Acts of Killing and Fighting in Games Are Defiled Mental Karma

Disciple Ru She said: I used to think that the killing in games was fake and did not count as killing karma. But after studying Buddhism in depth, I feel that as long as hatred and the intention to kill arise, it goes against the Buddha's teachings and is impure and contrary to the Dharma. After reading the Sūtra on the Precepts of the Five Precepts, I learned that even killing an imagined insect constitutes a violation of the precepts. A practitioner should remain constantly alert to all greed and evil thoughts within worldly dharmas, and only by striving to stay away from them can one possibly subdue them, until they are cultivated away and severed. Going from learning the precepts to upholding the precepts is truly important.

Ru She is right. Fictitious fighting and killing in games is also a form of hateful mind, and it also indulges and perfumes the affliction of hatred; it is equally defiled and is unwholesome karma. Regardless of whether the matter exists—whether it truly exists or fictitiously exists—once the mind stirs and thoughts arise, that is mental karma, that is afflictive defilement, that is violating the precepts, just as Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva said: sentient beings' every stirring of mind and thought is an offense. Game developers only want to exploit human psychology to make money, without considering whether they are indulging and perfuming humanity's afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. Those who play games also cannot consider this level; they simply indulge themselves and derive pleasure from it. Not only does the secular world exploit sentient beings' greed for its own private gain, but people with ulterior motives within Buddhism likewise seek private gain, exploiting sentient beings' greedy psychology—knowing what sentient beings want and like, they give them exactly that. Once sentient beings have tasted the sweetness, they will desperately protect and support such people, committing all manner of unwholesome deeds without being aware of it themselves.

Everyone regards the five precepts as precepts, but in fact these are worldly dharmas—what virtuous and honorable people do; they are cultivation, character, and virtue, which everyone should do very well. Those who still wish to be reborn as humans in future lives, or even wish to be reborn as humans life after life, must at all times and in all places examine their bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and must not act recklessly. Obtaining a human body is conditional. Can you yourself satisfy these conditions? Is there unwholesome karma obstructing your obtaining a human body?