The Glass Bead Game question

What is the Glass Bead Game? How is the Game played?

Knecht, himself, provides a pretty good clue: "I imagine," Knecht wrote to his patron, "that one can be an excellent Glass Bead Game player, even a virtuoso, and perhaps even a thoroughly competent Magister Ludi, without having any inkling of the real mystery of the game and its ultimate meaning. It might even be that one who does guess or know the truth might prove a danger to the Game, were he to become a specialist in the Game, a Game leader. For the dark interior, the esoterics of the Game, points down into the One and All, into those depths where the eternal Atman eternally breathes in and out, sufficient unto itself. One who has experienced the meaning of the Game within himself would by that fact, no longer be a player; he would no longer dwell in the world of multiplicity and would no longer be able to delight in invention, construction, and combination, since he would enjoy altogether different joys and raptures. Because I think I have come close to the meaning of the Glass Bead Game, it will be better for me and for others if I do not make the game my profession, but instead shift to music."

Pair that statement with this verse from a Sanskrit scripture on meditation:

न व्रजेन्न विशेच्छक्तिर्मरुद्रूपा विकासिते ।
निर्विकल्पतया मध्ये तया भैरवरूपता ॥ २६ ॥

na vrajenna viśecchaktirmarudrūpā vikāsite ।
nirvikalpatayā madhye tayā bhairavarūpatā ॥ 26 ॥


When mind
is silent . . .


and breath
ceases
flowing . . .

in
and out . . .


of its own accord


it abides


in the center . . .


Abide

in the moment


Divinity dawns . . .


For details, please see my blog post on the question.


JP