Today we are finishing watching The Matrix. Do you think the movie presents more of a Taoist or Buddhist view? Why? What elements of that philosophy do you see in the film? Offer at least one concrete example.
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While I watched the Matrix I found more ways to related it to Daoism. As for an example from the movie, I think that the fact that the man is trying to figure out the Matrix can be paralleled to the Taoist idea of trying to find the "truth" or "way". Just like the man in the movie, Taoist thought focuses on discovering the way through our surroundings.
I believe The Matrix is more centered around the concepts of Buddhism. There are many concepts around reality and suffering that show up throughout the film. The Matrix it's self can be seen as the idea of the world being one single thing that produces the illusion of many things. Everyone has an identity of sorts but everyone is part of the one thing that makes up the world, the Matrix. There is also the idea of attachment to objects or people. The people in The Matrix can not realize they are in the Matrix because they are given the illusion of a world that they latch on to. The people who live in the real world can be seen as those who are enlightened and have realized the truth of the world. Those that travel back into the Matrix are teachers of how to reach this form of enlightenment.
There's the whole "reaching enlightenment angle that the movie has, with Neo coming to realize the true nature of the Matrix. The bald guy who betrays Morpheus and co. is perfectly content with staying in the virtual world, which is meant to represent Taoism I guess? Buddhism is all about enlightenment, so that means Taoism represents the evil, willful-ignorance point of view.
I think this movie represents more of a Buddhist outlook on things. Buddhism is based on the path towards enlightenment. Neo can be viewed as essentially walking a path towards being awakened in the movie. He is taken by the matrix into where is being reborn as a person. Actually if you rearrange the name Neo, you get the word, "one." This word in Buddhism refers to the term, "enlightended one." Also, The Matrix makes Neo looks within himself for truth and understanding. To look within oneself is a basic principle of Buddhism
I would say the movie has a more Buddhist point of view. Buddhism is about seeking the truth and finding the path to that truth, and that is a huge part of the movie. Morpheus gives people an option to show them the truth, and Neo and the others have been shown the truth. The matrix is not real and everything in it is not real, and that also relates to Buddhism because of the idea of giving up people and things that do not last and looking for the truth in yourself.
While I watched The Matrix I thought it was more related to Taoism because it shows Neo's journey of finding Tao or The Way. Morpheus tells Neo that the reason he is better and will defeat the Agents is that the Agents follow a set of rules like the Buddhist, but they are therefore limited to there rules and methods and Neo is stronger than them because he is enlightened and free from order and rules.
The Matrix is about transcending the physical world because it is an illusion. This is Buddhist. A Daoist would look at a spoon and say it has material, color, and texture. A Buddhist would say the spoon is an illusion, which is the exact thing a child at the oracle's house said. The oracle mentioned "maybe a past life" to Neo, which is a Buddhist idea.
from Alex: I think that the Matrix brings out a small part of both of the Philosophies and shows that there are similarities within the movie and that there can be a way to understand one person's destiny through what they make their future. I think that it is a way to bring change to a life and to find the truth that may or may not exist within the life that a person may live in. When people try to understand that there is no world within the world that they live in they can bend the world to what they want and what they can do. Both sides have a way of life and that there is a way to make the peace within that life if the teachings are followed. Yet there is an order to the things that made. that the order of things can be made a certain way that keeps the order and peace of the world.
I believe the matrix presents more of a Buddhist viewpoint because, Leo has to go through a lot of suffering before he becomes enlightened and comes to the realization that he's the one.
I believe the Matrix was more like Buddhism because the matrix had the entire world as an illusion and there was suffering and a Buddhist would believe that the world is full of suffering and to leave this suffering you must find enlightenment. It is not like Taoism because that is more of just going with the flow, and the matrix was all about breaking the flow of things.
I think that the Matrix represents the Buddhist viewpoint because Neo came from a world of desires and suffering and he didnt know much except the world he was made until he taken to the real world by Morpheus. There when he suffers in the Matrix it happens in the real world as well. But through suffering in the fake world and becoming enlighten Neo is able to transcend his opponents and become the one. But he only becomes the one after he dies and becomes enlightened.
There is a scene in the movie where a child is bending spoons. The child's advice to Neo is that "there is no spoon". This connected with me as a more Buddhist's philosophy because its his thinking that he had to overcome. The entire movie is a struggle for Neo to reach his own enlightenment about what is real and what he's capable of. All the things he learned to do in the matrix, he learned through thought and not the physical world. There is a conflict though, Buddhist philosophy follows an idea that we are connected with our universe but if nothing in the matrix is real, then that idea doesn't make much sense until the very end when Neo flexes and the room flexes with him.
I think that the Matrix represents a Buddhist view point because for Neo to become the one he has too accept that path and the acceptance of that path is a sense of self enlightenment to move onto becoming more of a conscious being.
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