At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery.
Then, late at night, the glorious god Rohitassa, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove, went up to the Buddha, bowed, stood to one side, and said to him:
“Sir, is it possible to know or see or reach the end of the world by traveling to a place where there’s no being born, growing old, dying, passing away, or being reborn?”
“Reverend, I say it’s not possible to know or see or reach the end of the world by traveling to a place where there’s no being born, growing old, dying, passing away, or being reborn.”
“It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing, how well said this was by the Buddha.
Once upon a time, I was a seer called Rohitassa, son of Bhoja. I was a sky-walker with psychic powers. I was as fast as a light arrow easily shot across the shadow of a palm tree by a well-trained expert archer with a strong bow. My stride was such that it could span from the eastern ocean to the western ocean. Having such speed and stride, this wish came to me: ‘I will reach the end of the world by traveling.’ I traveled for my whole lifespan of a hundred years—pausing only to eat and drink, go to the toilet, and sleep to dispel weariness—and I passed away along the way, never reaching the end of the world.
It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing, how well said this was by the Buddha.”
“Reverend, I say it’s not possible to know or see or reach the end of the world by traveling to a place where there’s no being born, growing old, dying, passing away, or being reborn. But I also say there’s no making an end of suffering without reaching the end of the world. For it is in this fathom-long carcass with its perception and mind that I describe the world, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.
The end of the world can never
be reached by traveling.
But without reaching the end of the world,
there’s no release from suffering.
So an intelligent person, understanding the world,
has completed the spiritual journey,
and gone to the end of the world.
A calm one, knowing the end of the world,
does not long for this world or the next.”
In this teaching, the Buddha is sharing that one doesn’t get freed from suffering, from discontentment, by having varied experiences or by traveling. The use of end of the world phrase is a simile for a desire to experience peace, to understand reality.
The future potential of immersive technologies, even when taken in the most positive sense, can at best allow one to see this noble truth of discontentment. Because these experiences will at one point end, and this creates discontentment. One can perhaps understand the other realms through this question that MKBHD is describing with this positive vision of tech:
If one could have any experience, of places of the world, of being in space, of different worlds, in a realistic way including interactions with other beings, then what would one experience when the headsets are taken off?
Related Teachings:
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The noble truth of discontentment should be understood - When one takes the headsets off and sees the discontentment through investigating the conditioned feelings:
- Pleasant: Happiness, excitement, euphoria, thrill, elation
- Painful: Sadness, anger, frustration, jealousy, shame, guilt, fear
- Neither pleasant nor painful: Boredom, shyness, melancholy, loneliness, discomfort, shyness
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Gradual training, gradual practice and gradual progress - Training guidelines shared by the Buddha to cultivate jhānas (to take off the headsets) through gradual practice and cultivation of ethical conduct, application of sense restraint, moderation in eating, dedication to wakefulness, practice of situational awareness and meditating in seclusion by giving up of the five hindrances. These can be considered as building of new habits and should be taken up individually, one at a time, until the practice becomes easy, automatic and second nature.