I’ve seen a lot of movies over the years, and one that really stands out for me — probably my favorite — is The Matrix. I don’t know if everybody has seen this one, but it’s a great flick. Keanu Reeves plays a guy named Neo who feels there’s something “a miss” in the world (he believes it’s called “The Matrix”). He’s not sure exactly what it is, he just knows it is something other than a restaurant, a fancy car, a video game, or any other material object. He believes there is a truth about the world which he lives that is being kept from him (and everyone else).
A message appears on his computer mysteriously telling him to follow this cute little girl with a rabbit on her shoulder. He does just that and ends up meeting a women named Trinity, who promises to introduce Neo to this really outrageous guy named Morpheus. Now, if you’re new to this movie trilogy, Morpheus is the guy with all the answers, at least that’s what Neo is banking on.
Anyway, Trinity brings Neo to Morpheus. This is kind of a big deal for Neo. He believes Morpheus knows what the Matrix is (which he does, of course), and will tell him! Morpheus invites Neo to ask the question that’s been bothering him, and Neo jumps at it the opportunity. ‘What is the Matrix?’ Morpheus says unfortunately the Matrix is not something that you can tell someone about, it’s something a person has to experience for himself. Morpheus holds out both his hands to Neo, fists closed. He opens them at the same time. Both contain a pill: one blue and one red. The blue one, Morpheus says, will allow Neo forget any of this ever happened. He will wake up tomorrow, know nothing more than what he knew yesterday, and go about his life. BUT… If he chooses the red pill, he gets to find out what the Matrix is and, as Morpheus puts it, ‘You get to find out just how far the rabbit hole goes.’
“Remember, I’m only offering the truth, nothing more.”
What is this truth Morpheus is selling? Well, it’s the truth is that every one of us has this choice to make, and it’s a difficult one. The choice is this: Should we allow our five senses and our emotions to make our decisions for us, or do we want to govern our own lives by making choices that are in our best interest regardless of whether they ‘feel’ uncomfortable or not? Unfortunately this choice doesn’t just come up once in our lives, like Morpheus suggests. It faces us every minute of every hour of every day of our lives. Our screaming children throwing temper tantrums because they want one more ride on the roller coaster brings about the desire to yell at them, knowing it will only make our situation worse. The cravings that want us to choose the cookie strategically placed by the register, over our new vow not to eat crap. The choice to chime in with our fellow co-workers and speak poorly about someone which will fill us with temporary satisfaction, but also brings about resentment and self- loathing. We are human, and as Morpheus suggests…
“There is a big difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”
When we make this choice to take the red pill and remain mindful of our lives, to be responsible for our choices and not allow our five senses and the emotions they create to dictate our actions, it feels like a more difficult choice. One that will give us much more uncomfortably than if we simply took the blue pill — the pill that allows for our life choices to be made by our external environment and the emotions it creates within us. Plugging our brains back into the ‘simulation’ of choosing what’s easiest, most comfortable, we feel our happiness is ensured. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
The energy we expend reacting to the fear, anxiety, and the uncomfortability that our environment elicits in us is exponentially greater. However, because it is dished out by our environment piecemeal, it goes undetected. It seems like every day life. If it feels good, our five senses demand it, even if it’s something that is harmful to us. If it’s difficult, takes effort, causes us pain, or makes us look at ourselves honestly, we push it away. We are taught at a very young age that our sense of touch is in our hands, our sense of smell in our nostrils, what we taste from our tongue, what we see is from our eyes looking around, and what we hear comes from our ears. Although these are where our five senses meet the external world, all these senses are deciphered, housed, and felt in our mind.
Once we realize this, that OUR reality is within our minds, and everything outside of us are mere tools (cars, jobs, other’s emotions, TV shows, etc.) to help us create the reality we want for ourselves, we realize the gravity of our situation — what the true cost of running on auto pilot is, and how allowing our external environment to decide our thoughts, feelings, and actions, takes away any freedom we can ever hope to have…
“You are a slave, Neo, and like everyone else, you were born into bondage. A prison you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind.”
The fact that anything outside of you can MAKE you feel a certain way is an illusion. Why is it that one person loves chocolate, and another is repulsed by it? (Ok… a great deal of people like chocolate, but there’s a few…) It’s because the external object doesn’t hold a value of positive or negative, desirable or undesirable. Your mind holds that distinction. Once you realize this then you can hold sway over it.
So, what does it take to allow us ownership of our own life’s choices instead of allowing the discomfort or comfortability an outside situation to determine our actions? First, we have to acknowledge our feelings when they come up in response to external stimuli. We need to feel those feelings, but we don’t have to stay in them. We can instead be observers of how the emotion feels within us and consider what triggered it. But we don’t stay there.
True mindefulness means that, once we acknowledge how we are feeling and the context that elicited that feeling, we then can consider how we want to respond. The cookie strategically placed by the register elicits hunger and desire. When we are mindful, these emotions are seen like code on a computer. We know the moment will pass, because we know feelings are temporary, and OUR longer-term goals, such as our desire to fit into our summer wardrobes, can be honored, leaving the cookie in its jar.
By taking ‘the red pill’ we take responsibility for the decisions we make, for the lives we create. We realize there is choice on whether or not we use our emotions or they use us. We can become the architects of our reality, feeling our emotions and using the information they provide to actually decide what is best for us. When we govern the information coming in from our external environment, and act with intention, our emotions become mere tools, and with their information, we are able to create our lives on the canvases of our minds.
“Welcome to the real world, Neo.”
