A Higher Possibility

Michael Naumer
1942 – 2001

Beyond the Game
Michael Naumer and his wife Christina created The Mind of Love, which later morphed into Beyond the Game. Incorporating concepts from Gurdjieff, Oscar Ichazo, Werner Erhard, and a number of other consciousness teachers, they created a transformational body of work where the objective was one of self-recognition. The main course, along with the graduate work, delved into the principles below, and then some—teachings about choice, reality, logic, and transformation. The purpose of the work was self-recognition, where Michael deemed, “The purpose of relationship was not to make oneself happy, but was a useful vehicle for seeing oneself.” For five years I immersed myself in these conversations, and those five years altered the course of my life. Beyond the Game was a higher game: chess, not checkers. It was a game not to be missed.

Forty Principles, Tools, and Aphorisms

Quotes from Beyond the Game, by Michael Naumer

1. Consciousness is that which recognizes itself.
2. The universe is not oppositional, only our minds are.
3. Everything changes. Everything happens in cycles. Everything contributes.
4. Everything contains within itself the seed of its apparent opposite.
5. There are no accidents.
6. Things are not happening to me—they are happening for me.
7. Do I want to be right or do I want to be effective?
8. Am I available for what I say I want?
9. What is my part?
10. Expand to include and have it contribute.
11. No good deed goes unpunished.
12. The mind is a dangerous neighborhood; don’t go in there alone.
13. Our baggage is the material we need to transform; we need our stuff, we just want to become objective about it so we can deal with it.
14. If you are going to be here, be here. If not, go someplace else.
15. Whatever you hold as “this shouldn’t be,” you energize its continued existence.
16. What you can’t choose, you have to hold as burden.
17. Where you are the most wounded, you are the most accomplished.
18. Where you stumble is your gold.
19. When you get your limits, you get your maturity.
20. When you diminish another person you lose their ability to contribute to you.
21. As long as you have to live inside the tribe you cannot be a leader.
22. There is no meaning in reality. Truth does not mean anything—it is just what’s so.
23. Everything is important—and nothing is significant.
24. As consciousness rises, significance drops away.
25. It’s all, all working.
26. It’s better to ride the horse in the direction it is going.
27. It’s not about me. It may have something to do with me, but it’s not about me—or my value. Nor is it about you—or your value.
28. Do not assign emotional responsibility to another. They don’t cause it—they only occasion it.
29. Gathering evidence: the way in which we organize our resistance.
30. Get the debt out of relationship. We are not owed anything.
31. Expectation shuts it down.
32. Love is the recognition of the equal in the other.
33. Relationships will not fill my gap (the solution becomes the problem).
34. There is a difference between taking a stand and being a stand.
35. Position creates opposition. When I take a position, I have to defend it.
36. Context determines content.
37. Attachment produces dependence, dependence produces complaint. You can’t get to satisfaction from complaint.
38. Complaint is an abdication of responsibility.
39. People are miraculous surprises.
40. Sometimes you eat the bear—and sometimes the bear eats you.

Mandala of Creation, by Michael Naumer (medium: chalk pastels)

© 2016. Catherine Sevenau.
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