Chapter I INTRODUCTION for BookIII-Entering Into the Rest

My first book, Book I, Looking Beyond the Mark, dealt with my own discoveries about how I had been looking beyond the mark, as it is so easy to do. I had believe that the fulnes... (More) My first book, Book I, Looking Beyond the Mark, dealt with my own discoveries about how I had been looking beyond the mark, as it is so easy to do. I had believe that the fulness of the gospel could be found on the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but, instead, what I found is that one can only find the preparatory gospel on the forbidden Tree.

My second book, Book II, Finding the Mark, follows the trail of my own gradual awakening as to how we are to grow the Tree of Life in our hearts. This is the message taught in Alma 32, wherein we eventually are to partake of its precious fruit which will fill us with nothing less than the pure love of Christ. Because of this blessing, Alma promised that we would spiritually hunger and thirst no more, i.e., we would be at rest. . .

In both of the first two books, I often referred to how we can enter into the Lord's rest. But this book, Book III, [The Matrix as an Allegory of Spiritual Integration] was to deal specifically with those scriptures which describe the process, using particularly the Seventh Chapter of Moroni. Of all the chapters in the scriptures, none has been more inspiring to me than this one chapter in the Book of Mormon. . .

Since, like so many, I have had my own personal experiences, I wanted to use Moroni 7 as the basic text for this book. However, after writing many chapters, I began to realize that what I was writing was not what I wanted because it was too conceptual rather than experiential, keeping the readers too much in their minds instead of their hearts. . . So I kept trying to find a new and more effective way to involve the reader in a process truly preparatory to entering the rest. . . Then, as I became more familiar with the movie, The Matrix, I decided that this incredible production would provide, allegorically, the step by step, experiential approach I was looking for. In the year that I have worked on The Matrix, I have been amazed and often overwhelmed at the many insights that can be represented through one scene after another. . .

My intention has been to assist you in the task of discovering and removing those barriers you may have to becoming sufficiently awake in Christ that He will bless you to the degree that all fear will leave your life. However, my challenge is that although I can help you in part, I do not know how to help you go all the way. The reason is that your life is so unique that what might work for me or some one else still might not work for you. I am sure the Spirit will show you your own unique processes as you go along.

Entering the rest is like having someone open the door of a safe in which we are imprisoned. The safe's door is the door to our heart, and the combination to that lock is unique to each of us, and no one else. Although the handle is on the inside, the tumblers are on the outside where Christ and the Father stand, ready to enter when we stand aside and stop trying to work the lock from the inside when we don't have the combination. . .

This movie is about awakening, and awakening is not so much about understanding what it means to be awake, it is experiencing what it means to be awake. The Matrix is designed to be a doorway to that experience, but in doing so, it is also a window to understanding. Understanding is only the booby prize if it gets in the way of the experience. Therefore, I encourage you to wait to read this book until after you have obtained a video and watched the movie. (Less)

Documents

People