Chapter C – The Essence of the World of Concealment: A Stroll with Mr. Joseph Morpheus
What if everything we see is only a small part of the picture?
"The difference between a spiritual person and one who is asleep is that the spiritual person takes the partial picture and tries to locate it in the general picture."
The essence of the world of concealment – A stroll with Mr. Joseph-Morpheus (Mar Yosef / Morpheus)
Sub chapters:
- Eyes wide open – the Exodus
- Laws, rules and what's in between – the splitting of the Red Sea
- The structure of the worlds
- Speech (the telephone) as a connecting instrument between the worlds
- About time and space
Eyes wide open – the Exodus
As we have seen in the previous chapter, our perception of the world is made through five partial segments – the five senses. Every segment gives us only a part of the general picture of truth. The difference between a spiritual person and one who is asleep is that the spiritual person takes the partial picture and tries to locate it within the general picture which he cannot perceive through his senses. The person asleep takes that same partial picture and decides that "this is all there is," as he cannot see the rest of the world. To this sleeping person the world perceived through his senses becomes a screen hiding the true world – the big picture – from his eyes. His physical sight and hearing become a prison in which he is a slave to the materiality and finiteness of the world. "They have eyes but do not see, they have ears but do not hear." The Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), in his book Mesillat Yesharim, gives a description of this essence of the world – an explanation that was probably before the eyes of the creators of the film when they wrote this part of it. He writes that this world is characterized by darkness – darkness caused by materialism and physical desires, which blind the eye of the intellect from seeing the truth. This darkness can hide from a person the obstacles standing right before his eyes, and even plant in him the desire to come close to them and fall into those very pits.
There is a parable told by the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov – the Degel Machaneh Ephraim. In this parable, which remarkably resembles our trilogy, there is a story about a king who built a trial path for whoever wanted to come close to him. This path was built by an optical illusion and featured several high walls, each wall looking like a frightening reality of a different kind. Most people, out of fear, gave up already at the first walls. But the king's son did not give up; he fought with all his might against each wall and the frightening reality it presented. Slowly he came to realize that it was all an illusion, and so, while standing before almost impossible trials, he shouted to his father the king from within the path: "Father, I know you are there, beyond the wall – let me through!" His father, who heard him, dropped all the illusion of the walls in an instant, but still did not receive him. He told his helpers: give him everything he asks for. But his son knew that this too was a trial. He asked for only one thing – to see his father's face; to see the king and sit at his side.
In another of the tales of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the viceroy reports to the king that the wise men have informed him that this year all the grain will be spoiled, and whoever eats from it will go mad. The king immediately commands him to set aside enough good grain for the two of them to eat this year. But the viceroy explains to the king that if only the two of them eat this grain and only the two of them remain normal, then in the end they will be the exceptions – they will be the abnormal ones. The king thought, and then devised his plan: they will indeed eat the tainted grain together with everyone and go mad together with everyone, but they will make a sign on their foreheads, and whenever they see each other, they will remember that they are mad…
From these two stories we learn about the attempt of these teachers to pass on to us fragments of the understanding that our perception of the world is distorted – that the reality we live in is an illusion, a planned obstacle on the way to recognizing the consciousness beyond.
In the film, the opening of the eyes ends in a physical exit from the Matrix. With us, the opening of the eyes takes place from within and inside the world. Just as in the story of the king, even one who has woken up does not have true, continuous awareness. We constantly move on the axis between remembering, awareness and recognition of the world of truth, and the madness of the world of illusion, which narrows our sight and consciousness to the sticky little swamp in which we spend our time. All that is left for us is to keep reminders constantly before our eyes: "And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt."
The Sages call our world the world of falsehood – "alma de-shikra" (עלמא דשקרא). Of one who passes away and leaves the world, it is said that he has gone up to the world of truth. It is amazing to observe how familiar this understanding is on our lips and how far it is from our feeling. There is a saying: "How tangible to everyone is this passing world, and how hidden from their eyes it is that this world passes." In the hidden wisdom (Kabbalah) they teach that every root in the language has meaning. The meaning of the root ע.ל.ם (of olam, world) is concealment. An elem is a youth in whom what he will become is still hidden. So the essence and role of the reality of the world is to hide. What is it hiding? The truth. The "Whole." The Infinite. That which lies beyond the finite, which has no boundaries and no lack. Why hide it? Why limit and narrow it down? So that we, out of a world of limitations, can grasp and perceive it. This is one of the beautiful paradoxes of the "Whole" – a connection between opposites. In order that we can perceive Him, He hides Himself, so that we will not be blinded. Just as when you want to look at the sun you must put on a filter to narrow / hide some of its light.
This illusory reality has different levels. Accordingly, man has different levels of consciousness fitting the different levels of reality. Man's path and spiritual work can extend over several planes of existence. In the film we see beautifully how reality and dream mix together. Neo moves from dream to reality in one continuity, as if they were connected in a single sequence. Morpheus tries to challenge Neo with the question: "How do you know that the reality you are used to living in is not also a dream?" and then confirms it: "You've been living in a dream world, Neo; this is the real world." In the books of Kabbalah and Chasidut it is said that there really are levels of existence that depend on the strength of the intellect, each level being a dream compared to the level above it. The Sages tell us that when a new power of understanding is revealed in the world (soon), we will all suddenly rise a level and discover that our whole lives until now were like a dream. "When the Lord brought back the returnees of Zion, we were like dreamers" (בשוב ה' את שיבת ציון היינו כחולמים).
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Laws, rules and what's in between – the splitting of the Red Sea
After Morpheus reveals to Neo that reality is in fact a kind of dream, an imaginary world, a giant virtual simulation programmed by a higher consciousness sitting "beyond," Neo moves on to the next stage. This stage is meant to internalize the understanding that all the laws and rules we know as belonging to the world are simply part of the program. "The One," and each and every one, has at his root a representation of the "Source." Through this representation, by connecting to it, he can rise above everything that nature compels and everything that the law requires. The condition is faith – faith that penetrates to the bones, in the nothingness of the world of illusion and of everything that branches out of it, and the recognition that the "Source" is the only thing that really exists. It is the root of all being, and all other realities are its branches, which exist by its power. We see a collection of details and think that each one is a reality in itself. The truth is that all the leaves we see come out of branches we do not see, and all the branches are connected to one trunk. "Know therefore this day and take it to your heart that the Lord is God; there is none besides Him." Meaning: to know that all the forces (El = power, Elokim = powers) existing in the world originate in one single force, besides which there is nothing – the Programmer beyond the back doors of reality. The way to reach this recognition is to overcome and rise above the personal natures with which we were born. As much as a person subdues his nature, so he discovers the miraculous reality above the laws of nature. A symbol of this is the coffin of Joseph: in the merit of his overcoming the seduction of Potiphar's wife, the Red Sea split.
When the people of Israel stood bewildered before the sea, the Lord rebuked them and said to Moses: "Why do you stand there? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward!" The children of Israel saw a sea before them, but they understood that if the Lord tells them to go forward, what difference does it make what is here? Nachshon son of Aminadav jumped and began to walk into the water with self-sacrifice, out of the faith that this is not water, this is not a sea – it is all illusion. When the water reached up to his neck, the sea split and the children of Israel passed on dry land through the midst of the sea.
Another story demonstrating this, out of a collection of countless stories, is the story of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, who asked his daughter to put oil in the Shabbat lamps. A moment before Shabbat came in, she suddenly realized that instead of oil she had put in vinegar. Rabbi Chanina calmed her and said: "Why are you worried, my daughter? He who told the oil to burn will tell the vinegar to burn." And so it was – the lamps burned, supernaturally, from the beginning of Shabbat until its end.
We see that whoever is on this level, having risen above his material natures, looks at the world and sees that the only thing that exists is the root will from which all being branches out. The connection to this will breaks all the laws, and nothing stands in its way: "Nothing stands in the way of the will."
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The structure of the worlds
After Neo passes his training and proves himself, the Oracle begins to reveal to him the structure of the existence of the Matrix – the form of the world. Through her we discover that the illusion, the Matrix, the world, is not one program but a collection of programs built in a hierarchical structure, each program being programmed by the one above it. Every physical thing in the world has a spiritual program operating it. That program was written by a higher program, and so on, up to the root of all programs – the "Source." The Sages describe these programs with the concept "angel." An angel is that unseen spiritual force which directs the action or the physical object it is in charge of. "Every single blade of grass has an angel standing over it, striking it and saying to it: Grow!" Every angel receives / borrows from the angel above it, until all of them borrow from the root of all being.
This hierarchical structure is described in Kabbalah as the chaining-down (hishtalshelut) of the worlds. There are four main stages in the emanation of the worlds from the root of being, and they are called by four names: Atzilut (Emanation), Beriah (Creation), Yetzirah (Formation) and Asiyah (Action) – אצילות, בריאה, יצירה ועשייה. In man's soul there is a structure corresponding to these four worlds, though most of us are, most of the time, present in our awareness in the lowest world – the world of Asiyah, of "doing."
The source of the word mazal (fortune) is the root nazal (to flow), which describes the flowing of the "abundance" (of the programming) from the Source, through the different worlds, down to the world of phenomena and to the individual person. One who knows how to trace this path of "flowing" can tell a person what will happen to him in a while, since he sees his mazal flowing toward him. Hence the Oracle's power of sight. One of the stages on the way is the stars, about which we say in prayer every Shabbat: "Good are the luminaries that our God created… strength and might He gave them, to rule in the midst of the world." In the language of the Talmud, the nations of the world are usually called akum – worshipers of stars and constellations (mazalot). Why? Because they are under the influence of this flowing of their mazal through the worlds and through the stars.
To Israel another kind of access was given: a fast connection that bypasses all the suppliers.
"There is no mazal for Israel." One of the meanings of the name Yisrael, by rearranging its letters, is li rosh – "mine is the head": the ability and the duty to reach the top of the pyramid – the root – and from there to receive the abundance directly, without needing favors from the mediators on the way; not by way of flowing – "no mazal." Abraham our father was told: "Go out and count the stars" (sefor – and sefar means boundary): put a limit on the influence of the stars upon you. "So shall your seed be" – all your descendants will have this ability, a red telephone – to connect directly with the Source and not through mediators in the middle. Avodah zarah (idolatry) is turning to other forces found somewhere in the pyramid, instead of turning directly to the Chief Manufacturer and bypassing all the agents who clip coupons along the way.
In her conversation with Neo, the Oracle reveals to him what the Ramchal writes at the beginning of his book Derech Hashem (The Way of God): that there are different kinds of creatures. Some have a physical body (inside the Matrix) and some have no physical body. Those without a body, such as angels and demons, are not supposed to be seen. The Arizal, the most important of the interpreters of the Zohar, writes that if a person were to see the spiritual beings surrounding him at any given moment, he would immediately go mad.
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Tel-Peh (Telephone) – the secret of prayer
The phone motif in the film is so prominent that many cellular phone companies built advertising campaigns on this wave of the Matrix. The telephone in the film serves not only as a means of communication between the worlds; the Wachowski brothers chose the telephone to be the means of passage of the fighters of Zion between the two realities – and not by chance.
What is the main characteristic of the phone? The power of speech!
In chapter E (the programming code) we will find out that the Matrix (reality), like any program, is written in a certain language. This language is the programming language which determines, creates and sustains the reality we see. Man's power to change and act within reality depends on the degree of his mastery of this language. The mouth is our keyboard. The wise and correct use of the power of speech is what enables a person to remove or to increase the strength of the illusion and concealment in which he lives – "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." Not for nothing do the Sages describe the people of Israel as "the worm of Jacob." This name comes from the form of the worm, whose main strength is in its mouth, and in this way the Sages direct us to be careful and to guard ourselves regarding the consequences and possibilities of the power of speech.
In many spiritual methods around the world this power was discovered, and, like the fighters of Zion, they use different names (mantras) that can change a person's states of consciousness – or, in the Matrix's format, move a person through the worlds.
We have seen above that the man of Israel, the fighter of Zion, has the ability not only to communicate with spiritual beings and forces found somewhere in the angelic hierarchy; the gate can also open for him, as for Neo, to enter all the way to the Source itself. For this purpose he was given a special elevator in the form of a wick, which connects him point-to-point, bypassing all the suppliers. This wick, which draws up the physical oil and turns it into spiritual light, is based on letters and words which, when pronounced, are meant to activate emotional and intellectual powers that enable the passage between the worlds – prayer.
The correct use of this power can therefore bring about two directions of action:
- 1. It enables a person to communicate with the consciousness beyond, and even to pass beyond the screen of the illusory reality.
- 2. Secondly, it enables the things a person needs in order to fulfill his task to flow into reality.
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About time and space
Two of the prominent characteristics of the material world are the concepts of time and space. Space is easier to relate to matter, but time too depends on matter, and when matter disappears, time also dissolves. Time is simply a measurement of the movement of matter relative to matter – between the earth and the sun, or between the hands of a clock. Outside the material world, the meaning of time disappears. The Sages tell us that the perception of time depends on the strength of awareness – the "mind." The more the mind grows, the more time shrinks, in inverse proportion. They give an example from the world of sleep: when a person falls asleep, his awareness contracts, the "mind" becomes small, and then he dreams a dream. In the dream, because the mind is small, he is less bound by law and logic, and so what is impossible in reality is possible in a dream.
In a dream one can pass through a whole lifetime, and when one wakes up and the mind returns, one discovers that only a quarter of an hour has passed on the clock! So, the more the mind grows, the more time shrinks, until in the greatest mind there simply is no time. In the same way, the Sages say that soon, when we all receive new levels of mind, we will understand how our lives until now were also, relatively, only like a quarter of an hour in the new reality, and we will look at them as at a dream. "When the Lord brought back the returnees of Zion, we were like dreamers."
The Sages also tell us that reality is built of three main layers – world / year / soul (olam / shanah / nefesh): three octaves of the same notes – space / time / and the soul of man. From this standpoint we understand that the reality of time is a living reality, with ups and downs, mountains and hills, just as in space. The whole subject of the festivals in the cycle of the year is based on this concept: that time changes from season to season in its quality and form, and that a person must attune his inner state to these changes in order to grow.
One who has already risen above his materiality can gaze at that world which is above time. The Sages call that light "Or HaGanuz" – the hidden light, which was hidden away at the creation of the world so that only the worthy would use it: a light in which one can see from one end of the world to the other; see the initial will and the final purpose of every thing, and thereby understand all the processes which one who sees only a part of them can never understand. By way of parable, we can grasp this through the difference between people sitting in a movie theater watching a film that slowly develops and unfolds, and the filmmaker, who holds in his hands the whole film with all its frames and knows what will be and what was even before the film began. (We will discuss the issue of free choice later on.)
One of the film's special effects, both cinematically and in terms of content, is what the Wachowski brothers call Bullet Time. This is the ability of Neo – or alternatively of the brothers' camera – to stop time, or more precisely to enter into it. Just as the effect of passing beyond the Matrix is achieved by the camera penetrating into matter (space), and then, as with the magic wardrobe, we discover that we have passed into another world – the world beyond the shell of reality – so the Bullet Time technique convinces us that time too is just another part of the fragile laws of the world of illusion, which can be bent… by one who believes.
The ability to stop the rush of life, to stop time and to observe, is an important foundation of many spiritual methods. Most people in the world are so busy with the mad race that, out of the madness, most of them do not even know where they are running to. Society as a whole is advancing at a dizzying pace, but few stop to ask where it is going. Technological tools are becoming tremendously powerful, but sadly the great danger is that they are empty of content and morally directionless.
The spiritual person is the one who knows how to stop and observe – to stop and ask.
"Better to lose a moment in life than to lose life in a moment."
The Merovingian puts it nicely: "If we do not take time, how can we ever have time?"
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