There was an interesting statement made early in our fourth movie, The Matrix Resurrections, by the character Bugs, played (wonderfully) by Jessica Henwick, that we’re ‘adopting’ for this series of articles:
“Maybe this isn’t the story we think it is.”
Indeed. The Wachowski films are unique in terms of what is ‘hidden’ within the storyline. If you did not read the first article in this series, we suggest you give it a glance as it sets the framework for this one and the rest.
Matrix Dialogues of the Bugs Kind
One thing consistent through all four Matrix films is that we need to pay close attention whenever Neo is involved in a serious conversation with someone. Here is where our “pattern of four” appears again, in terms of the four “Cs” mentioned in our Knowledge Base.
The Matrix (Theme: “Condition”)
- With Trinity in the Club (the “first gate)
- With Morpheus, teaching Neo the nature of the Matrix
- With the Oracle (very subtle!)
Reloaded (Theme: “Choice”)
- With the Oracle on the program world and Neo’s path to the Machine World
- With Smith in Reloaded on his being unplugged and the subject of “purpose”
- With the Architect in Reloaded on the history of the One and purpose of the Oracle
Revolutions (Theme: “Connection”)
- With Rama Kandra regarding ‘connection’ and Sati (though we were not told everything!)
- With the Oracle on the power of “the One” and nature of Agent Smith, and Neo ‘knowing’ himself
- With Smith at the very end on what was ‘inevitable’ between them.
Resurrections (Theme: “Change”)
- With Morpheus on his creation
- With Bugs on Neo’s purpose
- With Smith on ‘Binary’
The depth of these discussions isn’t obvious on the surface. You have to know what to look for. This ironically sounds like something Bugs said that we will shortly discuss:
“If we don’t know what’s real… we can’t resist.”
We’ve expounded on elements of the conversations from the first three movies in our Knowledge Base. The Matrix Resurrections continues this journey.
A very revealing one is that between Neo and Bugs, upon his boarding her ship, the Mnemosyne:
BUGS: How are you doing?
NEO: If this plug is actually real, that means they took my life… and turned it into a video game. How am I doing? I don’t know. I don’t even know how to know.
BUGS: That’s it, isn’t it? If we don’t know what’s real… we can’t resist. They took your story, something that meant so much to people like me, and turned it into something trivial. That’s what the Matrix does. It weaponizes every idea. Every dream. Everything that’s important to us. Where better to bury truth than inside something as ordinary as a video game?
NEO: That sounds like the Oracle.
BUGS: Heard so much about her. She was gone before I was free.
NEO: Gone?
BUGS: When this new version of the Matrix was uploaded, there was a purge.
NEO: They promised peace and they gave us purge.
BUGS: No. No, there was peace. You made it possible, and it changed everything.
NEO: Doesn’t feel like it changed anything. The Matrix is the same or worse. And I’m back where I started. It feels like everything I did, everything we did… like none of it mattered.
BUGS: All of it mattered. I can show you.
This all seems like a fairly mundane chat between them. In fact, this dialogue reveals the essence The Matrix Resurrections — where we are at on the “Path of the One.”
Time to dig deeper. To paraphrase Bugs; The more you look, the more you find!
What’s Up Doc?
Before diving in, we’re reposting our chart showing the movies, worlds of Existence and levels of the Soul. This was discussed in the first article in this series (as well as through our Knowledge Base). Keep it in mind as we go through the Neo-Bugs conversation.
First was this exchange, where Bugs speaks of what the Matrix does.
BUGS: How are you doing?
NEO: If this plug is actually real, that means they took my life… and turned it into a video game. How am I doing? I don’t know. I don’t even know how to know.
BUGS: That’s it, isn’t it? If we don’t know what’s real… we can’t resist. They took your story, something that meant so much to people like me, and turned it into something trivial. That’s what the Matrix does. It weaponizes every idea. Every dream. Everything that’s important to us. Where better to bury truth than inside something as ordinary as a video game?
Bugs expresses a deep understanding of the Matrix with her mention of things being ‘weaponized. This relates to all of the barriers internal and external, that are faced along the walk, in the world of concealment. Her description of the Matrix world is much like the kabbalistic view of our own world.
The world we live in is considered one of ‘concealment.’ It restricts our view of everything beyond it. The “value system” of our world is largely one of acquiring ‘things’ such as material wealth, power, fame. And if you are “born into it,” as in the Matrix, you will accept that “this is what’s real” — like the Analyst kept telling Neo.
Those with thoughts and dreams beyond the world of physicality and self-centeredness, often find themselves overwhelmed by “the way things are,” or rejected by individuals. It becomes easy to believe that the material and physical aspects of life are what is important.
Our Only Peace Is To Understand the `Why’
That’s a quote from the Merovingian. However, we’re turning it on its head here.
This is one of our more provocative claims. Meaningless enslavement or punishment is not “all there is” to the Matrix. There is a purpose to WHY the humans are in the Matrix – and that purpose is for the humans to understand what they need to fix, how to do so, and to actually make the corrections.
That’s right – the Matrix exile is ultimately a good thing for the humans. Their real ‘freedom’ isn’t one of returning to the same self-centeredness that got them into the Matrix in the first place!
This is the essence of the ‘path of the One’ that Neo followed. ‘Despite’ the challenges he faced and the mistakes he made he got to where he was supposed to go. We put quote marks around ‘despite’ as these things are necessary for growth.
Both Neo’s comment, and Bug’s reply, relate to the problem of trying to grasp something that is beyond our comprehension. A higher level of understanding is required, and this may be difficult to attain or even find as the Matrix/our world is full of deceptions — some even posing as a solution to the problem.
This goes back to the Oracle’s famous statement:
“No one can see past the choices they don’t understand.”
(As we discuss in our Knowledge Base Into article, the Oracle represents an emanation called Binah, which means ‘understanding.’)
Which brings us to the good news. This fourth movie parallels a higher fourth World of Existence and fourth level of the soul (called Chaya-Life) which is considered the level of seeing the absolute truth of things. More on this below.
Bugs: A Fourth-Level Guide for Neo
Interestingly, Neo recognizes the source of Bugs’ insights:
NEO: That sounds like the Oracle.
BUGS: Heard so much about her. She was gone before I was free.
NEO: Gone?
BUGS: When this new version of the Matrix was uploaded, there was a purge.
Indeed, Bugs seems to have a level of understanding that resembles the Oracle – who is not present in this film. (We discuss why she is not in the picture, in our article on the Analyst/Architect).
In the first three movies, everyone would meet with the Oracle upon being freed. She represented the 3rd World of Existence which is the highest of the worlds of Creation. (The three lowest worlds make up ‘Creation.’) This corresponds to the 3rd level of the soul, that Neo attained by the end of the 3rd movie. (Which happens to be the highest level attainable before death.)
With the Oracle no longer around, what happens with the humans with regard to hearing exactly what they need to hear, from her, and embarking on their personal path?
What is needed to deal with everything in this “new Matrix?”
First, we go back to the Oracle’s quote about, “not seeing past choices we don’t understand.”
Everyone in the trilogy was at a level of understanding within Creation. Even Neo was not certain WHY he had to go to the Machine City. No one truly understood why the machines retreated and stopped hostilities. (There’s that WHY again!)
In order to grasp the Matrix fully, humans need to acquire a level of understanding “beyond Creation.” Beyond this 3rd level.
As mentioned in the first article in this new series:
In kabbalah, this is considered the level of the absolute truth of things. We are no longer trying to find understanding within the three lower worlds of Creation. We are now at the fourth level “above” those.
This is part of the success achieved by Neo at the end of the Matrix Revolutions, when he connected the Matrix world of concealment, with the upper worlds of the programs, the Oracle and the Architect – all the way to the Source. This brought light/energy from ‘beyond’ Creation down into Creation.
In kabbalah, this light is called Ohr Ein Sof, which would translate something like, “the light of the infinite.” Interestingly, as the Ein Sof (the infinite) is beyond the Four Worlds of Existence, this light (ohr) emanates from the highest world of existence, which is the 4th from the ‘bottom’ perspective of the Matrix.
By establishing the connection (through his own martyrdom) Neo altered the greater reality for the humans. He elevated himself from the 3rd movie, 3rd world of the Oracle, 3rd level of soul, to the 4th level of the “collective consciousness” accessible at this 4th soul level of Chaya.
Bugs is clearly someone who is “tapped into” this collective consciousness and is conveying a similar understanding that the Oracle did and would have. In a real sense, she is “standing in” for the Oracle in this dialogue with Neo.
We’ve Only Just Begun
This rather abstract idea of “collective consciousness” is but one aspect of the change effected by Neo. Our conversation between Neo and Bugs confirms that this “unification of worlds” had a direct, observable impact on both the Matrix world and that of the programs/machines above:
NEO: They promised peace and they gave us purge.
BUGS: No. No, there was peace. You made it possible, and it changed everything.
NEO: Doesn’t feel like it changed anything. The Matrix is the same or worse. And I’m back where I started. It feels like everything I did, everything we did…like none of it mattered.
BUGS: All of it mattered. I can show you.
This change was not simply for the sake of change and a new way of living for the humans. (Which is what Bugs and Niobe disagreed on initially.)
Boundaries begin to dissolve at this 4th level of The Matrix Resurrections. Everything starts to “come back together” into a collective, more unified state, as we continue to “return to the Source” – the level of pure singularity – the ‘infiniteness’ referred to earlier.
Interestingly, this desire to return to the Source, to a ‘singular’ existence without boundaries, was expressed by Neo at the very end of the first Matrix movie:
“… I’m going to show them a world without you, a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible.”
What this would mean in the storyline, would be a return to the original harmonious state of humans and creation – though at an even higher level than what they had before.
Neo’s words parallel a verse from the Biblical narrative, which is also understood as relating to a future “world to come” without boundaries:
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.
Isaiah 40:4
What Bugs next shows Neo, is part of a series of unifications in The Matrix Resurrections that occur at many levels of existence in the Matrix and program/machine worlds.
Some of these are overt, such as the new world of ‘Io’ with the synthients assisting the humans. Others run deeper, from rectifications internal to the characters themselves (such as the doubt Neo expressed to Bugs!) through aspects at the level of its creator – the Architect/Analyst.
We are not done with Bugs, however. She also represents another still ‘missing’ aspect to the story, which we discuss in a later article in this series.
