shellycheval
The Living Force
IMHO the real value of the movie " The Matrix" is that its message that humanity lives in a false reality and does not, for the most part want to see the objective truth about their lives, is made relatively accessible to beginning seekers of truth because of its film clichés. Laura expresses the message that can be found in "The Matrix" much more articulately in her post:
The Ethics of Belief
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2007, 09:30:06 AM »
Laura: Nobody likes to "feel bad," and let's face it, facing the truth about reality very often feels very, very bad. There is a passage in Robert de Ropp's book "Self Completion" that talks about this essential thing: the stifling of doubts otherwise known as believing in LIES.
Quote from: De Ropp
"The Work involves the transformation of a muddled, delusion-ridden slave
into an enlightened, integrated master. ...
The slave has no control over his or her life, is pushed about by external
forces, is at the mercy of casual impressions, a slave to habits, most of
them bad, a prey to credulity, suggestibility, hopes and fears.
Above all, the slave is a creature of fantasy. It inhabits a world of
dreams. It is cut off from knowledge of the real world by a mechanism in its
brain, the working of which generates delusions.
It does not know that it lies. It is a slave that dreams that it is free.
It is a liar that dreams that it knows the truth.
The Master has liberated himself from the delusion-producing mechanism in
his brain.
He is a dweller in the real world.
In order to enter this world, he has had to sacrifice his dreams. He has
dared to confront the truth about himself and about his fellow men. He has
been strong enough and cunning enough to escape from the prison in which the
slaves pass their lives. He is fully awake. He has seen the truth and the
truth has set him free. But he has paid a mighty high price to attain that
freedom.
Think very carefully. Can you pay that price? Do you dare to confront
reality? Can you bear to know the truth about yourself and your fellow
humans?
That truth is not the least bit comforting. Here we have several {billion}
human beings going round like blindfolded donkeys in a treadmill, driven
from behind by the stick of fear, lured forward from in front by the carrot
of greed {I WANT}. The overseer of the Treadmill, a great and terrible
spirit, has made certain that the donkeys do not try to escape. The spirit
has done this by the very simple procedure of hypnotizing the donkeys into
thinking that they are already free.
Can the paralysing grip of the hypnosis be relaxed?
For most of the donkeys it cannot. Any well-meaning liberator who attempts
to awaken them from their state of sleep will certainly be attacked, kicked
and bitten for daring to suggest to the donkeys that they are slaves.
Such a suggestion robs them of their fondest illusion, the illusion that
they are free and masters of their fate.
The donkeys much prefer to live in their unreal world.
It is easy to dream, hard to confront reality.
Given a choice between what is easy and what is difficult, the donkeys will
inevitably follow the easy way.
How does it happen that any of these slaves manage to escape from the
Treadmill and turn themselves into masters?
The answer is that very few really do escape. The overseer of the
Treadmill, the dread spirit that some call maya, some the Devil or the
Father of Lies, has many good tricks at his disposal. He has been around a
long time and understands very well the inner weaknesses of the human race.
The Spirit of the Lie knows that his ancient adversary, the Spirit of Truth,
can sometimes influence these hypnotized donkeys. It can give them a
fleeting glimpse of reality and awaken them for a moment from the fog of
dreams in which they habitually pass their time. There is, in the human
psyche, a will to truth, but this will is weak compared with its opponent,
the will to self-deception. The Spirit of Truth works through the will to
Truth.
But the Lying Spirit knows how to counteract and neutralize the will to
truth before it enables the slaves to liberate themselves from their
delusions. It does this by cunningly preparing a counterfeit, an imitation
of the real work, a fantasy Work.
It is in this fantasy Work that so many of the slaves that try to escape
become entrapped. The fantasy Work enables them to think that they are
working on themselves when, in fact, they have merely swapped one set of
dreams for another set. [...]
The pseudo-Work consists of a series of traps. Falling into any one of
these traps will suffice to bring the real Work to a halt. Some people fall
into one trap, some into another. Some manage, after long struggles, to
escape from the traps. Others never escape for the simple reason that they
do not know that they are trapped.
Who, then, can enter the real Work?
It is open only to full, dues-paying members of the SOT club. The letters
SOT stand for Seekers of Truth. [...]
The motto of the club: "I would rather know the truth, however terrible,
than take refuge in some system of comforting delusions." [...]
Although the SOT club is open to everyone, very few people become members.
This is because they cannot afford to pay the dues. To enter the SOT club
and become a full member, one must sacrifice one's illusions, particularly
one's illusions about oneself.
This is what most people dare not do. Even those who have escaped from the
Treadmill would often rather enter the fantasy Work and keep their illusions
about themselves than enter the real Work and sacrifice them.”
Laura: And so, because it is hard, because they might have to give up some illusion about themselves that they WANT and LIKE - illusions about things that they WANT and LIKE - so many people get stuck somewhere and enter a "pseudo-work." And generally, these illusions have most to do with feeding relationships, personal, intimate relationships.
It's easy enough to see the mote in someone else's eye, but what about the beam in your own?
The Ethics of Belief
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2007, 09:30:06 AM »
Laura: Nobody likes to "feel bad," and let's face it, facing the truth about reality very often feels very, very bad. There is a passage in Robert de Ropp's book "Self Completion" that talks about this essential thing: the stifling of doubts otherwise known as believing in LIES.
Quote from: De Ropp
"The Work involves the transformation of a muddled, delusion-ridden slave
into an enlightened, integrated master. ...
The slave has no control over his or her life, is pushed about by external
forces, is at the mercy of casual impressions, a slave to habits, most of
them bad, a prey to credulity, suggestibility, hopes and fears.
Above all, the slave is a creature of fantasy. It inhabits a world of
dreams. It is cut off from knowledge of the real world by a mechanism in its
brain, the working of which generates delusions.
It does not know that it lies. It is a slave that dreams that it is free.
It is a liar that dreams that it knows the truth.
The Master has liberated himself from the delusion-producing mechanism in
his brain.
He is a dweller in the real world.
In order to enter this world, he has had to sacrifice his dreams. He has
dared to confront the truth about himself and about his fellow men. He has
been strong enough and cunning enough to escape from the prison in which the
slaves pass their lives. He is fully awake. He has seen the truth and the
truth has set him free. But he has paid a mighty high price to attain that
freedom.
Think very carefully. Can you pay that price? Do you dare to confront
reality? Can you bear to know the truth about yourself and your fellow
humans?
That truth is not the least bit comforting. Here we have several {billion}
human beings going round like blindfolded donkeys in a treadmill, driven
from behind by the stick of fear, lured forward from in front by the carrot
of greed {I WANT}. The overseer of the Treadmill, a great and terrible
spirit, has made certain that the donkeys do not try to escape. The spirit
has done this by the very simple procedure of hypnotizing the donkeys into
thinking that they are already free.
Can the paralysing grip of the hypnosis be relaxed?
For most of the donkeys it cannot. Any well-meaning liberator who attempts
to awaken them from their state of sleep will certainly be attacked, kicked
and bitten for daring to suggest to the donkeys that they are slaves.
Such a suggestion robs them of their fondest illusion, the illusion that
they are free and masters of their fate.
The donkeys much prefer to live in their unreal world.
It is easy to dream, hard to confront reality.
Given a choice between what is easy and what is difficult, the donkeys will
inevitably follow the easy way.
How does it happen that any of these slaves manage to escape from the
Treadmill and turn themselves into masters?
The answer is that very few really do escape. The overseer of the
Treadmill, the dread spirit that some call maya, some the Devil or the
Father of Lies, has many good tricks at his disposal. He has been around a
long time and understands very well the inner weaknesses of the human race.
The Spirit of the Lie knows that his ancient adversary, the Spirit of Truth,
can sometimes influence these hypnotized donkeys. It can give them a
fleeting glimpse of reality and awaken them for a moment from the fog of
dreams in which they habitually pass their time. There is, in the human
psyche, a will to truth, but this will is weak compared with its opponent,
the will to self-deception. The Spirit of Truth works through the will to
Truth.
But the Lying Spirit knows how to counteract and neutralize the will to
truth before it enables the slaves to liberate themselves from their
delusions. It does this by cunningly preparing a counterfeit, an imitation
of the real work, a fantasy Work.
It is in this fantasy Work that so many of the slaves that try to escape
become entrapped. The fantasy Work enables them to think that they are
working on themselves when, in fact, they have merely swapped one set of
dreams for another set. [...]
The pseudo-Work consists of a series of traps. Falling into any one of
these traps will suffice to bring the real Work to a halt. Some people fall
into one trap, some into another. Some manage, after long struggles, to
escape from the traps. Others never escape for the simple reason that they
do not know that they are trapped.
Who, then, can enter the real Work?
It is open only to full, dues-paying members of the SOT club. The letters
SOT stand for Seekers of Truth. [...]
The motto of the club: "I would rather know the truth, however terrible,
than take refuge in some system of comforting delusions." [...]
Although the SOT club is open to everyone, very few people become members.
This is because they cannot afford to pay the dues. To enter the SOT club
and become a full member, one must sacrifice one's illusions, particularly
one's illusions about oneself.
This is what most people dare not do. Even those who have escaped from the
Treadmill would often rather enter the fantasy Work and keep their illusions
about themselves than enter the real Work and sacrifice them.”
Laura: And so, because it is hard, because they might have to give up some illusion about themselves that they WANT and LIKE - illusions about things that they WANT and LIKE - so many people get stuck somewhere and enter a "pseudo-work." And generally, these illusions have most to do with feeding relationships, personal, intimate relationships.
It's easy enough to see the mote in someone else's eye, but what about the beam in your own?
