Why not just play video games all day?

[DaveB]

Ok, then why not make it a life purpose? Start a youtube channel about video games and make a profit from it.

[SaWaSaurus]

11 hours ago, Snader said:

After you've grinded yourself to be the best Warzone player in the world and you've ended your hero's journey after 10 years and gently starting to move to next one, what have you gained, what will you have? You will have no impact, which will affect you on a deep level. You will also have very little useful skills developed you could use to fuel your next hero's calling. 

If you are doing personal development, you will sooner or later awaken to the shallowness of video games. You start seeing how it plays role in your life in a big picture. Especially competitive gaming -- which I assumed you're into -- is all about being selfish and gaining pleasure to yourself in expense of others. When you go deeper into yourself you might find that backfiring to you big time. Not to mention the toxic comp-gaming community, which will pretty likely condition you with very dysfunctional mindsets that will make your pursuit of happiness even harder.

If you're saying that competitive gaming as a life purpose doesn't do much good for society, then I agree. However if that's your point of view, you're going to have to lump in a lot of different life purposes into that same category of which is something I'm not sure if you'd agree or disagree with: things like art, dance, sports, culinary arts, music, comedy.. with the caveat that these aren't used as mediums for political or ideological messaging (George Carlin, Pink Floyd, etc.).

Competition is something that is misunderstood, especially in the spiritual community, and understandably so. For 99% of people, competition is an ego game for feeling superior to other people. People get off on the thrills and dopamine rushes of winning and losing, and the idea that they're more special or talented than their opponent. Observing this in people would make it seem obvious that that's all there is to competition, but there exists another perspective of competition that very few will experience. At the higher levels of competition, an inner game develops where ego gratification becomes the obstacle. In order to reach higher levels of concentration, the ego mind must be silenced. Competition then becomes an avenue where the stronger your opponent is, the more concentration is required. The strongest opponents let you fly the highest. Winning and losing no longer have much emotional weight on them, and in the moments of competition you feel a relaxed joyfulness and effortless effort. You'll be so 'in the zone' that you aren't thinking about what's happening, you're just letting your body act on its own. If someone asked you details about what occurred while in the zone, you'd have to go back and think about it because you were so focused you'd be unable to remember. Competition can be a powerful tool for increasing concentration, which is useful in all areas of life.

If we're talking statistically and generally, then ya video games are a useless time-sink that can potentially become a life ruining addiction, something to distract yourself from greater aspects of your life. That's not where it begins and ends though, for a small minority of people these games (heavily depending on the type of game, btw) can be useful tools. I find this true for sports as well. Neither will be sufficient for a meaningful life purpose, but tools for honing concentration, yes.

[Revolutionary Think]

On 8/31/2021 at 2:06 AM, preventingdiabetes said:

What have you replaced it with? Are you happier now than you were when you played video games like that?

I've replaced it with trying to create a body of work I'll be remembered by. Yes there was a level of happiness when I played those games but, faded over time. 

[Snader]

3 hours ago, SaWaSaurus said:

If you're saying that competitive gaming as a life purpose doesn't do much good for society, then I agree. However if that's your point of view, you're going to have to lump in a lot of different life purposes into that same category of which is something I'm not sure if you'd agree or disagree with: things like art, dance, sports, culinary arts, music, comedy.. with the caveat that these aren't used as mediums for political or ideological messaging (George Carlin, Pink Floyd, etc.).

With stuff like art, dance and music you get to express yourself in infinitely creative ways that will inspire other to do the same. During that process you expose yourself to spiritual aspects of existence and so get much richer and deeper life. As a comp video gamer you inspire others to compete others and your expression is very strict and your limits have already been decided by the game developers.

 

4 hours ago, SaWaSaurus said:

Competition is something that is misunderstood, especially in the spiritual community, and understandably so. For 99% of people, competition is an ego game for feeling superior to other people. People get off on the thrills and dopamine rushes of winning and losing, and the idea that they're more special or talented than their opponent. Observing this in people would make it seem obvious that that's all there is to competition, but there exists another perspective of competition that very few will experience. At the higher levels of competition, an inner game develops where ego gratification becomes the obstacle. In order to reach higher levels of concentration, the ego mind must be silenced. Competition then becomes an avenue where the stronger your opponent is, the more concentration is required. The strongest opponents let you fly the highest. Winning and losing no longer have much emotional weight on them, and in the moments of competition you feel a relaxed joyfulness and effortless effort. You'll be so 'in the zone' that you aren't thinking about what's happening, you're just letting your body act on its own. If someone asked you details about what occurred while in the zone, you'd have to go back and think about it because you were so focused you'd be unable to remember. Competition can be a powerful tool for increasing concentration, which is useful in all areas of life.

I do agree that there are exceptions and that this 1% is always ignored, but there is this exceptional 1% in pretty much everything and that cannot be counted in example when giving general life advice.

However, even in those exceptional cases, there is that endless grind and most likely exposing to toxic gaming community and culture you need to go through to become good enough to even be able to get to those flow states. Is it really worth it? And no matter how much and how many flow states you experience, your impact is still pretty much zero, and that will haunt you and eat your soul over time.

Video games are not bad. You can in example entertain people through Twitch with your personality or your high skills or whatever, but if you are really aiming high in life, you might want to reconsider. Deep satisfaction of existence lies beyond what the world of video games can offer.

[Jakuchu]

Anything done excessively is never wise. It will backfire. You will find one of the most unwise people within the gaming community. These people loose touch with life and they don't even realise it. It will become an addiction to a point where you can't appreciate anything that is not as exciting, stimulating and distracting as playing a video game. Also it will loose it's excitement very quickly. Years of that and it will become almost impossible to do anything related to spirituality, because at that point you won't have the mental capacity to do any spiritual practice. In moderation it can enrich your life. Treat it the same way as you would treat a movie theatre. You don't wanna be in a theatre and watch movies all day

Why go and do a meditation retreat, if i can play a fun exciting video game? That is how a gamer thinks

Edited September 2, 2021 by Jakuchu

[preventingdiabetes]

20 hours ago, Snader said:

Your willingness to have the green light to go all in with video games might be affecting your judgement and so silencing the inner voice of wisdom that tries to whisper in your ear. For that reason I want you to contemplate if there is any outer stuff happening in your life that is causing extra fear, discomfort, stress or pressure to you? Because it's especially when that's the case and you're not aware of it, when your mind tries to trick you into selling yourself short.

@Snader

Wow that's very good advice.. thanks Snader. I contemplated this. I have health issues that led to depression and apathy. At this point in time, life just feels so much harder than playing video games. So perhaps my mind is trying to convince me into settling for mediocrity and selling myself short. I still get the answer of playing video games when I ask myself if I had $100m, but maybe that's because I'm trying to escape reality? How can I tell?

[preventingdiabetes]

@SaWaSaurus

Does having a Life Purpose make you happier than playing video games?

4 hours ago, Snader said:

your impact is still pretty much zero, and that will haunt you and eat your soul over time.

@Snader But it's all an illusion though right? What difference does it make whether we make an impact on people or not? Or are there degrees of illusions in reality? Participating in the illusion of "reality" makes us happier than participating in an illusion layered within the illusion of reality; videogames. 

4 hours ago, Snader said:

Video games are not bad. You can in example entertain people through Twitch with your personality or your high skills or whatever, but if you are really aiming high in life, you might want to reconsider. Deep satisfaction of existence lies beyond what the world of video games can offer.

Where can we find that deep satisfaction?

[preventingdiabetes]

3 hours ago, Jakuchu said:

Years of that and it will become almost impossible to do anything related to spirituality, because at that point you won't have the mental capacity to do any spiritual practice.

@Jakuchu

How so? Is it related to dopamine?

[Waken]

I didn't read everything, but here my 2 cents. If you think about playing video games, check how you feel. Do you feel enthusiasm, excitement, a sense of relaxation, or such? Does it feel good to do? Then I would say go for it. OR is the feeling one of looking to numb yourself, of distracting yourself. Maybe the feeling is one of wanting to induldge in something so that you can not feel certain things and is a way of letting the day go by that way as a way of avoid feeling a sense of drag, unease or emptiness or such. I would expect it is rather the last one, but that's for you to check and decide.

[LfcCharlie4]

Are you playing video games to escape life & reality, or are you playing them simply to enjoy them & the process? 

It sounds subtle but the difference is huge. 

Unless your career/ LP involves gaming, it probably isn't wise to play 24/7. 

However, life isn't black & white, you could simply have a game you like and play it as a hobby, just like with most things. The obvious caveat to this is if you're a Gaming Addict, just like an alcoholic can't enjoy some beers with friends, gaming addicts can't just play for a couple hours here & there. 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with having fun & enjoying life, and this can include gaming, movies etc as hobbies. 

The difference is when you use these things to escape your life & your reality, if you're using it do that, maybe its best to take a break from the virtual life, and sort out your real life.

But, that doesn't mean you can't go back to gaming as a hobby, or even have it as a hobby now. 

Balance. 

[hyruga]

21 hours ago, DaveB said:

Ok, then why not make it a life purpose? Start a youtube channel about video games and make a profit from it.

/this is correct. The market  for gaming is much larger than the market for self help.

[Jakuchu]

7 hours ago, preventingdiabetes said:

@Jakuchu

How so? Is it related to dopamine?

Well, i basically have a case regarding my brother, which i can "study". He is a twitch streamer and plays League of Legends and he literally is not interested in anything else. It's like nothing has an appeal to him anymore besides playing that game. And is miserable doing so. Like, going for a walk, reading a book etc. is not even on his mind and is seen as a waste of time. If someone turned off the internet for maintenance for a few days or so, he would have a heart attack. He also calls spirituality bullshit, so that is all you have to know in order to assess someones sanity. If someone says that meditation is a waste of time, that person is insane 

When you are doing and thinking the same things over and over again, it's like you are creating a hamster wheel for your mind. Everything outside the wheel will be seen as not worthwile enough and you naturally become close minded. It is gonna have a hard time now tolerating change and will not be interested in it. And that is where life becomes hell, when you say no to change. And I am not even talking about a big change, like changing your world view or having to adapt to a completely different culture. I mean little changes such as dressing slightly differently, picking up a more healthy diet, watching something more mindful as your choice of entertainment, reading a new book etc. 

Edited September 2, 2021 by Jakuchu

[Snader]

47 minutes ago, preventingdiabetes said:

I have health issues that led to depression and apathy. At this point in time, life just feels so much harder than playing video games. So perhaps my mind is trying to convince me into settling for mediocrity and selling myself short.

That's very good news that you found out that factor! People make imprudent decisions when faced with too much life challenges at wrong timing. It's very important to acknowledge this and hold yourself until your situation is settled. Good work!

 

51 minutes ago, preventingdiabetes said:

I still get the answer of playing video games when I ask myself if I had $100m, but maybe that's because I'm trying to escape reality?

You are not conscious enough right now to see this. Maybe this fog is only temporary as your mind is busy trying to settle you for less than you know you deserve. If you keep working on your mind and improving yourself, I bet you will see there is much better stuff for you to do.

 

54 minutes ago, preventingdiabetes said:

How can I tell?

By the fact that you started this thread. You have hesitation, it's the wisdom within you that's sensing there's something wrong. If you didn't have that wisdom, you wouldn't question this matter. That's exactly why you should contemplate and trying to get back on track with your higher self to get to look at this situation from a higher plane.

 

47 minutes ago, preventingdiabetes said:

But it's all an illusion though right? What difference does it make whether we make an impact on people or not? Or are there degrees of illusions in reality? Participating in the illusion of "reality" makes us happier than participating in an illusion layered within the illusion of reality; videogames.

That's your ego talking right there. It's trying to use spiritual wisdom to justify it's needs. But it's totally fine, as long as you don't give it full control.

This is a spiritual matter that requires direct experience to be understood and is really hard to be communicated properly with language. But we can say that reality is basically layered and as you develop and become more conscious and closer to Truth, you move upper the layers. You want to live from upper and upper layer, from which the plane of playing video games all day is pretty far down somewhere.

From the absolute perspective it doesn't matter what you do with your life, but as long as you are a finite being, you can't justify anything with the absolute, because your human life is very finite and relative in practice and your practice is linked with your whole sense of reality and your sense of self -- if that makes any sense.

 

2 hours ago, preventingdiabetes said:

Where can we find that deep satisfaction?

That you need to figure out for yourself. Actualized.org does great work helping you with that.

[preventingdiabetes]

I have spent time contemplating during the past few days. 

I felt that something was off. I must be deceiving myself here. 

And indeed, I was.

I have now gotten out of this rut playing video games, and reconnected with the self that was interested in these teachings in the first place. In fact, I hadn't even touched a video game since I first created this post.

This is a trap that is very dangerous, it's something that is not talked about within gamer culture. 

Here are the insights I had from post-contemplating the experience of what I will call "The Video Game Rut" 

• When you are in this rut, you don't realize it is a rut
• I would go far as to say that you are not even sober during this rut. 
• You are not yourself when you are in this rut. You are more like a dumbed down version of yourself. Think of how a drunk alcoholic acts, that is the state you are in. 
• Your mind plays tricks on you, convincing you that life could not possibly be enjoyable without playing videogames. It will find any rationalization it can find, e.g. "Life is about living in the moment"

Your body develops a dopamine tolerance from the steady dopamine release of video games.

Not only does this mean that you need to play more video games to receive that same "hit" you used to, other activities become harder to do, hence why you can't imagine living a life without video games. 

This happened in my experience. Where usually I enjoyed reading books, I no longer enjoyed them. 

Just 6 days of abstaining from video games and I started reading books like I used to again. However, I was in this rut for 2 months. It would be wise to expect that it would take a lot longer for people who have been in this rut for years (which is common). 

[preventingdiabetes]

On 9/3/2021 at 1:42 AM, Jakuchu said:

When you are doing and thinking the same things over and over again, it's like you are creating a hamster wheel for your mind. Everything outside the wheel will be seen as not worthwile enough and you naturally become close minded. It is gonna have a hard time now tolerating change and will not be interested in it. And that is where life becomes hell, when you say no to change. And I am not even talking about a big change, like changing your world view or having to adapt to a completely different culture. I mean little changes such as dressing slightly differently, picking up a more healthy diet, watching something more mindful as your choice of entertainment, reading a new book etc. 

@Jakuchu This is exactly what happened to me. You explained it in a nice way. 

On 9/3/2021 at 2:03 AM, Snader said:

By the fact that you started this thread. You have hesitation, it's the wisdom within you that's sensing there's something wrong. If you didn't have that wisdom, you wouldn't question this matter. That's exactly why you should contemplate and trying to get back on track with your higher self to get to look at this situation from a higher plane.

@Snader You worded this perfectly! That's exactly what I ended up doing and I have a better vantage point now.

On 9/3/2021 at 2:03 AM, Snader said:

This is a spiritual matter that requires direct experience to be understood and is really hard to be communicated properly with language. But we can say that reality is basically layered and as you develop and become more conscious and closer to Truth, you move upper the layers. You want to live from upper and upper layer, from which the plane of playing video games all day is pretty far down somewhere.

So it's like there is different layers of reality, and peeling back the layers brings you closer to the core (Truth) like an onion? And video games is like a layer that's very far away from Truth?

On 9/3/2021 at 2:03 AM, Snader said:

That you need to figure out for yourself. Actualized.org does great work helping you with that.

Any pointers? Perhaps the pursuit of Enlightenment and Life Purpose?

[nistake]

How about a middle way approach? I mean, if you're heavily addicted to video games and can't function, it's best to lay off them by any means necessary. But, if you do enjoy playing video games AND at the same time you can meditate, contemplate, study/work, why not do that? Maybe try to build a solid daily routine. After studying/working, allow yourself to play video games for 1-2 hours. Then sit down to meditate for a while. Then read something or do some journaling/contemplating.

At first it can feel that you're doing chores when you're not playing, however, it'll definitely turn around. At one point you'll realize that you're actually wasting precious time when you're playing video games. But you don't really need to think about that right now. If you enjoy video games, allow yourself to enjoy them. Forcing consciousness work just because "that's what I should do" will definitely NOT work.

By the way, I'm speaking from direct experience. I wasn't an addict or anything like that, but I did spend many hours on video games and I enjoyed them. Then, after I while I started to realize that I don't really enjoy them anymore. Still played a few matches here and there and then I completely stopped. Not because somebody told me or I felt guilty. It was a natural and organic process.

[Raphael]

Play the real game of life. It has realistic graphics that no video game will ever attain.

[Snader]

23 hours ago, preventingdiabetes said:

On 2.9.2021 at 5:03 PM, Snader said:

This is a spiritual matter that requires direct experience to be understood and is really hard to be communicated properly with language. But we can say that reality is basically layered and as you develop and become more conscious and closer to Truth, you move upper the layers. You want to live from upper and upper layer, from which the plane of playing video games all day is pretty far down somewhere.

So it's like there is different layers of reality, and peeling back the layers brings you closer to the core (Truth) like an onion? And video games is like a layer that's very far away from Truth?

On 2.9.2021 at 5:03 PM, Snader said:

That you need to figure out for yourself. Actualized.org does great work helping you with that.

Any pointers? Perhaps the pursuit of Enlightenment and Life Purpose?

I personally get the most satisfaction when I live knowing that my way of living is aligned with Truth. It doesn't mean I should be a monk or a yogi or meditate 24/7, but that I'm with understanding of my own psychology and basic understanding of life and human development doing the best I can do to live as consciously and lovingly as I can at the moment an so slowly moving towards something, that we could maybe call Truth.

Can't say what's the best way of living to you, but I would advice you to be active in life, try different stuff, experience life, travel, have relationships, gain wisdom through good knowledge and personal development work and keep exploring the life you are given and you will find out what's the best way of living to you. Having a life purpose is a very strong and important aspect of that process I think, and if spirituality and pursuit of enlightenment comes during the process, then great, if not, then great, then it's not the right direction to you. Getting on track with life will make your path unravel. Also, the answers might not become totally visible and clear, you might need to listen to your intuition and find trust towards that.

If you like to play video games, then do so, video games are not bad. It's the ramifications of doing nothing but playing video games that is destructive and will lead you to miss the juice of life. With video games maybe you need to contemplate whether you can create a healthy relationship with them or quit them altogether.

[Waken]

@preventingdiabetes Wow, good recovery, really nice reading that. I would say there is nothing bad with playing video games per se. When a video game comes up, you can ask if there is a sort of relaxed enthusiasm for it, or it is more of a low vibrational feeling of wanting something to satisfy you. I would call the first motivation a positive one, and perhaps the last one can be said to come from a belief/feeling of lack. I considered playing a video game a little while ago, and there was some enthusiasm, but there was also like a sort of restlessness, like a sort of chaotic energy. In that case, I often choose to just leave the whole thing. Once stepping back from such things, I sometimes get the idea or sense that it was a fear based motivation or energy that wants to run or cling towards a certain sense of satisfaction/filling, and from that one to the next. In my case there can then be a resistance against the idea of just sitting and relaxing, perhaps because something wants to be avoided
I heard recently something like that addiction is an attempt to fill yourself/an emptiness up, with something that can't do it.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Waken

[impulse9]

Some people make careers out of playing videogames. Some streamers escape wage slavery by literally playing videogames all day long. Stop being so myopic and judgmental, it's limiting your options in life.