Many people who watch the film "The Matrix" are shocked by the amount of violence and many "action" scenes in it. Naturally, the creators of the film had to wrap the deep intellectual ideas in a something more appropriate for such a large variety of viewers since beyond all ideology and messages, the film eventually has "to sell".
The audience loves heroism. The audience loves love stories. The issue of love was discussed in the previous chapter; in this chapter we will try to discuss the issue of heroism.
In a deeper observation on the war and heroism in the film we will discover that there are two "treasures" hiding here, interconnected like a pot and its lid.
– The first message is that the reality of the world (the matrix), namely man in his world, is a reality of war. The violent physical war in the film is a metaphor for the real war which is an inner mental war, expressed by a coping in three different levels: thought, speech and action in front of the many trials sent to us by the program manager. Everything is predictable (the program is already written), but the choice is given – the choice to respond and refer to the situations sent by the coach from above. A giant simulation of "incidents and responses" meant to help us build and grow. One of the Jewish master philosophers of all times – the Ramchal, in his book “Mesilat Yesharim” teaches that man has to understand he is not here to rest. He is here to fight. The war is set by one’s attitude towards the collection of stimulations he comes across during his day. Everyone is fighting, the rich, the poor, the wise, the stupid, the miser, the beautiful, the ugly, each one and his own unique war. This attitude comes to refute the Eastern mistaken theory that man has to "flow" in life, and if he is in a flow, he will have no difficulties and all will go smoothly. They claim that when things are not going well and there is difficulty – it shows you are not in harmony with life. This eventually brings them to escape to the mountains, in order to sit in a lotus position on a cushion, light some incense and smile – all this is enabled now that they have left their coping (the work they were sent to do) behind.
– The second and deeper message relates to the nature of the illusion we live in. The illusion/ the Matrix/ the world is, as we have learned chapter C, a veil hiding our eyes from seeing the true essence – the eternal world – the world of truth. This is why when there are light sources in this world, the creator of the illusion has to use a lot of matter and "dirt" in order to hide them. A situation is created in which there is a ratio that as much as the being/ essence is of a higher spiritual nature, it is better hidden in a coarse and lower reality.
This is why the simulation manager placed the soul in a material suit called the body – so that it can descend into the physical world and elevate the spiritual sparks hiding in these far districts of the physical kingdom.
This picture greatly resembles the situation of Neo and the warriors of Zion having to enter the Matrix in order to touch the true centers of the war and beat the AI.
A variation of this idea of war is expressed in a different angle by the ‘Maor Eynayim’ in his explanation on the creation of the world. He reveals that the super consciousness is essence with no end or limits. An infinite giant file. When man approaches it with his relatively weak mind, he understands that he cannot cope with such a giant file. It (the file) then decides to shrink itself with a sort of heavenly WinZip in order to make itself more digestible. One contraction is not enough so it contracts itself 10 times (the 10 Kabalistic spheres) until a file is received that man can relate to and with it he can work to discover this infinite consciousness again. The smaller file received after the contraction process is in fact the world we live in. The world is a collection of details, each one of which is a contracted part of the heavenly qualities of the super consciousness which came before the contraction.
Man, as part of the world, is also a contraction of this infinite light which came before everything. Through this we can understand that aside from all external details, all internal details such as emotions, loves and fears appearing in one’s personality are in fact lower expressions of sublime spiritual qualities. For instance: when someone is feeling a strong desire for a stake or a beautiful woman, he should remember that this desire is a mere coarse expression of a sublime, pure spiritual love, a love with no conditions such as the one appearing at that moment. But because of his level of materialism, it comes expressed in this way. If he feels fear of something physical, here too lies one of the high qualities – awe of G-d. Only because he has not the ability to contain this awe, it appears in this contracted way.
At this point the ‘Maor Eynayim’ explains the system of the holy ‘Baal Shem Tov’ saying that instead of running away from our negative qualities we must understand they are not really bad. At their source, all of our qualities are positive, only we, in our poor spiritual level don’t know how to derive from them their potential and connect them back with their pure root.
Furthermore – the chief programmer sent us these qualities so that they will awaken us to have a hold with their higher spiritual source. After the desire for a woman has awakened in the wrong time or place, instead of fighting it, all we need to do is acknowledge its existence, be grateful it is there and that something alive is awakened within me, to understand it is merely out of aim, and then simply aim it to the right place – to connect it with its higher spiritual root – the higher love.
Man’s primary work in the years he spends on this earth is to fight in order to open the contracted files of his daily life. To open his pleasures, his torments, his fears, his ambitions and his vision. To discover the huge enlightenment hiding in the so called banality of "the unbearable lightness of existence".
The war is hard since the force of habit and the power of the global stupidity dumb man and tell him the agents’ favorite sentence: "What you see is all there is". "Don’t look beyond, don’t search for more". A true warrior of Zion on the other hand fights till the very last moment to remove the skins and see existence in its magnitude – his powers and spiritual essences hiding behind each moment and every contact he has with reality and with himself.