Blog 3: The Matrix Analysis

"Free your mind." This seemed to be a running theme throughout The Matrix. Morpheus kept reiterating that phrase to Neo. Freeing your mind would let go of ignorance and help you see the truth. Morpheus stated, "The mind has trouble letting go". Morpheus also said, "...you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into prision that you cannot smell, or taste, or touch... a prison for your mind." He's basically telling Neo, that he's ignorant.

Doing research, I found that The Matrix has a connection to and was most likely influenced by Buddhism. Buddhism is about discovering the full potential of mind, speech and body, which is said to be our true nature. The Matrix relates to this. The Buddhist doctrine says that the world is an illusion that we must break out of in order to achieve enlightenment.

The first time Neo was connected to the Matrix, he was terrified. He was also in denial and he had a panic attack. It was a lot of information to retain at once. He wanted to go back to where he came from. This is when Cypher started to do some thinking. Just like Neo, Cypher had been taught about freeing his mind. The difference between these two characters was that Cypher no longer wanted to know the "truth". He tells Neo that he regrets ever taking the red pill and wishes he would've taken the blue one. He felt like he was misinformed and Morpheus didn't give him a full explanation of what he was getting into. He must've been curious to know what the "truth" was, but he soon realizes that knowing the truth is not worth all the trouble. Cypher meets with Agent Smith and he tells him that ignorance is bliss. What the brain tells us is true keeps us satisfied as opposed to what the actual truth is. You could tell that Cypher had been struggling with this for a while and he had enough.

The first time "free your mind" kind of clicked with Neo is when he went to see Oracle and there was a kid in the waiting room bending a spoon with his mind. Neo looked perplexed but also curious. He attempted to do the same and he succeeded. I think that he wasn't too sure on how he accomplished it, but either way he did. The time when I think the idea of freeing the mind really clicked with Neo was when he was in the most danger. Towards the end of the movie, he was able to stop the bullets that the agents shot from reaching and he also was able to defeat Agent Smith in a physical fight. He was quicker.

Cypher thought ignorance was bliss. All Morpheus wanted was for everyone to free their mind to flee from the ignorance but Cyper couldn't handle it. He wanted everyone to achieve enlightenment just like in Buddhism. Neo succeeded in this while Cypher just couldn't deal. This shows that perhaps ignorance isn't bliss because Cypher didn't even end up surviving in the whole movie while Neo did.


Resources:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~papinnie/matrix.html#Free%20from%20Extremes
http://atheism.about.com/od/philosophyofreligion/a/maxtrixbuddhism.htm