being Alice…
Morpheus: I imagine that right now, you’re feeling a bit like Alice. Hmm? Tumbling down the rabbit hole?
Neo: You could say that.
Morpheus: I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that’s not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you’re here. 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 has 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: Yes.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you 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 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 you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.
-[script excerpt from “The Matrix” movie by the Wachowski brothers, 1999]
Have you ever wondered why this movie had the intense impact and achieved near-cult status practically before it was out of the theaters? Ever wondered why nearly ten years later, it still packs the proverbial punch?
It is said that those things -those stories, fables, jokes, etc.- that hit closest to the truth of what they reference are the best received by the populace… That those things that come closest to the core of humanity’s existence tend to have the greatest impact… perhaps this resonates with us and with those dialogues many of us are holding with our own inner-selves? Perhaps there is more than a grain of truth to the story portrayed oh-so-well in this movie-making venue? Perhaps it keys in on truths we are still largely unwilling to admit because by so doing challenges everything we have come to know and to trust about our world, our societies and our lives… because to do so sends us immediately spiraling down an intricate rabbit hole and lands us in a reality that seems more surreal than the convenient definition of reality that has been handed to us since our inception in the womb…
But what is reality?
Reality is what you make it. “With our thoughts we make the world”, so says Buddha (and a number of others in various forms) but there is an aspect of our physical reality that seems to depend on, feed upon, and balance against each other’s thoughts, beliefs and understandings. Our individual realities butt up against each other all the time, yet there is some underlying definition of reality that most of us subscribe to on one level or another… the consensus reality. But what is this consensus reality and to whom does it belong? Is it truly the reality created by the majority of people -the consensus of beings on this plane- or is it a reality put into place by a small handful of people who intended/thought/dreamed/believed harder and better about their reality than by everyone else together?
What is our reality right now??
Is our reality what we want it to be? Do we want a more Utopian reality instead, or do we somehow, somewhere, believe that we are unworthy of such an ideal and must therefore fight (with ourselves and with each other) to achieve it? Why do we even have a separate word for this concept of “perfect” reality? By its nature -by separating this word and ideal out from our current physicality- it serves to separate us from it by implying that we are somehow less-than-worthy of existing in that reality… it does not help us create it! Do we realize that we are responsible for the reality we weave? What happens when your idea of “utopia” is not mine?
Do we really all play a part in creating that reality, or have many of us abdicated that role somewhere along the way? Why? Where? And on a larger scale than the purely personal… what is our reality? Where is it going? What is the state of our world and what does that tell us about our species, our beliefs, our realities? What happens when the consensus reality is not what many of us would like it to be? What is the reality we want to create and experience? How do we get there? Ideals only get us so far; we can say we believe a certain thing for all eternity, but unless –until– we actually and fully believe it, it remains nothing more than shallow words. Does changing reality require a change in the consensus? Does changing reality require a physical, action-oriented component? Or can we recreate reality solely with our minds and emotions?
So what is our reality- personally as well as globally?
What do we wish our reality to be?
– Namaste.
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