The World is Like a Movie, a Dream, a Video Game

In a video game, anything is possible. Characters can float up, some can regenerate arms and legs, come back to life, and show up in multiple places at once, and objects can be rendered in front of our eyes out of nothingness.

Keep this metaphor in mind as you face challenges and obstacles in the material world, which is inevitable. Changing perspective can help us deal with the most difficult situations in life. Think how the metaphor of the motion picture, and the realization that everything that is physical is actually made of light, changed Yogananda’s view of the world and suffering the world. Similarly, adopting the metaphor of the video game, consisting of a player (the real you) and a character (in the game), can change your perspective: ‘One’s values are profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture, and that not in it, but beyond it, lies his own reality.’13 And the next time anyone asks you about the nature of reality, ask them if they have ever played a video game!

About The Author: Rizwan Virk is a successful entrepreneur, a video game pioneer, a venture capitalist, and the founder of the startup accelerator Play Labs @ MIT. A graduate of MIT and Stanford, he is currently a faculty associate at Arizona State University. He is also the author of Zen Entrepreneurship, Startup Myths, and Models: What You Won’t Learn in Business School, Treasure Hunt: Follow Your Inner Clues to Find True Success, and The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics Agree We Are in a Video Game.