The Spiritual Significance of Gaming

Before I begin - please stop laughing. I’m quite serious; there really is a spiritual reason to play video games. Lest you roll your eyes again, let me explain:

Video games serve as a solid reminder that the physical universe is an illusion. A game (like life) has a central character that you identify with and control as though you were the character. With the character comes a set of relationships, varying from simple to complex; with other characters and the game-world itself.

There are goals, rewards, pitfalls and challenges; ‘enemies’, ‘friends’, tools, levels and missions - creating a vivid impression of reality that we can easily lose ourselves in for several hours (days or weeks or months of subjective game-time).

Yet, after we complete the game, or shut it off and save our progress for next time; it becomes apparent that after all our striving, evasion of obstacles and acquisition of prizes, even all the difficult missions we’ve completed - nothing’s really been accomplished.

We’ve just spent several hours sitting in front of a screen…moving our thumbs and eyes and little else. There is no real reward for completing the game. There is no punishment for losing it, or giving up and quitting. It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference what we did in the game - it hasn’t changed a single thing and we’re no better or worse for having played.

Now here’s the clincher: so-called ‘real’ life isn’t any different. The formula is exactly the same; we’ve just identified so closely with the character in this game, we’re convinced that’s who we are. The truth is, we’re just playing a larger, higher-definition game. The single most-repeated concept in spiritual literature and scripture is: “THIS ISN’T REAL”. The second-most repeated concept: “You are not the doer.” Why do you suppose that is?

Imagine you got so caught up in a video game that you could actually feel the character’s wounds, exertions, aches and pains; and to top it off, you’d forget it’s even a game. It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to play, would it? All the situations that were previously entertaining would suddenly become deadly serious; the path to your goals would be fraught with suffering; and the goals themselves would turn out to be utterly transient, intangible and meaningless anyway. ..Sound familiar?

If played with awareness, video games (in my opinion) can serve as a reminder of who you really are, and what this ‘life’ really is. It’s much easier (and produces better results) to play as a ‘player’ than a ‘character’.

- Raz