Are we living in a virtual simulation?

Reference your editorial on the above subject the hologram theory recently forwarded by Dr Melvin Vopson of the university of Portsmouth, was explored in the fourth and fifth century C.E. by three Buddhist philosophers leading to a sect of Mahayana named Yogcara or Vinnapti Matra. They were Maithrayanatha, Asanga and Vasubandhu. Asanga and Vasubaandhu were brothers who lived in India and wrote many books on the subject.  They formulated that what we experience has no reality and is a virtual world built in our mind (a hologram in modern words). The tradition was carried on by Dignaga (fifth century CE) and Sthiramathi (seventh century). Soon the tradition declined in India and was carried on in Tibet and the Far East. It is now mostly extant in Japan and is practised by many followers.

According to Theravada Abhidhamma, Buddha did not go so far except to say what we experience in life is not the world as it is but an image of the world made up in our mind and compared it to a magic show (maya) and a delusion (moha or avijja). Insight (Vipassana) meditation when mature makes one realise the error.  Because of this explanation the theory of two truths was formulated in Abhidhamma. The ultimate truth (paramatta) which can be known by matured insight meditation and the conventional truth (sammuthi) we use to communicate and live in the world.  It is like our saying the sun rises and sets but we know the earth is rotating and part of its surface alternately faces the sun and away from the sun.

 When ancient India and Greece believed the physical world was made up of elementary substances earth, water, fire and air, the Buddha said they were not substances but changing processes (Dhammasangini – definition of elementary physical processes). He said earth element is solidity, water element is cohesive power, fire element is heat energy and air element is motility. These changing processes or forces (not substances as was believed) formed the physical world and a unit of these combined elements is not perceived by human senses till they aggregate in large numbers to form things that we perceive as substances.

It is in this sense that the universal characters of all worldly phenomena are claimed to be impermanent (anicca) and therefore unsatisfactory (dukkha) and as void (sunyata) in Mahayana.  The theory of atoms came into being after the Buddha and was accepted till 18th Century in the West. Abhidhamma teachers explained that even atoms are formed by aggregation of elementary processes. This is what quantum physics tells us now.

As to cloning of living beings, the Buddha described a type of birth named opapthika (translated as spontaneous birth without sexual union of parents) but has consciousness essential to sustain life. According to his description some are born with sensory organs as living beings we are familiar with, some with a fine physical body (may not be carbon based) and also some with mind only (comprehensive manual of Abhidhamma V -9-17).

The last two types live very long and even think themselves to be immortal (gods, deviyo or deus) but are mortal.

U. Abeysiri