(Minghui.org) As a young Falun Dafa practitioner, I was addicted to computer games. I finally was able to let go of this attachment.
For years I played computer games. As a primary student, it was so much fun to play old-fashioned electronic games. I had easy access to these games, because there were several places near my school where I could play. Day after day, I went to the electronic game rooms and watched others play games besides playing them myself. I was so immersed in these games that I sometimes forgot the time, and my father had to come get me for dinner.
At the beginning of junior high school, my father bought me a computer in the hope that I would study hard. This was rather convenient, because I now played different computer games whenever I had time. Gradually, I became addicted to the games and I played all the time, except when I had to do my homework.
My performance at school did not suffer, and I was admitted to one of the better schools in our province. Neighbors praised me, which went to my head, and I slacked off at school. I thought that I still could get good grades without working hard.
In high school, I went to internet bars and played games with my classmates almost daily. Instead of being attentive in class, I thought about the games I would play after school.
All my classmates passed their college entrance exams and were accepted by their university of choice. I was the only one who had to go to an average university. It was even more ironic that a classmate who often played games with me was accepted by the university of his choice.
In the latter-half of my senior year in high school, my father realized that I was hooked on playing games. He asked me to read Zhuan Falun. This was a turning point in my life.
I read the book intently. Deeply impressed by Dafa’s profound principles, I wanted to become a Falun Dafa practitioner. But I had nurtured a bad habit, and I still went to bars where I could play computer games in my freshman year. I understood that playing games was not good, but I was not very clear why.
I had convinced myself that only by playing games would I feel self-confident. I realized that this notion was wrong, so I told myself that I still could lead a good life without playing games. At the same time, I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate this attachment.
I was determined to get rid of the attachment to playing games, but I felt the resistance formed by the games deep within me. I was able to restrain myself for a period of time, but then I let up and played again. Then if I made a little effort, I could control myself and not play.
I was then tested. Even if I did not play games, I still wanted to watch others play. When others talked about gaming, I could not help but join the conversation.
Once after a party, my classmates went to an internet bar to play games. I realized that I should not go, but told myself that I would not play games even if I did. So I went along and did not take the test seriously.
“If I do not play games, I will cultivate my body,” I told myself. “If I do not chat with others about games and if I refuse to listen to them talk about games, I will have cultivated my speech. If I don’t think about games and completely deny the existence of games in my own dimensional field, I will have cultivated my mind.”
While encouraging me to continue to play games, many of my classmates told me, “You can learn a lot from playing games, plus they develop your brain cells and other skills.”
In the process of denying my interest in playing games, I have done a comprehensive review of video games. I came to realize that a video game is a distorted product of the old cosmos. What's more, these games are rather like drugs. As I see it now, a video game is, essentially, an electronic drug.
Master said:
“Video games are really harmful to people, and not just Dafa disciples’ kids. They really draw people in, and have had a negative effect on everyday people as well. They make you do poorly in your work, sleep poorly, rest poorly, and make you devoid of human affection or warmth of feeling, make you neglect your family, make students neglect their studies, and entice you and draw you in. They are contributing to humankind’s destruction. In order to promote video games, those business people constantly come up with new kinds and hype them up on a large scale. What are people to do after they’ve created such an enormous amount of karma? They are corrupting humankind.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference”)
Having read this, I tried to apply what I learned from it. When I realized that I had played video games for more than a decade, I got scared and broke out in a cold sweat. I was really addicted to video games and had neglected my schoolwork.
My brain played back the scenes of games, and I felt bored and restless when I did not play them. Wasn't this state of mind like an addict's? Were what I saw in my mind illusions created by the development of brain cells? Were these illusions the same as those produced when taking drugs?
Video games also encourage many attachments. For example, a role-playing game can make one believe that one is a hero or heroine. It draws the player into the game and breeds lust. War games encourage negative factors, such as violence, competitiveness, hatred, revenge, and all sorts of demon nature. Puzzle games strengthen the attachment to comfort and cause a practitioner to be less diligent.
The time for Fa-rectification is limited. Master said: “Actually, the cosmos's Fa-rectification is done in the wave of a hand.” (“Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference”)
As a practitioner, I cannot devote my time to these video games. And wasting time is the same as wasting my own life.
Finally, electronic games no longer clutter up my mind like they used to. I neither play, speak, or think about these games constantly anymore. The substance of game playing in other dimensions is as stubborn as granite, and it took me a very long time to get rid of it. Even so, I sometimes cannot help singing songs from these games in my mind, which means I still need to continue my efforts to remove them.
This article is meant to help fellow practitioners and others who face the problem of playing electronic games. We have to let go of this attachment. Family members of young practitioners should also set a higher standard for their children to avoid their being interfered with.