Chapter B – The liberation war – Awakening from the dream

What keeps us inside the bubble – and why is it so hard to get out?

"One cannot fill a cup which is already full!"

Sub chapters:

• Cognitive dissonance – "Bribery blinds the eyes of the wise"
• Most people are not yet ready to "disconnect"
• Building the will – the question, in order to create an opening for the appearance of the guide
• No one can free himself from prison – the need for a teacher
• The wisdom of always being a disciple (Talmid Chacham)
• Summary – the courage to jump

Cognitive dissonance – "Bribery blinds the eyes of the wise"

So what is it that makes up the Matrix, and how is the bubble created which hides true reality from so many people? What seizes our minds? How does it work?

The main characteristic of everything we perceive in our world is finiteness, or as the Oracle and Smith put it throughout the film: "Everything that has a beginning has an end." It is true that thoughts, emotions and everything else we are aware of have boundaries, but the main characteristic of this finite reality is of course matter, and so matter is the main screen that hides the light of truth. The wise compared this to a coin: the closer it is held to the eye, the more it hides the light of the sun. The parable is clear – the more man is dependent on the material side of the world, the more his spiritual vision narrows and eventually disappears. What is the reason for this?

The world is an endless collection of frequencies. Every frequency has a wavelength – boundaries which define it. Each sense perceives a certain segment of the general network of the endless collection of frequencies. For instance, sight "senses" wavelengths with frequency values from A to B. An average bee can see even up to C, and so sees more than man. Hearing "senses" frequencies from F to G. A dog can hear even up to I. And so each of the five senses senses a small, limited segment of the huge network that surrounds us. Our picture of reality is in fact based on a small, limited number of sources, which creates a huge distortion in perception, since whatever lies beyond our sensory perception we, to our misfortune, consider unreal. The senses give part of the picture of the truth, but when we turn this part into the whole, we get an ugly lie.

Man is born into this finite world of frequencies and gets accustomed to knowing the finite physical reality around him through his senses. In fact, he gets accustomed to receiving all of his feeling of vitality from this limited system of senses. Slowly he becomes dependent on the vitality and pleasure he is used to getting from these sense organs, and so he becomes enslaved to them. This slavery is expressed in that every time a certain insight or teaching is perceived as threatening, in any way, his possibilities of pleasure on their different levels, he simply cuts off the current of the computer – of thinking. In the language of the Torah this is called bribery: physical or emotional bribery that simply blinds the eyes of the intellect from seeing reality as it is. In the language of modern psychology this is called cognitive dissonance, or as the Architect explains it: emotion was "designed" to overcome reason and logic. Many spiritual methods of the East are built on silencing the five senses (meditation) in order to neutralize this constant bribery, so that one may perhaps be able to hear or feel an "out of this world" (spiritual) experience without the forces of the body interfering. The people of Israel, too, received God's gratitude for being willing to leave the "pots of meat" in Egypt and go to the desert – a place where they would seemingly have no vitality at all – so that later, in the merit of this trust, they would win vitality on a higher level: "I remember for you the kindness of your youth… how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown."

This is the spell of Egypt, which does not allow an exodus.

This is why most people are not yet ready to disconnect.

Most people are not yet ready to "disconnect"

Morpheus: "Most people are so used to and so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will do anything in their power to protect it." Most of the world simply sees reality only through their five senses, and if we put another picture before them, we threaten the very foundations of their lives. We endanger their "right" to unrestrained sensory pleasure, and their honor – after they have already built their personality around this reality – and we become persecuted by them.

So we have two screens. One is the very essence of the material world, which hides the reality behind it; the other is our friends, who are already enslaved to their senses and fight us so that we stay in prison with them.

Against this concealment we have a powerful inner engine which knows how to identify forgeries and to recognize the truth. This engine can be switched off and asleep, but it can be kick-started. Neo is the embodiment of this force, or as the Architect defined him: "You are the sum of all the 'anomalies' (mismatches) of all humanity with the 'system'." Which means: you embody man's refusal to accept the boring, shallow rut of material life, which causes him to rebel, to wake up, to stray from the rut.

Neo expresses the feeling that something is missing – that the dream I am being sold, of a nice apartment and car and a respected profession, is not enough. I feel there is something more. I feel there is a beyond. History shows that young people, at the age when they begin to form their own opinions, are usually endowed with the strength and will to "change the world." As the years go by and they become established within the "system," they calm down, make peace with it and accept it, and it becomes harder for them to wake up. There are cases in which some crack opens in reality. Sometimes it is because of an accident or a trauma that throws the system out of balance and slightly loosens the body/soul connection, suddenly revealing to the person another reality. Sometimes a person takes a drug that slightly changes the resolution of the filter through which he perceives the world. This change suddenly distorts the picture of reality and shows the person that reality is not absolute.

For the rest, as long as man is inside the illusion that closes in on him from all sides with perfect mathematical precision, he has almost no chance of seeing any crack in reality. All that is left for him is not to accept, not to despair, and not to buy the story he is being sold. This refusal to accept is the opening that man opens, thanks to which the guide will be revealed to him – and through the guide the whole picture will gradually be revealed in the end.

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Building the will – the question, in order to create an opening for the appearance of the guide

A man of vision called the "Chazon Ish" (Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz) wrote a book called "Emunah u-Bitachon" (Faith and Trust). In this book he gives a very interesting definition of "faith." He writes that faith is a fine inclination in a person's soul: when he is free of the hunger of desires, and his hour is an hour of quiet… out of the quiet a question arises in him… what is the riddle of the universe?! The imun – the training (from the same root as emunah, faith) – in this question is called "faith".

When man stops for a moment the chase after the barren stimulations and shiny packaging the "system" tries to sell him; when he manages to overcome the network of advertising and of shaping public opinion, whose aim is to convince him to want the "brands" produced by the corporations – for which he works so hard, to have money to buy what they produce, until he hardly has time to breathe, not to mention ask questions – then he stands naked before the question, which embarrasses him so much with the power of its simplicity that, out of shame at his nakedness, he dives back into work, into stimulation and into the upheavals of life: "the flame of the ever-turning sword" that guards the entrance to the Garden.

Faith is not the answer; it is mainly the question.

A person who trains in this question is called a believer. Trinity explained this to Neo in a most direct way: "It's the question that drives us. It is what brought us here. The answer is out there, and it's looking for us, and it will find us – if only we let it, if only we ask…"

Our society and its agents try to make us despair of the possibility of finding an answer to the question, and so prevent us from even trying to ask. In Halacha there is a concept called yei'ush ba'alim – "the owner's despair." When a person despairs of finding a certain object he has lost, he loses his right of ownership over it, and whoever finds it may take it for himself. The agents try to make us despair of finding the purpose, so that they can, as it were, take it for themselves – something that is of course impossible.

Moses passes on to us a message from the Chief Programmer: not only do we have a chance – we have an obligation to know; and if we have an obligation, then we also have the ability. "Know therefore this day, and take it to your heart."

Further on we will discuss the paradox of knowing, and the difference between the knowing of man and the knowing that lies beyond; but what is clear is that even out of the depth of darkness a point of light of true knowing can be found. Rabbi Dessler (The Pursuit of Truth): "The point of truth is never lost. Even after the desires of a person's heart have turned him away from the right path, he knows in the depth of his heart that the right path is more true. He accepts the lie as a substitute for the truth – not as the truth itself. Every person has the ability to clarify in his heart where the very truth is found."

The road to knowing starts with one small step – a question.

Although, as we have learned, this is not possible with the usual earthly tools (science), one of the most important recognitions of man is that he has, deep beneath the surface, other tools in his pack. He has an inner representation, a personal embassy of the world beyond, of the spiritual reality. The way is to follow the soul. Before the soul came down into the world, it saw the whole course of its life that had already been planned for it, and chose it. It knows. Therefore, when we taste different paths, we recognize whether they match what we already know deep inside.

No one can free himself from prison – the need for a teacher

Faith in its first stages comes from a place of complete darkness. The Sages tell us that man alone cannot find his way in the dark: "A prisoner cannot free himself from prison" – he needs help from outside. The Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), in his book "Mesillat Yesharim", compares our world to a great maze. Whoever walks inside the maze cannot find his way out, because all the paths look alike. Only one who has already found his way out, who stands above the paths, can guide those walking where to turn and which path truly leads out. The guides are those who have already succeeded in rising above their material nature – a level that has removed the concealment from them and given them the power of sight.

Another role of the guides is to support us when the agents begin their attacks. As long as a person is a soldier of the "system," the agents do not bother him. The moment his commitment and loyalty to the "system" loosen and the agents sense that he is beginning to wake up – they tighten the ring of control around him. The moment Moses came to Pharaoh and asked him to let his people go, Pharaoh commanded that more work be added, since apparently they had too much free time. The role of the guide is to let the disciple know why it is precisely when he begins to wake up that the reality of his life sometimes becomes harder and more challenging. Here begins a difference in outlook from the Eastern path of awareness, which claims that if you feel difficulty, it is a sign that you are not on the right path; the right path, according to them, should be effortless – smooth. This, of course, is not true. Every change of state, even in physics, requires an investment of energy. One of man's natures is laziness – an unwillingness to invest even when he knows that a greater benefit will grow from it in the end, as we all know from the world of physical fitness. The journey to truth, which passes through changing our habits of perception, is hard and full of challenges. The film and the Sages teach us that the true reality of man in his world is war! A war against the earthly natures imprinted in us, a war against the agents. "When you go out to war against your enemies."

However, here too there is a serious danger for the spiritual warrior. We saw in the first chapter that the consciousness which imprisoned the human race is the consciousness that grew when man moved the point of reference to the "I" – when the "I" became the center. In the chapter on Smith we will see that pride (the ego) is the biggest screen hiding the Infinite. The danger is that the warrior will believe in himself and rely on his own powers alone – "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this valor" – both in the physical war and in the spiritual war, which are really two sides of the same coin. The Sages teach that Satan / the Angel of Death / Smith is so strong that man alone has no chance of defeating him. Man's only possibility of overcoming him is through the recognition that alone he cannot. He must draw strength through a connection to what lies beyond him – through connection with the "Source."

The wisdom of always being a disciple (Talmid Chacham)

One of man's main problems is that he sticks to his first opinions. He already knows. He is in control. It is hard for him to acknowledge that he actually has no idea, and so he lives in the self-conviction that he understands. A nice parable describing this is the one about the man who went around to many teachers in the East and felt that he was already "enlightened," but nevertheless decided to go to one more teacher. When he arrived, the teacher sat him down and served him a cup of tea. He began to pour the tea into the cup, and even though it had become completely full, he kept on pouring until it overflowed and spilled everywhere. The disciple was sorry he had made the long journey to this teacher, seeing that he was just another senile old man. To his surprise, when he finished pouring the tea, the old man told him the lesson was over. The embarrassed disciple did not feel the lesson had even begun, and to his question the teacher replied that he had wanted to teach him that a full cup cannot be filled! A person who thinks he already knows has no room in him for new understandings. Only one who knows how to empty himself, to receive, can be filled and learn. All of life's processes are built on this movement of filling and emptying. As far as the lungs are able to empty, so far are they able to fill with new air. The heart fills and empties without pause. In spirituality too, man must learn this truth and agree to be small – to agree to let go and receive; to agree to always be a disciple. In Judaism this position is called a Talmid Chacham – a wise disciple. Who is a Talmid Chacham? He is the wise man who knows how to always remain a disciple.

Summary – the courage to jump

Many travel the world desperately seeking remnants of authenticity – sparks of something with a real scent, fragments of originality in a world of plastic, forgeries, imitations and packaging. Many are willing to take no small risks on this road, to go to the edge, to walk a tightrope, to confront the end, in order perhaps to draw from there a spark of meaning.

The truth is that the greatest challenge is confronting the edge of our own self-definition. For this one does not need to travel to the end of the world; this is truly the end of the world in which we are defined, and it is here – very close. Instead of taking trips outward, one needs to take trips inward. Trinity tells Neo that "the Matrix cannot tell you who you really are." Morpheus reveals to us that our self-identity from within the world is simply the mental projection of your digital (material) body. The true "I" extends far beyond this definition. Most often, fear of the unfamiliar and the unknown stops us from growing. The seed is afraid to change because it loves being a seed. Only when it is willing to give up its seed-self can it change and become a huge tree. The ultimate challenge is the courage to give up who I thought I was, in order to find the true "I" – to give up the imagined "self," and to jump into the truth.

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To continue to the next chapter – Chapter C, "The Essence", click here >>