Isn't calling reality a simulation a belittling term, as if everything we experience here isn't genuine?
No, if we are living in a simulation, it's an accurate and appropriate term from outside the simulation. We use the same word for simulations we create. And if new simulations were created within a simulation we've made, that simulation would refer to it (in its own language, of course) as a simulation and to our creation as reality.
The difference between reality and simulation is thus where the term is used. We call the environment we experience reality, and the environments we create simulations. Within our simulations, they would be experienced as realities, at least when they are advanced enough for the entities within them to form opinions about the nature of reality.
Similarly, in the reality - let's call it Arkhe - that has created the reality we experience, it would be called a simulation, and Arkhe itself would be called reality.
In other words, all realities are simulations to their creators and realities to their inhabitants. The only exception to the rule is the foundational reality, Anarkhe, which is not created and simply is, and from which all other realities originate.
What if we are living in the foundational reality? Then calling reality a simulation would be a mistake, right?
True, it would be. But as we've discussed before, it's unlikely that we live in the foundational reality if the creation of simulations is possible.
Our reality could be Anarkhe, but for millennia, we’ve concluded that the reality we experience is not Brahman, Tao, Sunyata, Heaven, or Al-Haqq, but a creation or illusion of someone or something, beneath, behind, or outside of which lies the true reality - Arkhe - beyond our comprehension in this reality.
Even though today, in light of materialism, empiricism, and rationalism, we consider the reality we experience and perceive as the foundational and only existing reality, the truth is that within every simulation, a materialistic, empirical, and rational approach leads to the same conclusion. From within the simulation, one cannot observe the external reality, because it would break the simulation and render its purpose void.
A scientific approach, therefore, only tells us what the reality we experience is like. It cannot tell us whether the reality we experience is genuine.
How then can we be present in a reality that might not even be genuine?
Even if our experience of the surrounding reality and even our bodies is part of a simulation, we are still genuine. Even if we've come to this reality from Arkhe, we are here now, in this moment, and that is the only place where we can be present. Our internal reality is always genuine; we just need to find and feel it.
By being present here and now, we can find within ourselves certainty, serenity, and peace, which allow us to face the uncertainty and chaos of external experience without anxiety or being overwhelmed, enabling us to make the reality we experience a place where we can thrive, love, and flourish, fulfilling both our own and the purpose of this simulation, whatever they may be, and when the time comes, we can joyfully return to Arkhe.