All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow. Like dew or a flash of lightning—thus should one contemplate them.

—The Diamond Sutra

「一切有為法，如夢幻泡影。如露亦如電，應作如是觀。」

—《金剛經》

For millennia, humanity has pondered the origins of the universe—its every motion a dance of precision, a marvelous design, yet no diligent creator in sight. Life seems a chance creation, born from the roll of God’s dice, with no meaning, drifting toward an unknown horizon. And still, all things align in perfect harmony, performing as a symphony. It unfolds step by step, following certain principles as if guided by unseen hands.

How this wondrous cosmos came to be remains a mystery, an enigma that science has yet to solve. No scientific theory can explain the creation. The time cannot be rewound, thus deducing and hypothesizing based on observable phenomena, stitching together piece by piece.

Before the universe formed, time and space existed in a formless state, not truly empty, but possibly in the state physicists hypothesize as "quantum foam"—formless yet present. 

Even if you took an empty container devoid of all matter and cooled it to absolute zero, there is still “something” in the container. That something is called quantum foam, and it represents particles blinking into and out of existence.

At a certain moment, at a specific point of origin, the universe was born. Perhaps it was the Big Bang, or maybe it started from a singularity, a seed of infinitely small points, or followed a rhythmic cycle of creation and destruction. If string theory holds true, all things seems to originate from some form of string vibration, energy waves without mass, vibrating in the void. The vibrations of strings transform intangible energy waves into tangible matter, with mass-energy conversion as described by E = mc². 

This led to the creation of the most basic building blocks—quarks. Combine multiple quarks to form protons, neutrons, and electrons, which then aggregate to form atoms. One atom, then two, followed by more atoms, joining to form molecules. These new molecules continue to merge, creating everything in existence. Like building blocks, brick by brick, atoms stack together to form the cosmo materialized as the world we see today.

In other words, this physical world comes from “nothing” or “emptiness,” which resonates with the very idea mentioned in the I Ching, Buddhism, or Tao a thousand years ago. Everything came out of Wuji (無極), the primordial state of the universe, or the ultimate of nothingness. Wuji is the state of oneness, or zero, which gives rise to Tai-ji (太極), which the two, yin and yang, rise of duality and separation. 

“All phenomena are of empty nature.” – The Heart Sutra

「是諸法空相。」—《心經》

The Yi contains Taiji, which gives rise to the two forms (Yin and Yang); the two forms give rise to the four images; the four images give rise to the eight trigrams.

– The Commentary on the Appended Phrases from the Book of Changes. Chapter 11.

「易有太極，是生兩儀，兩儀生四象，四象生八卦。」—《易傳·繫辭上傳・第11章》

The tricky part is that Nothingness isn’t truly absolute; if it were, it couldn’t give rise to anything. This is like the concept of quantum foam in physics, where the primordial universe was formless—impossible to capture or contain. It gives the appearance of emptiness or nothingness, yet something is there in order to produce anything. 

The material world seems solid, but its essence is as illusory as a mirage. It is the aggregation and pulsation of energy fields, a projected three-dimensional hologram, an image cast upon a screen. In this illusion, everything operates with stunning realism, appearing to exist yet remaining fundamentally unreal.

The Sanskrit term "Maya" refers to this illusion or delusion. Though bodily sensations feel undeniably real, the body and the world are inherently empty, similar to wearing a VR headset and being immersed in a virtual reality game. Maya creates the body’s sensory system and the brain’s cognitive mechanisms. 

To the physical body, a construct of the material world, this world feels real—feelings are real, pain is real, and sensations are real. Everything perceived within this world is real: a venomous snake bite brings death, a breakup in a relationship brings psychological pain, and a mortgage brings financial worry. However, the realness is only valid within the illusion, just as a game character is real in the virtual world, but it exists only within that virtual world.

In a VR video game, various characters populate the virtual world—commoners, kings, queens, nobles, soldiers, slaves, the virtuous, the wicked, the fortunate, and the sorrowful—each engaged in their own narratives. They dream within dreams, playing soccer, teasing kittens, or getting drunk. Every role comes with specific traits: a king must dress, behave, and perform royal duties in a certain way. Similarly, in the world of Maya—our so-called reality—a role-playing game unfolds where consciousness is embedded in a human body, assigned the role of "self." This "self" comes with particular attributes such as appearance, personality, preferences, and a convincing storyline. 

Though the illusion itself isn’t real, we mistake the fictional role for our true identity, fooled by surface appearances and taking the performance seriously. In the virtual world, characters take on specific forms, assigned with particular characteristics, but the true player remains unseen, interacting only through the virtual avatar—whether it’s a powerful king or a playful, big-eyed monkey, acting according to the pre-programmed traits. In the same way, our brain and body, seemingly concrete and real, is a temporary vehicle for navigating this virtual world of Maya. We think and behave according to the genetic code and societal influences. 

The dreamstate world gives rise to a dreamstate brain and body, where dreamstate characters perceive a dreamstate reality. In this finely crafted illusion, everything—phenomena, experiences, perceptions, and sensations—feels completely real. This makes it difficult to recognize that what we perceive as reality is, in fact, a grand delusion. Only through a process of self-dismantling, begin to unravel and the structure of the self starts to disintegrate—do we come to realize that we are living in a dream that feels intensely real, yet is profoundly unreal.

The realness of the dream only stays in the dreamstate. Outside of the dream, waking up from the dream is merely a grand illusion. There is no virtual character outside the virtual world.