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It's a koan. The Bhudda would play all of those games, because the games themselves are not the cause for negligence, but the attachments and importance that pe
by Werewolf255 5y ago
It's a koan. The Bhudda would play all of those games, because the games themselves are not the cause for negligence, but the attachments and importance that people give the games can create a cause for negligence. Part of the lesson/joke is that he pretty much lists anything and everything that could be considered a game.
- mynameisash 5y ago> It's a koan. How do you come to that conclusion? As I recall, koans are from the Chinese, Japanese, etc., schools of (Mahayana) Buddhism -- specifically zen. But the linked article specifically states that these are from early texts (which would be more aligned to Theravada/pre-split).
- eesmith 5y agoCould you clarify? The game Go doesn't seem excluded. Nor tic-tac-toe. Nor card games (including poker, Dominion, and Magic: The Gathering). Am I missing something in my understanding of that list?
- godDLL 5y agoIt is most certainly not a koan. It is not a thing to put you in a state were you can understand a thing. It is a teaching. It actually tells you what to think, and how to get there. He talks about negligence, not attending. And then he lists a bunch of games, the last of which is "imitating deformities". That example alone should get you thinking about misusing your purpose, about using the mind to escape and not be present. Inventing dragons to fight. All that. I mean, it's all there, if you think about it for five minutes.