In Mahjong Solitaire, 144 tiles in traditional configurations (for example, the turtle) are deconstructed. Patience is key, and resolute quickness which, if faltering, nearly always results in loss. There are no algorithms. One is guessed into winning, not without risk of the unsolvable.* The goal is simple. Remove characters (4 of each) - letters, bamboos, circles, dragons - through winds (1 of each), seasons and flowers.
The game challenges distraction, frustration, confusion. Wins often numb and perplex, are seldom repeated as patterns scramble for unreadable novelty.
The tiles wash over you like a wave, flaunting their intricacy. Each game placidly preys on your belief in pattern, order, sense.
Dhamma says one may apply oneself to the unreadable, the inapplicable, the false. One may envy the success of wrong action.
But what is one to do with the inscrutability of right-mindedness, the hamstrung puzzlement of sincere failure?
*A sample of 10,000,000 games with the default layout, 'the turtle' (see right), which were analyzed in about 40 hours on a single processor thread, revealed that between 2.95 and 2.96 percent of the turtles cannot be solved even if peeking is allowed (http://www.math.ru.nl/~debondt/mjsolver.html)
