The Matrix

Neo had to save Morpheus because Morpheus is the gatekeeper to Zion. To the free
world, to the world of the individual where humanity are not used as slaves to fuel
a machine but live as beings

Morpheus is the symbol of wisdom, the father he is both an equal balance of

tyrannical and benevolence, perhaps more benevolence for he the Captain of the ship
and the crew, he installs discipline. He trains Neo and pushes him in order to wake
up and to realise himself, to unlock his true potential such as in the training
scene. He is benevolent because he puts blind faith into Neo, and some degree into
his crew. He rescues them for the cruel and slave driven world back into innocence
of the real to then let them grow as true free human beings. (The film also
addresses the nature of freedom. What is freedom?)
Morpheus gives his life for Neo. He sacrifices himself for the well-being of Neo,
and this makes him a benevolent father who is totally selfless.
Neo must save his ‘father’ in order to not set society fall into tyranny which the
machines represent.

At this point, Neo no longer lets external sources guide his actions or tell him
where he should go and do. Throughout the whole world he is told where to go, what
to do by the trinity, the Goth Hackers, Boss, The Agents and Morpheus etc. However,
when he realises the Oracles prophecy he realises his own choice and his own
responsibility and takes a turning point to take control of his own fate, as the
Oracle predicted when he left out the door. He becomes a man in a true sense for he
is guided by the truth within him, by his intuition and takes lead. He no longer is
attaching himself to Thomas Anderson but to a new self, which isn’t The One because
he has denied it as the Oracle told him. He understands that what Morpheus holds is
worth dying for, to give back.
Rather than trying to know his path, that he is The One, he just becomes. He
follows the path rather than trying to understand. He becomes the Truth, he
experiences the Truth rather than knowing the Truth which Morpheus teaches him.
He goes into the Underworld, The Matrix, into the boss’s tower to defeat him.
Instead of hoping or putting faith into the mission he has a intuition that he
knows.

When faces Mr Smith he is already starting to shed himself of his ego, who he calls
himself. The whole film he has been attached to the Mr Anderson but now he realises
he is someone different. Mr Anderson would have run in that subway station,
everyone else would have run but he starts to believe in his true nature and faces
his adversery, the shadow, the tyrannical aspect of society and himself who try to
enslave him through his senses and lack of free thinking consciousness.

Neo had to die, as the Hero dies in all Hero myths, he had to die in order to kill
his ego. He essentially reaches a stage of enlightenment. When Trinity tell him she
loves him, that he is loved, beyond the world of The Matrix (which is our world as
a viewer). This love is transcendental. it is Love that wakes Neo up to his true
Self, to understanding that he is The One, he is all things in the Matrix. He and
The Matrix are one. He and the agents are one. Not only this, but to preserve love
from tyranny it is worth fighting for. This were Neo lets Mr Anderson die, his ego
and is reborn as his true Self which follows the archetypal hero myth who dies, is
reborn and then overcomes his adversary or his shadow. It is a transformation of
consciousness.

Mr Smith is also affected by sterile and contrived world of The Matrix and longs to
be free himself. To be an individual. You could say he is like the shadow, the
collective shadow and individual shadow that longs to be free of the ego and the
social extension of the ego, culture and/or society.
The film follows along the lines of Advaita Vedanta or Idealism. The Matrix is
Samsara, Maya. A prison of senses and ignorance, ambition and desire feeding this
fake world, totally unaware. The scene of The Oracle we see a small boy dressed in
the style of a buddhist monk yet in white clothes sat in Siddhasana and talks like
a Zen Master. Whereas the real world is Truth it is a lack of ignorance, however
Truth is a stark reality compared to the ignorance of The Matrix which Cypher
questions and asks ‘what is true freedom? I am still following orders in the real
world as I am in The Matrix’
Through Neo’s realisation he understands that he and The Matrix are one, just as
the Atman and Brahman are one in Vedanta. Indeed he called The One, the Absolute.

Neo’s life follows the heroes journey. He is an ordinary person who is seeking for
an ideal, a mode of being greater than his current self who is Thomas Anderson, a
software developer by day and hacker by night. Unexpectedly his yearning is
answered and is involuntarily thrown out of his world either into the hands of good
or evil. He then agrees to freed from his current state of being through wisdom of
the wise master Morpheus who teaches him the Truth and sets him free and sets him
on his quest. Through powers unknown to him he gains tools to transform himself to
make him powerful, more armed against the adversary he will inevitably face. He
becomes a man, an individual when he no longer looks for Morpheus or eternal
influence to tell him who he is or what to do, and decides to save Morpheus.
Morpheus is his father figure, a man he had been searching for his whole life to
give him the Truth however it came to a point where Neo had to save Morpheus, and
this shows his transformation into a true individual, who now has the
responsibility and the power to save his own father When Neo faces Smith he becomes
the Hero, dies and is reborn anew, this time far greater than his previous self and
defeats the villain. At the end when his is alone in The Matrix it no longer feels
the place it once was. The place has not changed but he has changed, and he shows
the people what he has become, the potential of who they can become, the potential
beyond this world to understand Truth, who are in disbelief.

The Matrix also represents our society today. How we are fuelling a corporate
machine, as displayed in the mega skyscrapers and the film being predominately set
in the city. A man made structure. We have created our own infrastructure, our own
prison which we operate blindly in and enslave ourselves to it’s cause without
asking how much damage it is doing ourselves or if there is a life beyond it. We
humans who created the AI gave birth to their own prison guards, to their own hell
which we are on the path to do with our development of AI but also our development
of Corporate Capitalism. Indeed, the whole world looks otherworldly, unnatural,
alien and the people are zombie-like. Mouse asks the question, ‘how can we be human
if we deny our impulses’, which also beckons back to Vedanta and how we must free
our selves of Maya, of Samsara, of our senses and our desires.

Mr Smith is the head slave-driver in order that rogues are silenced and the world
continues to live on in ignorance. The one driven in control is unknown, is unseen.
The Matrix both represents our society, our Corporate world, a money machine and
also reality, consciousness and both asks whether this is all real. How can we even
know what is real which is the main question of the film.
It also hauntingly predicts the demise of humanity through our creation of AI who
we created in our hubris and devoured us for we gave birth to a power much smarter
and greater than ourselves.

Mr Smith’s remarks of humanity as being a species, a form of mammals, which are

unlike our counter parts. Other mammals come into an area and create a sense of
equilibrium with it’s environment whereas humanity moves into an area, multiples
profusely and drains all resources and then flocks to another. He compares humanity
to mammals but rather as a virus who’s nature is to multiple and consume all
resources.
Another poignant point Smith makes is how they tried to create a Matrix, a
civilisation, where everything was fair and equal, however people could accept this
that they started to retaliate and were always trying to wake-up as though such a
society could not exist it was not real. We needed strife, pain and sorrow to give
us an understanding of what is real.