The Matrix of All Paradigm Shifts: How to Reclaim Your Freedom

Like many, I must admit that I am very excited about The Matrix 4 Resurrections, coming December 2021. You see, we live in a world so intricate and awesome that we get to be who we want to be over and over again, no matter who it is we choose to be at any point in time of our lives. And the perfect illustration of this reality is that the Wachowski brothers who directed the Matrix movies decided to change their gender “in real life” from men to women. In this matrix that we call the “world,” we can change and shift our paradigms as much as we want to; it is just that some of us are more daring than others. But the possibility exists; nothing is impossible. I applaud all of those who have taken the courage to follow their hearts and their most precious dreams, no matter how drastic or harsh the paradigm shift was.

What does this have to do with reclaiming your freedom?

The paradigm shifts you can make in this lifetime, no matter how extreme or beautiful, are still made within the matrix. A change in gender, social status, or lover remains very much limited within the boundary of the matrix - the Maya. One key aspect of freedom is the ability to choose what is best for you. However, it is true freedom when you know precisely what is the choice that you are making. You must choose from your Neutral Mind or Pure Awareness, otherwise, you are choosing from one matrix state to another. But you are still fundamentally within the matrix, henceforth you are not “free.” To illustrate this message, let’s look at it from the Kundalini Yoga perspective, which teaches that we all have: (1) a Negative Mind, the pessimist, the one that we use to survive, to see danger, and to avoid doing anything out of the ordinary; (2) a Positive Mind, the optimist, the one that we use to see potential in everything, to take risks, and to follow our dreams; and (3) a Neutral Mind, which is the one that we use to observe both Negative and Positive Minds; the Neutral Mind is aware of our doings or non-doings, and it is aware of the choices we make without being tangled in the situations or the matrix. The only way to be truly free is to be aware of the matrix, not from within it but from a higher perspective - beyond the world. That is freedom; being in an aware and neutral place that does not taint our judgment.

Who controls the matrix?

Recently, I’ve been reading Carl Gustav Jung’s autobiography and was pleasantly surprised about the diversity of people who have gone beyond the matrix and relayed their knowledge to us. He transmits his knowledge to us from a psychology and consciousness point of view. Let’s see how his perspective aligns with the Wachowskis' masterpiece. We all have a conscious and an unconscious mind, but most of us think that we live in the conscious mind only, based on what our five senses tell us. What we see with our eyes is all there is to reality. Yet, for all of us, our unconscious mind inevitably derails our everyday lives. It does this by bringing to the surface, to the conscious mind, fears, or traumas that we thought we had conquered. How many times do we get angry at ourselves for having reacted disproportionately in a particular situation? We get overwhelmed by our reaction because that situation has awakened the trauma we held deep inside as a secret. For Jung, we need to know what lies in our unconscious minds so we can cure the psyche of past hurts. If we do not do this, these hurts will come out without our consent, just like Agent Smith who reappears endlessly throughout the story. Hence, we are not free but rather prisoners of our dark, unconscious side. This is why it is futile to project our anger onto others, thinking that it's them that made us unhappy or unfree. It is all happening inside of us; we control the matrix consciously and unconsciously. Yet, we tend to seek happiness outside of us.

Why is it important to be free versus to live happily within the matrix?

Living happy or becoming a better person are valid objectives that most, if not all of us, have aspired to, and there is nothing wrong with that. What is limiting about it is that the temporary happiness or the improvements of one’s personality remain imprisoned within a false knowledge of reality. The matrix within which we can live happily is too small of a box. The great saints and sages who discovered true freedom in Pure Awareness, have done so by meditating or observing the conscious and unconscious minds. They realized that they are beyond what they can observe, beyond the universe, beyond the matrix. What lies in the unconscious mind are the intangible thoughts and feelings that we decided we should not have or that society has deemed unacceptable. As soon as we are aware of these buried thoughts, they automatically become known by our conscious mind as something else within the matrix. Just like the Neutral Mind, we can lead our lives from Pure Awareness, which is how we can see both conscious and unconscious minds without judgment and without being tangled up with them. In Pure Awareness, we are outside the matrix and completely free. What happens within the matrix, in the conscious, or in the unconscious mind does not affect us. Here lies the difference between being free to do and to be what we want within the matrix and being free beyond this world. Meaning in a place where everything can be seen or known without impacting who we truly are.

You don’t need the world to change before you can be free.

Another way we find ourselves prisoners of the matrix is by thinking that the world needs to get better before we can be fully happy or free. As connected social beings, when we witness hunger, suffering, and all ills of the world, we wish for them to end. It becomes a condition that we impose onto ourselves - out of what we think is humility - before we can even think of being happy. It is just another way of delaying your freedom and true happiness. Focusing on the symptoms of the world may make them better temporarily but it does not cure them for good. Healing must happen in our collective unconscious mind. Drawing upon the lessons shared in the previously, we must free ourselves from the matrix within us so that we can be effective at changing the world. It starts with us. This is why true happiness can only be found within us as we learn to enlarge the definition of “us” from a mere individual, human being, male, female, gender-neutral, child, parent, sibling, friend, etc. to the Absolute Being that we are. Here is some inspiration from the words of Marianne Williamson: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. […] And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”