A “tell” is an instinctive physical reaction
by a poker player that “tells” his opponents
information about his hand. The movement
of an eyebrow, touching the shirt in a certain
way, when observed as a repeated act, can
clue the observer into whether the opponent
has a good hand , or is bluffing, for example.
Reality itself has three “tells”: facets or functions,
that point to the true nature of experience, but,
despite their universality, are seen as the major
hurdles of life because what they point out is that
the game is rigged, that it can’t be won, and
that we’re all a bunch of suckers in thinking it can be.
Nobody wants to see things
in that way, so we keep coming back to the table.
Impermanence. Nothing lasts….even the universe
itself will cycle back into the void, This is clear,
yet humans bet their money on creating empires,
fortunes, at the expense of others’ suffering, not
realizing that as circumstances change, so do fortunes…
that we’ve been playing the game for so many lifetimes
that we’ve already been dealt all the hands possible…
that we’ve won and lost so many times,
yet we’re still hooked by the game.
Suffering: We win…we feel good…we feel the
opposite when we lose. But the “tell” of suffering,
if we examine existence, is that no matter how
much we win, eventually we have to give it all
back and start over. Even if we don’t believe in
reincarnation, at some point, we lose everything,
and the suffering we feel at that point is directly
proportional to what we think we’re losing.
Egolessness: No matter how well we play,
there’s always someone better… or, we have an off
night…or we forget how to hit the golf ball.
Whomever we think we are is constantly being
challenged, is constantly changing. Much
time is spent supporting our idea of ourselves….
whether we think badly or well of ourselves is
irrelevant. And the idea of ourselves, itself,
is ultimately shown to be unreal. Ego is the
perfect con because it’s always adjusting to the
information it receives in order to justify itself.
If reality was a life-or-death poker game, we
would want to have all the information we
could about it. The way it stands for most people,
rich or poor….powerful or oppressed….no matter
what station, the house always wins.
