Games don't usually involve inflicting suffering on unwilling participants.

In the context of the game a lot of them actually do. In this view there is ultimately only you playing with yourself, so there can‘t be any unwilling participants. They are all seen as masks of god.

Yes, but as long as you don't realize you're wearing a mask the suffering seems very real. It seems to me there remains a reality to that suffering even when the ego self that suffered ceases to exist and it's unjust to discount it.

But when the ego self ceases to exist, to whom is it unjust then?

I'm not sure why the order of this thread seems to have gotten screwed up.

In your view (or the view you are defending) is there any reason to be compassionate towards other beings ? If the answer is yes than that compassion should have extended to avoiding all manifestation so as to prevent their suffering.

If the answer is no, because they are just like characters in a novel, then there seems to be a very fundamental difference in morality between this view and most other spiritual teachings, which do teach compassion.

In the view I am defending there is a reason to be compassionate towards other beings. It is the natural reaction after having realized that you are in essence the same, god in disguise.

The idea that all manifestation should have been prevented to prevent suffering seems to take for granted, that the joys of life are not worth the suffering. I would disagree about that.

> The idea that all manifestation should have been prevented to prevent suffering seems to take for granted, that the joys of life are not worth the suffering.

Yes, because that has always been my experience. I have never experienced a state of joy or happiness that seemed so good that I could see it as justifying suffering. I have however in the past experienced states of suffering so horrible that I would have given anything for them to end.

> To the ego self that > previously existed and > previously suffered. > Is it OK to torture someone > as long as you make sure to > kill them afterward ?

In this view the ego self existed before, but only in so far as I exist as the character in a novel, while I am reading it. So I would say yes, it is OK to torture a fictional character if it makes sense in the context of the story.

To the ego self that previously existed and previously suffered.

Is it OK to torture someone as long as you make sure to kill them afterward ?