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Life is like a game?
Anyone else feel this way? Like, from one point of view, you're just participating in this game. A very entertaining game, but a game nonetheless. This may be a delusion, but it sure seems to be true sometimes. I enjoy the show either way, though. 
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I like your way of looking at it, too. I think I use game simply because I feel like an active participant.
haha i've been known to play some videogames here and there
I guess it's kind of a combination of both. When i'm feeling particularly egoless I see it as more of a movie. As I get more into my poing of view, I see it as a game. I think movie is a better description, actually. Or perhaps i'm overthinking it lol
You're encouraged to just sit back and let it unfold, because it's not 'real' anyway.... accept the twists and turns of the plot and see "reality" for what it is - and isn't.
Enjoy the popcorn.
I would say life is more like a (William Shakespeare) play than a game:
Not really because in a "game", the suffering, death and destruction actually isn't real. But in life, it very much is real to those who are experiencing it. Now if you are talking about what is going on "inside your head", then yes it can be a movie or game that is entertaining.
Who is to say this is real... yes it seems real, just as a dream seems real until you wake up. This is all a delusion, an illusion of perception, maybe this is a dream.. We are not to know :O
I don't know about it being a game...but I think we tend to take a lot of things far too seriously in life sometimes.
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Anywho, I'm totally with you Dazzle. I'm wondering if people should take life seriously at all...
Agreed.
If we are too silly there can be no progress; spiritually, socially or otherwise. If we are too serious then life becomes a chore. We need to take life just the right amount of serious for optimal results.
As for life being a game, I've always thought that good analogies could be found in Chess (in a tactical sense) and Backgammon ( because it introduces the element of chance into play.)
I think it was the modern day humorist/satirist George Carlin who said words along the lines of - Life is sheer entertainment. Those who do not understand this just haven't been paying attention.
Even so, I think the greatest game of all (and analogies be damned!
Is the grand game of Life itself.
Seeing that nothing is worth holding on to as it is not really ours anyway - no material thing, no status or worldly value such as winning, means we are less willing to engage in behaviours which participate in the game. By looking into the way the mind actually is, we see that nothing really belongs to us anyway - there is nobody static to own anything over time ( any emotion we feel comes from within us and is more about where we are at at that moment rather than external circumstances ).
Being able to remain open and willing to learn from the ups and downs and the way things happen to be moment to moment - the irritations and problems as well as the good times and happiness is less "gamey" than resisting, avoiding and ultimately rejecting life.
My experience has been a growing tendency to be able to give up the tendency to control and manipulate - trying to change the world and make it into what you want it to be.
Agree fully with what you say, but my reply is that it's not weather you win or lose - it's how you play the game.
That, for me, is the way in which I relate to life being a game, a truly glorious game to be played as beautifully and skillfully as we are able.
(All glorious thoughts of course, but we're all debating within the dubious paradigm of relating life to a game.)
But it's fun.
Play on!!
If life is a game then, it occurs to me, that the term 'game' becomes useless.
I WIN
I wonder if seriousness is really a requisite of getting things done at all...
When someone tells you to listen closely and pay attention to something, REALLY pay attention, what do you do? Your body tenses up, your ears might stiffen, you might clench your jaw a bit. None of that has anything to do with listening better.
Think about what parents often say to their kids "you're not taking this seriously!". It's almost as if this is a bad thing, an insult. What does being serious actually do? We teach our children how to be afraid, so that they'll take care of themselves, because we are ABSOLUTELY 100% positive that life MATTERS. Not only does it matter, it's SERIOUS.
Does it matter? Is it serious?
What would happen if life didn't matter? What if there was no such thing as death? Would people still live the same way they do now if they didn't have to guard and protect their life? Would people take life seriously?
For a start I wouldn't bother typing out this response, and neither would anyone else. Secondly, of course life is cheap, and doesn't matter very much if at all, depending of course where you were born.
'What if's' aside never mind 'death', how about quality of life? We can be thankful that every inventor, innovator and great mind in history took life seriously, because if they didn't we would all be stuck in a primordial pattern, doomed to scramble around in a likely hostile environment, occasionally preyed upon by other species, and usually dying at an average of 33 years old.
The devil may care, but the odds are not good. Thankfully we have medical science so we don't all die of smallpox, and modern midwifery so that many young women are spared death during childbirth.
Do you mean to suggest that there's some inherent meaning to life?
I suppose having a false perception on something that may or may not be there still counts as missing the point.
Awake in the dream...perhaps it is more like serious play.
Love and peace,
S9
Oh yeah, that old chestnut. The intended meaning and the actual meaning get mixed up, and subsequently, many desirable and undesirable outcomes come to pass.
So people enjoy the benefits of the imagination, the power of fantasy and belief, which creates a more colourful world in which to live. However your point may be to miss the point, in which case works of fiction, movies, books, CD.s toys, trips, ice cream and other flights of fancy have no value or real purpose.
Agreed. Also the opposite is true. We need to learn the consequences of living the "wrong way".
Being aware of the consequences of our actions is the foundation upon which we build an ethical way of life. If we think "damn the consequences" then we are not taking life seriously enough. If we live in fear of making wrong choices and regret about past choices then this would be taking life too seriously. A healthy respect for actions having consequences is taking life "seriously enough", (in my opinion, of course).
This is one example (ethics/morality) of what I mean, Marmalade, when I say we need to take life (at least somewhat) seriously. I didn't mean that we need to be tense or fearful, that would be TOO serious.
It is interesting that you mention "paying attention" as an example of taking life "too seriously". At the start of a Sutta the Buddha often says "listen and pay close attention". Why does he say this? Maybe it isn't actually the words of the Buddha, it could have been added on afterwards...But...I have found that intentionally trying to pay attention when I listen to or read a Sutta that I get more from it and I remember its contents. Also, the first instructions in the Anapanasati Sutta are to "Make [your] body erect and set up mindfulness".
I think I know what you mean though, when children are told to pay attention in school it makes then develop an aversion to school work. But there is a key difference here between the school kid and the person who wants to learn the Dhamma...that is the school kid does not want to be in his situation, the person listening to Dhamma (presumably) does want to be there. If we want to be here, then paying attention is easy. If we don't want to or we aren't interested in the subject then it is a chore.
Think how that same child who was struggling to pay attention might be if he is watching Avatar or whatever his favourite movie is for the first time, no doubt he will be glued to the screen.
Would you rather live 100 years of seriousness, or one single day of playfulness? Can happiness be measured in units of time?
Deep down, you feel that ethics/morals/truth is important.
Is that a fair assumption?
What is importance? Is it not the belief that something is significant, it matters, and that we should be serious about it?
Why does the idea of dying scare people? Why does the idea of infinite sorrow and suffering make people feel bad? If you found out your entire life was just a dream, would it make you feel uneasy at all? Be honest.
It's because you feel like you have something to lose. You place significance in truth, justice, heaven, nirvana, happiness,your own life, whatever. You make it important. Objectivity is an illusion. There is nothing that isn't you.
The whole game is that you're trying to protect/guard something that isn't there!
It's just a ride!
Honestly I'd probably prefer the single day of playfulness. But preference does not equal usefulness. Ajahn Chah said that "If you are still following your like and dislikes, you are not practicing the Buddha's Teaching". I definitely don't always practice the Buddha's Teaching.
Yes
I believe ethics are important because they safeguard ourselves and others from harm.
Honestly I would think "What a relief! Nothing matters!" - but I do not believe that life is a dream. I believe that what we think, say and do does matter.
It is because I believe that the way we live our life has consequences.
There is nothing that IS a self. All dhammas are anatta.
On one level I agree. But on another level, as long as we are putthujanas, there is certainly a usefulness to taking the Four Noble Truths seriously.
Not to go against what someone more learned in buddhism than I said, but i'm not sure if I agree with that. I agree that over-indulgence in ones likes is against the buddha's teachings, but if doing what "you" like brings "you" and potentially others happiness I don't see what's wrong with it just cuz u like it.
When we talk about happiness we need to be specific. Happiness in a mundane sense is impermanent. The common strategy is to maximize this type of happiness. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with this, and I admit I use this strategy too. But "Ultimate Happiness" (i.e. Cessation of Suffering/3rd Noble Truth) is only brought about through practicing the Noble Eightfold Path. Sometimes we might like practice, sometimes we might dislike practice. But the Path remains the same even when our likes and dislikes change.
Taking things seriously isn't bad/wrong, it's just unnecessary. Can't one consider, even follow the noble truths without being serious about them? What does being serious actually do?
There's a story about a man on a plane taking off who becomes nervous as the plane speeds up, but doesn't lift off the ground. He sees that there isn't much runway left and becomes more anxious as the plane continues forward. He begins pulling his seat belt up, almost as if an attempt to lift the entire plane up into the air.
Ridiculous, right? There's no way the man could lift the plane up but he does it anyway. Maybe it was a way to comfort himself, to deal with stress? Maybe he didn't even realize he was doing it at all?
Pulling the seat belt up becomes a habit. We do it so long we forget that we can even let go of the seat belt. Then we wonder why we're so tense and anxious all the time. Again, there's nothing necessarily wrong/bad about this.
It's fine to play the game; the problem is when people forget that they are playing a game. They start to take it seriously, then get nervous when the game is about to end. They get so used to playing they can't imagine doing anything else. Some people will do anything to keep the game going indefinitely.
I get the point you are trying to make though and I agree. There is no need to worry. Agreed.
I agree the eightfold path is the most important thing, all I mean is that if doing something you like doesn't involve going against the path then it doesn't go against the buddha's teachings, imo.
Agreed.
I don’t think you have to tell someone that is interested in a topic to pay attention, interest and attention, like you have said, goes hand and hand. I believe the schools today have lost track of this point, and don’t try to interest the children but rather bully them into attending to a subject.
Paying attention to paying attention can act as an obstacle to what is being attended to, ‘the mind being one pointed.’
I do however find we often move too swiftly through new information, most times, and by simply slowing down just a little, things are more likely to take root and to grow.
Peace and love,
S9
We can only wait until the outcomes manifest as the new now, look closely, and do it all over again.
Too often we run out ahead of ourselves, and try to deal with what hasn’t arrived yet; the future. This is certainly a recipe for anxiety (AKA fear of the future), and a feeling of powerlessness.
Very often most given moments are manageable, and when they are not, well “This too will pass.”
I learned this difficult lesson when dealing with heavy physical pain, a great teacher. Taking on the possibility of all future pain would certainly be insurmountable, beat us down.
In the game of life, we can only throw the dice, make our best move with what arrives, and wait until it is our turn to throw the dice again.
Peace and love,
S9
Nicely put... looking for certainties in this life brings with it a lot of dissappointments and unnecessary suffering.
Kind regards...