Why can't you just forgive the villain? The world is an illusion...

If the world is an illusion, than I too am an illusion.

Wait wait wait.

Buddhism isn't really about forgiviness.

So is an actual answer alright.

Videogames aren't real, but CPUs are.

>Only Jesus forgives and hopefully he'll forgive me too because I'm about to commit some mad violence.

If he's actually repentant, sure. But to forgive a powerful sociopath and send them on their way is irresponsible.

Shouldn't you seek to help them reach enlightenment in this incarnation?
Have you ever even tried?
Have you ever approached the BBEG and said "Terribly sorry to bother you, but do you have a moment to hear about Jesus, our Lord and Savior?"

Because running away from your problems shouldn't be the basis for a religion.

He stole my favorite boot, illusion or not the fucker is going to pay.

But user, I forgive him, doesn't mean he doesn't have to pay for his crimes.

If life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me.

Sure sure, he's forgiven. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put some illusory knives into his back so that his spirit isn't attached to the world anymore.

"You can be all about peace and love, but you cannot sleep next to a rabid dog"

Wrathful deities are worshipped for a REASON

Forgive and submit to are not synonyms. I can forgive the villain just fine.

That doesn't mean I'm going to leave them to their villainy.

>Why can't you just forgive the villain?

God does the whole 'forgiveness' and 'mercy' thing better than me anyways. So I figure I'll just send 'em packing to God and let him handle it.

Because perfectl characters are boring. Interesting PCs are weird and flawed and therefore often behave in unenlightened ways.

He broke is word to me. I served him with everything I had and he abandoned me. My existence was made happy and stable by serving him, and then all crashed around me when I did everything that he said. Even after I made my intent to leave him clear I continued to not take every opportunity to harm those who were close to him. And for all of that I received nothing but more deaths.

Because such a detached and arrogant worldview will lead to utter stagnation and eventual degeneration into mindless anarchy.

>He stole my favorite boot, illusion or not the fucker is going to pay.
The most true-to-PC reply in the thread.l

Talking to someone only works if you have power over them in some measure. If you have nothing the villain desires that they don't believe they can take through other means, you may as well try to convince termites to not eat your home.

I've recruited many of my foes to my side in my time, but far far more were slain, because if talking worked anywhere near what most people think, there would be no violence in this world.

...

If I wanted to be happy and spiritually fulfilled, I'd stay home and live my life.

I'm adventuring because I am a broken person driven by ambition, greed, etc. Killing the villain is merely the socially acceptable way for me to fulfill my dark desires.

>OP getting this rekt

I can forgive him while still stopping him from killing people.

Letting go of hatred doesn't necessitate apathy.

Being deliberately killed to death is a pretty insurmountable worldly attachment, I think.

Petting scorpions with a compassionate hand only gets you stung.

The most difficult act in the world is to sit still.

Be more concerned with good actions than with great ones.

Choosing between two evils is still choosing evil.

We only sympathize with pain when it is our own.

Everything is born. Everything lives. Everything dies. Everything is born again.

tl;dr: I might be a nice, pleasant person who focuses on enlightenment, but I'll cut you down if you decide to be a dick.

Prevention

My players have. A lot. A LOT. In soul-breaking ways. The game has become an almost uncomfortable challenge and struggle to defy convention and find solutions to end suffering. My players are true Paladins and I couldn't be more proud.

Mind you, they understand as well there are some things for which forgiveness does not exist.

Because the fucker keeps crashing on my couch each time his plans for world domination fall through. The first few times were understandable.

After the past year though? It's time for him to get a real job.

Hello Youkai Jesus.

The villain is a fucking Demon. As in Evil Incarmate.

1000 times what they did to us!

Maim in Anger! Kill in Hate! Ruin in Unforgiveness!

If we have to tear down heaven to the very last stone to make sure he spends eternity in hell, so be it!

HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE! HATE!

Like... half of those are bullshit and/or contradict your statement. Togashi would not be proud.

If the Villain wishes to find forgiveness, then normally I would try to help him/her/it.

But the big IF is that said Villain actually wishes to stop being a evil cunt. See most bad guys in any media and real life don't actually think they are doing anything wrong. Some of them even think they are the hero and you are just trying to stop them from making the world around them in their image.

Now if the villain sees what he did was wrong, that all his actions were for nothing and made the world a worse place, then I can find the heart in me to actually believe him...but those kind of Villains are rare and far between my friend.

This

ALSO

Friendly reminder esoteric buddhism has shit like the wisdom kings, asskicking wrathful manifestations of the Buddha's who fuck shit up and do things like kill anger and terminate death with extreme prejudice

>Dragons
>Not self contradictory

Not my fault you don't get the Tao of Shinsei.

Go back to Thrane.

>Petting scorpions with a compassionate hand only gets you stung.

Treating dangerous, aggressive beings with compassion is just going to bite you in the ass. Don't do it, just take care of them - with force.

>The most difficult act in the world is to sit still.

If you see something morally wrong happening, or know something morally wrong happening, and you feel compelled to act on it, just do it.

>Be more concerned with good actions than with great ones.

Just do good things and be a cool dude instead of trying to stroke your ego like a tryhard.

>Choosing between two evils is still choosing evil.

This one is fairly obvious. A lesser evil and a greater evil are still evil. See above for why you shouldn't do that.

>We only sympathize with pain when it is our own.

True sympathy for other's pain tends to directly affect us when we know the person in pain, or more literally when we're in pain. Alternatively, you will never know someone's pain, because they're not you, and they're feeling different emotions from you, so you literally can't know pain but your own.

>Everything is born. Everything lives. Everything dies. Everything is born again.

Reincarnation.

I don't get how you don't understand things that aren't literal statements. Is this a new meme?

I'd like play a paladin like this just for once. "Powder keg of justice" and Nicholas Angel types are good and all in the hands of a Proper Roleplayer, but sometimes you have to level a decadent city-state or twelve before you can spread the law of love.

One of my dream ideas is for a setting with a Trinity of gods similar to FRs triad, each encompassing the various good alignments. In FR it's Tyr, god of law, Illmater, God of Healing, and Torm, god of Paladins and the loyal fury. Tyr and Torm are LG, Illmater is NG

My dream triad would be LG, NG, and CG. Tyr the god of law,.Justice, civilization and war

Illmater the god of mercy, forgiveness, healing and kindness

And Torm the RIGHTEOUS fury, god of righteous anger, punishing the wicked, and fucking shit up.

Because every good guy team needs a guy who just fucks shit up

because I spent like 5 gold on these crosses and this guy won't crucify himself

Because trying to help the villain reach enlightenment was what made him the villain.

But I don't want spiritual enlightenment, I want material goods!

>Why can't you just forgive the villain?

Two reasons

1) If the villain isn't dead, they can get back to business.

2) It sends a signal to other potential villains that they can start shit without fearing for their life, increasing the amount of villainy in the world

If you're releasing your pent up anger than you're making the other person drink the poison.

BTFO Christfag.

>We only sympathize with pain when it is our own.
I sympathize with pain. Pain never gets appreciated.

In the last campaign I was in, despite the massed genocide, my Superman-esque warrior did just that.

She found her way into a genuine, no-holds barred, words as intended, wish and brought back everyone killed by the villain along with said villain who was killed anti-climatically by the actual BBEG of the campaign.

Walked right up to the villain and sucker-punched them before telling them not to do anything like that again.

The villain is now 'on warning' and works on the farm my character started up for retirement.

Granted this was a rather lighthearted campaign anyway.

To be fair, BEEEEEEES is a questionable area to focus on.

You know jesus fashioned a whip and drove the money lenders out of the temple with violence
JC is cool with violence against evil.

He also cursed a fig tree to death because it had the audacity to not have fruit out of season.
JC had a real temper problem sometimes.

Buddhism isn't inherently about forgiveness. It's pretty much about finding the right balance or "middle path".

The 1000 fingers bandit story basically boils down to the fact that it's never too late to change if you truly wanted to. There's another lesser known story where it was either buddha himself or a disciple of his comes across an evil naga/dragon blocking his path which refused to let him pass so in order to pass through he turned himself into a bigger naga/dragon and in turn it was frightened and then submitted and took refuge with him which is meant to convey that sometimes to vanquish a lesser evil you must adopt and become a bigger evil temporarily.

Sometimes the villain does not learn and you must teach them harshly. That does not mean you have to kill them if another option is available, such as a long imprisonment time until they have learned the error of their ways. If they never learn then they never leave.

Sure, but sometimes heads just have to roll. Someone has to answer for what has happened.

He had some serious daddy issues.

It isn't anger anymore. For the last 13 years it has been sadness, regret and planning.

What's so good about being the emperor if I can't get my daughter back?

Also, in my setting souls are factual, so buddhism doesn't work.

>factual
As opposed to all those souls in Buddhism that are fictional?

I'm not angry with the villain. He is an obstacle on my path to rule, and a threat to those I seek to command.

If souls are factual Buddhists would just seek out whatever means are required to destroy them to prevent the transmigration of spirit.

They might temporarily become BBEGs to free themselves from the cycle of reincarnation.

AFAIK that's not a quote from Buddha.

According to Asura you need to punch them to ease their sin.
youtube.com/watch?v=vsYZqXV2CUw

...

Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content." - Conan

...

>"AAAAAAAH CHILL THE FUCK OUT FOR THE SAKE OF ENLIGHTENMENT 'N SHIT AAAAAAAAH!!!"

>JC is cool with violence against jews

Fix'd.

There are some people like that, but they aren't buddhist-like, just nihilistic cults.

Plus a few people which were killed and their souls imprisioned because death alone wasn't bad enough for them.

Nobody tell him

Its why he was so willing to martyr himself.

KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!
KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!
KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!
KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!
KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!
KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!