Tripp, a VR meditation platform, has several community spaces, including a Zen garden. It’s empty right now, but during sessions it fills with avatars, some looking like cartoon versions of their human counterparts, others sporting purple skin, green mohawks, and robes the color of the cosmos. I can sense my body feeling colder, wanting to reinforce the story my eyes and ears are telling me. It is austere and majestic, and all around us craggy snow-capped peaks mingle with the heavens. With the click of a button, Nickel and I are somewhere in the Himalayas, outside a Tibetan-style temple. They’re finding something in VR that they haven’t found elsewhere, which is a reason to meditate.” “The people who are using our app are not the people you usually see in Buddhist communities,” he continues. I think people in this world really know they need meditation, but they don’t know how to get it. “They expect to find video games and people blowing things up. “When people go into virtual reality, they don’t expect to find a person leading meditations,” remarks Nickel. Curious, I borrowed a VR headset to explore a few of these meditation platforms while speaking with some thought leaders at the intersection between Buddhism and VR. While VR remains almost totally the domain of the gaming industry, a few contemplative organizations like Tripp have carved out spaces where VR users can learn about and practice meditation. It’s peaceful enough to make me forget that I’m wearing a brick-like pair of VR goggles on my face and holding controllers in my hands.Īlthough virtual reality has been around for decades, it only recently entered the cultural arena with the arrival of affordable headsets. Nobody would mistake this for the real deal, but there is a certain tranquility to the space. I turn around in a full circle, taking it all in. We also have ancient ruins and a Tibetan temple in the mountains.” “It’s modeled after the backyard of one of our designer’s grandparents in Taiwan. “This is one of our most popular spaces,” reports Nickel. Off to one side is a peaceful looking zendo. There are stone benches and cairns weathered by the elements. A digital breeze gently blows through the trees around the garden. The first place Nickel takes me is to the Zen garden. I’m meeting with Jeremy Nickel, an executive at Tripp, a VR meditation app that offers “mesmerizing worldscapes,” “guided visualizations,” and “captivating breathing exercises.” He’s agreed to give me a guided tour of the various landmarks in their metaverse. Purple skin is a popular flesh tone where I am going. Real life overlaid with contemplative virtual reality, as created by the VR start-up aNUma.
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