its absence within these roles.
The Bird’s-Eye View: Awareness Defined
To possess awareness is to rise above the immediate role, to adopt a third-person perspective on the game itself. A seeker, when aware, knows they are seeking—not simply moving through the mechanics but engaging with intent, grounded in the understanding of their position within the game. Similarly, an aware hider recognizes the act of hiding, not as a reactive instinct but as an intentional role in the unfolding narrative. This bird’s-eye view is the hallmark of awareness: the capacity to see the game from above, understanding the rules, the players, and the purpose.
Yet, unlike the simplicity of the child’s game, the cosmic version is rife with unawareness. It is not the exception but the default. In this divine iteration, participants often lack awareness of their roles, moving through life as though hypnotized—Manchurian candidates activated by unseen forces. This state of unawareness, paradoxically, is not a flaw but an essential aspect of the cosmic design.
The Manchurian Candidate: A Paradigm of Unawareness
To be unaware is to live as though one’s divine nature is veiled, an agent enacting a role without the conscious recognition of being an actor in a larger play. In this sense, unawareness serves the cosmic dance by enabling the purity of experience. An unaware hider or seeker does not impose their own narrative upon the game; they experience love, loss, joy, and discovery as if for the first time. This is the “secret agent” quality of the Manchurian candidate: to serve the divine purpose by forgetting the divine origin.
Alan Watts famously advised the hider to “get lost”—a counsel that aligns with the purpose of unawareness. For the hider, to be unaware is to fully embody the act of hiding, not as an act of strategy but as pure participation. Similarly, the unaware seeker does not grasp the cosmic significance of their pursuit; they simply seek, driven by an innate impulse, unaware that they are enacting the divine’s exploration of love.
Awareness as Activation
When awareness emerges, it is akin to the activation of the Manchurian candidate. The hider suddenly knows they are hiding, aware not only of their concealment but also of the seeker’s quest. The seeker, in turn, recognizes their seeking as an integral part of a greater love story. This awareness transforms the participant from a passive player to an active participant, capable of observing the dance even as they perform within it.
For the seeker, awareness does not guarantee discovery. To find what one is seeking would nullify the game’s purpose. Rather, the aware seeker embraces the search itself, finding fulfillment not in the destination but in the journey. Similarly, the aware hider finds joy not in evasion but in the interplay of revelation and concealment, understanding that the act of hiding serves the greater narrative.
The Cosmic Impartiality of Roles
The game itself does not favor hiders over seekers or awareness over unawareness. Each role is essential, and each state—whether aware or unaware—fulfills a divine function. The hider and seeker are not meant to ascend to a preferred state but to embody their roles authentically, whether in the blindness of unawareness or the clarity of awareness. This impartiality underscores the divine’s neutrality, its refusal to privilege one form of love’s expression over another.
The Divine’s Witness: Humanity’s Unique Privilege
Unlike the immutable past or the unknowable future, humanity—the history maker—exists as a conscious observer and participant in the divine dance. We, as aware or unaware players, have the extraordinary privilege of discovering, reporting on, and sharing love in all its manifestations. Our poetry, our art, our narratives are the divine’s exploration of itself through us.
Whether hiding or seeking, whether aware or unaware, each of us contributes to this cosmic love story. And while awareness enhances our capacity to observe and articulate this love, unawareness ensures the purity of experience, enabling the divine to feel its creation fully and authentically.
In the grand game of hide-and-seek, there are no winners or losers, no favored roles or states. There is only the unfolding of love, the interplay of the seen and the unseen, the known and the unknowable. Awareness is not the destination but a perspective, an invitation to see the game for what it is—a cosmic dance in which every player, every role, is perfect in its imperfection.