Post
by Moloch » Sun Feb 09, 2003 2:21 pm
What I find so attractive about The Matrix and this first Animatrix short film is the very subtle Buddhist undercurrent that permeates the stories and the visuals.
I'll admit that many stories involve characters who must come to some awareness of a different/alternate reality beyond or apart from the one they currently "inhabit". The decision Neo faces in The Matrix to either remain in his current mindset accepting everything that he sees as real or to take the risk and see the "real" reality beyond, however, sounds (to me, at least) like the Buddha urging his followers to achieve enlightenment in order to free themselves from samsara, the world of suffering.
I realize that someone could make a similar argument for <insert any other major religion or philosophy> along these lines, but this first Animatrix short (The New Renaissance, Pt. 1) confirmed to me that this notion is, well, more than a notion.
The opening seconds of the film give the appearance of flying into something that looks strikingly like a Tibetan Buddhist mandala. And, when the goal (the Zion Archives) of this "entrance" sequence is reached, we see eight bright, circular regions (suggesting the Buddhist Eight-Fold Path) within which unidentified figures sit as if in meditation. The figure who introduces us to and narrates the history archive about the downfall of men and the rise of 01 could easily pass as one of many female representations of the Buddha (e.g., Kwan Yin) that have been illustrated in Buddhist literature over the ages.
In a nutshell, the Matrix stories (we've seen thus far) are good stuff, both from a entertainment perspective and from an appreciation of the Buddhist point of view that they seem to express.
Moloch
Believe the Unbelievable.
Pleased to make your acquaintance.