This is not as easy as it might seem. But not to worry, if you happen to jump to the next grade of sandpaper too soon there is one sure fire method to test your progress and determine if you need to bump back to a previous grade of sandpaper.

After you graduate to 320 sandpaper, it is time to let your sculpture dry and look at it under a strong light.

The sculpture to the right was more than a bit of a bear to polish. It took my quite some time before I could find and remove all of the scars from the crevices. That is what drying will bring to light — scars and scratches.

When you let the sculpture dry and look at it under good light, you will find all of the scratches and scars left by the chisel and rasp. Scratches are a natural result caused by the use of chisel and rasp.

When the sculpture is close to its final form I wills top using chisel and switch to course rasp. The course rasp is useful in the process of shaping and in the process of removing scars left by the chisel.

When the sculpture is even closer to the final form I will switch to a medium rasp. The medium rasp is useful in the process of further refining the shape of the sculpture and in the process of removing scars left by the course rasp.

After the initial shaping of the sculpture each stage requires more and more delicate tools — leading from hammer and chisel to 1500 grit sandpaper. While shaping is the main goal of each stage of the sculpting process, removing the traces of work from the previous stage is the other equally important goal.

By the time you get to 320 grit sandpaper shaping is done. Now it is all a process of removing traces of work and achieving an appropriate surface for the sculpture. In the case of my sculptures that is smooth — real smooth.

If when studying the dry sculpture in the light one notices a scratch or scar, then one simply reverts to a previous grit of sandpaper to remove that scratch. Depending upon the depth of the scratch one can just bump up to 220 — or it might be necessary to go back to 120. If you find it necessary to revert to the use of a rasp, then you jumped into the polishing process a little too early.

After fixing the scratch, proceed with the 320 again, dry the sculpture and study it again.

Sand, rinse, dry, study and repeat as necessary.

When you move on to the 400 grit sandpaper you should have zero worries about scratches. From this point on it is all a matter of polishing.

More than once I’ve heard complaints about apparent violence contained in games that have been recommended as vehicles for spiritual gaming.

“So what’s the deal with all this violence in the video game? I can’t do spiritual gaming with something that contains violence.”

If you have a problem with yucky stuff you might want to take it up with those pesky Tibetans. They might have something clever to say on the topic. For myself, I’d just point to the bardos and ask if you’d like to be prepared for all of the bardos or just part of the bardos.

As mentioned in a previous blog there are games that I find harmful and avoid for myself. Others may not find them objectionable. I don’t play them and I don’t recommend them. If someone stumbles across such a game themselves and decides to play, that is their path — I wouldn’t dream of interfering, other then to give my opinion if it is called for. And as mentioned in the same previous blog, the aspect of these games that I find objectionable has nothing to do with shooting, explosions, and/or flying body parts. I find the infliction of authority on a child by an adult just because they happen to out-weigh the child and can beat the crap out of them to be a form of violence. And yet, this is typically not labeled as violence. Yes, yes, yes there are occasions when it is the responsibility of the adult to take charge and insist on a particular action and/or behavior by a child. Using the attention that is your rightfully heritage you will notice I said “just because they happen to out-weigh the child and can beat the crap out of them”. The world is not black and white. Check out the shades of grey. It will help you sort out this rather complex video game we find ourselves in.

Maya or video game, a world hallucination by any name can be just as seductive.

Any way, back to the part about violence being an apparent contradiction in games used for spiritual gaming.

Do you want to be prepared for all of the bardos or just part of the bardos. Apparent violence is an integral part of the bardos — just as much as apparent non-violence. However, keep in mind neither of these reflect the true unfiltered, unadulterated vision of the void. The Voidness of the Void is beyond words and beyond judgments of G, PG, R, and X ratings.

In the Voyager’s Quatrain, one will read:

• All phenomena is illusion
• Neither attracted nor repelled
• Not making any sudden moves
• My habits will carry me through

I don’t necessarily find body parts flying off in every direction to be particularly violent. The number of red pixels on the screen is not a direct measure of violence.

While it is true that I find 98% of all video games violent to one degree or another, it is also true that most folks find my designation of non-violent games to be a bit odd.

For example, I don’t find Diablo Lord of Destruction or TF2 (Team Fortress 2) to be violent games. In both cases body parts being cast about the landscape is a definite part of the game. In fact, in TF2 the programmers are kind enough to point out my various body parts (such as foot and head) when I’m dead with arrows — “Your head here –>”. This bespeaks an underlying sense of humor in the game. This along with the larger than life characters and slightly cartoonish graphics keeps the game fun, not violent.

Old school games such are Zelda 1, Zelda 3, Soloman’s Key, Solstice, Faxanadu, and their ilk are definitely not violent in my book. Zelda 2 on the other hand had some serious problems. Myself and other Spiritual Gaming testers found it to be abusive of the player. The grinding necessary to do anything was a real joy killer. Hear this Blizzard? You might want to rethink the constant grinding necessary in World of Warcraft.

My idea of violence: the ankle breaking scene in Misery, or the scene in Spawn when the hell clown licks Wanda’s face.

I found Grand Theft Auto to be violent, but had no problem with the original Going Postal — go figure.

As an experiment, take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle of the page. On the left write in a column header “Violent”. On the right write in a column header “Not-Violent”. Consider the games that you have actually experienced and place them on either the left or the right. Do this with games you have played. Don’t go all silent majority and list games that you have only seen advertised on television, looked at the game packaging, or just heard about in the media. Do this with games you have experience.

When I did this experiment I ended up with about 100 games on the left and a couple dozen on the right. Looking at these games it became clear to me that it would be impossible to apply a predictive formula to games in order to sort them. I could not find any of the obvious attributes in the violent games that did not also exist in some of the non-violent games. Nor could I find any of the obvious attributes in the non-violent games that did not also exist in some of the violent games.

However, when it came to the less obvious, and less used criteria, I could easily find attributes in the violent games which did not exist in the non-violent games. Racism, sexism, demeaning of spirit, brutality and brutish behavior in general could be found in some of the violent games and none of the non-violent games. But these are qualities that are not easy to subject to quantification. Unless certain words are used it is hard to label racism and sexism — even though they are unmistakably present. There is a reason it is hard for schools to enforce statues related to bullying, racism and sexism — it it hard to define these things in statues.

Bottom line, there is such as thing as violence. To this I agree whole-heartedly. But, to those that suggest squirting blood, explosions and flying body parts are a measure of violence I say: “too simplified, it won’t work.”