The words of the scripture are clear: everything changes when someone is born again.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBefore his first or physical birth man was in the world of the matrix. He had no knowledge of this world; his eyes could not see; his ears could not hear. When he was born from the world of the matrix, he beheld another world,\u201d wrote Abdul Baha, son of the Bahai prophet Baha\u2019ullah, nearly a century ago. Truth is, \u201cthe majority of people are captives in the matrix of nature, submerged in the sea of materiality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
When freed they gain a \u201ctranscendent power\u201d and ascend to a higher kingdom.<\/p>\n\n
Perhaps even to Zion.<\/p>\n\n
Wait a minute. Does this mean that millions of moviegoers lining up at 8,400-plus theaters to see \u201cThe Matrix Reloaded\u201d will witness the Bahai version of a Billy Graham movie? Or is this trilogy a door into a kung fu vigilante Buddhism?<\/p>\n\n
Or is it some kind of neo-Christian parable?<\/p>\n\n
The World Wide Web is jammed with sites offering precisely that spin. Isn\u2019t Keanu Reeves playing a super-hacker called Neo, a messiah whose coming was foreseen by the prophets, a Christ figure that is reborn, baptized, murdered and resurrected? Isn\u2019t his real name Thomas Anderson (Greek \u201candras\u201d for man, thus \u201cson of man\u201d)? Doesn\u2019t a character named Trinity save him?<\/p>\n\n
Acolytes have compiled pages of similar references. Isn\u2019t Neo\u2019s teacher Morpheus a John the Baptist figure? Why is their ship called the Nebuchadnezzar? And it\u2019s a \u201cMark III, no. 11.\u201d Perhaps that is Mark 3:11, which says of Jesus: \u201cWhenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and shouted, \u2018You are the Son of God!\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
There will be plenty of fresh clues in \u201cThe Matrix Reloaded\u201d and the upcoming \u201cThe Matrix Revolutions.\u201d When it comes to spiritual goodies, this franchise that critics call the \u201cR-rated Star Wars\u201d has something to intrigue or infuriate everyone \u2014 from Hollywood to the Bible belt.<\/p>\n\n
No one questions the impact of \u201cThe Matrix,\u201d which grossed $170 million in the United States, $460 million worldwide and influenced countless movies, computer games, music videos and commercials. But the devotion of its true believers is revealed in another statistic. It was the first DVD to sell more than 1 million copies.<\/p>\n\n
Meanwhile, Andy and Larry Wachowski have religiously avoided doing interviews that might dilute the mystery surrounding their movie.<\/p>\n\n
But a fan in a Warner Home Video online chat session did mange to ask: \u201cYour movie has many and varied connections to myths and philosophies, Judeo-Christian, Egyptian, Arthurian and Platonic, just to name those I\u2019ve noticed. How much of that was intentional?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
To which the brothers replied: \u201cAll of it.\u201d While calling their beliefs \u201cnondenominational,\u201d they did confirm that Buddhism plays a major role in \u201cThe Matrix.\u201d When asked if their work was shaped by the ancient Christian heresy called Gnosticism, they cryptically replied: \u201cDo you consider that to be a good thing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
While the first film draws images and details from many conflicting traditions, its worldview is deeply rooted in Eastern religions, especially Buddhism and Gnosticism, according to Frances Flannery-Dailey of Hendrix College and Rachel Wagner of the University of Iowa. Clearly, the big idea is that humanity\u2019s main problem is that it is \u201csleeping in ignorance in a dreamworld\u201d and the solution is \u201cwaking to knowledge and enlightenment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Writing in the Journal of Religion and Film, they note that the Gnostic messiah brings salvation through a secret truth that lets believers wake up and escape the shabby reality that surrounds them. Through training in the discipline of \u201cstillness,\u201d this savior learns that what appears to be the real world is an illusion he can manipulate with his will. It\u2019s a gospel of esoteric knowledge, not repentance and grace.<\/p>\n\n
But Wagner and Flannery-Daily ask: Where are the Gnostic gods in \u201cThe Matrix\u201d?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cDivinity may \u2026 play a role in Neo\u2019s past incarnation and his coming again as the One. If, however, there is some implied divinity in the film, in remains transcendent, like the divinity of the ineffable, invisible supreme god of Gnosticism, except where it is immanent in the form of the divine spark in humans.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The words of the scripture are clear: everything changes when someone is born again. \u201cBefore his first or physical birth man was in the world of the matrix. He had no knowledge of this world; his eyes could not see; his ears could not hear. When he was born from the world of the matrix, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n