"Escape to reality" is what the Buddha taught, but endlessly in samsara we try to escape from reality -- to little effect. This is not real (see Three Marks), and virtual representations of it are even less real.(LAWeekly.com) While some spent the weekend AdultCon in downtown, a radically different group of conventioneers gathered at the University of the West in Rosemead (Los Angeles) for the inaugural Buddhist Geeks Conference, not for cosplay in Shaolin monk's robes but instead as the Western face of an aeons old religion. More
"Is Super Mario a Buddhist?" asks Stanford Univ. neuroscientist Jane McGonigal (Paul T. Bradley/LAWeekly.com).
The reality of staring at hypnotically pulsating screens is not as fun as the initial thrill of escapism into video games. The mind-body was guided in its evolution to interact with the sensual world not a virtual duality.