The Matrix: I Know Kung Fu, Now What? (Part 2)
ronnie October 24th, 2008
So you have just taken the red pill in Part 1 and hopefully opened up your inner eye to reality, thus beginning your journey.
So now what?
In the film ‘The Matrix,’ after making that choice, Neo embarks on a process that is the acquiring of Knowledge…..in this case, one of the first things he learns is ‘Kung Fu.’ Or at least he thinks he learns it. Watch scene here
He then practices this new found skill before using it out in the material world, where he almost dies in the process.
Soon after this, he really learns it.
This is part of the journey of the soul.
Baha’u'llah, founder of the Baha’i Faith, talks about the journey of the soul through seven stages.
He uses poetry to describe the stages of the soul’s journey, in the style of 12th Century Sufi poet Farid al-Din Attar, as used in the Conference of the Birds.
The seven stages of the journey of the soul are called Valleys, and thus the imagery is that of a seeker making a journey through a series of valleys. Thus the book is called ‘The Seven Valleys.’
The first Valley is called the Valley of Search, the Second Valley, the Valley of Love…..
The third Valley is the Valley of Knowledge.
In the Matrix, Neo begins his journeying with the Valley of Search by choosing the red pill.
I guess the film skipped out the Valley of Love because it wasn’t commercially viable (or more likely because it’s just a film and not a comprehensive religious text).
The Knowledge sought in the third Valley is the Knowledge of God and not one based on conventional learning. The seeker begins to understand and find wisdom when faced with pain, suffering, tests and trials. About the Valley of Knowledge, Baha’u'llah says:
With inward and outward eyes he witnesseth the mysteries of resurrection in the realms of creation and the souls of men, and with a pure heart apprehendeth the divine wisdom in the endless Manifestations of God. In the ocean he findeth a drop, in a drop he beholdeth the secrets of the sea.
(Baha’u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 11)
He also uses his newly acquired skills, constantly learning new ones and improving the ones he has.
These ‘skills,’ from a Baha’i point of view are universal religious truths known as ‘virtues’ and are used to battle the forces of darkness, which in reality is the human ego, symbolically represented as Satan or Agent Smith in this case.
Armed with the power of Thy name nothing can ever hurt me, and with Thy love in my heart all the world’s afflictions can in no wise alarm me.
(Baha’u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u'llah, p. 208)
We may read about virtues all day long and Neo may download as much as he wants about Kung Fu, however, until we apply it, through service to others, we will not really understand and learn.
The ‘Kung Fu’ we need is Patience, Justice, Humility, Truthfulness, Love, Generosity, and the list goes on (for a more comprehensive list click here)
When confronted with Agent Hate, we destroy him with Love. Agent War is stopped with Peace. Agent Greed is neutralised with Generosity.
I’m sure you get the idea. Sounds easy, but we know it’s not.
If ignorance is bliss, what is knowledge, pain?
I know what you’re thinking, ’cause right now I’m thinking the same thing. Actually, I’ve been thinking it ever since I got here: Why oh why didn’t I take the BLUE pill?
(Cypher, the ‘Judas’ of the Matrix.)
Like Judas, he too was tempted by the inner promptings of the human ego (Agent Smith), betraying Neo and the life of hardship for an apparently easier life of material happiness. (watch scene here)
Baha’u'llah, in The Hidden Words, says:
….Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.
So we have to bring ourselves to account and ask, what’s our gold? What’s our kryptonite? Since we’re conveniently on the subject of kryptonite, we can talk about other superheroes briefly. Continue reading >
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- Arts & Culture , Baha'i Concepts
- Comments(4)
Bravo.
We learn through analogy and this was a very cool one!
This is great. What do you think would happen if the Ku Fu Panda and Neo faced off? In all seriousness though, connecting the Baha’i teachings to the popular culture is something I think more bloggers should do, I’m trying to do that myself more. Thanks for this post, it will be featured in the next ‘Hot Bloggin’ roundup.
We may read about virtues all day long and Neo may download as much as he wants about Kung Fu, however, until we apply it, through service to others, we will not really understand and learn.
I think this is an important perspective–that it is not enough to know “how the system works” but to use the knowledge altruistically in order to evolve.
Selfish notions do not evolve the spirit.
These are patterns shared by other spiritual frameworks as well–too evident to ignore.
Thanks ron.
MATRIX
The film The Matrix was released in Australia the very week I taught my last classes as a full-time professional teacher, April 8th 1999. I had been teaching for thirty years, but this post is not about my career as a teacher which was then over. This prose-poem is about this film; I won’t summarize the details of the plot and all the characters. But some of the theme is as follows: a fundamental discovery is made about the world that it doesn’t exist. It’s actually a form of Virtual Reality designed to lull people into lives of blind obedience to the system. People obediently go to their jobs every day without knowing that Matrix is the wool that has been pulled over their eyes. The reality of life is that people are slaves. The rebels want to crack the framework that holds this Matrix in place thus freeing humankind. Some believe a messianic One will lead a social uprising; this messianic One will possess both mind power and physical strength. -Ron Price, Pioneering Over Four Epochs, 4 November 2006, updated 17/6/09 with thanks to Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, March 31st 1999.
The world has been in a great sleep
from which it is slowly waking thanks
to that messianic One; the uprising
has begun silently, unobtrusively—
the revolution is global and out of
man’s control–it is also spiritual–
having begun within the Shaykhi
school of the Ithna-Ashariyyih
sect of Shiah Islam. But don’t tell
anyone–it’s the best kept secret-
non-secret in the world and it is
slowly rising from the obscurity in
which it has been shrouded for over
160 years, more than 16 decades.
Ron Price