An article by Sha'Tara, local writer and friend.

Revisiting Old Friends – Ideas from "The Matrix"

            [thoughts from     ~burning woman~      by Sha'Tara]



Notes:  The Matrix is a 1999 film about a computer hacker who learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against the controllers of it.
Written and directed by Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski.  (and more: )

From "The Matrix" - a  dialogue between Morpheus and Neo

Morpheus: Let me tell you why you're here [Neo].  You're here because you know something.  What you know you can't explain, but you feel it.  You've felt it your entire life: that there's something wrong with the world.  You don't know what it is but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.  It is this feeling that brought you to me.  Do you know what I'm talking about?

Neo:  The Matrix?

Morpheus:  Do you want to know what it is?

(Neo nods affirmatively.)

Morpheus:  The Matrix is everywhere.  It is all around us.  You can see it when you look out your window or turn on your television.  You can feel it when you go to work; when you go to church; when you pay your taxes.  It is the world [wool] that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo:  What truth?

Morpheus:  That you are a slave Neo, like everyone else, born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch.  A prison for your mind.  Unfortunately no one can be told what the Matrix is, you have to see it for yourself.

(Morpheus takes two pills from a small box, a blue one and a red one, puts them on the coffee table next to the glass of water)

This is your last chance.  After this there is no turning back.  You take the blue pill, the story ends.  You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.  You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.  Remember, all I'm offering you is the truth, nothing more.

( Neo takes the red pill and swallows it )

Later in the movie, Morpheus is captured by Matrix agents.

Agent Smith:  It came to me that as I tried to classify your species, I realized you are not really mammals.  Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a sense of equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not.  You move into an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed.  The only way you can survive is to spread to another area.  There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern.  Do you know what that is?  A virus.  Human beings are a disease; a cancer of this planet.  You are a plague and we are the cure.

… and later, after Neo and Trinity help Morpheus escape the agents, Morpheus talks to Neo:  Neo, you're going to realize sooner or later there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
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For some, The Matrix is just another sci-fi movie, a slick production from Hollywood's dream factory. But for those who appreciate the philosophy of The Matrix, it is a wake-up call. The movie is considered to be far-ahead of its times. It challenges our understanding of perspective, reality and illusion, and many other intriguing concepts. These Matrix quotes are words of wisdom by Morpheus, Neo's spiritual leader and guide. (Simran Khurana)

More quotes:

"If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it."
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Personal Comments:

Studying the messages in the movie, The Matrix, has helped me develop a greater understanding of the "field" within which Earthians express themselves.  It has helped me to accept (not agree with) many unacceptable factors of Earthian life.  While Earthians are accountable for what they do to their environment, to each other and to themselves, that accountability ultimately bringing them untimely death preceded by completely avoidable pain and misery, they are not in control of the forces that push them into their self-destructive patterns.  Those are external forces, represented in the movie by the Matrix and activated by its agents.

Earthians (which the Teachers call pseudo-humans) possess the knowledge of right and wrong.  In a sense, through some vague notion (their inner unease I mentioned before) they are aware.  They know of the path but  cannot walk it because they do not believe in their own ability to walk that path.  They continue to seek those who must or should guide them on that path.  They will accept anyone, anything, to show them the way and keep them in it.  They will pray to gods, to angels, to saints; seek contact with aliens or departed loved ones; follow preachers, gurus, charismatic teachers of all sorts; support political or military leaders; bosses and bankers; immerse themselves in written teachings, be they pseudo-historical, historical or pure fiction; watch documentaries, news, movies and they will continue to believe… and believe… and believe in anything else but themselves. 

For they have been taught and programmed from the cradle to put their trust in the System, never in themselves.  They have been brainwashed to see all failures as stemming from the self, and all corrections and advancements as the work of the System. (And is it any wonder they are now stunned to realize how the System never had any clothes on?)  But even when the current System is collapsing all around them like a global Titanic going down, they hesitate to go for the lifeboats or life preservers.  They still wait for orders to tell them what to do.  All they want to do is go back into the lounge, order more drinks, find a sex partner and a room somewhere and forget it all, even if for only another moment.  By stringing moment after moment of denial they still hope to escape the inevitable: that the ship must go down.

Earthians will not take responsibility for themselves beyond what their "faith" dictates.  They will not express self-empowerment.  They will not stand up to the System for fear of losing… whatever it is they are attached to that is umbilically connected to the System.  So they wait, serve, consume and die.  And yes, many are those who fight to protect the very System that uses them and their world as its food source.

Is there a way out of the Matrix?  Is there hope for people?  Of course.  Take the red pill – step outside the Matrix – I did that in 1979.  I've never looked back, but each day I wake up I realize how terribly alien this world is becoming to me.  And yet… I don't hate it, or fear it.  I would like to see it become a normal world again, as it was once, before the onslaught of the Time Lords – the entities [divinities] behind the Matrix.  To that end, I have but one thing to offer: satyagraha.
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Truth is unifying because it eliminates contradictions. When you are looking for the truth of a matter, any significant and incontrovertible fact is good news, because it can save you from heading in the wrong direction. It's particularly good news if it compels you to change your mind, because in doing so it has liberated you from a burden that could only grow. When it comes to the more fundamental errors, a whole life time could be spent on a dead-end course. (from The Saturn Theory - Dave Talbott)