Part I

The following is thoughts & questions that M1/M2 has awakened in me, both old ones as well as new. I’ll try to keep this short, but I’m not sure that I can. Read this if you find the time and if you choose to do so I recommend that you print it out if that is an option, cause this could take a while…

I find it really interesting that M1/M2, besides a philosophical depth, also addresses theological questions. Please do not let the word scare you. By theology (or religion by that matter), I foremost mean spirituality and existential questions about the relationship between Man and God/Universe. M1/M2 combines elements from Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, Islam, Christianity etc. with ancient and modern philosophy. These things you already know, but I feel I have to write them down for the argumentation below.

I would like to start with a very interesting discussion that has taken place in this forum, namely the Matrix within the Matrix theory (MIM). After seeing M1, but mainly after M2 I have been thinking about this matter, and it represents for me the very core of the problems regarding the true nature of reality and maybe more importantly how we can gain knowledge about it. Personally I’m willing to subscribe to theories on both sides (for &against MIM). Someone made a point by stating that the “real world” cannot be another part of the Matrix, cause in that case Neo should be able to see the “coding” there as well. But I do not believe that is necessarily true. As you recall Neo first saw the “codes” when he began to fully believe and accept that the world he saw wasn’t real. His “death” symbolizes his transformation from “Mr. Anderson” to “Neo” and subsequently a higher level of awakening. This thought finds support in what the oracle told Neo (or rather “Mr. Anderson”) in M1. He had to choose between himself and Morpheus. By making that choice he sacrificed himself, gave up his own Ego and thus transcended to “Neo”. Similar thoughts can be found in (zen)Buddhism and Sufism about leaving ego & self-identity behind for higher levels of awakening – the ultimate “goal” is non-existence, Nirvana, Fana (Arabic; perish) or whatever it may be called. My point is that Neo, if still being in MIM, cannot see the coding because he believes that the world he sees is real (as Morpheus said; “a dream so real…”), and maybe at the end of the movie he realizes this MIM condition and his coma then could symbolize his “second” death/awakening. (I will get back to this awakening later on.)

On the other hand, if we reject the MIM-theory, we must first of all accept that at some level there must be something that we can call “real”. R. Descartes’ famous quote; “I think, therefore I am” suggests for us that even if we question our every sensation, we can be sure of one thing – someone (I) is sensing and that someone must be “real”. Descartes’ “Brains in Watt”- theory and Plato’s “Cave-analogy” must be considered as a great inspiration for this trilogy. Anyhow if we move on to Kant and his distinction between “the world outside” and “the inner representation of it” we come upon a very important factor – consciousness. The outside world is/exist for us through our mind/consciousness. In a way we cannot say anything (with certainty) about the “real world”, we can only know what we become aware of – our mental representation of the world. Research has also shown that the “band-width” of the human consciousness is somewhere between 3-7 bits/sec. Compare this with millions and million bits of sensory information that we receive each second through our senses and receptory cells. From this we can say that our consciousness presents for us an illusion or rather only a simulation of the real world.

But there is still another dimension to the human mind. Our mind is focused only on a few aspects of the world around us at any given time. This is partly due to our relatively limited “band-width”, but mainly because our mind is intentional. If we are hungry we are more likely to spot (register) a restaurant on the street, or if one of our elbows hurt we become aware of it (a part of our body that constantly sends us information, that we usually neglect) so we can attend to it. We could just say that some information is more “useful” to us than others, and those aspects are the ones we choose to see. So in that way our mental representations are subjective and strongly connected to who we are – our ego. Our values, self-identification, etc. regulates how we perceive and what we choose to perceive from the world around us. My point is, we are, even without AI & machines in a self-constructed Matrix of our own minds. In Hinduism this phenomenon is called “Maya”(illusion), in Buddhism this is also referred to as the “illusion of the ego”. To “escape” from this we must give up our wanting, strive, purpose etc. things that originate/emanate from the ego and “tells” us who we are, who we want to be or what job we should have. Once again our ego is our biggest enemy on the road to awakening and enlightenment. Only when we give up our illusions and ego can the truth about reality be revealed to us. Like when Mr. Anderson was willing (and did so) to face the biggest ego-sacrifice – death – then he could see the truth behind the illusion (the coding).

continues on the next post...

Part II

In many religions different levels of awakening/enlightenment are often mentioned. Buddha experienced seven different awakenings on his way to enlightenment (it was actually after the last one he became the enlightened one), in Sufism it is mentioned of “seven deserts of love” (by Attar) different states of the being/ego on the way to unity with God and non-existence, in Islam & Christianity there are notes about seven heavenly bodies. And Mohammed for example, sometime AFTER he had the revelations on the mountain, he was taken to the seventh heaven to meet his God without veils. Neo has, what we have seen so far, also experienced different states of awakening, or as the Architect said; “the process has altered his mind” (notice that “Neo” means “new” and the word new refers to some kind of a change/changes). First by questioning his life in the Matrix and looking for the truth (“it’s the question that drives us”), secondly his actual awakening to the real world by taking the red pill, which can be considered as an act of belief. Thirdly the “death” of Mr. Anderson and transcendence to “the one”, a state of mind that fully understands the illusion of the Matrix (at least as a human… I’ll get back to this). And so finally also his ability at the end of M2 to stop the machines with the power of his will, which also can be considered as an awakening, cause he has gone beyond/exceeded his former “powers”, he has now understood something else about himself and his relation to the world around him.

But the question still remains; how was he able to stop those machines? If we accept the MIM-theory we could say that he saw the “coding”, and understood also this part of the Matrix with its illusions. But if we don’t accept this, there can be other explanations. This particular one is closest to my heart: it begins with Neo saying that he can “feel” the machines. I believe that the meeting with the Architect for Neo led to a better understanding of himself and his true nature. In one of my earlier posts (Oracle’s apartment > before Neo’s coma…page 2) I wrote that I believed that Neo met himself in that room. With other words, Neo & the Architect are two sides of the same coin. You could rather say that Neo is the human incarnation of the Architect (“God” of the Matrix) with all his abilities, somewhat like Jesus as Son of God. We know that Neo is the start and the end of every new version of the Matrix – Creation and destruction, two very distinctive attributes of God (this is evident in Hinduism as works of Brahma and Shiva and like the Matrix necessary elements of the circle of life). And the fact that time no longer contains him or as the oracle said; “You have the sight now”, also points to another “quality” of God - timelessness. But I think now it would be interesting if we for one second returned to what was said above regarding enlightenment and the “destruction” of the ego.

The last stage of Buddha’s awakening was his ultimate defeat of his ego, which for its own survival tried to “fool” Buddha into self-identity, by congratulating him as being “the enlightened one”. Buddha became truly enlightened by rejecting this “labeling” from his ego and thus “killing” it for he was now no man and every man. Neo on the other hand has a clear and evident ego throughout the whole M2. He wants to now what he must do, who he is and what he is. The Oracle pointed out the phrase “Know thy self” to Neo in M1 and I believe Neo after the meeting with The Architect is beginning to Know and understand his TRUE existence. This makes me believe that “Neo”, if not already dead, must die to fulfill the prophecy – end of war between man and machine. By dying I don’t necessarily mean a physical death, only transformation from Neo into a new state, in this case to becoming what he truly is, the human incarnation of the Architect. End of the war symbolizes for me, not the end of the machines, but harmony between Man & Machine/programs. This symbiotic state already exists in Neo – he is both Man and Machine as the human incarnation of the Architect (like Jesus; 100% Man and 100% God), by fully realizing that he can end the war and bring Man and Machine together, which he himself is a manifestation of. Like Jesus had to die on the cross to reconcile both sides of his dualistic nature – unity of God and Man (for further thoughts about this watch the last movie of Animatrix). So how did he stop those machines? Well if he is this being, he controls the machines even outside the Matrix, for he in fact is their creator (something like the “main computer” if you like). Anyhow I find it to be real interesting that by stopping those machines he entered a state of coma himself. The coma can as I said earlier symbolize the end of Neo as we know it and a start of something else. The “problem” is, as Neo said choice. If this is anywhere near what the W. Brothers have in mind for M3, well then I’m going to miss Neo, but I know I’ll love what he becomes.

There is a lot more I would like to discuss here (Agent Smith for example) but I feel I already have taken up too much of your time. I wish I could send along with this post a “digital aspirin” if I have caused anyone headaches with my babbling. Thank you for taking time to read this and I look forward to hear your thoughts about this and other related stuff about the Matrix.

Excellent piece of homework man!
I must say this is the way a solid analysis has to be done-everyone says the Matrix is based very much on theology and religion but nobody really could pin down the ways...this dissection sure taught me alot...where'd u get this stuff? It was already a mind-job trying to learn about Plato, Kant, Hume and their ilk but I never thought of looking up Hinduism and Buddhism. Headache or none this chance to truly sit down and ponder is one the very spirit of this forum cannot allow us to miss...like the similarity of him and Jesus. I thought of it before, even thinking it was a little bit anti-Christ because he was a saviour that was more a doomsday device and that the God implied in the movie was the Architect/Matrix but never saw anyone post something about this...still there are a few queries I'd like explained...
...For example there are many references to things happening in the "real world" that doesn't give credence to the fact that the final few scenes were a delusion to Neo, and maybe the rest of the crew as well...like the destruction of...er...the other ship that was assigned to help the Neb from the Sentinel/bomb thingies-this was repeated on Niobe's ship as shown at the rear parts of the game Enter The Matrix. Unless this was some huge lie that took in so many other people including unplugged ones like Spark it can't possibly add up.
Also with all the talk of death and rebirth there must be a certain pattern to this:he needs to die-or generally go through some huge trauma-in order to "reach the next state" yet he not only "reached" it for a short while BEFORE the coma, the coma was self-induced. This is a little far from the Enlightenment idea in Buddhism. Isn't it?
It's a pity no one else replied to this thread by now...unless of course they did in spades in your other thread-that I admit I didn't find out...still we should learn from wat u said and go through a little "nirvana" of our own...lose our self-ego and look at other theories instead of saying "hey look at my idea its cool and original too"...which I can quite sheepishly say I did when I just entered this way cool forum...thumbs up Rumi!! Let's keep doing wat Morpheus says and "Free Our Minds"!!

Bravo. Finaly someone can put everything together. I would definetly like to read more of your thoughts on the big picture. Please post more. Alot of the things people post make no sense as far as the relationship between The Matrix and philosophy/religion.

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except neo doesn't die in the third one. sorry.

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I dont wanna wear this out but I saw M2 again yesterday and I would like to point out one thing in the movie that I find really interesting (among a whole bunch) and I would like to know what you think of it:

oracle to Neo; "Im interested in one thing - the future - and the only way to get there is together". Do you think by "together" she means Man-Machine? or something else?

what Hamann says to Neo is also interesting in this regard...

You could be very right about this "together" by the oracle. I've thought about it but I couldn't come up with an answer. But now I've read your post it makes more sense. At first I didn't believe in the symbiosis between man and machine but your post makes sense and now I start to get more comfortable with the thought.

I have a question too, maybe you can answer it. Remember the scene at the beginning of the movie when the Nebu is about to enter Zion?? Link contacts Zion and he asks if he has permission to get in. He talks to this lady who is guiding all the ships in and out (together with a few others). She is sitting in an unusual white room and here clothes are also unusual white (not like any other clothes yopu see in Zion). Just before you see this part you can see this woman in "real world"-clothes lying in a chair like she is plugged in. You can see this for only one second so you have to pay some attention to notice this.

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my answer to your last question...
Im not really sure, but in that scene you can see some people "plugged in" somehow like on those chairs used for hacking in to the matrix. my guesse is that they are using the same technology, (for its more efficient?) for their own use, like some kind of "intranet"... maybe

Interesting and very well done text! More!

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Interesting theory, you must have been in my mind…;)

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