I play Counter-Strike 2 most nights, and I can’t say I’ve found anything particularly Zen about trying to clutch a 1v4 after my teammate on A-site dies to his own molotov and proceeds to shout expletives in Russian while I try to listen to enemy footsteps. But who am I to say? Not a Buddhist, that’s for sure—and certainly not a Buddhist monk. If I was, then perhaps I’d be able to handle it all a little better like this chill dude (via Ohnepixel).
Assuming the translation of the Dasheng Studio mini-documentary provided by X user nealCS is correct (and thank you, Neal), the monk, who in the video goes only by the “Master”, kept Counter-Striking after joining the order: “Why would I cut off a good thing?” Damn straight.
Apparently, he’s been playing Counter-Strike “from the very beginning”, which was before he became a monk and when he was in elementary school. Before the Chinese-local version Perfect World launched, his peak rank was Legendary Eagle Master (LEM)—which coincidentally was mine, too, back in the day, although I like to pretend it was Supreme since I almost got there.
“Then,” he says, “I got older, couldn’t remember the positioning anymore, and my aim got soft too. So I stopped playing ranked after that.”
He’s keen on emphasising just how positive playing CS2 can be: “The communication, exchange, cooperation with teammates… that feeling is really great. It also helps with your own personal growth. You’re not a lone wolf. You have to consider the thoughts and feelings of the other four people, and their gaming experience too. Then in real life, you develop empathy.”
Someone should tell that to my teammates late on a Saturday night.
When confronted with cheaters, he says that “you have to hold on to your own principles. Their cheating—whatever they do—that’s their problem.”
He also relays an old Zen teaching: “If someone wrongs you, insults you, what do you do? And the answer is: endure them. Wait a few years, and just watch. After a while, they’ll get banned.” The ol’ Zen anti-cheat teaching never fails.
Chinese monk who plays CS, interviewed and life story.*added English subtitles* 🙏Must watch if you have the time. “Don’t let a 40-minute match ruin your whole day.” pic.twitter.com/FDjhUZIuxYApril 21, 2026
He then gives a couple of philosophical arguments against the old ‘video game violence is bad’ trope, which I think are pretty cool:
“Using that theory [that killing enemies sends you to hell… if I] pick the Medic class, revive people non-stop in-game, does that mean I go to heaven?… If I don’t have to do any real good deeds, don’t have to cultivate, don’t have to go through life’s trials, and just play Medic in a game, revive people endlessly, and that gets me into heaven, then I’ll accept that theory.
I also don’t feel bad when I get killed in a match, right? And winning or losing a game doesn’t cause any irreversible harm to someone’s life either.”
Saying all this, I wonder how much having a Karambit Emerald contributes to his Zen—I know that would certainly contribute to my own peace of mind. If you’re not familiar with CS2 skins, that one is a rare version of the Karambit Gamma Doppler skin and is worth thousands of dollars. He says it was a “gift from a friend” who is also a monk.
His PC is also very powerful, rocking an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and Intel Core i9 13900KS. “And it’s not a pre-built either,” he says. “A good friend of mine bought all the parts and assembled it himself.”
I’m not sure whether I’ll go full Buddhist just to deal with my in-game woes, but this Master has certainly convinced me to try things a little differently. Perhaps some meditation and 4-7-8 breathing between rounds is a good shout. Or perhaps dropping out of ranked entirely is the Zen way. After all, what does it matter how you stack up against enemies when everything is impermanent anyway?