The Tools of Distraction and Sleep

[xise]

Jerome, I think you raise some good points. There are tons of different types of games.

I can't stand the "average" game these days. It's like just braindraining in front of reality tv. Nothing interesting about them. I can't stand average television either. But I do game, and I do watch television (netflix!)

I think there are three important factors to considering play games:
(1) The intent when you play them.
(2) The nature of the game itself.
(3) How you play the game.

The intent when you play them
If you play games to escape your real life problems, and do it a lot, it can become something that hinders you. If you play for other reasons, such as to socialize with friends, to be creative, explore themes of duality, to play competitively, then it is less so, and this leads to the second point.

The nature of the game itself
Games like Tetris versus let's say World of Warcraft, Civilization, Dragon Age, or Battlefield.
Tetris: This game, while it has mental aspects, is very simple and I believe, mostly a time pass distraction, and there's nothing wrong with this in moderation.
World of Warcraft: This game has intense social dynamics, and involves much interaction with other-selves.
Civilization: You can play this game very creative, and try to build empires focusing on certain types of governments or technology. Plenum, regardless of your intent when you min-max'ed your RPG characters, there'd be a great bit of creativity in what you came up with I bet.
Dragon Age: This game is heavy on themes of duality, shades of grey morale decision making, it can really get you thinking about right and wrong.
Battlefield: This game is meant to be played online, and competitively in clans. Plenty of social drama, and power struggles among clans and within clans based on skill.

How you play the game
However, the nature of the game itself does not define what you can get from it, because you can play any of these games in a mind-numbing way, without real thinking. You can play world of warcraft without social interaction, just soloing quests. You can play Dragon Age where you select moral choices randomly and quickly just to get to the fight scenes without a care. You can play Battlefield online, without getting involved in clans, without ever chatting to another individual.

At the end of the day, I guarantee you that anyone on this forum employs devices such as television and games in a very different manner than the average person out. I think the key thing is, to make sure you are doing these things for the right reasons.

This analogy easily extends to Marijuana which Ra says is more of sleep. I agree, that for the general population, weed definitely helps most of them sleep and numb the pain. However, you definitely can use marijuana spiritually, in moderation, for spiritual purposes. My spiritual journey definitely involved weed in the past.

At the end of the day, examine your usage of these tools, whether television, games, or substances. You know, deep inside of you, whether you are using these things to escape from catalyst or whether you do them in moderation and whether large amounts are useful in your journey. And that being said, I think it's totally ok to braindrain from time to time, as long as it's not a habit...but to be honest, meditation is much better!