Awareness Through Film: The Matrix

What if Everything You Believed in Turned Out Not Being the Truth?

The Matrix:

I know everybody at some point has now seen the Matrix. I don’t mean the sequels, but the actual original. This was my favorite of the franchise personally, but there is no denying that part 2 was genius. I mean, he could fly, right? Ok, let me not get ahead of myself. For the few who haven’t, the movie follows Thomas Anderson (Mr. Anderson in my Agent Smith voice – later to be referenced as Neo) who was a computer programmer by day and a hacker by night. Basically, Neo lives in the ordinary world but knew something just didn’t feel right about life. One day he meets Morpheus and learns that everything he accepted as “life” was basically an extremely complex and sophisticated computer design, like we are living in a video game sequence almost. This was referred to as the Matrix. What was most shocking, albeit to Neo, was that no one even realized the construct existed.

So, it’s probably obvious where I am going with this – what Neo discovered is something we all may face at a point in our lives. How do we begin to question something we’ve never had a reason to doubt or to question?

When These Moments Start

As we return back to the plot of the movie, Neo meets Morpheus and is then offered a choice – the infamous blue pill/red pill scenario. The blue returning him to his regular, uninformed life or the red pill, the opportunity to learn the truth. Neo chooses the red pill. Without knowing what to expect, he is transported into reality, a world beyond the computer-generated illusions and literally reborn.

There is a lot of symbolism going on here, so much, I am trying to restrain myself. But I do want to point out, it’s this type of awakening that causes us to rethink how we want to move forward now that new facts have been introduced. Neo experienced this. But for now, hold on to that. We may return to that point again later.

Messages of Mindful Awakenings

Although we may never truly know, but I don’t expect that most of us will ever wake and realize we are actually part of some computerized virtual reality. But we may discover that the way we think we see reality may not truly be as our eyes have received it. That gets a little deep, but the message still holds some validity on the surface. Let’s look at some of the things that we live through every day. One that stands out to me immediately is our idea of success. Maybe we have always seen success as a high-profile job, large bank accounts, large houses, numerous cars, and vacations 4 times a year. Is that something we truly individually and personally desire, or is it part of the dreams and aspirations of someone else? Or maybe society at large’s desire. Repeated recurrences of those ideas bombarding you repetitiously may lead you to a place so far gone that you have forgotten why you were chasing it at all.

Reflection

When we are truly aware or in the process of practicing mindful awareness, there is no automatic switch that magically cranks out right and wrong. I need to make that distinction clear. I wrote in my second book, Kind Rebirths, The Space Between Knowing and Living, that just because we are in the practice doesn’t automatically make things easier; instinctually reveal new or unseen truths, nor does it necessarily make the road easier. It simply helps you reflect your attention to things that require a wider view. And to better keep in line with the symbolism, taking the red pill does not give you clairvoyance or expose everything in life we’ve misunderstood.

As we look back to Neo’s journey in the Matrix, if you think about it closely, his transformation doesn’t happen when he took the pill, saw the realness of reality, and realized there was a new enemy to conquer. No, his transformation began as soon as he learned that there was a choice and that there is a choice that could either leave him living in an illusion or one that could potentially free his mind.

Sometimes life is like that. We’ve been raised in a different kind of Matrix – one that involves us living in the shadows of others or one that expects us to take the mantle and finish what someone else started. Maybe we don’t realize that there is a choice or another world beyond what we’ve been living. Mindful awareness permits us to see the difference.

ABC – Awareness Builds Clarity

Don’t start distrusting everything because of this post or because of the movie. Just questioning to question won’t find you the clarity you may be looking for. By slowing down and allowing ourselves to reflect on our thoughts, our behaviors, and our past allows us to examine our experiences. As we increase our awareness within this frame, we can build higher levels of clarity as we advance forward. As Neo has shown us, we may not need awareness to completely define the outcomes of our choices but just letting us know that we have choices at all.

Stay mindful…

Rebirth