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Trust only the pure consciousness when there is nothing left to be observed. If something is left to be observed, it is still a game. It is the same game, played with new toys.

You say, “I begin to see more clearly the games that I and other people play.”
Now, if you don’t become alert, you may start playing this game of observation. And you will be continuously observing.

I have heard about a psychoanalyst who went to see a beauty contest. Naked beautiful women were passing, the whole audience was excited, everybody was totally absorbed in watching the beautiful women. But the psychiatrist, the psychoanalyst, was watching people.

His friend who was sitting by his side asked him, “What are you doing? The women are there on the stage, why don’t you look there?” He said, “I am looking at the people. I am watching how they are reacting, what is in their eyes.”

Now, this is again the same game. A few people are watching the naked women, and somebody is watching the people watching the naked women. Now the game has gone a little deeper. And there may be a third person who can watch this psychoanalyst watching people watching naked women… And so on, so forth, it can go on and on.

Observation is good, but don’t let it become a game.

It can become a game, and then it is all the same; what game you are playing is not the question. You can play religious games, you can play psychological games, you can play spiritual games – you can go on playing.

The worldly person is after money: he is playing a game. The otherworldly person is after renouncing money: he is playing another game. The worldly person is interested in being a great success, famous, well known.

The religious person is escaping to the caves, so nobody knows him, so he becomes absolutely anonymous. But whether you want to be known by others, or you want not to be known by others, you are focused on others: it is the same game.

A man triumphantly walked into his favorite bar after asking for and receiving a quite substantial raise in salary at his job. “Joe!” he shouted to the bartender. “Drinks for the whole house are on me, except for that Jew over there in the corner. Don’t give him a drop!”

The Jewish man, although a little hurt, remained quiet.

A short while later, the man cried out to the bartender again, “Joe, another drink for everybody here! But nothing for that Jew over there in the corner. I don’t want him to have anything!”

At this, the Jew could contain himself no longer and with great frustration he walked over to the man. “What is it?” he yelled. “What have we Jews ever done to you? Why do you treat me this way?”

With great contempt the man looked at the Jew and said, “You sunk the Titanic, that’s what you did!” “What!” cried the Jew in utter disbelief. “What kind of nonsense is this? An iceberg sank the Titanic, you fool!”

The man nodded his head knowingly and replied, “That’s right – Steinberg, Greenberg, Iceberg, you are all the same to me!”

All the games are the same.

Play – but remember, all the games are the same. One has to come to a point where there is nothing left to observe, no content in the consciousness. Content-less consciousness is meditation.

And when there is no content, all games disappear because you cannot play with nothingness. There is no way to play with nothingness.

When all games have disappeared, all contents have disappeared, you will be surprised to know, you will have also disappeared with your games – because the “I” exists only through games. You can change your games: the “I,” the ego, starts riding on other games.

When all games disappear – the game of observation included, the spiritual game included – when there is no content, and consciousness is there, just pure, with nothing to cling to, with nothing to hold on to, that is the moment when you go beyond games, beyond the world.

The world consists of games. Nirvana consists in going beyond all games.