Things that Buddha wouldnt watch

And then there are certain respected samanas and brahmanas who, living on the food offered out of faith (in kamma and its results),
are given to watching (entertainments) that is a stumbling block to the attainment of morality. And what are such entertainments?
They are: dancing, singing., music, shows, recitations, hand-clapping, brass-instrument-playing, drum-playing, art exhibitions, playing with an Iron ball, bamboo raising games,
rituals of washing the bones of the dead, elephant-fights, horse-fights, buffalo-fights, bull-fights, goat-fights, sheep-fights, cock fights, quail-fights,
fighting with quarter-staffs, boxing, wrestling, military tattoos, military reviews, route marches and troop-movements.
Samana Gotama abstains from watching (entertainments) which is a stumbling block to the attainment of morality.
Bhikkhus! A worldling might praise the Tathagata in this manner.

Well….Buddha was advising monks not to play games since games would bring turmoil to the mind than calmness. In some cases hatred too. These rules are not for lay people but for people who have decided to become monks and working towards a higher mental status (whether such status exist is another matter).

Now typically Buddha dont say certain things directly. He says I wouldn’t do such a thing in other words implying the monks not to do such a thing either. Hope I brought clarity to the issue

If that was the case, wouldn’t it be easier to state he would not play any game that is without purpose but spending time (for example not teaching the player).

No offense to Buddha.

In fact, it’s a little weird to my eyes to see such a statement as “I would not do this” rather than “You should not do this” or “You should not permit anyone to do this”.

Also, there’s a good chance that all of those games stated above were all gambling games or games people would only play to gamble. It would be like saying “the Buddha wouldn’t play Blackjack, or Poker”. It’s common knowledge now that those games are really only played for gambling so we don’t need to state that.

The gambling argument doesn’t hold up perfectly though because the Buddha wasn’t moralistic. But, he was rational, and it’s easy to argue that gambling does take people farther away from spiritual enlightenment and actually increases our attachment to suffering since, in the Buddhist sense, gambling only brings suffering (intense elation is a form of suffering).

I’ve often wondered what value games bring to people in the spiritual or philosophical sense. A game like Bejeweled for instance, is essentially mindless. But that doesn’t make it without value. It has value in terms of relaxing, and does stimulate pattern matching in the brain.

Though I can’t speak for Buddha, I imagine the Boddhidarma (the person who brought Buddhism to eastern China and Japan, credited with being the grandfather of Zen) would’ve greatly enjoyed Bejeweled in precisly the same way that the Zen masters rake rocks, or poor water, as meditative exercises with the focus being on being present and 100 % focused on the task at hand and being in the moment.

It would be interesting to see what games he could have played during his life that don’t violate one of those descriptors.