The Matrix is a 1999 American science fiction action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving, and was first released in the United States on March 31, 1999. The success of the film led to the release of two feature film sequels, and the Matrix franchise was further expanded through the production of comic books, video games, and animated short films.

The film depicts a future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality created by sentient machines to pacify and subdue the human population, while their bodies’ heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Upon learning this, computer programmer “Neo” is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, involving other people who have been freed from the “dream world” and into reality.

The film contains many references to the cyberpunk and hacker subcultures; philosophical and religious ideas such as René Descartes’ evil genius, the Allegory of the Cave, the brain in a vat thought experiment; and homages to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Hong Kong action cinema, spaghetti westerns, dystopian fiction, and Japanese animation.

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Here is a nice little parable of wisdom for those who think that having a huge amount of possessions, being wealthy, having high position and owning many businesses equates to one enjoying life to the full and attaining happiness.

Heed the lesson of the following story well…

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THIS BOOK explores an unrecognized but mighty taboo—our tacit conspiracy to ignore who, or what, we really are. Briefly, the thesis is that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy-religions of the East—in particular the central and germinal Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism.

This hallucination underlies the misuse of technology for the violent subjugation of man’s natural environment and, consequently, its eventual destruction. We are therefore in urgent need of a sense of our own existence which is in accord with the physical facts and which overcomes our feeling of alienation from the universe. For this purpose I have drawn on the insights of Vedanta, stating them, however, in a completely modern and Western style—so that this volume makes no attempt to be a textbook on or introduction to Vedanta in the ordinary sense. It is rather a cross-fertilization of Western science with an Eastern intuition.

Particular thanks are due to my wife, Mary Jane, for her careful editorial work and her comments on the manuscript. Gratitude is also due to the Bollingen Foundation for its support of a project which included the writing of this book.

Sausalito, California

ALAN WATTS January, 1966

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“But the transformation of consciousness undertaken in Taoism and Zen is more like the correction of faulty perception or the curing of a disease. It is not an acquisitive process of learning more and more facts or greater and greater skills, but rather an unlearning of wrong habits and opinions. As Lao-tzu said, “The scholar gains every day, but the Taoist loses every day.” ~ Alan Watts

Alan Watts (1915-1973) who held both a master’s degree in theology and a doctorate of divinity, is best known as an interpreter of Zen Buddhism in particular, and Indian and Chinese philosophy in general. He authored more than 20 excellent books on the philosophy and psychology of religion, and lectured extensively, leaving behind a vast audio archive. With characteristic lucidity and humor Watts unravels the most obscure ontological and epistemological knots with the greatest of ease.

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“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”

~ Alan Watts

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I’d like to share with you the wisdom of existentialist Glen Campbell, who discusses in one of his many philosophy essays the fundamentals of mental nutrition.

In the aforementioned enlightening essay, Campbell reveals the potential dangers for the mind which consumes too much “junk information” instead of gaining the beneficial qualities from consuming “real information”, which as Campbell metaphorically states, is very much the same as bodily consumption of either “junk food” or “real food”.

I have already written about the population being bombarded with vast amounts of information on a daily basis, which is the bane of the modern technological age.  This information overload, which not only distracts us from getting the real truth, but can also cause our minds to become addictive for mindless entertainment, is also described in part by Campbell’s exposé of the modern purveyors of this knowledge (no matter how useless or manipulating) in the form of the television, the media and the Internet.

However, Campbell does advise us not to overload our minds with superfluous knowledge, even if it is deemed to be “real information”.  Campbell, instead, encourages us to moderate our consumption, if not postpone it all together, so that our minds have the time and space to think about what we have just digested, which will hopefully allow us to understand and learn something of worth.

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