Best Of
Re: Letting go of games
Game On!
Augmented reality is coming. Will it be addictive like ticktock, Instagram and blowing up imaginary robots etc? Sure.
However there is another game called RL (Real Life). E.g.
- Pick a role or ID.
- Now find a way of "playing"
- Having fun yet?
No?
Restart Game? Yes/No?
lobster
Re: Not chasing pleasure nor avoiding pain
When we chase pleasure, we find the pleasure we thought we we chasing is an illusion, a mirage, ephemeral, fleeting, smoke in the wind.
When we think we are avoiding pain, it wraps around us, smothering us.
When we are in the Middle Way, a true pleasure arises from within and pain is defused, disbursed fading to vanish as if morning mist in the sunlight.
We are neither enraptured by pleasure not tormented by pain.
It is not that we do not feel pleasure or pain. We do. But they are as wind buffeting us as if a cork upon the sea. Rather than being buffeted by these winds, we are as upon a sailing vessel and they are winds which enable us to navigate the vast sea.
Peace to all
Lionduck
Re: Letting go of games
I go on the computer.
I push buttons and move a mouse to cause changes on a screen.
Here I choose a smaller more controllable world than a wider less controllable reality.
Isn't a gamer just anyone in any moment who chooses a dream over being awake?
how
Re: Letting go of games
@Jeroen
Isn't what you call an astute observation, simply that which a "gamer" is unwilling to face.
What an ego/identity, or the selfish self fears to sacrifice, the practitioner transcending such fears manifests as freedom's graces.
When someone under a gamer's yoke, endlessly complains about the costs of their bondage, tell them that such slavery depends only on them turning down freedom's options, one nanosecond at a time. Can we practice in any other time than within the one fleeting nanosecond that we can live in? That which we are unwilling to face requires no more than a nanoseconds worth of bravery for a nanoseconds worth of life.
This does not entail a mind stirring its own mental mud puddle with its attachments in the hopes of finding clarity.
This entails a mind, dropping its own stir-stick to allow the mud puddle to settle, simply revealing that which is clear water and that which is mud.
how
Re: Letting go of games
Long post ahead but I wanted to join the fruitful self-inquiring going on on the forums lately and give some context since I did not post in this thread in a long time.
As I wrote previously, I've been playing games off and on, mostly off, during the past few years.
With some, I believe I have a healthy relationship, like with chess, which I don't play that much but do enjoy playing on occasion plus following a few youtube chess-related channels. It seems to have a neutral or slightly positive effect on me. If nothing else, I get to exercise reason, planning and patience.
With others, like with Civilization 3, I don't have a good relationship with, but it's still not a disaster. The effect of it is negative: I will play too long, screw up my next day, get somewhat obsessed. So I will play for a few days and then self-ban for a few months.
With still others, like with Ogame (a browser-based strategy game that goes on literally 24/7/365) I have a terrible relationship with. It completely takes on my life and becomes a substitute for living. So I've played only twice for three weeks and once for one week during the past 20 years and had withdrawal symptoms after self-banning every time. I must confess that when my mother was in hospital for an operation I was a bad supporter/visitor because half of my mind was on the game 
So, self-banning has been my preferred solution so far. It would work for most of the time. I would frequently reinstall the games, and play again, and self-ban again. That's something at least, but obviously not good enough. Also, I see the bad habit of going back to bad habits.
But the trouble is that self-banning is still not freedom, even if it works, it's just the opposite of unchecked indulgence.
I am writing today because the other day I told myself I would do two things differently, as an experiment while playing Civ3, with the idea being to train moderation and seeing if that would help:
a) Actually give myself permission to play. Even so, my anxiety went through the roof at first, as it seemed I was dismantling a good boundary of "playing Civ3 is bad".
b) actually stick to playing for the allotted reasonable time and not longer.
My reaction during this experiment was totally unexpected to me: "I'm actually not that interested in the game!".
Honestly, I don't know what to make of this.
Is it the resistance to something that actually somehow paradoxically makes it more desirable to the mind? Is true freedom the freedom to play or the freedom not to play, while willingly and gladly choosing full heartedly the wholesome/beneficial solution? Does self-banning somehow lead to a cycle of going back to it?
Anyway, a spiritual teacher I know would often speak of triangulation. How progress is not in the opposites but in the apex of the triangle between and above the opposites. With games, I've known indulging too much and self-banning. This is the first time I'm thinking there might be a higher/better/more mature solution. But I don't know what it is.
Maybe it's just finding something better to do for fun? 
marcitko
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“When I occasionally quote the words of Jesus or the Buddha, from A Course in Miracles or from other teachings, I do so not in order to compare, but to draw your attention to the fact that in essence there is and always has been only one spiritual teaching, although it comes in many forms. Some of these forms, such as the ancient religions, have become so overlaid with extraneous matter that their spiritual essence has become almost completely obscured by it. To a large extent, therefore, their deeper meaning is no longer recognized and their transformative power lost. When I quote from the ancient religions or other teachings, it is to reveal their deeper meaning and thereby restore their transformative power -- particularly for those readers who are followers of these religions or teachings. I say to them: there is no need to go elsewhere for the truth. Let me show you how to go more deeply into what you already have.”
— Eckhart Tolle
Jeroen
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
Remember: just as you cannot fight the darkness, so you cannot fight unconsciousness. If you try to do so, the polar opposites will become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. You will become identified with one of the polarities, you will create an "enemy," and so be drawn into unconsciousness yourself. Raise awareness by disseminating information, or at the most, practice passive resistance. But make sure that you carry no resistance within, no hatred, no negativity. "Love your enemies," said Jesus, which, of course, means "have no enemies."
— Eckhart Tolle
Jeroen
Re: Going to the Gym
Our minds will always more easily ski down the tracks that our past habituated actions have carved. Add hormones to this mix and a re-linking to memories of sunny skies and fresh powder conditions will predominate.
If we are lucky and committed enough in our practice, alternative possibilities to such karmic predispositions, within each moment, can present options that we wouldn't of otherwise considered.
Most though will repeatedly choose an old known cause of suffering over an unknown possibility of that suffering's cessation.
how
Re: Going to the Gym
@person said:
For me its been really annoying and misery making. I've never had those relationship game playing skills, and after a few failed relationships found spirituality a more natural and fulfilling path and thus never had the incentive to develop them.
For what it's worth, part of the reason my wife found me endearing when we first met was that I had ZERO game, so she knew that whatever she was feeling for me, she was not being manipulated into it. So much of relationships, I think, is about timing and where we are in our lives and where the other person is.
For me the problem with randomly fantasizing about this woman or that woman is the craving it creates. Even if it is mild, it starts to feel pervasive, and while in the moment it seems like a harmless little dopamine hit, I wonder if it is not harmful over time.
I believe this thought is attributed to the Buddha? "Do not overlook negative actions merely because they are small; however small a spark may be, it can burn down a haystack as big as a mountain."
