Do you realize that the whole of life plays a game?
Which is a terrible game.
There are three kinds of people.
Top people, middle people, bottom people.
They wouldn't know they were nice people unless they
had some nasty people to compare themselves with.
Every in group requires an out group.
Whereas the nasty people think they are the real far out people.
Whereas those people,
those hillbillies,
are squares.
And they wouldn't be able to feel far out unless they were squares.
See?
These things simply go together.
But when that is not the case,
we play the game of getting on top of things.
All the time.
And so we are in a constant state of competition.
As to if it's not I'm stronger than you,
if I'm wiser than you, I'm more loving than you,
I'm more tolerant than you,
I'm more sophisticated than you.
It doesn't matter what it is,
but it's constant competition that's going on.
In terms of that competition,
we can of course lose place,
and in that sense make mistakes.
But what a Zen student is,
is a person
who is not involved in the status game.