Top Lama: “Violent Video Games as Good as Meditation”

The Karmapa Lama, one of Buddhism’s top leaders, has stated that not
only does he play violent video games, he also thinks they are as
effective as meditation in freeing the mind of worldly passions.
He also professes a liking for hiphop, though is too coy to name specific artists…
The current Karmapa Lama, Ogyen Trinley
Dorje, leads a major school of Buddhism, the Karma Kagyu school, and
occupies an especially delicate diplomatic position as he is the only
major Buddhist leader to receive recognition from China (whose control
he escaped from), India (where he resides now) and the Tibetan people.

However, he is a young man of 24, and as such has picked up rather
more of global contemporary culture than any of his forebears.
He explains in an interview:
<blockquote>Moving to other issues, I believe you like to listen to hip-hop on your ipod. Who are your favourite artistes?
I can’t think of any specific artistes right now, I basically listen
to what ever comes my way, whatever sounds appealing. It’s important
for me to stick to my traditional forms of art because I am a Tibetan
Buddhist teacher wearing these robes. It’s important for me to maintain
my cultural affiliations.
But from time to time I do enjoy listening to hip-hop because it has
a very modern sound to it and even though I’m a Tibetan teacher
representing these ancient teachings, I’m also a global citizen in the
21st century. Hip-hop perhaps is one way of me being a 21st-century
person.
Is that why you play war games on your play station because
many might say it’s inappropriate for a Buddhist monk dedicated to
peace to play war games?
Well, 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.
But shouldn’t meditation take care of that?
No, video games are just a skilful method.</blockquote>

OMG he knows da method!!! Seriously articles like this are everyday occurrence on the Net...

I'd say both for and against videogames articles... journalists have nothing to do but to wait until any somehow famous or respectable person tells his/her mind about no-matter-what and by means of exaggeration and mystification make up a new "sensation"...

OMG! He would say that? Wow... guess my dad was wrong about video games.