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Octaphasis Ludens
The Eight (8) Phases of Play
Presence
The initiate must understand what it means to disentangle from the hic et nunc (“here and now”). They must commit to immersing themselves in the experience, free of all distractions, whether internal or external. Presence is sharp focus on the task at hand, an autotelic and meditative engagement.
Participation
What observation and listening is to presence, qualitas, demonstration and voice is to participation (observation:listening::demonstration:participation). It is an assertion, a display and sharing of the self to the group. It is by nature bound to fail (trying to give commonplace to the inner “I” onto physical reality); yet it is necessary to further our understanding. The initiate is expected and encouraged to participate to the best of their concurrent abilities.
Practice
Praxis: The handi-work, literally and figuratively, to work, to do the doings; practice is the direct involvement in an activity meant to improve on a particular skill, habit, or talent. It is done via instruments, which includes the mind i.e. thought becomes an activity and the mind turns instrumental to that activity.
Patience
Patience is congeniality with time, it is not a passive wait but a disposition to receive what is to come. We prepare ourselves for the opportunities that are themselves in turn ready to meet us.
Persistence
As we ready ourselves for opportunity, we continue working within our sphere of control, ourselves. We tend to our garden, laboring day in and day out, until harvest. Persistence is testament to our commitment.
Productivity
Here mind meets matter; the lifeline between ideas and things, subject and object. Product ends what began in Self, it is a renewed transformation. This is true ability to exteriorize our human spirit, have something to show for ourselves.
Performance
A performance is an accomplishment, something completed, exhibited and displayed to the public via a medium of articulation i.e. manifestation; performances are ceremonial engagements of play; every playfellow must commence their own performances as contributions of a higher level.
Presentation
A gift of the present, a “placing before”, the offering of our true Self, from presence to presentation, from an initiation to an act of creation, here is the gift, the pure sacrifice; it reforms itself to its roots, the seed of the bloom.