Cosmic Play

Explore the creation myth of Hinduism with Brahman, Brahma, and Vishnu, the preserver god who plays tricks and manipulates through his maya.

Handelman and Shulman (1997) tell us that “Indic cosmology is imbued with playful properties of ludic paradox” (p. 37)—try saying that three

In mainstream monotheistic cosmologies, play is a bottom-up affair. The ludic is often formed in opposition to or as a negation of the orde

The whole One God concept of the big three monotheisms, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam seems too limiting and rigid. I imagine a kind of

D. L. Miller (1970) not only discusses the history of play and game theory since Homo Ludens, but also brings us back to the origin of ideas

Play, Huizinga (1944/1955) argues, is older than culture. Some of our animal ancestors have been very playful indeed.

Just what is the nature of this play? Did the Divine know what it was doing? Could this all be one horrible mistake? As we have just seen a

In the “Haunted Mansion” at Disneyland, after entering you are shown into a room, and then the walls close, and as the room begins to lower

It's very involved, actually, and literally. As we have seen, according to Hindu philosophy, the phenomenal world, which we take to be real

As participators in the creative, transformative power of the imagination, we make our own illusory reality, "mini-maya" through visual arts