What Are the Chances Of

How a Bad Game of Mahjong Can Also Be a Tool of Divination

Screen Print by Author of Another Game of Mahjong

Okay, so what are the chances of hitting a match when you’ve got a thousand possibilities? I’d say they are good. Mahjong is like that. I do this as a psychic exercise. In fact, whenever I think of it, I like to turn a lot of things I do into something that somehow pushes me in a psychic way.

Here’s what I do with Mahjong. It’s never the same but I find that once I have the tiles scattered for the first time, I allow my eyes to sweep over the board. I do this in either a clockwise or sometimes in a counterclockwise manner. Just a circular sweep or two. I am not looking for anything that matches, not the first time around.

Then, I trust.

I trust that my noggin, my brain, my mind, and my psychic self have located those matches currently available. I have not consciously picked them out. I am at peace. There is a calmness in how I do this.

I just allow it to happen.

Then, my eyes will go to the first tile and move quickly to the matching tile available. Boom.

Then, as quickly as I can I allow those matches to surface. As I do this tension rises and I begin to breathe more quickly. I think it is another game to see just how many matches I can make before I need to shuffle and throw the tiles again.

It gets to the point where I cannot make any more matches. I don’t wear myself out looking for them. I don’t want frustration to become a part of this exercise. In fact, frustration will screw up the whole thing. So, I hit the Hint button. Bear in mind I am not actually playing Mahjong on a table. I’m using one of those online computer games.

So, I hit the Hint button and I will either get a match or not. If I need to reshuffle I do so. If there is a match I missed I go ahead and click Hint again. Sometimes I will do a sweep and determine to myself there are no matches, so the guess goes to the Hint button. If there are matches then I was off my game, but I accept the matches with equanimity. I do not get angry with myself. It’s all a part of the game. If not the game is on again.

A sense of calm is important throughout the game.