Audience: A Middle-Aged Mom Who Has Seen The Movie
The Matrix, is interested in varying religious ideas and has gone through some painful experiences. The Mind is Control Everyone experiences some form of suffering at some point in his or her life. Each individual reading this paper has had an event in their life that caused pain or hurt, and I’m sure many of us can find fault in someone else’s actions, blaming them for the suffering we’ve endured. But what if the origin of suffering isn’t other people’s actions? What if the origin was a much more personal that we had thought? Suffering is an evident part of the human experience. But what if I told you there was a way to rid yourself of root of this suffering? The root of suffering is much simpler than you might think. It is the idea of self in our mind.
The mind has a control over us in ways we may not even be aware of, and to escape the mind is to escape self, and ultimately escape suffering. In the movie The Matrix, we see thousands of people stuck inside a machine made computer program which simulates a real life experience. People go about their daily lives without ever having any realization that the life they are living, the life that feels so real to them, is in fact not real at all. The idea of the matrix can be equated to our idea of self. The people in the matrix ignorantly believe that what they see and experience is real. In the same way, many people ignorantly believe that the world they experience is in fact the true version of reality. What we fail to realize is that our individual understanding of the world is wildly different from the next person, and that our idea of self can be the source of suffering in our lives, through unfulfilled expectations.
My first point is this: Just like the society inside the matrix, when we are trapped inside the idea of self, we are doomed to be trapped inside suffering. To break down this statement we need to discuss the idea of self, and we have to take a step back and consider one unifying theme of mankind. A fundamental part of human existence is the need or desire for order, labels, and definite truths. We like answers, and we like structure. Therefore, when asked, “What is ‘self’?” one might answer with their name, their age, or traits of their personality. This would be how an average American would see themselves, as a collection of experiences, emotions, and thoughts. But Buddhists would argue that all of these things are just separate components, named and ordered to help give meaning to our lives. You did not choose your name, nor did you choose your personality. But we choose to identify with these things because it helps us to make sense of the world around us. Koitsu Yokoyama, in his book Intelligent Life: Buddhist Psychology of Self Transformation, writes “The world is understood in two ways: as a tangible world of experience and as an abstract world.
The former is the world that each person creates. ”Therefore, there really is no ‘self’. It is merely a created expectation of who we think we should be. It is a collection of experiences and man-made definitions in our minds. Within these worlds that we create for ourselves, we hold expectations. We expect someone who loves us to never hurt us, we expect people to do the right thing, and we expect that our good deeds will bring about good rewards. But expectation is where we allow suffering to enter our lives. When we expect things to be static, or when we expect people not to change as they grow older, we are setting ourselves up for failure because to live is to change. If we expect anything less than constant change, we will ultimately suffer. To rid yourself of this suffering, you have to be able to let go of the idea of self. There needs to be a change in perspective, to see the world through a different lens. A lens where the ultimate goal is not to see the best outcome for yourself, but to see the best outcome for others as a whole. To escape the mind is to escape self and ego. When we can do this, and you accept change as it comes, then you can break the cycle of samsara. The definition of samsara is “the outward play of delusion with the long cycle of birth, death and rebirth. ”
Samsara can be related to the matrix in the way that these people are living their lives without purpose. They are born, they live and suffer, they grow old, and they die, only to be replaced by the next human. The only way to break this cycle is to leave the matrix and enter the real world. So in the way that they break the cycle by leaving the matrix, one can break the cycle of samsara by letting go of expectations and thinking of more than themselves.
Holding onto the idea of self is what causes suffering. Although suffering controls our views and actions in life, we can lose the idea of self through the Middle Path, and reaching Nirvana. The Middle Path is a way of life for Buddhists. It can be achieved by understanding the four noble truths: “human existence is characterized by dukkha, or suffering”, “suffering has an origin,”“since suffering has a cause, it can be eliminated,” and “there is a path to the goal of Nirvana. ”This path to Nirvana is known as the Eightfold Path. This path requires obedience to these eight things: the right view, the right thought, the right speech, the right action, the right livelihood, the right effort, the right mindfulness, and the right concentration. Although all of these are important, I’m going to focus on the first two: the right view and the right thought. Since these two things originate in the mind, it is important to change your views and thoughts in order to rid yourself of the control it has over you. The right view means viewing the world through the right perspective.
This goes back to realizing that the world is dynamic and constantly changing. We need to not put so much attention on earthly possessions since they will not always be. Also, the right thought is important. How we think greatly affects how we act. If we have negative, self-centered thoughts, we are doomed to suffer. But if we work on finding a positive, self-less pattern of thoughts, we are on our way to reaching Nirvana, and releasing ourselves from the suffering of life. This is the ultimate goal of Buddhists. Suffering is an innate part of life, and one might think that it is impossible to rid yourself of it completely. But there are ways to eliminate suffering. You first have to address the idea that if we are still stuck inside the idea of self, and not thinking of others, we are going to suffer.
So you have to step out of that mindset and realize that the world is not only seen through your lens. Everyone has different perspectives and you have to make it your goal to see past your own little world to desire to see the best outcome for everyone as a whole. You can do this by understanding the Four Noble Truths and focusing on the right view and the right thoughts. When you can do this, you are able to see that others never have been, and never will be the cause of suffering in your life. The cause of suffering always lies within ourselves, when our minds have control over our thoughts and actions. That’s why reaching Nirvana is such an important goal. Because why not eliminate suffering and learn to enjoy life to it’s fullest?
