Is playing GTA VI bad karma (Pt. 2)

CONTINUED FROM PART 1

I can't wait to kill 'em all on GTA VI

There are three kinds of karma (actions). One is physical, the other verbal, the third mental. One may think a thought (form an intention in mind) then speak it (create a verbalization) then do it (carry it out). If one did, that is THREE acts, three DEEDS, not one even if they are all related. We may think one thing, say another, and do a third or exhibit integrity by aligning them.

For instance, we sincerely promise to do something and then we do it. The sincerity is mental, the pledge is verbal, and the carrying it out is physical. They are integrated, and this is called having integrity. Often, however, we say we'll do something, without really meaning it, and then we may or may not do it. The point is, they are three different things, three distinct kinds of karma, three ACTS.

The mental act is the one that concerns us here. If karma takes three forms (by way of vehicle, body, tongue, or brain), it is qualitatively different but nevertheless effective in producing some kind of results (one act, many results).

• Could how we roleplay impact how we live outside the game? D'uh. It seems obvious it would, but is there scientific data to back up that suggestion?*

I prefer the term Sofa Spud to Couch Potato

If one feels guilty about so much as thinking of doing harm, for example, that is a kind of mental resultant. If one is joyful over thinking of doing something wonderful and helpful, that is also a mental resultant.

When the fruits of that action ripen, when those seeds we planted sprout, those results will be experienced as welcome, neutral, or unwelcome depending on the act. Any act can also be distinguished by the motivation underlying it.

So let's say I play pretend killing mofos for 23 hours straight, a new household record because I love GTA VI so much, what kind of intentions have I been forming, rehearsing, exercising for those hours? Skillful, neutral, or unskillful? Wholesome, neutral, or unwholesome? Good, neutral, or bad?

The idea or argument that because it is "just" a thought it has no result is wrong. To prove that, let us look at the Buddha's own words in this short sutra:

Before killing, what acts are warriors already doing?

We wish to ask a question of the Blessed One.

(SN 42.3) The village headman Yodhajiva (the "Warrior") went to the Buddha (the Blessed One), paid his respects, sat to one side, and asked:

"Venerable sir, I have heard it passed down through the ancient teaching lineage of warriors that, 'When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself, with the breakup of the body, after death, he will be reborn in the [good] company of the devas who were slain in battle.' What does the Blessed One say about this?"

"Enough, headman, set that aside and do not ask."

But a second time and a third time, the headman Yodhajiva asked.

"Apparently, headman, I am unable to get past you by saying, 'Enough, headman, set that aside and do not ask,' so I will answer it directly.

What did you say, man? I'll F you up right now.

"When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, HIS MIND IS ALREADY SEIZED, debased, and misdirected by the thought, 'May these beings be slaughtered, struck down, destroyed, annihilated, and may they cease to exist.'

"If others strike that warrior down and slay him while he is thus engaged in striving and exerting himself, with the breakup of the body, after death, he will be reborn in a hell called the realm of those slain in battle.

This simulation is mentally real yet not corporeal

"Moreover, if he holds a view such as, 'When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is thus striving and exerting himself, with the breakup of the body, after death, he will be reborn in the company of the devas slain in battle,' that is his WRONG VIEW.

"Now, there are two destinations for a person holding such a wrong view, I say, either a hell or the animal world.'

I was lied to and fooled.

When this was said, the headman Yodhajiva began to sob then burst into tears.

The Buddha then said, "That is what I could not get past you by saying, 'Enough, headman, set that aside and do not ask.'"

"Venerable sir, I am not crying because of what the Blessed One said, but rather because I have been deceived, misled, and fooled for so long by that ancient teaching lineage of warriors." — SN 42.3

• Yodhajiva Sutta: "To the Warrior" (SN 42.3)
• Right Livelihood (samma ajivo)
• Veterans Day: "Fight Till Death" (sutra)

The Workings of Kamma (Pa Auk)

Given that this person is striving, exerting, and mentally hunting down enemies, behaving like a would-be killer, gangster, or trained soldier already mentally engaged in violence, BUT has not yet killed anyone, what's the harm?

The Buddha points to that mental harm: The warrior's mind (heart, citta-stream) is ALREADY seized, debased, and misdirected.

The person need not do anything else yet bad karma (unskillful, unwholesome deeds) will have already accrued. The seeds with the capacity to produce results in the future will have already been planted. The gamer need not go any further (with speech or bodily action) to have already made karma.

What kind of karma was made? There are six kinds: wholesome, neutral, or unwholesome (mundane or supermundane). All of this so far is mundane. What makes a deed good or bad?

ALL bad deeds have only three roots. The same is true for all good deeds. Those unwholesome roots are greed, hatred (which includes fear), and delusion. If one thinks, speaks, or does (acts) motivated by one or more of these roots, the outcome is bad (unskillful) karma. It is called "bad" karma because it will produce, when it ripens, unwelcomed, unwished for results.

Karma is NOT punishment but like-for-like

It would be "good" karma if it were rooted in nongreed (letting go, giving, unselfishness, releasing, contentment, charity, sharing, providing), nonhatred (loving kindness, compassion, sympathy, equanimity, help), and/or nondelusion (right view, wisdom, insight, understanding).

What is one nourishing while playing Grand Theft Auto VI? It must be goodwill, kindness, love, affection, sympathy... Who knows who's playing that game. When we get in the hotseat and start shooting, we as gamers are exercising the worst qualities: grand theft, mass murder, rape, psychotic violence, endangering others, and so on.

If only psychology had something to say

• 

  You watched what, you pervert? - It was a study!

  *When I was a graduate student in psychology at UCLA, I remember a very powerful piece of information passed down to us by our famous psychology professor. At the time, all the way down to today, it was being disputed whether or not WATCHING PORN was harmful. (Is watching online porn unskillful or "bad" karma?)

The experimental results had been inconclusive. Expose subject to violent pornography, see what happens. In all their early measures, they were the same. This would suggest, "No harm, no foul, watch as much violent porn as you want." The sex industry was overjoyed to hear it. Even science can't find any harm in watching "adult" content. Except there was one measure, and it was very suggestive.

If I were a good scientist, I would have the references at hand to back this up. But it's not necessary because many researchers followed suit, so whoever did it first hardly matters. This was a robust finding. (Smithers! Get my professor on the line to ask her for the citation ASAP.)

• Albert Fish, All-American rapist and molester

The design of the psychological study

Jerry, Kramer says GTA VI is coming out. Can you ask Elaine if we can watch porn at her place?

.

Elaine, will you be in our study?

What researchers did was a two-part experiment. Part 1, expose subjects to hardcore violent pornography. Part 2, have them engage in a "learning" trial. This trial consisted of a female "learner" engaged in some task or other. When observed doing the task correctly, press the green button held in the subject's hand. When observed doing the task incorrectly, press the red button to electrocute (as in the Stanley Milgram and Solomon Asch experiments) or "help teach" the learner to do it correctly.

• SHOCKING: The Milgram experiments at Yale and Asch experiments were a series a shocking electrocution experiments in social psychology in the early 1950s and 1960s to test people's willingness to shock, punish, or even kill others if instructed by an authority figure or the majority of a group. CONCLUSION: Ordinary people will shock, punish, even kill someone if an authority figure tells them they should or to conform to a group (americasbestpics.com).

You want me to shock? (americasbestpics.com)

Experimental subjects gave the learner just as many "shocks" as those not exposed to violent pornography. BUT, unconsciously, they held the red shock button longer. They held it down for a statistically significant greater length of time = more electrocution, more shocking, more pain administration.

Shocking experiments at Yale U

When asked afterward, "Do you think you were fair in praise and blame (green button, red button administration) of the learner?" They all reported, "Yes, I was quite fair and objective." This is what most if not all of them must have thought.

However, the data revealed what they seemed to be unaware of but what researchers could clearly see: Those not exposed to violent pornography administered punishments in this proportion. Those exposed to violent pornography administered punishments disproportionately -- the same number of shocks but unconsciously held down longer.

• Now imagine this study but exposing subjects to 15 minutes of first-person shooter roleplaying GTA 5 (to say nothing of the new better, brighter, more densely pixelated magic of GTA 6) then running the Part 2.
  

None of this is said so that someone will have the ammunition to say, "Porn is bad, don't watch it" or "filthy videogames are mental garbage, don't play them."

• This is only said for the personal, private realization: "Might I be behaving differently in the real world because of what I do in the virtual one as I spend my free time immersed in a very engaging (dopamine producing) fantasy as a first-person shooter engaged in role play for hours and hours, days and days, years and years?

It's something to think about because, suddenly, we're outside the scope of this Buddhist article. All that is being said here is that some kind of mental karma is being generated by just playing a game. Now we see there is scientifically validated data and evidence that how and what we play negatively impacts how we live real life. Yikes! Who knew?

What does the state religion say about it?

• Why get religious? By chance I was having a conversation with my very devoutly Christian mother. So I asked her:

God wants you in Rome's Army

"Mom, does that guy Jesus ever talk about distinguishing SIN into physical, verbal, and merely mental?"

Asked in this way, she suddenly kicked into action with many examples. We all know sowing what we will later reap (what the Buddha and the East call "karma") is a physical act. That's easy to imagine. Can it be just verbal? Lying and uttering other harmful words is easy to realize can be sinful, can be missing the mark of how to behave in this world. But what about just thinking stuff? Apparently, in the way of Jesus' teaching, that can be a "sin," too.

It's almost as if cultivating and harboring universal love and sisterhood for all our fellow human beings would be meritorious all on its own (the way it is in the Buddha's Teaching).

I'm already guilty in my heart, Mags

It is almost, one could believe, as if Jesus Christ Born to Humans (aka a "Son of Man") had heard the Buddha's teachings from five centuries earlier.

Most people playing GTA VI, I would hazard to guess, are going to be nominal Christians. So even if they didn't believe a word any teaching on "karma," they might nevertheless remember how the Good Shepherd taught about SIN (missing the mark) and how long before it becomes an action, say adultery just to pull one out of the hats of so many sins, one by looking upon a female in that way (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) has ALREADY committed adultery in his or her heart (Matthew 5:28). Just saying. Ask Jesus or his Dad about it when you see them. ⛪

It's "adultery" just to look, but videgoame murder and theft, why would Jesus be against that?

•  CONTINUED IN PART 3

• Dhr. Seven (text) edited by Amber Larson, Ashley Wells as taught to videogame aficionados Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Mom, Wisdom Quarterly

Drums, Drums, and more Drums (sutra)

【にゃんごすたー】アンパンマンのマーチ

World's greatest drummer shows how it's done - Deadmau5 dares to challenge the G.O.A.T.

"The Drum Discourse" (Ani Sutta)

A supremely awakened teacher is rare in universe

(SN 20.7) Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in Savatthi, where he said: "Meditators, there was once a time when the Dasarahas had a large drum called the 'Summoner.'

"Whenever the Summoner was dull, the Dasarahas inserted another peg [under its straps], until the time came when the Summoner's original wooden body had disappeared and only a mass of pegs remained.

• 

  Historical drum with ropes and pegs

  [The Commentary to this sutra notes that the Summoner drum could originally be heard for 12 yojanas (leagues), but in its final condition could not be heard even from behind a curtain.]
• [What is a drum? In ancient times, it was an elastic head held tight around a resonant base with a strap system and pegs placed under them to pull it tighter. A djembe is a rope-tuned, skin-covered goblet drum. According to the Bambara people in Mali, Africa, the name comes from the saying, Anke djé, anke bé, "everyone gather together in peace," defining the drum's purpose. Djé is the verb for "gather"; similarly, the drum here is the "Summoner." To apply more tension, wooden pegs are wedged between shell and lacing could be used to increase tension still further [55]. More

"In the same way, in the course of the future there will be meditators who no longer listen when sutras (discourses) that are words of the Tathagata [the Buddha, Wayfarer, Thus Come One, Well Gone One] — profound, full of depth of meaning, transcendent, regarding emptiness — are being recited. (CONTINUED BELOW)

Who are the 20 best rock drummers?

What John "Bonzo" Bonham the best?

(Drumeo) The genius of the late Led Zeppelin drummer/percussionist John Bonham

Nyango Star rules this world?

Drummer reacts to "When you're overqualified for the job"

Progressive jazz metal arrangement "Rondo Alla Turca" for piano, drums

Who is Nyango Star? The true story behind Japan’s most viral drummer

VICE: Chill mascot conquers the world

Nyango Star: The heavy metal cat (apple) mascot saving a Japanese farm (HBO)

The Drum Sutra (continued)

• 

  What's the Heart Sutra, Avalokita?

  [The Heart Sutra, most famous discourse in Buddhism, is not the historical Buddha speaking nor is it even about the Buddha. It is about making the point that there are certain "perfections" (paramitas) to be mastered, one of which is wisdom (prajna). What is the mastery of wisdom? It is the culminating realization that ALL things are empty: Form (this body) is emptiness, and emptiness is form (meaning one implies the other, cannot not exist without the other, yin and yang, this and its opposite, front and back, up and down...). The Prajna Paramita is the "Perfection of Wisdom," a body of literature in at least 100,000 lines to bring one who studies it to this direct realization. But the "heart" sutra is the core, the culmination, the pith of that body of literature. Casual chanters, reciters, or students of it seem to think the mantra or the summary is the teaching, when in fact it is the culmination of all that literature. That's why it has confusing parts in it like the ayatanas, which no one who has not gone through the Buddha's ancient teachings in detail seems to understand. The eye, ear, nose and those exhaustive lists are mentioned, so it must be pointed out that each is without self (an identity for itself or an overall "self" of which each is a component). Because there are components (which are constantly changing, disappointing, and impersonal), there is no "self" no matter how the five heaps of factors cling to the illusion that there is a "self" there.]
  

We shall summon everyone with this beat!

"They will not lend ear, will not set their hearts on learning them, will not regard this Dhamma, these Teachings as worth grasping or mastering.

"However, they will listen when literary works, the works of poets — elegant in sound, elegant in rhetorical devices, the works of outsiders [non-Buddhists], words of disciples — are recited.

"They will lend ear and set their hearts on learning them. They will regard those teachings as worth grasping and mastering.

"In this way the sutras that are the words of the Tathagata [the historical Buddha] — profound, full of depth of meaning, transcendent, regarding emptiness — will disappear.

"Thus, train yourselves: 'We will listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — profound, full of depth of meaning, transcendent, regarding emptiness — are being recited.

"'We will lend ear, will set our hearts on learning them, will regard these Teachings as worth grasping and mastering.' Train yourselves thus."

• See also SN 16.13 and AN 5.79

What is this "emptiness" of which the Buddha speaks?

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary suñña entry edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Suññatā (noun) or shunyata: "emptiness." In Theravada Buddhism, this is a reference to the doctrine of anattā ("not self"), the fact that all [psycho-physical] phenomena are impersonal [insubstantial, composite, without core].

So it is said, suññam attena vā attaniyena vā. "Empty is the world...because the world is devoid of a self and anything belonging to a self" (S. XXXV, 85).

The enso or 'Zen zero' calligraphy

This is also said, in the same text, of the Five Aggregates clung to as SELF. Those five "heaps, groups, piles, or aggregations" are the phenomena of which form [the four elements], feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousnesses (the khandha) are composed.

See also MN 43, MN 106. In the Cula Niddesa (CNidd), quoted in The Path of Purification (Vis.M. XXI, 55), it is said:

"Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, visual objects...mind-objects, visual consciousness...mind-consciousness, corporeality...consciousness, and so on are ALL empty (devoid) of a self and anything belonging to a self.

"They are devoid of permanence and of anything that is lasting, eternal, or immutable.

"They are coreless (insubstantial): without a core of permanence or core of fulfillment [satisfaction, lasting happiness, sukha], or a core of self."

In MN 121, the voiding (clearing) of the mind/heart of the taints [asavas, influxes, cankers, mental defilements], through the attainment of full enlightenment (complete awakening, arahantship), is regarded as the "fully purified and incomparably highest [concept of] emptiness.

See Sn.v.1119; MN 121; MN 122 (BPS.lk, Wheel 87); Pts.M. II: Suñña-kathā; The Path of Purification (Vis.M. XXI, 53ff.) Source

More words on "emptiness"

Here is a symbol of the all (enso)

In Mahayana Buddhism, there seems to be an added dimension to this "emptiness," which is also understood in Theravada but not emphasized. That is the simple fact that ALL things are empty, not just the self (atta, atman, soul, ego). Why?

Everything we see around us is a composite, with no element being the thing itself. An aggregation of elements composes or comprises the thing. So there is no-thing there, just those constituent factors. But it goes even one step beyond in profundity: each of those elements is a "thing" (assemblage) composed of things (sub-elements).

So everything in the world is without an identity (a "true self," a "being-ness" the same from one moment to the next). But that this should be true of everything in the world is not that big of a deal, for what are we humans and devas most concerned with in all the universe?

We are concerned and often obsessed with ourselves, this "soul," "ego," "personality," this collection (aggregation) of form, feelings, perceptions, formations, and conscious experiences. So the historical Buddha emphasizes this general truth to the very specific truth of anatta of "no self."

• One often hears Mahayana Buddhists, like their counterparts the Hindus and Brahmins and other theists, making the same mistake in understanding: It is said in Buddhism that there is no "separate" self. There is no independent self (soul, ego). This is very true, but what does it mean? It means that this "self" that seems to exist separately (from other selves) is utterly dependent for its seeming-existence on the factors of which it is composed. It is inseparable from the Five Aggregates clung to as self. Many foolishly, thoughtlessly (deceived by words and their common usage) say that this means "We are all one," that "no one is separate [from that One]," that there is no existing "separately" as if there is existing nonseparately. The problem? Yes, it's true, but it isn't what it sounds like. We the selves, the drops of ocean water, the beams of light scattering from One Great Source (presumably Brahminism's Brahman/GOD, the godhead, or Brahma Creator God, maybe even Buddhism's Maha Brahma or "Great Supremo" of anyone's choice in henotheism calling itself monotheism), have no separate existence apart from the constituent factors called "self." It is much easier to see with an impersonal example. This /, this \, and _ make this: triangle. It's still just those three lines, the rest being an illusion dependent on those lines.

I love Buddhism's Rumi, Bard, and other poets

Yes, there aren't things (compacts, unities) in this world of things (composites, assemblages), but what's worse -- what's far more counterintuitive -- is the fact that the "self" or "soul" (psyche) or "ego" that looks, or seems to look, out into the world is not itself real.

That is to say, it is NOT what it seems. What does it seem? It seems to us to be lasting, enduring, permanent. But from moment to moment, it is not that. It seems to us to be able to fulfill and satisfy us, to giving lasting satisfaction, comfort, happiness, but it can't. It seems to us to be personal, real (a thing in itself in a world of illusions where things for themselves are not themselves), a "soul" (eternal atman) in a fiery world that is burning up. It's all burning.

What did the Buddha know and see to awaken?

But in this world -- all this universe, multiverse, or multidimensional reality -- there is ONE element, one (for lack of a better English term) "thing" that is not a thing (composite), not subject to impermanence (or time at all), not disappointing by its very nature.

That element is what the Buddha and all the awakened and also the partially-enlightened beings (the noble ones) along the stages of full awakening called the "unconditioned element," the "deathless" (amata), the summum bonum of Buddhism: nirvana (nibbana). That is real, that is lasting, that is without constituents, unaffected by time and/or whether anyone realizes it.

Best drummer in the world today?

(El Estepario Siberiano) "Gangnam Style" by PSY | drum cover

El Estepario Siberiano plays John Bonham’s best grove - Slipknot "People Make Noises" one hand

Proof that El Estepario Siberiano is just a robot - Speed versus taste in drum playing

This is bull, bullcr*p and a half! It's impossible and can't be done

When your stick refuses to fall? - Estepario plays Avenged Sevenfold one-handed

How does El Estepario Siberiano do these stick tricks? - Drummers are all brawn 'n stupid

• Preserving the Buddha's Teachings | Gautama Buddha
• El Estepario Siberiano, John Bonham, Nyango Star; Dhr. Seven (editing and translation), sutra based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans), definition of "emptiness" by Ven. Nyanatiloka (Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Doctrines and Terms), Wisdom Quarterly

Is playing Grand Theft Auto bad karma?

The technology behind GTA VI explained

.

I'm just actively fantasizing for hours...

(Rockstar Games) Grand Theft Auto VI (launch trailer) Men 18 to 30, call in sick! Work can wait. The boss better understand. You've been waiting a decade to play this game. Screw the economy, the elections, work and family...

(FOX 2 Detroit) GTA 6 launch could drain $1 billion from US economy. Forget the midterm elections! We have to get home to game, game, game and play, play, play. It's the only time we get to experience lengthened attention span.

They hacked our minds?

RELEASE DATE: November 19, 2026, should be a holiday like the Monday after the Super Bowl so the population (mostly the younger males) can recuperate from excess drinking and macho war games.

Vegging out like couch potatoes experiencing a personal brain drain down the acrylamide-laden chips and bits of other toxic fried foods, the yeast-infested alcoholic drinks, and the extended attention (dopamine overdose) when ADHD rules the rest of the time.

• VIDEO: Dr. Robert Lustig: Science of Happiness

Is playing violent videogames like Grand Theft Auto VI bad karma?

GTA V graphics were a joke. GTA VI gets real.

Let's start with what everyone knows and play our way to what nobody knows. Doing it this way has a danger and a possible benefit. The danger is everyone will say, "Yeah, duh, obviously! Who doesn't know that?" and the possible benefit is that, once the basics are brought to mind, the less obvious implications will become clear. What obvious is that people didn't really know the basics as well as they did or the rest wouldn't come as a such a surprise.

The fact is, KARMA in Buddhism is a massive topic. How big? It is so big that in the Buddha's day, he was not called a "Buddhist," but rather was called a karmavadin (a "teacher of karma," i.e., a "teacher of the efficacy of current actions to produce immediate and future results").

He was not the only one. Mahavira (the Nigantha Nattaputta), who was the founder of Jainism, also taught that present causes (karma) produce many future effects (vipaka).

Police GTA VI pursuit ookin' cray-cray 💀 - GTA 6 graphics be insane 🤯 Leaked gameplay?

What are you doing in this scene? - I'm practicing my murder skills (GTA VI gameplay)

• Defining karma as "cause and effect" is extremely misleading in a few ways. For one, what "result" (reaction) does a "cause" (action) have in the science of Newtonian physics? "An equal and opposite reaction," is the answer. That is not at all what seems to happen in the working out of karma. For ONE act will have MANY results. One might say 500, which would just be an idiomatic Buddhist way of saying many. Another better scientific theory might be better to think of than Newton's laws, and that is the Butterfly Effect. One tiny action, one minute deed can have tremendous cascading consequences. For example, say a poor woman comes to a well with only two coins in her pocket, sees someone more needy than she is, and decides to give her two coins to that person then actually does it. She wills it AND carries it out. Who cares? It's just two measly coins! Neither the Buddha nor Jesus, both of whom used this exact example (wonder where Jesus could have gotten the idea), used it because it was worthless. They used it exactly because it was counterintuitive. That tiny good-deed of sharing, giving, generosity, letting go, helping, unselfishness produced much good, so much good that one can't hardly imagine the value of giving (dana). But rishis can see. Those two coins (which amount to 100% of her wealth) might have saved the other person's life, kept that person from starving or losing hope, been used to rebuild a life, a business, a fortune... "Cause and effect" is also misleading because when does the effect come? It comes right after the cause, which makes it super easy to tie them together. If eating a wild poisonous mushroom causes a person to die, when does the death happen? It usually takes a few weeks. What about eating other things that shorten an individual's lifespan (like fried foods full of acrylamides)? That could take years to show up. "Cause and effect" also connotes, that is to say, suggests (and, grammatically-speaking, explicitly denotes) ONE cause and ONE effect, but it is never this way. One act (karma) has many causes. In fact, if analyzed at the nano level, there is never just one act but an uncountable number of "acts" or mind-moments in the carrying out of one deed. And this is one of the unknown things about karma, the result that comes about later is the playing out of this many moments, not the simple "deed" one observes being carried out. How long does it take to squeeze a trigger? If that squeeze were the whole "act" (karma), who in their right mind could think the catastrophic results were merited? But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

This question of whether playing a videogame like GTA VI is karma is easy to answer, right? Yes, of course it is. But the question here is, Is playing it BAD karma? While it may not be intuitive, the answer hinges on understanding two words. The first word is karma, the second mental.

The way we in the West misuse the ancient Buddhist Sanskrit term "karma" (Pali kamma), it's no anyone would be confused. Explaining this word will very quickly get us to the second word.

What is "karma"? Everyone knows it's, "What comes around goes around." But this is actually a better definition for karma-and-results. Whereas "karma" is the active (act, action, deed), the results are the passive vipaka (results) and fruit (phala) of that action. For example, "planting a seed" is a karma, an action, a deed.

Rehearsing and relishing violence in mind, good?

Getting an s-ton of plant material that that single seed produced is the result, the fruit, fruiting, fruition and ripening of that deed (karma). That is a whole separate thing. It's just an example but a strangely good example because, what does that plant material have in it? More seeds of the same thing. CONTINUED IN PART II

• Dhr. Seven (text) edited by Amber Larson, Ashley Wells as taught to videogame aficionados Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly