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RADIANT MIND |
"The
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Nonduality
presents
edited by Jerry Katz
"Within the
prison of your world appears a man who tells you that the
world of painful contradictions, which you have created, is
neither
continuous nor permanent and is based on a misapprehension. He
pleads
with you to get out of it, by the same way by which you got into
it.
You got into it by forgetting what you are and you will get out
of it
by knowing yourself as you are."
- Nisargadatta Maharaj
Important Matrix Links:
http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/
Philosophy and The Matrix: http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/index_phi.html
http://www.innerx.net/personal/tsmith/Matrix.html
The Matrix, Philip K. Dick's "Valis," Nag Hammadi, Gnosism, and The Essenes. by Stephen Lindsey
Japanese Animation: A Creative Source for The Matrix
Even if you have not seen the Matrix movies, you will find this an effective spiritual and mind-healing book. Written by a scientist, it will help you understand “Reality” and lead a stress-free life. Topics which will guide your inner quest include the Self, enlightenment, mystery of the universe, consciousness, God, Soul, purpose of life, nature of the mind. Understand meditation and its real purpose, love, nature of our sensory world, ancient scientific wisdom in mythological stories and scientific interpretation of symbols in myths, the unity of paths in all spiritual traditions, and the path to the Source from which we all descended. |
from the 'follow the white rabbit' scene in Neo's apartment: Choi: Hallelujah. You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ. Neo: You get caught using that... Choi: Yeah, I know. This never happened. You don't exist. Neo: Right. Choi: Something wrong, man? You look a little whiter than usual. Neo: My computer, it... You ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming? Interrogation scene: Agent Smith (to Neo): We know that you've been contacted by a certain individual, a man who calls himself Morpheus. Now whatever you think you know about this man is irrelevant. He is considered by many authorities to be the most dangerous man alive. |
Tim Gerchmez. To me, the greatest value of the movie 'The Matrix' is in introducing nondual spiritual concepts to those who have never encountered such possibilities before.
Bruce Morgen. prose equivalents to "The Matrix."
Tomas Dias de Villegas. there's an interview Vernon Kitabu Turner in this months "What is Enlightenment?" issue that reminds me of the later part of the movie.
Petros. The heroes don't realize that they are merely abandoning one "drama" for another.
Tomas and Petros. I notice in The Matrix, the characters plugged themselves in in the back of the neck -- the visuddha chakra.
Jerry Katz. It is a melange of themes and possibilities, and in that way it is very 'Nonduality Salon'.
Christiana Duranczyk. The movie is like a huge puzzle with borrowed pieces from various sources. It is delightful to hold each piece up to the light and examine it's relevance in this new configuration.
David Hodges. "The Matrix" tends to engage consciousness in many levels and it is easy to imagine that you are living in the Matrix. In the big corporation where I am consulting at the moment, this is especially true.
Phil Burton. The Matrix is us.
Gene Poole. What can I say about the 'agents'? They were the 'masters of stop'. The only thing they did was to stop; they were stoppers. Agents of life, on the other hand, are 'goers'; they are on the go, they know that they are life itself, and they promote life and protect life.
Gene Poole and !. why does Neo eat the cookie? he is still rejecting the Real, wants to be stupified, like drinking that intoxicant from the traitor-rebel. he wants to be back in the Matrix but he can't deny the Real nonetheless. it is like becoming aware of the depth of the Real and never being able to go back even if one wishes to. perhaps this is why "masters" sometimes become drug-addled (escapism)
Gene Poole, !, and Jody. There is no non-dual ontology. There is the possibility that one who has realized Brahman has a different 'perspective' with respect to Maya and that this could be termed a 'nondual perspective'.
Gene Poole, !, Jody and Petros. It would have been interesting if at the end of the film, Neo starts to question whether or not he is actually still in the Cocoon . . . that the Computer just *let* him play his little game of awakening, fighting, killing an agent, etc., in order to keep the crew happy.
! (continuing the above conversation). Is he the One? is there only One? have we established the truth of the Oracle? even the main characters in the story hadn't done so.
Marcia Paul. It has been very interesting these last few days. I find I am wearing the Matrix. I have been influenced by the movie and now I see things through the filter of the Matrix movie. And it is penetrating deeper and deeper.
Carey Wilson. Did anyone besides me expect (want) Neo to grab both of Morpheus's offered pills and swallow them down together to see what would result?
Maurice Taylor. It appears that being hooked up and programmed is better or at least more satisfying than not (in the movie), if one has the freedom of self-programming -- "self" programming being ultimately the infinite creative unfolding of Being (in form of Matrix) as Realized input to Self as self rather than limited and narrowed by a "self" constructed and programmed by a cultural-social-matrix.
Gloria Lee. Not to suggest that women have the corner on intuition, but have all oracles historically been female? I just don't see any need for her to represent God. What's wrong with being a plain old oracle, who btw even smoked and was very down to earth?
Melody Anderson (with extensive commentary by David Hodges). As soon as I saw the Oracle I recognized her as the Mother Sophia, from the Gnostic tradition. Like Sophia, the Oracle is no detached witness. They both are personifications of the higher feminine principle.... on a *mission*....to awaken humanity and to assist in their resurrection out of chaos and darkness.
Dirk. Matrix is about the shift in perception of reality. The few kids in the front room in the Oracle's apartment, those "promising student" have learned that reality can shift.
Interview with John Gaeta, Visual Effects Supervisor for The Matrix. The biggest question I've always had, and I don't know if you guys can answer it or not, is why does Neo fly at the end of the movie? John: Because he is self-actualized.
Neo and Phil Burton. How many people go about living their lives in this world with the constant realization that everything they see, hear, read, write, believe is but a projection of their own mind?
KR, Gill Eardley, Terry Murphy and Dan Berkow. Gill: I found it very poignant, and I can't recall anybody mentioning this before, when the agent told morpheus he was desperate to escape, that if he could just do this one thing he would be free. Sound familiar? Terry: I saw the allegory as one of *any* ordinary individual finding enlightenment with the help of the wise and accumulated human spiritual culture and spiritual friends (the triple gem: buddha, dharma, sangha). Dan: I discovered that the generators of the matrix were themselves generated by the matrix. The ones who escaped the matrix escaped because this escape was a program of the comprehensive matrix.
Matrix Within Matrix Within Matrix Gene Poole, with Neo and Jerry. Speaking of The Matrix, there is one line that has always puzzled me. Help anyone?
Yesterday I saw the
movie "Matrix," which definitely is based on some
nondual concepts (the first "popular" movie I've ever
seen that I can claim was based on aspects of Eastern philosophy,
which goes to show how these concepts are now penetrating Western
society very rapidly).
In one of the scenes in the movie, there is a dimension shown
consisting only of blank white space, the "potential"
area for matrix programming .
Well, I made an interesting meditation out of this. First, I
envisioned myself in a 360 degree pure white dimension. This
could be compared to bodilessly floating in the dead center of a
ping-pong ball. I made the mental image as clear as possible. No
matter where I "looked" (up, down, left, right,
anywhere), there was only whiteness, and of course nothing for
the eyes to focus on, so looking around there was no sensation of
change of viewpoint at all. No depth perception either, because
there was nothing to focus the eyes on. Just pure whiteness.
Soon after this, I changed perspectives, and I *WAS* the white
dimension. Allowing myself to BE this dimension, I found myself
in contact with something deeply Divine in myself. I began to
alternate between the viewpoint of "myself" within the
dimension, and *being* the dimension itself.
After a while (I don't know how long), I allowed myself (as the
white dimension) to consciously say "I AM." This
propelled me into a state of Samadhi/SatChitAnanda. The bliss was
so powerful, I was up all night last night because of it. Gotta
get some sleep, or I'm gonna have to leave this body prematurely
due to exhaustion ;-)
...
To me, the greatest
value of the movie "The Matrix" is in introducing
nondual spiritual concepts to those who have never encountered
such possibilities before. The action draws one into the story,
and the concepts are then free to penetrate the mind. The central
theme of the movie is "Nothing is as it seems." Is this
not also one of the central themes of nonduality?
If even one "average" person walks out of this movie
with a slight change of perspective, it is of infinite value.
-----------------------
My
"favorite" scene in the movie had nothing to do with
the fight scenes. It was when Keanu Reeves was talking to the
child who was bending the spoon "with his mind." The
child said "Do not try to bend the spoon. It is not the
spoon that bends. It's the self that bends."
But did you not find my meditative experience interesting as
well? :-) Perhaps it was actually quite ordinary... but it's rare
that mere mental visualization has such a powerful effect.
------------------------
I wish the filmmakers had had the courage to take the movie one step further. Rather than Neo awakening in some far future, as he did, I would have liked to see him awaken to the PRESENT. I would have liked to see Morpheus point to the burned out city and say "This is what our egos really are. This is where we really live." Neo could have been an Avatar, and Morpheus and the others enlightened masters.
----------------------
In "The Matrix," there's a scene where Neo is taken to a formless place of blank whiteness, and told that this is the place where all matrix programming springs from (or something like that). To me, this blank, formless whiteness perfectly represents Brahman, Self, Sunyata, "That emptiness from which all things spring." I've even discovered that meditating on such a blank, depthless, formless, utterly silent white field is a useful technique for me (and so have actually taken something from a movie that is useful in a spiritual context!). A place such as this represents what we really are - formless, featureless, nameless, empty, pure consciousness.
---Tim Gerchmez
---Bruce Morgen
Tomas Dias de Villegas contributed:
I liked
"Matrix"
there's an interview (with a guy named Vernon Kitabu Turner) in
this months "What is Enlightenment?" issue that reminds
me of the later part of the movie. That last fight scene
where....well you know...I don't want to give anything away for
anyone.
check it out here : http://www.moksha.org/wie/j15/turner.html
This was a very
interesting film. I plan on seeing it again, and I don't often
see films more than once.
The film rightly questions our view of "reality," and
asks "what is Real?" like a few other recent films of
the past few years (The Truman Show, Dark City), but the
characters themselves never leave their own dualism. That is to
say, we are to accept the "resistance" as _real_, and
life in the cocoons as unreal. The heroes don't realize that they
are merely abandoning one "drama" for another. What
would have been VERY interesting would have been if, at the end
of the film, we discover that the heroes never really left their
cocoons in the first place, and that the whole struggle was
merely another virtual drama induced by the Machine to keep the
heroes happy.
It also would have added to the dramatic tension if the Agents
were portrayed as "good" guys rather than evil
automatons. I.e., they want humanity to be happy and are willing
to let us keep our brains intact and allow us to live out any
kind of virtual fantasy we like as long as they are able to feed
off of our electrical energy and, eventually, our bodies. If the
Agents had underminded the heroes' faith in their
"resistance" reality, there would have been more
emotional tension as they would have to ask themselves if they
really want to keep fighting or just relax and give in. The deck
would not be so neatly stacked in favor of struggling.
After all, that's basically the way it is in duality. You can
exchange one virtual drama for a million others, but we all get
eaten at the end. During the film, I wondered to myself what a
realized sage (like Ramana for instance) would have done if he
had suddenly realized that he wasn't really sitting on a mountain
but was in fact lying comatose in a liquid-filled cocoon having a
dream that he was a sage, while mechanical spiders were sucking
off his vital bodily fluids and electrical energy. I suspect it
wouldn't make any difference to such an individual.
Tomas Diaz de Villegas legas@pipeline.com wrote:
Hello everyone,
Just saw a new movie: eXistenZ It's set slightly in the future
and is about a new Virtual Reality game which ports into a
surgicaly installed socket in a person's lower spine.
Hmm . . . the muladhara chakra? Appropriate, since the movie
focuses on earthy biological issues and sexuality. This is
Cronenberg's basic modus operandi (see Naked Lunch or
Videodrome.)
I notice in The Matrix, the characters plugged themselves in in
the back of the neck -- the visuddha chakra. This seems
appropriate given the movie's emphasis on more spiritual matters
. . .
---Petros
I saw The Matrix last
night. It is a combination of many well known stories both the
scriptural and the nearly scriptural such as Wizard of Oz and
Alice in Wonderland. There were themes from Bhagavad Gita,
Christianity, Nagualism, Buddhism.
The integrity of the movie is based in the blending of the themes
of man versus machine, man versus mind, mind versus machine. In
that blending man and machine meet at the level of mind. That is
where the nondual perspective shows up. For that is what man has
always been doing, finding convergence at the level of mind until
it comes to appear that the universe is one big thought.
Beyond that, there is the question of the source of that thought.
That convergence is what the movie is about, though the probing
of it is necessarily bare and contained in a line here and there,
such as "Knowing the path is not the same as walking the
path," or "No one knows what the matrix is, you have to
see it for yourself."
The Matrix borrows from everyone and everything and is very
symbolic. There are tons of Great Action, and tidal waves of
sound coming from all directions to keep everybody happy. Though
it is a mish-mash of symbols and themes, the movie has integrity,
as discussed above, and it may stand up as a fine work of art.
It is a melange of themes and possibilities, and in that way it
is very 'Nonduality Salon'. Rather than criticize the movie for
that crazy mix, I find it just as easy to find enjoyment in the
abundance of those themes and possibilities.
The complexity of The Matrix is its downfall and what makes it
palatable at the same time, for it allows for lots of action and
all kinds of fun possibilities, while being hard to follow and
understand. The simplicity of the movie is what makes it artful,
if not accessible.
The girl I saw it with, we talked about the movie quite a bit.
It's good in that way. The Matrix could be used in a university
course as a springboard for discussion on any number of themes, I
would think.
Get a screensaver and view the rest of this Matrix site:
http://www.whatisthematrix.com/cmp/screensaver_index.html
-------------------
I enjoyed The Matrix
as much, if not more, the second time. In fact, it was almost
like a whole new movie. I understood it a lot better the second
time.
To my previous comments I would add that Love is what sets man
above artificial intelligence. The movie demonstrates that, but
doesn't make a big deal about it. In fact, I didn't mention it in
my first report, and I don't know if many people here have.
That's to the movie's credit, as they could have gone all mushy.
The theme of love passed me by the first time.
The Matrix is psycho-cyberspace: the meeting of mind and
cyberspace. When the mind is transcended by love, the software is
no match for it. That problem 'solved', the next step is
separating everyone else's mind form its cyber-hold. That should
take a few thousand years. Sound a lot like spiritual life? There
is easily room for a trilogy here, and more, as the ending is one
of those 'it is only the beginning' kind of endings.
Though the movie plays it down, I see it as being about
transcendence of the mind -- and therefore psycho-cyberspace, or
The Matrix -- through love.
Transcendence is liberation or freedom. There are connections
with Eastern religions as well as New Age thought. Another
parallel is with Eucharist or Communion, where the red pill
represents blood, and the Oracle's cookie represents the body.
Whose blood and whose body? The One. Neo. The red pill represents
the wholeness of his blood, its natural and free flow, Divine
Life or Real Life itself; the cookie represents the wholeness of
his body, its ability to resurrect and move fearlessly through
the Matrix.
The Oracle would never give ordinary food; it has to be spiritual
food. It has to be given for the same purpose it is given in
Eucharist: because it is Truth itself.
Being given only the red pill, one only knows reality as it is,
or real life. Being given also the bread or the cookie or the
wafer, whatever you want to call it, one is empowered in the
body, fearless and able to resurrect. But neither the red pill
nor the Oracle's cookie work to their fullest without the
ingredient of love.
------------------------
If Nisargadatta saw
The Matrix, this quote from I Am That might be his report:
"In my world nobody is born and nobody dies. Some people go
on a journey and come back, some never leave. What difference
does it make since they travel in dreamlands, each wrapped up in
his own dream. Only the waking up is important. It is enough to
know the 'I am' as reality and also love."
Love was a thankfully underplayed theme in the movie. So where
does I AM come into the movie? When Neo realized he was the One.
He silently would have said 'I AM the One.' Love...I AM...The
One...Neo: they are all the same. They serve to bring liberation
from the Matrix.
--Jerry M. Katz
I saw this movie two
days ago with a friend. We also spent hours piecing and assessing
the symbolism. The imagery and currents of meaning have stayed
with me strongly all weekend. I am a visual learner and there
were many ideas I've grappled with right there for the visual
picking.
Jerry: "The integrity of the movie is based in the blending
of the themes of man versus machine, man versus mind, mind versus
machine. In that blending man and machine meet at the level of
mind. That is where the nondual perspective shows up. For that is
what man has always been doing, finding convergence at the level
of mind until it comes to appear that the universe is one big
thought."
While I don't disagree with this assessment, what I would
identify as the integrity and the theme is... man becoming
conscious of the creative vital energy lost by being embedded in
the trance of the world dream, and the ultimate potential of Self
operating with a liberated mind... after, of course, overcoming
threatening resistance of the matrix (programmed self).
The movie is like a huge puzzle with borrowed pieces from various
sources. It is delightful to hold each piece up to the light and
examine it's relevance in this new configuration.
One which I thought was significant was.. our alleged history,
seen from the perspective of the future.. a statement made that
there was a time when humans started to become aware that they
could foil the matrix programming and ultimately see, which
resulted in a rewrite of the matrix program.
May it not be so! <smile> Your list does it's part in
foiling the matrix program.
As you said, the plot has complexity and the teachings whiz by
(and from reviews and comments overheard, I sense that many don't
grasp the metaphoric implications), so let's hope that the
message is received subliminally or that this becomes a classic
film and hangs around for a while.
Christiana... binary sequence on the left
---------------------------
I saw "The
Matrix" again last night. My daughter hadn't seen it so we
went together.
I noticed a number of movie references. There are several to
"The Wizard of Oz" - Cypher says something about
"you'll find out that you aren't in Kansas anymore"
near the beginning. And later on one of the characters, calling
Tank for rescue, says something like, "Hurry up, Mr.
Wizard".
When Trinity is escaping through the phone in the subway station,
she yells, "Run, Neo, Run!" which is an obvious
reference to Forrest Gump's Jennie who liked to advise "Run,
Forrest, Run." Only Neo, unlike Forrest, doesn't take her
advice!
That tracking thing that is inserted into Neo's navel and then
extracted again by Trinity seems to echo the "Alien"
movies with their creatures that burst out of people's bellies.
And in the moment that Marcia mentioned, when Trinity kisses Neo
in that Sleeping Beauty moment and then says, "Now Get
Up!" there is more than an echo of the moment in the first
Terminator movie when Linda Hamilton says, "Get Up,
Soldier" to her wounded protector and father-to-be of her
child, who will be the rescuer of mankind.
In the final subway station fight scene, my daughter pointed out
that the way that the subway train that arrives reminded her of
Keanu Reaves's movie, "Speed", in which a subway train
also figures prominently.
When Agent Smith keeps calling Neo "Mr. Anderson," Neo
finally says "My name is....Neo!" This reminded me of
....some movie....but I can't think which. Anyone got any clues?
(Unless its Forrest Gump again..."My name is
Forrest...Forrest Gump."
There is also the literary symbolism of Alice in Wonderland -
"follow the White Rabbit", the two pills, "Down
the Rabbit hole".
Moving on to other things, the hotel where the movie starts,
where Trinity is ensconced in Room 303, and where Neo makes his
final escape, is called "Heart O' the City." Several
times during the film the camera pans down that giant neon sign
word, "HEART". It seems to be a bit of obvious
symbolism that Trinity supplies HEART and that Neo grows into
HEART via Trinity.
It was mentioned in one of the reviews, I think, that Trinity's
room number in that hotel is 303. Neo's room number where he
lives in the beginning of the film is 101. Neo, the one, and
Trinity, the three.
I don't make too much of the symbolism of the names. I have a
hard time doing much Christian symbol-izing, and I think maybe
the film-makers went for easy resonance with some of the names
rather than having deep thought-out connections.
Trinity - we all know what that is. Why she is called that isn't
really obvious. She is NOT a God figure. Neo - the New
Morpheus - seems to be a combination of Shape-Shifter
(morph=shape) and Morphine, feels no pain.
Nebuchadnezzar - the name of Morpheus's ship. Why call it that?
Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon whose dreams were
interpreted by the prophet Daniel; who threw Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego into the Fiery Furnace; and who went insane:
"He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle.
His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew
like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a
bird." Make of it what you will. Zion, the place where
people are free of the Matrix - obvious tie-in to the mystical
holy city.
The movie has a definite mythic structure, which is similar to
the Star Wars trilogy. It is the story of the hero Thomas
Anderson, aka Neo, who receives his Call to Adventure,
experiences a new birth via a journey through water, suffers
trials and initiations, visits the Oracle, descends into the
"underworld" (i.e. the Matrix) to rescue Morpheus, and
ends up transformed into a Warrior with Heart and a Savior of his
people.
The Call to adventure: Trinity functions at the beginning as a
kind of Herald angel, appearing to Neo in a magical way and
calling him to leave what is familiar for the high road of
adventure. Next we see Neo in his boss's office. The boss is
chewing him out for being late. Outside, two window-washers are
squeegeeing the boss's windows and Neo is distracted by them. I
couldn't help thinking of Aldous Huxley's famous line about
"cleansing the doors of perception." This seems to be a
sign to Neo that his perceptions are going to radically change.
Refusal of the Call to Adventure: After initially trying to
escape, Neo gives up and lets himself get captured by the Agents.
This sort of thing happened in Star Wars too. Luke Skywalker
initially refuses Obie Wan Kenobi's offer to leave the planet.
His mind is changed when his guardian's farm is torched. And as
in Star Wars, Neo's initial refusal does not really change
anything.
The New Birth (Crossing the threshold): Like many heros, Neo must
cross the threshold into the magical land via an initiation or
rebirth. This is particularly well-done in this movie as we see
Neo's real physical body in embryo, its umbilical chords
snapping, its body flushing down a long birth canal and
descending underwater for a kind of baptism before being lifted
up into the air. Neo starts out on the ship as a hairless blank
who has to be taught everything. Luke Skywalker's comparable
experience, the trash-masher scene where he is pulled under water
by some beast, pales by comparison.
The Mentor: Neo has a Mentor, Orpheus, just as Luke Skywalker has
Obie Wan Kenobi.
Visit to the Oracle: Also extremely well done. the Film-makers
reverse the usual drift of such scenes by having the Oracle
confound him by saying he's NOT the one. Compare Luke Skywalker's
visit to the Yoda.
Descent to the Underworld: Now we are set up for Neo's big test,
the Hero's descent into the underworld where he must fight the
dragon, find the gold, or some such. In this movie, he must
rescue his Mentor, which is a brilliant plot innovation because
in many such stories, after a time the Mentor doesn't have much
to do (Star Wars actually dispatches Obie Wan rather early on
though he appears from time to time as a ghostly voice). But in
The Matrix Morpheus needs saving, and Neo earns his hero's
stripes by being his saviour.
The Return: Typically, the Hero's work isn't done after meeting
his big test. He still has to find his way back from the
Underworld, often by defeating some final enemy. Neo finally
defeats Agent Smith to do this and in the process becomes a Shape
Shifter himself, invading Smith's body and exploding it from the
inside.
Now Neo is fully tested and transformed. He has become the
Warrior (thanks to Morpheus) with a Heart (thanks to Trinity) who
is also ready to become the Savior of humankind. It will be
interesting to see how the future episodes of this planned
trilogy are plotted out, since, unlike Star Wars which took three
movies to fully effect Luke's transformation, this movie
only took one.
My source for some of the terms used in this discussion is a most
interesting book for anyone interested in Mythology and the
Movies. It is "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for
Writers," by Christopher Vogler. Vogler in turn got his
ideas from Joseph Campbell's great "The Hero with a Thousand
Faces".
---David Hodges
-------------------------
My $.02. "The
Matrix" is the film itself. "The Matrix" is a loop
embedded in a larger Matrix which is life itself. The key to the
Matrix is "follow the white rabbit" or follow a hunch
and take a risk.
Neo emerging from the amniotic water is clearly birth and
separation.
Living in the designated "reality" is not better than
living in the
Matrix, because a reaction to the Matrix is itself a programming.
The only freedom is in becoming conscious of the whole process,
the
whole (self-)deception. The becoming conscious is facilitated by
the "deja vu" glitches that are also part of the system
(the cat in
the corridor).
The Matrix is also metaphorical for the way in which human beings
succumb to their own mental creations or representations. The
Matrix
is us. The group-mentality prevails, in the interest of survival,
and the inner censor is the "agent" that filters out
the unfit, or
unacceptable thoughts.
My problem with the movie is that it has a gnostic/dualistic
undercurrent. It's all about reacting and polarizing. But
"escape"
is part of the self-deception, and so is the notion of
"offing" the
Matrix. The Matrix exists (in the movie) as a gambit for human
survival in the wake of environmental catastrophe, and in that
sense
it's just doing what "we" want it to do.
--Phillip Burton
Gene Poole
Here is another
imprecise, metaphor-laden, sure-to-elict some corrective remarks,
few paragraphs of my thoughts on THE MATRIX, the movie. This sure
is fun!
At the moment that the scary hovering robotic machine grabbed Neo
and pulled the plugin/probe from the base of his skull, he was
'officially' disconnected from the _world-dream_. Did you notice
that he was terrified of this process... and that as soon as he
was disconnected, that he was 'rejected' by the 'dream-machine',
and essentially 'flushed down the toilet'?
It is that way, friends. If you dare ('you' in the editorial
sense) to disconnect from the world-dream, you too will be
worthless to that machine, just so much scrap meat. ('Lower
cannot see higher') means that when one is (by dint of effort,
intention, or by grace) invisible to the dreamers...
that one has lost dream-world identity... this can kindle a major
identity-crisis; one may wish to reentr the Eden of the dreamers.
(This is when the huge klaxons begin blaring... and the
loudspeakers boom out, "ABORT! ABORT!")
It is at that moment that one can deliberately intiate connection
with the 'actual', and thus gain the 'impossible' nondual
perspective. How does one connect with the actual? One _is_ the
actual; that is how. No world-dream label fits, and the eyes of
the dreamers (including the now-decommisioned 'self' of the
world-dream) are blind to the presence of This One, the actual.
[Tips from the TimeStoppers Textbook: "The 'nondual
perspective' derives from having first one, and then another,
point of view. Comparison of these points of view offer what is
called 'perspective'."]
Yes... what this means is that when one switches to the
'non-nondual perspective' that one cannot see oneself! In other
words, the mirrors of the world-dream will not reflect the
'actual'! (does this explain a lot, or what? Yeah... this is NOT
all tidy and neat, it is WILD! It is ALIVE! It is not the fantasy
of some anal-retentive precisionist... at all! No, friends, this
is a huge, throbbing, LIVING PARADOX! And guess what?
"You" just have to LIVE WITH IT! BWHAHAHAH HA!)
Now, just what would Dr Von Helsing, the vampire-hunter of
DRACULA, have to say about this "mirror problem"???
Yes... Neo is now 'The One'. Yes, he DOES now wear the 'agent'
look; he is now able to move about in the Matrix (world-dream)
and is not noticed...
because now, HE KNOWS WHO HE IS.
Neo is now... not 'all powerful' like some god or comic-book
character, but instead, a MASTER PREDATOR! And just guess,
who/what is his prey... heh heh heh..
--author unknown!
-------------------
Sooner or later, it
had to happen; what is, is outpictured in a
near-literal/metaphorical way, in 'The Matrix'.
Just as television is an extension/outpicturing of our visual
sense, and
cars an outpicturing of our locomotion, so is this movie an
outpicturing of
the SYSTEM which underlies our perceived reality.
Consider the scene in which Neo, the star ("The One")
is finally
surrendering to the persuasions of his new friends/rescuers, is
sitting in
a special chair. He asks of Morpheus, "What are you
doing?" and Morpheous
replies to him. "We are attempting to ascertain your
location". This is
mightily similar to the process which is carried out here, in the
NDS. It
is common for one to be puzzled as to the stated assumptions of
others,
that one is are not where they are, that one will awaken, to
their true
nature, to freedom. It is also similar to the actuality, the
realization
that once awakening is initiated, that the work is just
beginning. Leaving
the cocoon/simulated reality of the Martix, is similar to leaving
the
paradise of Eden... independence requires work, and wits, to
survive. The
risks undertaken by one awakened are monumental, requiring
full-time
attention.
Our own 'Matrix' is the world-dream, the
concensus/social/tribal/familial
'reality' which has given us our languages, our values, and our
illusion of
separateness. We suffer in the dream, and apply dream-remedies to
relieve
our dream-sufferings.
The 'nondual perspective' says that all of the sufferings and
pleasures of
the world-dream become irrelevant upon awakening; that for all
ills of the
dream, there is only one remedy, which is to awaken from the
dream. While
this is technically true, and is a convenience of expression, an
attempt to
explain something, the reality of the situation is similar to the
reality
expressed in The Matrix; one must actually have the experience of
Being in
one, and then the other, to realize the nature of either.
When Neo was inducted into the 'resistance', he was subjected to
martial-arts trainings. In those episodes, he learned of his own
assumptions as to his abilities; he was showed by the 'master'
Morpheus
that his assumptions as to his own vulnerabilities and strengths
were off
the mark. He had to relearn his entire perspective of reality,
using the
arena of combat as the proving-ground. He learned that he did not
know, and
he learned that he had been assuming.
Finally, after the confrontation with the 'Oracle' in her funky
kitchen (I
loved that scene), Neo goes up against the 'agents'.
Will he survive? Yes. In fact, his realization is such, that he
becomes the
essence of life itself; he enters/invades an 'agent', as Shakti
enters a
person... and in effect, demolishes that agent, remaining only as
himself,
The One, now fully powerful and realized.
What can I say about the 'agents'? They were the 'masters of
stop'. The
only thing they did was to stop; they were stoppers.
Agents of life, on the other hand, are 'goers'; they are on the
go, they
know that they are life itself, and they promote life and protect
life.
Life demands expression in all of its varities; life demand
evolution, the
inevitable migration from cocoon to realization, with all of the
mind-exploding and world-dream exposing and pains and ecstasies
which are
part of the process.
Life is good, and The Matrix is a true 'Millenial Movie'. It is a
harbinger
of the harmony which is the underlying SYSTEM which we are. I
salute the
makers of this movie, who apparently are planning a sequel, and
maybe even
a trilogy.
#Sooner or later, it
had to happen; what is, is outpictured in a
# near-literal/metaphorical way, in 'The Matrix'.
it's been done many times before (Outer Limits, Night Gallery,
Twilight Zone, many sci-fi novels and novellas and even a few
films)
# ...this movie an outpicturing of the SYSTEM which underlies
# our perceived reality.
exploration of brahman beyond maya
# ..."We are attempting to ascertain your location".
This is
# mightily similar to the process which is carried out here,
# in the NDS. It is common for one to be puzzled as to the
# stated assumptions of others, that one is are not where they
# are, that one will awaken, to their true nature, to freedom.
Chuangtse, dreaming/waking: butterfly <==> man
Carroll, dreaming/waking: White King
Indian, dreaming/waking/creation: Visnu
Solipsism, fabrication: self
Buddhism, ignorance/attachment: buddha-nature vs sunyata
# Leaving the cocoon/simulated reality of the Martix, is
# similar to leaving the paradise of Eden... independence
# requires work, and wits, to survive....
except that Eden is the Real, not a perceptual fiction
# Our own 'Matrix' is the world-dream, the
# concensus/social/tribal/familial 'reality' which has
# given us our languages, our values, and our illusion
# of separateness. We suffer in the dream, and apply
# dream-remedies to relieve our dream-sufferings.
language: arises out of desire to communicate; it is not a
fiction
in that it implies intended meaning and succeeds in this
implication (thus directed language like 'stop' and 'paint this')
values: these underly and precede language
separateness: an "illusion" or not? this precedes
values
# The 'nondual perspective' says that
there is no 'nondual perspective', since perspective requires
duality
between subject and object; a perspective doesn't say anything
# all of the sufferings and pleasures of the world-dream become
# irrelevant upon awakening; that for all ills of the dream,
there
# is only one remedy, which is to awaken from the dream.
why does waking from the dream solve everything?
# While this is technically true,
it is? how did you determine this?
# and is a convenience of expression, an attempt to explain
# something, the reality of the situation is similar to the
# reality expressed in The Matrix; one must actually have
# the experience of Being in one, and then the other, to
# realize the nature of either.
why not like butterfly and Chuangtse? both butterflies and
men suffer and are pleased according to their individual
experiences, but both may dream that they are the other
the reality expressed in the Matrix would have been more
convincing to me if there was ANOTHER, more fundamental
and ineffable (i.e. unshowable on film), reality 'behind'
the secondary ("real") world of the pods and
grit-rebellion
# ...after the confrontation with the 'Oracle' in her funky
# kitchen (I loved that scene), Neo goes up against the
# 'agents'.
why does Neo eat the cookie? he is still rejecting the Real,
wants to be stupified, like drinking that intoxicant from the
traitor-rebel. he wants to be back in the Matrix but he can't
deny the Real nonetheless. it is like becoming aware of
the depth of the Real and never being able to go back even if
one wishes to. perhaps this is why "masters" sometimes
become
drug-addled (escapism)
# ...his realization is such, that he becomes the essence of life
# itself;
does he, or does he merely learn how to manipulate the program
in its binary code and therefore shift position and form? let
us not over-emphasize his role. if the Oracle was correct,
he may be the one who sets the STAGE for the One
# he enters/invades an 'agent', as Shakti enters a
# person... and in effect, demolishes that agent,
# remaining only as himself, The One, now fully powerful
# and realized.
wishful thinking. compare "Tron". Neo dives into the
agent
and possesses him, assimilating his program and therefore
transcending him and his mechanical overlords; but is this
a 'victory'? at the end of the film he communicates to the
rest of the world via computer, wears "agent" glasses,
and
sets off on his own rather than becoming a more central
operative for "the resistance". he has fused Machine
and
Human, becoming something more than either
# What can I say about the 'agents'? They were the 'masters
# of stop'. The only thing they did was to stop; they were
# stoppers.
they also steered (individuals). they cajoled and elicited
(information). they operated on behalf of the Machine so as
to maintain control of their power-source (human batteries).
putting the battery out of commission harms machines, stopping
the surge is as antithetical to the function of the agent
(unless it is terminally malfunctional) as would be destroying
a malfunctioning machine part rather than cordoning and
repairing it
# Agents of life, on the other hand, are 'goers'; they are on
# the go, they know that they are life itself, and they promote
# life and protect life.
until it serves their purpose to sacrifice it for the Greater
Good
# Life demands expression in all of its varities; life demand
# evolution, the inevitable migration from cocoon to realization,
# with all of the mind-exploding and world-dream exposing and
# pains and ecstasies which are part of the process.
but what does a permanently Matrixed 'Prophet' really 'do'?
is it merely the 'grounding' of the Real into the Unreal,
inspiring a movement of rebels? why not wake everyone in
their coccoons up at the same time, a 'wake up call' in the
same manner as the world-telephone-ring of "Lawnmower
Man"
(with which this film *ought* to be compared)?
# Life is good, and The Matrix is a true 'Millenial Movie'.
# It is a harbinger of the harmony which is the underlying
# SYSTEM which we are.
the Matrix is not destroyed or seriously debilitated in any
way that we can discern by the end of the film. it is a
typical film about some guy developing super powers in a
world that few understand (compare Dr. Strange or any
number of comic book superheroes whose efforts enable them
to transcend the common paradigms -- Gautama Buddha is a
very good example, another reason that I have called these
films 'cyberbuddhist' as they combine Buddhist cosmology
and metaphysics with cyberspace themes after Gibson and
others; Keanu Reeves appears to enjoy these films as star)
# I salute the makers of this movie, who apparently are
# planning a sequel, and maybe even a trilogy.
not surprising. this is very like religion, which seeks to
keep the viewer hooked to a continuing story rather than
to expose hir to a real 'waking up' on a mass scale.
also compare this film with "City of Darkness", in
which
the protagonist doesn't believe in a dual-system wherein
there is one reality which is false and another which is
true so much as that the Sleepers are ignorant of the
underlying system which coincides and creates their world
(that they are zoo-animals and lab rats in a world that
transcends their wildest imagination).
# ...this movie an
outpicturing of the SYSTEM which underlies
# our perceived reality.
> exploration of brahman beyond maya
There is nothing to 'explore'. We can explore Maya from the
perspective of realization, but in Brahman there is no thing
or place to check out.
# The 'nondual perspective' says that
> there is no 'nondual perspective', since perspective
requires duality
> between subject and object; a perspective doesn't say
anything
There is no non-dual ontology. There is the possibility that one
who
has realized Brahman has a different 'perspective' with respect
to
Maya and that this could be termed a 'nondual perspective'.
# all of the sufferings and pleasures of the world-dream become
# irrelevant upon awakening; that for all ills of the dream,
there
# is only one remedy, which is to awaken from the dream.
> why does waking from the dream solve everything?
In most ways it doesn't.
# While this is technically true,
> it is? how did you determine this?
It is wishful thinking to believe that once we "reach"
realization we "go beyond" our ordinary lives in the
world,
with all its joys and suffering. We don't. What we
have is the sure knowledge that we are the Self, and this
can certainly be a comfort. However, we still have our
likes and dislikes, our dreams and failures.
> the reality expressed in the Matrix would have been more
> convincing to me if there was ANOTHER, more fundamental
> and ineffable (i.e. unshowable on film), reality 'behind'
> the secondary ("real") world of the pods and
grit-rebellion
The only way you could express this on film is to show
peoples eyes. Brahman is not somewhere you "go", it is
*who* you are.
# ...after the confrontation with the 'Oracle' in her funky
# kitchen (I loved that scene), Neo goes up against the
# 'agents'.
> why does Neo eat the cookie? he is still rejecting the Real,
> wants to be stupified, like drinking that intoxicant from
the
> traitor-rebel. he wants to be back in the Matrix but he
can't
> deny the Real nonetheless. it is like becoming aware of
> the depth of the Real and never being able to go back even
if
> one wishes to. perhaps this is why "masters"
sometimes become
> drug-addled (escapism)
So what you are saying is that realized people take drugs to
somehow escape realization. There is nothing to escape. You've
lost something, your idea of 'me', but you're still in this
damn world, so maybe that's what they are trying to escape.
As for your idea of 'me', when you've lost it you'll wonder
why you needed it in the first place.
# he enters/invades an 'agent', as Shakti enters a
# person... and in effect, demolishes that agent,
# remaining only as himself, The One, now fully powerful
# and realized.
> wishful thinking.
Indeed, wishful thinking. Shakti does whatever She wants,
this is true. She may get a little rough as She rearranges
you, but you can forget about the power. What She offers
us in the body is freedom from ignorance. This is the
greatest blessing She can bestow on us. Power and all the
rest are trivial to Her and to Her devotees.
The following, by Petros, further extends the conversation:
># Sooner or
later, it had to happen; what is, is outpictured in a
># near-literal/metaphorical way, in 'The Matrix'.
>
>it's been done many times before (Outer Limits, Night
Gallery,
> Twilight Zone, many sci-fi novels and novellas and even a
few films)
Yes. Philip K. Dick novels most notably.
># all of the sufferings and pleasures of the world-dream
become
># irrelevant upon awakening; that for all ills of the dream,
there
># is only one remedy, which is to awaken from the dream.
>
>why does waking from the dream solve everything?
It doesn't solve anything, but puts everything in perspective. It
realizes
there is nothing to 'solve.' Just let be.
># and is a convenience of expression, an attempt to explain
># something, the reality of the situation is similar to the
># reality expressed in The Matrix; one must actually have
># the experience of Being in one, and then the other, to
># realize the nature of either.
>
>why not like butterfly and Chuangtse? both butterflies and
> men suffer and are pleased according to their individual
> experiences, but both may dream that they are the other
>
>the reality expressed in the Matrix would have been more
> convincing to me if there was ANOTHER, more fundamental
> and ineffable (i.e. unshowable on film), reality 'behind'
> the secondary ("real") world of the pods and
grit-rebellion
Yes. I noted in another post that Morpheus himself suggests to
Neo (when
they are in the White Room with TV) something like, "How do
we know what is
real? It's all just signals in the brain." Cocoon life and
Resistance life
could be the same for all they knew. It would have been
interesting if at
the end of the film, Neo starts to question whether or not he is
actually
still in the Cocoon . . . that the Computer just *let* him play
his little
game of awakening, fighting, killing an agent, etc., in order to
keep the
crew happy.
The ineffable reality behind all this would be unmanifest,
nondistinct; thus
there would be no one in it to recognize that it exists.
># ...his realization is such, that he becomes the essence of
life
># itself;
>
>does he, or does he merely learn how to manipulate the
program
> in its binary code and therefore shift position and form?
let
> us not over-emphasize his role. if the Oracle was correct,
> he may be the one who sets the STAGE for the One.
Yes, I think Neo just learns how to gain power over the AI
program.
With full realization, or whatever it may be called, there would
no longer
be a motivation to distinguish between the AI program and any
alternative;
both cocoon life and "awakened" life would be seen as
necessary parts of
Totality. I.e., he might be inclined to agree with AI that the
purpose of
homo sapiens really was to bring life to AI and become its
"food"
thereafter. He might see the mercifulness of AI in allowing the
humans to
keep their minds and their fantasies. After all, the computer
could have
grown them without brains or heads if it wanted to.
># he enters/invades an 'agent', as Shakti enters a
># person... and in effect, demolishes that agent,
># remaining only as himself, The One, now fully powerful
># and realized.
>
>wishful thinking. compare "Tron". Neo dives into
the agent
> and possesses him, assimilating his program and therefore
> transcending him and his mechanical overlords; but is this
> a 'victory'? at the end of the film he communicates to the
> rest of the world via computer, wears "agent"
glasses, and
> sets off on his own rather than becoming a more central
> operative for "the resistance". he has fused
Machine and
> Human, becoming something more than either.
Yes. He goes from playing one game to playing another.
># Life demands expression in all of its varities; life demand
># evolution, the inevitable migration from cocoon to
realization,
># with all of the mind-exploding and world-dream exposing and
># pains and ecstasies which are part of the process.
>
>but what does a permanently Matrixed 'Prophet' really 'do'?
> is it merely the 'grounding' of the Real into the Unreal,
> inspiring a movement of rebels? why not wake everyone in
> their coccoons up at the same time, a 'wake up call' in the
> same manner as the world-telephone-ring of "Lawnmower
Man"
> (with which this film *ought* to be compared)?
Maybe he didn't have that power. Remember how difficult it was
for Morpheus
to wake Neo up. Maybe a sudden forced awakening would be too
traumatic for
most people in the cocoons. Thus, the crew prefers to drop little
"clues"
in people's dreams, as in PKD's novels.
># Life is good, and The Matrix is a true 'Millenial Movie'.
># It is a harbinger of the harmony which is the underlying
># SYSTEM which we are.
>
>the Matrix is not destroyed or seriously debilitated in any
> way that we can discern by the end of the film. it is a
> typical film about some guy developing super powers in a
> world that few understand (compare Dr. Strange or any
> number of comic book superheroes whose efforts enable them
> to transcend the common paradigms -- Gautama Buddha is a
> very good example, another reason that I have called these
> films 'cyberbuddhist' as they combine Buddhist cosmology
> and metaphysics with cyberspace themes after Gibson and
> others; Keanu Reeves appears to enjoy these films as star)
But like Buddha, Neo may have the ability to communicate or
transmit the
same awakening to others. Not everyone perhaps, but a few here
and there,
maybe more later on. This may or may not confer the same degree
of "power"
over the Matrix that Neo has (since he is the One.) I don't see
the
average superhero (even Dr. Strange) as "awake" at all
to the real nature of
their world, only playing dramas *within* the world.
It is an interesting thought -- can one wake up to the nature of
the Matrix,
yet remain powerless to actually do anything about it? To remain
within the
drama of the cocoon, while knowing somehow that it is phony? It
seems that
in the real world (!), enlightened beings (sic) generally live
out the same
lives as everyone else and are not able to overcome the basic
physical laws
of our reality, despite seeing its relativity.
># I salute the makers of this movie, who apparently are
># planning a sequel, and maybe even a trilogy.
>
>not surprising. this is very like religion, which seeks to
> keep the viewer hooked to a continuing story rather than
> to expose hir to a real 'waking up' on a mass scale.
Then again, What do you do once you wake up? Become a
"master idler"
(Ramana Maharshi) is only one option; jumping back into the game
is another.
You play life *as* a game, recognizing it is only virtual
reality.
The Gita speaks of this "problem of action."
i@no.self (!):
|# the Matrix is not destroyed or seriously debilitated in any
|# way that we can discern by the end of the film. it is a
|# typical film about some guy developing super powers in a
|# world that few understand (compare Dr. Strange or any
|# number of comic book superheroes whose efforts enable them
|# to transcend the common paradigms -- Gautama Buddha is a
|# very good example, another reason that I have called these
|# films 'cyberbuddhist' as they combine Buddhist cosmology
|# and metaphysics with cyberspace themes after Gibson and
|# others; Keanu Reeves appears to enjoy these films as star)
xristos@earthlink.net (Peter J. Lima):
| But like Buddha, Neo may have the ability to communicate or
| transmit the same awakening to others. Not everyone perhaps,
| but a few here and there, maybe more later on. This may or
| may not confer the same degree of "power" over the
Matrix
| that Neo has (since he is the One.)
is he the One? is there only One? have we established the truth
of the Oracle? even the main characters in the story hadn't
done so
| I don't see the average superhero (even Dr. Strange) as
| "awake" at all to the real nature of their world,
only
| playing dramas *within* the world.
countless stories have Strange battling interlopers to the
dimension of which he is the 'Sorceror Supreme'. little do
the sleeping normals know what kind of cosmic threat they
are defended against in the 'spiritual' or 'astral' world,
and it is the duty of Dr. Strange to protect them in just
this fashion. this is more like "City of Darkness" than
it
is "The Matrix"
| It is an interesting thought -- can one wake up to the nature
| of the Matrix, yet remain powerless to actually do anything
| about it?
this was the initial condition of Neo
| To remain within the drama of the cocoon, while knowing
| somehow that it is phony?
depends on what 'within the drama' includes. if the drama is
the emotional investment and belief in its reality, then it
would seem not. if one could understand that one was actually
interacting with real humans through a FILTER of a constructed
artificial reality, then the drama remains, even if its exact
nature is disputed
| It seems that in the real world (!), enlightened beings (sic)
| generally live out the same lives as everyone else and are
| not able to overcome the basic physical laws of our reality,
| despite seeing its relativity.
by 'real world' I gather you mean nonmovie dimension; by
'enlightened beings' I'm not sure what you mean. how can we
tell if someone is 'enlightened' unless they are somehow
different from the run-of-the-mill norm? aren't there special
characteristics of these folks and wouldn't these profoundly
affect the kind of lives such people live out?
|#> I salute the makers of this movie, who apparently are
|#> planning a sequel, and maybe even a trilogy.
|#
|# not surprising. this is very like religion, which seeks to
|# keep the viewer hooked to a continuing story rather than
|# to expose hir to a real 'waking up' on a mass scale.
|
| Then again, What do you do once you wake up?
why is there a presumption that life changes at this juncture?
'first there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then
there is'? 'nothing special'? 'practice is enlightenment'?
waking up seems to me to be a greater cognizance surrounding
intentional choice. such a wake-up should lead to greater
concern about the totality of one's impact upon others,
a refinement of lifestyle and deathstyle to a beauteous
repercussion, and the promotion of vitality and peace,
whether in one's own back yard or throughout the cosmos
| Become a "master idler" (Ramana Maharshi) is only one
option;
in one's own back yard
| jumping back into the game is another.
one's back yard is not 'the game'? is travelling and sporting
the necessary means of promulgating the Dharma? must one
venture outward to mature inwardly and transmit this Dharma?
or is there no real difference between 'here' and 'there'?
| You play life *as* a game, recognizing it is only virtual
reality.
cf. "Liber MUD: MUDs and Western Mysticism", by
Haramullah,
http://www.abyss.com/avidyana/gnostik/libermud.tn which
explains how "virtual reality" is an oxymoron
| The Gita speaks of this "problem of action."
not duty vs compassion?
---!
----------------------------
I loved the part
about Trinity and Neo.
After Neo apparently is not the One and is lying apparently
dead having been blown apart by the Machine Man, Trinity
leans over him in the real world and says that the Oracle
told her that she would fall in love with the One and since
she is in love with him he has to be the One. She leans over
and in a reverse Sleeping Beauty kiss, kisses him.
And then after pausing just a moment she says.......
"Now Get Up!!!!!"
Ain't it the truth? :-)
And..........
When Neo is both being and becoming the One, Morpheous
says....."Now he is starting to believe. There is a
difference between
knowing about the Path and walking the Path."
And........
The Machine Men are the instincts. In the end Neo incorporates
the
Machine Man. He goes inside the Machine Man.
-----------------------
It has been very
interesting these last few days. I find
I am wearing the Matrix. I have been influenced by the
movie and now I see things through the filter of the Matrix
movie. And it is penetrating deeper and deeper.
Today I noticed a slight paranoia about something. I can't
even remember what it was. So I started to trace it back
to see if I could discover what the initial trigger was for the
paranoia. What I noticed was that I began to think of it as
a tear in the Matrix. Something of reality had crept in for
just a moment and my response in the dream world was
paranoia. I held real still and I realized why this was. The
reason for the paranoia was that I would rather be paranoid
then see that in the real world the trigger was nothing. That
the paranoia served to keep "me" in the center of the
focus.
Self focused in other words. Realizing my own nothingness
was the initial response and the second response quick on it's
heals was paranoia.
At this point I have a choice. I can wake up all the way or I
can become paranoid about being paranoid. There must be
a third choice. Maybe it is just to stay exactly where I am in
the perceiving process.
Marcia
--------------------------
Hi Marcia,
Thanks for your insight about Matrix. I seem to remember the
Oracle's
message to Neo was that he was not the One in this life, but
might be in
another. When Neo dies and is brought back to life by Trinity's
love and
belief Neo is in this other life. So the Oracles' prophesy is
fulfilled. Who
then is the Oracle and what is the reality of her world?
Namaste,
Dirk
Did anyone besides me expect (want) Neo to grab both
of Morpheus's offered
pills and swallow them down together to see what would result?
Given that
he didn't, I thought the movie was good for a few laughs and
squirms, and
may have even been momentarily thought provoking to its target
audience of
neophyte stoners, of which there seemed to be plenty in
attendance. Given a
choice I'd rather watch Terry Gilliam's film version of Fear and
Loathing
in Las Vegas, which explores much of the same
ideological/spiritual
terrritory from a different, though probably equally puerile,
perspective.
Enthusiasts of this sort of fantastically violent, kid macho
esoterica (of
which I grudgingly count myself one) may also be interested in
the comic
"The Invisibles," by Grant Morrison, put out by DC
Comic's Vertigo imprint.
It's like, COOOOoool, man.
Cheers to All,
Carey Wilson
cwilson@moon.com
The Matrix has some interesting
"consciousness" themes and I offer some
observations:
A main theme is freedom. But, interestingly, it is not freedom
from the
Matrix, but from the dominant form of control within the Matrix.
This
control is that of an evolved computer-machine complex that uses
humans for
food or electrical power. Humans are grown from birth and hooked
up
mechanically and brain fed to keep them alive and
"happy" for the machine
complex. From birth humans are fed a social program that makes
them think
and act as though this virtual really were real. Note: this is
our present
social matrix as an analogy. In the movie, humans are simply
asleep, hooked
up to a Matrix program and living a virtual reality (our present
social
reality).
However, in the movie, some humans have woke up having acquired
some special
matrix codes and hacked through the illusion. You take the
"red" pill and
you get to see the truth. However, seeing this truth, you are not
outside
the dominant control of the present social matrix law and
"they" are after
you. Any "freedom" that is not of the socially
programmed sort is against
the law. The matrix police are specially programmed to track down
and
destroy, and given super powers to do this (since they are
programmed to do
this it is quite logical they have specially programmed abilities
that the
regular inhabitants of virtual reality do not have).
However, the matrix police are still programmed and are in that
way still
limited. The rebels (humans who have acquired access to how to
code
themselves) have a slight advantage if they can get beyond their
usual
programming. Once they know this is all virtual reality (a big
step) they
can begin to program themselves in ways never dreamed possible.
The "One"
(main hero-character -- Atman?) is the first to begin to realize
this in the
most complete sense (he was also a programmer in the
"real" virtual-world).
It appears that being hooked up and programmed is better or at
least more
satisfying than not (in the movie), if one has the freedom of
self-programming -- "self" programming being ultimately
the infinite
creative unfolding of Being (in form of Matrix) as Realized input
to Self as
self rather than limited and narrowed by a "self"
constructed and programmed
by a cultural-social-matrix. This point however, as many of these
points, is
not explicit in the movie, exactly. In the case proposed here,
Matrix = Self
(Brahman = Atman). There is more here but I think this is enough,
perhaps,
too much <g>.
Maurice
postage@jps.net
http://www.radicalconsciousness.net
---Gloria Lee
--Melody Anderson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Hodges' response to Melody:
Nice illumination,
Melody. I agree that the Oracle partakes of the same
archetype as Sophia. Her function in the movie seemed so natural
to me that
it took Dirk's question to really make me think about her and
what she is
doing in this story of the trials of the Hero, Neo.
"Going to see the Oracle" represents simulataneously a
kind of graduation
for Neo from his training, and an initiation into the deeper life
he is to
live and the darker ordeal he is to face. The Oracle is no
real-life
survivor in the saved city of Zion, but someone who lives right
in the
Matrix. She is perhaps part of the simulation that is the Matrix,
or
someone cleverly hidden in plain sight within the Matrix. I
couldn't help
thinking of Oracle, the database software. Like other operating
system-level software, Oracle is a many-armed dispatcher of
threads and
processes, a kind of inner clearing house of transactions and
retriever of
hidden information. And like its cousin server software, the Web
Server,
Oracle might give its clients a "cookie" to track their
activities once
they detach from the current session. The Oracle, then, does
routing and
dispatching within the labyrinth of the Matrix and leaves those
that come
to her marked with a cookie as they move off to their further
journey. This
reminds me of the Eucharist, and the Oracle of a High Priestess.
The cookie
that Neo solemnly bites into is the wafer of communion that marks
him and
changes him and makes him ready for his ordeal to come.
Trinity, the young female, issues Neo's Call to Adventure early
in the
movie, but it is the Oracle, the older, wiser female, who
initiates him
into the depths. She announces to him the further details of the
mystery
that Trinity could not know about - the riddle that he or
Morpheus will
have to be sacrificed. I agree that it was quite right of her to
say that
ne was not the One - at that moment. He becomes the One when he
passes the
test and solves the riddle by saving Morpheus.
But also at that moment with the Oracle, Neo is not "The
One" because he
is a man, a human. His connection with the deeper powers
available to him
comes only after he leaves the Oracle, as that cookie takes hold
and
becomes a kind of "I AM" that opens him to transcendent
experience. Neo, as
Thomas Anderson, never IS The One, but Thomas Anderson, who at
the end
proclaims "My name is Neo", becomes a vehicle for The
One to come into the
world and begin it's deeply loving, compasssionately
understanding,
completely inevitable work of salvation.
MEET JOHN GAETA, VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR FOR 'THE MATRIX'
John Gaeta won the Oscar for visual effects. The following is taken from a chat session with John Gaeta. I've deleted the portions with the other guests. If you want to read the entire chat session, go to http://www.whatisthematrix.com
Even if you've seen
the Matrix three times, you'll want to see it again after reading
the chat transcripts, or even after reading what follows.
guest-Jaisin says: What was the inspiration behind the Matrix
"code"?
John: It's the fabric of life.
guest-shokker says: what is your favorite scene?
John: My actual favorite scene is the one in which Morpheus and
Neo and Trinity and the group go into the Matrix and this is the
scene at which point Neo understands what he is going into and
there is a very simple shot of them exiting an apartment building
in slow motion that despite the fact that it is a very simple
camera trick, it is incredibly powerful and is so well set up,
that you really believe you have entered an altered state of
reality.
guest-BatNeal says: What advice would you give to anyone
interested in a special effects carreer?
John: Work for free--anything to get your foot in the door.
It's such a strange field. People come in from all different
types of places and their path of entry is always unique. There
is no one way unless, of course, you have computer skills,
especially in graphics.
guest-wry says: John--every time I come down my steps I think of
that slow-mo scence. It was great! Thanks.
John: Me too. My life works in slow motion.
guest-uga says: how hard was it to do the bullet time effects?
John: Any time you are asked to do something that has never been
done before, it is as hard from an emotional and self-confident
point of view as it is from a technical point of view.
guest-jonandben says: How did you guys get started in special
effects?
How would you recommend I get in?
John: Work for nothing--that's how I did it.
guest-NEO says: Is editing the hardest job to do?
John: I would say marketing.
guest-Batbat224 says: Are you going to be making any other movies
in the style of the Matrix in the future?
John: I think Matrix is a very contemporary type of movie and
it's arrival comes with the arrival of a few other equally
contemporary and free type of movie experiences and I think there
will be many movies that appear as a gimmick or a copy of the
Matrix but then again there will be many many more movies that
are authentically becoming part of modern cinema.
guest-ZEUS says: I was wondering if you will do the Visual Effets
on Matrix 2 and 3? if so can you tell us what will be in it?
John: I actually love the spoon scene because it is a simple
application of visual effects towards a story concept and it
serves the story as opposed to being just an eye catching scene.
John: Absolutely I will do the Visual Effects on the Matrix
trilogy and No, I can't tell you what will be in it.
guest-ScubaMDW says: What was the most expensive special effect
in the movie?
John: Probably the shot with the babies in the field of pods.
...
John: I was just in Poland in Warsaw a month ago and attended a
Matrix DVD lodge party that was much cooler than any of the LA
parties and hats off to the undergound kids on that side of the
world. They know exactly what the vibe is.
John: Without giving anything away, I believe that visual effects
will slowly become more and more used to visualize a character's
perception of the world and applied in more subtle and subliminal
ways as opposed to purely eye-catching and I intend to pursue all
manner of perceptual trickery.
...
guest-DHoberer says: I loved the scene at the end where Neo flies
into the Agent and the Agent explodes. How'd you do that?
John: Basically by rebuilding the Agent as a 3D form and mapping
the image of his performance upon that form and then using some
particle system dynamics simulation, we create the breakage of
that image and that 3D form.
guest-mlscs says: The biggest question I've always had, and I
don't know if you guys can answer it or not, is why does Neo fly
at the end of the movie?
John: Because he is self-actualized.
******
That
"everything" which you see is loaded. If you could see
"everything" you could not function. You see
selectively, and what
you see is not you. Like we speak glibly of the
"universe" and we are
merely pointing to some expansive emotion. In the context of the
Matrix, you may see what you are permitted to see: the display
that
the system generates. --Phil Burton
gill eardley:
The only way to know for sure what it was intended to be would be
to
ask the wachowski brothers. That said, it seems a rather narrow
view.
To me it seemed an allegory to the level of control exerted on
the
minds of most of humanity (not just Americans) by a few 'men in
suits'.
The media, governments, business magnates; those who crave what
they
view as 'control', and have a vested interest in keeping that
control.
Paradoxically, it is those people who are most in need of
'freeing
their minds', those who are chasing ever more after 'power' which
they
think will bring them freedom and happiness, and which is
ultimately
like digging yourself deeper and deeper into a hole, with less
and less
chance of escape. I found it very poignant, and I can't recall
anybody
mentioning this before, when the agent told morpheus he was
desperate
to escape, that if he could just do this one thing he would be
free.
Sound familiar?
terry murphy:
I saw the allegory as being much greater than simply media
control.
Note the numerous reference to Lewis Carroll: was he simply
talking
about media control? 'How deep does the rabbit hole go?' Morpheus
was a
Buddha (awakened one); that 'morpheus' refers to sleep/death
shows how
topsy turvy the phenomenal world is from Reality, as jesus points
out,
those who seek to save their lives lose them, and those who lose
them
preserve them, while he himself lived that nondual view as a
martyr.
The 'matrix' itself is Maya, the world-illusion, the construct
that
each individual creates and imagines that they live 'in.' The
'illusion-dwellers' for the most part are not ready to be
'unplugged,'
but morpheus/buddha and his crew/disciples were prepared to
awaken
those individuals who could be awakened, with the ultimate aim of
awakening all sentient beings. 'Neo' was 'the One,' the ordinary
you
and me sitting at our computer consoles seeking 'the truth' about
the
matrix/maya. When 'neo' was prepared, by the oracle/insight, to
sacrifice his individual life to save the buddha/morpheus, then
he
became the One/an enlightened being/bodhisattva. The
buddha/avatar was
always searching for a being he could turn into a bodhisattva,
and was
trying to free people from the world illusion (the truth: there
is no
spoon/there are no things). Neo simply wanted answers, but
morpheus'
sole aim was to turn a neos into Ones. The 'suits' were
machines/mental
constructs/ego, whose primary function in being was to remain in
control, and utilize 'life' as a power source for machine
functioning.
They would be happy to create a 'perfect world'/happy world
illusion
but life 'wouldn't accept the programming,' because as 'some
said,'
they 'didn't have the programming *language* to describe such a
world'
(language is inherently dualistic and happiness can only be
described
by referring to unhappiness) or because humans 'defined their
lives by
misery' (dualism is inherent in the development of life). You are
right
that the suits/ego always think they can make some sort of
progress,
accomplish one more thing and be done with this 'stink,' this
world
that they 'hate' and 'can't stand'; the suits had to unplug from
each
other even to admit that much. The suits had more raw physical
power
than real people within the matrix, but they were inherently
limited by
the rules of the matrix, while neo, being potentially the One,
was not
limited at all by the rules of the matrix, once he realized the
truth
('physical strength' means nothing 'in this place'). So I saw the
allegory as one of *any* ordinary individual finding
enlightenment with
the help of the wise and accumulated human spiritual culture and
spiritual friends (the triple gem: buddha, dharma, sangha).
Great movie...
Dan Berkow:
aloha, terry
Yes, Terrry.
You are on-target.
Well-said and namaste!
After knowing myself
as the One, I found out
that Neo, the oracle,
and Morpheus,
and the outside of
the matrix from which
reality was seen,
and the One,
were just other programs
of the "comprehensive" matrix.
I discovered that the
generators of the matrix
were themselves generated
by the matrix. The ones
who escaped the matrix
escaped because this
escape was a program
of the comprehensive matrix.
I am speaking to you simply
as a program occurring
here to a program occurring
there.
The matrix that generates
the matrix has described
itself to its own
self-generated programs
as the "uncreated" --
thus giving form to yet
another program ...
http://www.geocities.com/prithwis/Philo001/MV-MatrixVedanta.html
Background
What is The Matrix ? It is a science fiction movie featuring
Keanu Reeves ("Neo"), Carrie-Anne Moss
("Trinity") and Laurence Fishburne
("Morpheus") released by Warner Brothers in 1999 that
explores the complex relationship between physical human beings
and their perception of reality as controlled by a gigantic
computer programme - "The Matrix". The movie has most
of the Hollywood elements of high drama, action, violence and a
cameo love affair but what is most intriguing -- and most
probably overlooked -- is its striking similarity with the
philosophy of Vedanta. There is an uncanny echo of Sankara's
treatment of the Atman, the Self, and Maya -- the veil that
shields the Atman. What is science fiction today may just become
scientific fact tomorrow and this apparent convergence may just
be a harbinger of a more significant convergence of rational
science and the intuitive insight of Indian philosophy. Hence
this analysis.
The Movie
The year is 2199 and computers with artificial intelligence have
taken over the world. Human beings are born (or
"cultivated") in captivity and at birth are connected
to a life support system that feeds then intravenously till
death. The bio-chemical activity in their bodies is used as a
source of electric power to support the computers -- but that is
not relevant in this case. What is important is that each
person's brain is connected to the central computer. Complex
programmes -- the Matrix -- running on this computer feed a
continuous stream of stimuli to the brain and this causes the
individual to perceive a full range emotions associated with
growing up, moving around -- including flying through space,
working, growing old and finally dying. The Matrix programme is
smart enough to simulate a whole range of physical locations like
parks, gardens, restaurants, train stations that people can visit
-- or perceive to visit -- and interact with just as if they were
physically there. They also perceive images of other individuals
-- some rooted in other physical captive bodies, while others
could be pure creations of the computer simulation process.
Interactions between two individuals are also simulated.
There is a small group "independent" humans who live
outside the Matrix in place called Zion. They have their own
computers through which they are able to "hack into"
the Matrix programme. This allows them to "enter" and
"exit" the Matrix through telephone lines. When the
enter the Matrix, their physical bodies remain at Zion, connected
to the Zion computers, just as the bodies of the captive humans
remain in their incubators. The crucial difference between the
independents and the captives is that the former can actually
"exit" from the Matrix and detach themselves from the
Zion computers. Then they can live and perceive Reality.
Within this complex environment, the movie weaves a fantasy of
heroism and love. Morpheus is the leader of the independent
people and he has located and identified Neo -- currently a
captive -- as the one who will destroy the Matrix and free
mankind from this slavery to computers. Neo's arrival has been
foretold by the Oracle. Morpheus and his band of independent
humans, enter the Matrix, contact Neo and convince him of his
importance. Then they detach his body from the Matrix computer,
remove his body from the incubators and take it to Zion. Here
they rejuvenate and repair his degenerated body. Now Neo, like
the other independent humans can connect to the Zion computers
and enter and exit from the Matrix at will. Would he succeed in
his mission ? Since the actual outcome of the adventure is not
relevant to this analysis, we will not reveal the ending for
those who wish to see the film.
Vedanta : a brief outline
The Indian or Sanskrit word for philosophy is darsana -- which
means direct vision. This word highlights a major difference
between modern Western philosophy -- that predominantly depends
on intellectual pursuit, and Indian philosophy that relies on
direct visions of truth and Buddhi or reasoning. These visions of
truth forms the foundation of all schools of Indian philosophy
and were directly experienced by ancient sages living in various
parts of India. The direct and transcendent experience of reality
beyond the logical and material domains is both the source and
the ultimate goal of these systems. The mind and the senses are
the necessary tools that are initially used in the process of
attaining the highest state, but they are not adequate to attain
the final goal -- transcendent insight alone provides the whole
truth.
These direct intuitive insights were first formalised as the four
Vedas - Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva, possibly as early as 4000
BC. The original Rig-Veda consists of nearly 20,000 verses that
appear as simple prayers to deities, yet couched in highly
symbolic language, they contain great philosophical and
metaphysical meaning. With the passage of time, this body of
vedic literature evolved through four chronological phases,
Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka and the Upanishad. The Upanishads
represent the culmination of the Vedic approach. There are one
hundred of eight Upanishads of which eleven are considered
pre-eminent and in these eleven, the wisdom of the Vedas reach
its acme. The word Veda means "knowledge" and Vedanta
-- another name for the Upanishads -- means "the end of
knowledge". The Upanishads are written as a dialogue between
a teacher and a student and the truth is revealed in stages
according to the capacity of the student.
Over the past 2000 years, many learned men and women, have
interpreted this mass of knowledge according to their
understanding and this has resulted in the various schools of
Indian philosophy like Nyaya, Sankhya, Yoga and Vedanta. All
these schools try to answer the following fundamental questions :
1. Who am I ? From where have I come from and why ? What is the
relationship between me and the universe and other human beings ?
2. What is the essential nature of my being and what is the
essential of the universe ?
3. What is the relationship between consciousness and the objects
of the universe ?
4. What is truth and how do we arrive at rational conclusions on
the question of truth
The Vedanta school, formalised by Sankara sometime between the
sixth and ninth century AD, is acknowledged by many to be the
most comprehensive interpretation of the direct intuitive
insights that form the foundations of Vedic literature. A full
exposition of the Vedanta school is impossible within the scope
of this analysis. Nevertheless, some of the key concepts which
are relevant for this comparison with the movie Matrix are
described below :
1. Atman - the
