Roles We Play
Me as Arlyn Pleides
Lately in my practice, I have been mindful of the many roles I play in life, and how conceptual they are. I see where I have identified through them, and how this has lead to my own suffering, how easy it is to take them as solid and real.
Meanwhile, I am intentionally taking on roles, even those people call unreal. My experience with this, though, is revealing that a role is always conceptual. It’s never real, but the function of that role may be quite important.
When my son was recently hit by a truck and in the hospital, my role as mother by his bedside was my top priority, very important to both of us, but mother is still conceptual. My role as mother is only a feeling I have when interacting with my son, and vice versa. Mother in of itself does not exist. It’s an idea. An important and valid one in our society, but a concept nonetheless.
As I see these roles for what they really are, I feel an opening up inside me, a freedom from the heaviness of my previous view of my roles, and a relaxing into the roles I see that I’m playing. In addition, I don’t take them so seriously. That’s not to say how I behave is lackadaisical. On the contrary. I feel freer to immerse myself, knowing there is nothing truly to cling to or get caught in because it is a fabrication.
Recently, I have begun Role Playing (RP) in a Star Wars SIM in Second Life. I have created the character Arlyn Pleides who is a Togruta from the planet Shili. I didn’t think I’d care for RP and have ignored that aspect of SL for two years. But I did take to it, and in a big way. RPing hearkens to my love of fiction writing, and with my recent exploration in the spiritual nature of roles in life, I find this area fascinating, especially in the assumptions people make.
Most would call Arlyn unreal. That’s true. But so was Dana as Sun employee. True I worked for Sun. But employee is a concept I applied to myself because of what I was doing. When we come to think of ourselves as a role, identify through it, then trouble arises, as it did when Sun decided I was no longer an employee.
Many would say Arlyn is not me. Not entirely true. How could it be since I am the one animating her? We behave in various ways throughout the day. We are not static, and all my ever changing processes also work through Arlyn when I log into SL as that character.
The fun thing about this character, too, is that she is studying to become a Jedi. The Jedi Order is amazing similar to my Buddhist, Taoist, and Non-dualist studies. When I respond to other people in the Star Wars SIM through Arlyn, I am in character but most of what I say is very much Dana because Arlyn and I both agree on how situations should be handled, our responses really are no different. She speaks more formerly, with more control than I sometimes have when speaking to people in person, but we are of the same philosophy, and she is parts of the many me’s. We also have the same ethics. I chose a Jedi character because I relate to it so well, minus the light saber, though in SL that is fun.
The code of the Jedi Order:
There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no chaos; there is harmony.
There is no death; there is the Force.
The Force is not a Buddhist concept, and Buddha would argue that in indeed there is much ignorance. But the Jedi seeks to overcome ignorance. Jedi knowledge is similar to Buddhist wisdom.
No doubt, George Lucus drew on Buddhist and Taoist teachings.
“Only a Sith speaks in absolutes!” ~ Obi Won Konobi
With the Jedi and everyone else, roles can help us identify and understand our ethics and the things we do, but we have to be careful not to mistake roles for concrete, real things, and to always wear them loosely, without allowing them to become too sticky or tight.
Tags: Role Playing, second life
July 5th, 2011 at 2:40 am
[...] Roles We Play [...]