Video war games satiate my feelings of aggression

[The Evil Thing]

Interview with the Karmapa Lama. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/sunday-toi/all-that-matters/Video-war-games-satiate-my-feelings-of-aggression/articleshow/5032672.cms)

For those of you who don't know, the Karmapa is the head of the largest school of Buddhism.

According to him:
I view video games as something of an emotional therapy, a mundane level of emotional therapy for me. We all have emotions whether we're Buddhist practitioners or not, all of us have emotions, happy emotions, sad emotions, displeased emotions and we need to figure out a way to deal with them when they arise.

So, for me sometimes it can be a relief, a kind of decompression to just play some video games. If I'm having some negative thoughts or negative feelings, video games are one way in which I can release that energy in the context of the illusion of the game. I feel better afterwards.

The aggression that comes out in the video game satiates whatever desire I might have to express that feeling. For me, that's very skilful because when I do that I don't have to go and hit anyone over the head.



It's nice to see a religious leader who doesn't condemn video games as "sinful" for a change.

[Athaniar]

I agree with that point of view.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

It's nice to see a religious leader who doesn't condemn video games as "sinful" for a change.
I wasn't aware of any mainly-sane religious leaders who did. (leaving out the obvious wacko types)

[Sipex]

The only thing that irks me about that statement is that it's way too easy for the media to twist around.

I mean come on, a buddhist leader admitting to violent urges which can be solved with video games?

That said, I fully endorse a religion that doesn't rely solely on non-violent videogames for the positive side to gaming.

[Yora]

Buddhism isn't really that much distanced from worldy pastimes and pleasures as you expect from christian priests and monks.
As long as you keep control over what you're doing and do it responsible, almost everything is allowed.

Not that christian priest are that stuck up either.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff of Moddingham: Real world religious discussion, even when related to gaming, is an inappropriate topic on this forum.