At the point where the visionary yoga-based cosmologies of Hinduism and Buddhism converge with AI, quantum physics, and digital gaming, the Simulation Hypothesis claims that we live in a vast and realistic video game without knowing it! Multiple philosophies and religions have taught that reality is not what is appears to our senses and mind, so the idea of simulated or virtual reality is longstanding, as modeled in Plato’s cave, Descartes’ evil demon, “The Matrix,” Hinduism’s māyā doctrine, Buddhism’s two-truth theory, and Zhuang-tzu’s dreaming butterfly. If we are living in a mesmerizing simulation controlled by beings greater than us but unknown by us, can we develop a powerful video game to break through to reality? Perhaps, but we would remain dependent upon machinery to awaken—like always needing a meditation app to meditate. But humanity’s mystical traditions teach that we are master simulators of our own experience—with or without machinery—and that it is our choice to sleep or to wake up. In my presentation, I will unfold the classic Panchakosha—or Five Coverings—meditation practice from the Upaniṣads, which demonstrates how we construct and how we can dismantle the main lenses that conceal our inborn standpoint of natural enlightenment.
Advaita Vedanta is the classic and paradigmatic school of nondual philosophy. Put simply, the essential teaching is 'The Absolute (Brahman) is the only reality, the world (jagat) is an appearance (of that nondual Absolute) and the sentient being (jiva) is none other than the nondual Absolute'. Th...
In his multi-volume Technics and Time, Philosopher Bernhard Stiegler argues that human beings and technology are intrinsically linked together in a co-constitutive relationship. According to Stiegler, we invent ourselves through technology and through this process we constitute the conventions th...
What is the relationship of virtual reality to lucid dreaming, and how can both mediums be used alleviate suffering? This presentation will explore the phenomenology of non-lucidity (experiential fusion), and how virtual reality can help us understand the core teachings of emptiness in the Buddhi...
