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And it's just. And it's just in the draught.

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So my apologies for any mistakes. OK, so without further ado.

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My talk is virtual reality is a Mahayana interpretation based on the supreme Arae scripture.

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Just just get my notes and order here, OK, here we go.

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The Suprema, a scripture gun to view her Sioux tribe, is an important Mahayana Sioux tribe that recounts the story of Sidhana,

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a young man who sets out on a quest for omniscient a hood during the lifetime of the historical Buddha.

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This expansive narrative depicts a cosmic vision of reality wherein all physical and

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mental phenomena within space time and to penetrate and into reflect each other.

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Now, this non duality of intentionality and things.

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Rupert Getin aptly calls the Buddhist principle of the equivalent of cosmology and psychology.

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According to this principle,

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the various cosmological realms are understood to be the result of the intentional activities of the beings who inhabit those realms.

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Simply put, this is a Buddhist understanding of karma.

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One's intentional activities over countless lifetimes define the parameters of one's life world.

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Thus, there are no free standing objective places apart from the collective karmic conditioning of their inhabitants.

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In truth, all conventional reality is virtual.

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Now, this principle is dramatically depicted in the opening scene, the new donna of the Supreme Array, when I wrote in a book,

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Enters a Meditative Trance, a society that transforms Jeddah Grove into an infinitely vast jewelled space.

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Following this body site from the 10 directions travelled to the assembly from world realms incalculably distant from ours to pay homage to by China.

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Within the lengthy description of the various powers and abilities, we find this passage,

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all all passages from the from you are my own translations of the idea.

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Nineteen sixty additions of the Sanskrit text.

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So this is a passage. These passages will be heavily redacted for anyone who knows.

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This text is very verbose. So I might seem that I'm being verbose, but I'm actually trying to keep it two to a minimum as possible.

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But here we go. So this is a description of the the the powers and abilities of the body sought by us.

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The text states they had obtained a thorough knowledge that all the realms of being are like illusions,

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comprehended that all two targets are like reflections. They were produced by the Gnosis.

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That rebirth and all the states of existence is like a dream.

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There are purified by the Gnosis that all the results of karma are like reflected images.

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They possessed the supernatural knowledge through Gnosis that all accomplishments are like

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mirages and had comprehended that the appearance of all worlds is like a magical creation.

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This is a standard list we find in Mahayana about Damas, a phenomenon, not that they're like illusions, reflections, dreams, et cetera.

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And we'll return to this theme and a little while now, following this elaborate description of this scene,

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the narrator informs us that the disciples of the Buddha, the shrimp workers who are not bodhisattva, did not see this transformation that took place.

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And so the text reads. However, the great disciples did not see the miracle of the two targets in Jeddah Grove.

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They did not see the arrays of the Buddha or His Majesty, his exhibition of supernatural power, his magical performance,

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his overlord ship, the miracle of his deeds, his might, his power or the purity of his Buddha land.

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They also did not see the incalculable sphere of the body that boasts the coming together,

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their assembly, their meeting, their approach, their miracle, their magical performance,

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their assembled multitude, the residing in all directions, their array of lion thrones,

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their palaces, their manifestations, their valour, their worship of the Buddha, etc.

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So the narrator then offers us this rhetorical question, what was the reason for this?

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This was due to their lack of the corresponding roots of merit for they had

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not collected roots of merit conducive to seeing the miracles of all Buddhas,

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nor had they previously praised the purity of the arrays and qualities of all Buddha lands belonging to the world throughout the 10 directions.

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Therefore, the great disciples did not see here no perceive, comprehend, attend to understand,

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focus on, look at, observe, meditate on, nor reflect upon the miracle of the target to.

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What was the reason for this? The range of gnosis of a Buddha is not the range of a disciple.

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Thus, even though those great disciples were right there in Jeddah Grove.

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They did not see the miracles of the Buddha, but they did not have the basis of merit to witness a fraction of them.

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Nor did they have the purity of the Gnosis II, by which they would be able to see the miracles of the Buddha.

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What was the reason for this? It was so because they were produced by the vehicle of the disciples.

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They had attained their status by means of the disciples past. They were occupied with the collection of practises of the disciples.

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They were established in the spiritual results of the disciples. They were dependent upon the gnosis that illuminate the truths.

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They were established at the limit of reality. Gather together, they were seated right there in Jeddah Grove.

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They sat before behind to the left and right of the Lord, all facing him.

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But they did not see those miracles in Jeddah Grove. What was the reason for this?

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It was because they not having acquired omission. No sense, not having obtained omniscient gnosis, not having set out from omniscient Gnosis.

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Not being directed towards omniscient Gnosis lacked the power to penetrate, find, see or understand the miracle of the two targets.

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Just trance. What was the reason for this?

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This is because what is to be perceived within the range of vision of the noble body,

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suppose is not to be perceived within the range of vision of the disciples.

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Therefore, although the great disciples were right there in Jeddah Grove,

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they did not see the powers of the Buddha, the purity of his Buddha land or the gathering of the boat.

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He sought funds. So this assertion is then illustrated with several analogies highlighting the virtual and karmic nature of conventional reality.

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There are many, and I'm just going to give three of them here just to give you a taste of what the examples are like.

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So the text reads,

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it was just as if many hundreds of thousands of hungry ghosts gathered on both banks of the Great River Ganges afflicted by hunger and thirst.

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Naked without shelter with skin and limbs,

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a tawny brown colour withered from the wind and heat harassed by a murder of

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crows terrorised by wolves and jackals did not see the Great River Ganges.

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Some would see it as dried up. Waterless are filled with ashes due to the impediment of their obstructive karma.

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In just the same way, those elders, the great disciples, although they were present right there in Jeddah Grove,

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did not see the miracle of the Tarcutta or comprehend it due to their eyes being covered by the veil of ignorance

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that is opposed to omniscience and because they had not obtained the roots of merit for the stage of omniscience.

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OK, now our second example or stuck in analogy.

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It was just as if a man on a great festival day in the middle of a large group of people were to become sleepy,

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having fallen asleep in that very spot.

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He would see in a dream a city of lights with a multitude of beautiful abodes and the entire base of Mount Sumer with its trees,

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with a collection of parks be strewn with manifold divine flowers filled with hundreds of thousands of

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millions of billions of nymphs and inhabited by hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of demigods,

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et cetera, et cetera. He would know himself to be situated there, and he would see the entire place as adorned with this celestial array.

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But the entire group of people situated right there in that place would not see, would not know, would not perceive this.

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What is the reason for that? This is due to that vision belonging to the man and the dream,

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and not to the great crowd of people, even though they were right there in the same place.

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And just the same way those body sort suppose the lords of the world directed toward awakening through

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the extensive power of the Buddha through the skilful acquisition of their own roots of merit,

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through the skilful undertaking of their vows to attain omniscience through the skilful practise of the qualities of wealth to target us,

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they saw penetrated into and understood the miracle of the Buddha.

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But those great disciples, led by the most excellent pair, did not see or know this because they lacked the vision of the body burst.

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And then for our our final analogy. It was just as if a man knowing the ways of all medical plants would be able to collect

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medical herbs upon a majestic mountain strewn with medicinal plants in the Himalayas.

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But in that very same place, hunters of wild boars, cows, goats,

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bears and deer or other men without knowledge of medicinal plant law who ascended into the Himalayas would not know the application of the essence,

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power affect efficacy or utility of medical herbs.

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In the same way,

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those bodhisattva us who have penetrated into the range of the target has no source and have perfected the range of the miracle of the body.

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Sight birds knew the range of the miracle of the two targets trance.

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But those great disciples, led by the most excellent pair residing right there in Jeddah Grove, who are contented with their own conduct,

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unconcerned with the conduct of others, abided indifferent and did not know the range of the two takata's miracle or the range of his trance.

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So. What drink?

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So as students of Indian Mahayana, we can learn much from these passages, one highly significant point worth mentioning,

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which I've not seen discussed in any great detail in the literature on the topic is that the Supreme

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Array offers a compelling and philosophically nuanced apology for the appearance of the Mahayana,

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according to the need to honour. The Buddha taught the Mahayana right from the beginning,

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but the disciples and those less spiritually advanced simply could not perceive it, even when sitting right in front of him.

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Another significant point, which is the focus of this paper, concerns the nature of karma and reality.

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As we all learnt as undergraduates, Carmel literally means action, Carmen, and for Buddhists, this is specifically intentional action because actions,

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plant seeds Bjarne that bring forth results are fruit power,

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such as our current realm of existence or gender appearance, social status, our abilities and handicaps.

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They have a direct impact on how we experience our lived world. In fact, our intentionality constructs our experience.

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In the model of dependent arising, there is no sharp distinction between psychology and materiality.

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Thus, there are no freestanding objective places apart from the collective karmic conditioning of their inhabitants.

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In truth, all conventional reality is virtual,

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and the virtual reality we live in is the one we deserve as either punishment or reward for our past deeds.

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In the Mahayana, these notions are further reinforced onto logically with the concepts of emptiness and the dreamlike or illusory nature of phenomena.

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Since all phenomena lack substance, they are like dreams, illusions, reflected images, et cetera.

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A corollary to this idea is that as one advances on the body sight, the path to developing good karma or roots of merit,

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one gains access to more exalted levels of reality, wherein one directly experiences the interpenetration and not obstruction of all spacetime.

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Advance body sight does exist simultaneously in multiple realities through infinite space and time,

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skilfully occupying countless referential frames or dimensions of experience every instant.

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Moreover, as a body, Sotloff's mental powers increase their ability to control and manipulate the very fabric of reality also increases.

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Now, in this vision, there are infinite virtual realities, all Inter penetrating each other.

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The totality of these and their ultimate ground is called in the Supreme Array, the Dharma Realm, or Dharma data.

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However, we may conceive of this ground as in some sense a groundless ground, since the ground does not exist independently of the phenomena.

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The Chinese Hawaiian Masters expressed this well with the notion that the firms that phenomena sure depend on the Dharma realm as Principal Lee,

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but principal also depends on phenomena. Thus, conventional and ultimate reality inter penetrate each other and co arise.

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So this is basically in a nutshell, this is the the view of the Supreme Array a very, very important my on a text.

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Now this view that all experience is virtual may be applied to our current ethical

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thinking around the technological creation of virtual reality or VR technology.

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This notion? Has been largely inspired by a recent, thought provoking monograph by Peter her shock,

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some of you might know of it, but it's called Buddhism and Intelligent Technology toward a more humane future.

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And I'll just give a quote from from this book that I think is very illustrative of a connecting

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point between this ancient Indian Mahayana text and our current technological breakthroughs.

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He writes to anticipate why the concept of karma might be particularly relevant

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for clarifying the risks of a craving and control driven attention economy,

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as well as the more general value conflicts accentuated by the intelligence revolution.

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Consider how our internet experience is now shaped by self improving algorithms, decision making procedures that use patterns of our searches,

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preferences and purchases to determine and structure the web content made available to us.

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These algorithms are designed to continuously shape and reshape our online experiences to bring them

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into ever closer accord with what we would like based on our own expressed aims and interests.

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In short, the values embodied in our connective behaviour are used recursively to configure and progressively reconfigure our online realities.

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In effect, the computational factories of the intelligence revolution are functioning as karmic engines.

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So. We see already in this new attention economy how social media such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are inherently karmic.

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Our intentionality determines our online experience.

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In this way, online experience is never ethically neutral and our intentions and online behaviours shape our online reality.

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Within the context of global consumer capitalism based, as it is largely on greed,

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the karmic outcomes of our migrations into these new virtual realities cannot be good.

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Already, we are witnessing the potentially irreversible transformation of our little blue

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dot planet Earth into the horrific vision of the hungry ghosts described above.

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However, so much of us, especially the younger generations,

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have been captured by the phantasmagorical virtual realities of social media and

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barely notice the environmental collapse taking place in real time around us.

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And then just one final point I would like to make touching on this concept of a virtual realities.

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I'd like to mention the what's known as the current simulation hypothesis, not the simulation hypnosis, which I which is a misprint in my abstract.

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So apologies there. So I'm looking at the simulation hypothesis,

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which is basically the notion that we are in fact not living in the real world, but living in an artificial simulation.

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Now, much has been written about the current simulation hypothesis,

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and there are some rather prominent individuals, such as Elon Musk, who accepted as a strong possibility.

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Now, the philosophical font of the current debate stems from a paper published by the philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2001 and

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then reprinted again in 2003 and philosophical philosophical quarterly called Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?

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And then just to to summarise very briefly, Bostrom argument in his own words, I'll just have a I'll just have a quote from him.

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So he writes many works of science fiction, as well as some four forecasts by serious technologists and future apologists,

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predict that enormous amounts of computing power will be available in the future.

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Let us suppose for a moment that these predictions are correct.

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One thing that later generations might do with their super powerful computers is run detailed simulations

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of their forebears or of people like their forebears because their computers would be so powerful,

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they could run a great many such simulations. Suppose that these simulated people are conscious as they would be if the simulations were sufficiently

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fine grained and if a certain quite widely accepted position in the philosophy of mind is correct.

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Then it could be the case that the vast majority of mines like ours do not belong to the original race,

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but rather to people simulated by the advanced descendants of an original race.

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It is then possible to argue that if this were the case,

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we would be rational to think that we are likely amongst the simulated minds rather than amongst the original biological ones.

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Therefore, if we don't think that we are currently living in a computer simulation,

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we are not entitled to believe that we will have descendants who will run lots of such simulations of their forbearers.

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This is the basic idea. So what I mean, what Bostrom is saying in a nutshell, is that.

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If we do advance to this point where we can run these simulations, then it's likely that we would run these simulations and we would run many of them.

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So many, in fact, that it's much more likely that we are now living in a simulation than than not, which is as quite a mind bending notion.

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But just to to bring this back around to the Mahayana in the gunda view,

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how what what I'd like to say is that we can notice in this argument that there

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is an original rate race residing in the real world who created the simulation.

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However, from the point of view of the Mahayana, all reality is virtual.

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So even if we are the playthings of the gods, even the gods are subject to the law of karma.

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Thus, whether we are in a virtual reality nested within a larger virtual reality might be of some interest.

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But there is no final real world to arrive at.

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Only reality is nested within realities nested within realities.

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In other words, it's turtles all the way down, and karma is the engine that drives it.

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Thank you.