Zen and prajna problematize our relationship with reality in a way that could help us understand the performance of players and the way they learn, interpret and analyze the game system a problematization that is, again, thoroughly absent from so-called Zen Modes. In this paper, I analyse the design patterns of these Zen Modes, and compare the traits of Zen as a philosophy and of its form of knowledge, prajna, with the popular idea of Zen in the West in the form of MBIs, colouring books, and the likes, to answer what is Zen in these Zen Modes but also how can Zen help us understand knowledge in games. A close analysis of these modes reveals that they do not, as one can suspect, follow any Zen practice or theory, but seem to adhere to Western popular trends that present relaxation and one’s own well-being as their ultimate goals: the Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) that have gained relevance in our culture recently (Hyland, 2015) and that some have labelled as “McMindfulness” (Purser & Loy, 2013).

In spite of that, several recent games, such as Bejeweled 3 (PopCap Games, 2010), Mini Metro (Dinosaur Polo Club, 2015), Alto’s Adventure (Snowman, 2015), Plants vs Zombies (PopCap Games, 2009) and even Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick Studios, 2010), have featured a so-called “Zen Mode”, an alternative ruleset for gameplay that complements and offers an alternative to the main design of the game. What is Zen? Scholars, philosophers and even Zen practitioners do not seem to agree on an answer, even going as far as stating that it resists definition (“Zen cannot be locked into a concept nor understood by thought”, Taishen Deshimaru, 1982: 6).

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