'The Matrix of the Mind'

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can
                  see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You
                  can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your
                  taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the
                  truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage. Into a
                  prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.
 
I woke at 2.20 a.m. one morning about a month or so ago and could not go back to sleep, so I meditated for a couple of hours and had what I can only describe as a revelation in my meditation. The whole picture of what we are apparently doing in the world and how confused and deluded we really are came to me in an analogy, which I felt compelled to tell as many people about, so that is what I am doing through this article.

The analogy that came to me was that our bodies and the personalities we appear to have while we are in this world are nothing more than characters in a gigantic computer game chasing a series of rewards and fighting our way through a seemingly endless string of challenges and adversities to finally win the game, a victory that is elusive because no matter what rewards we enjoy from our efforts in the game, there is always another level to go to within the game with yet more, even sterner tests and rewards.

We have so identified with our character in this computer game and its imagined drama that we have forgotten that it is just a game, and a pretty pointless and insane one at that when you compare it to the Presence that is outside the game, which just Is completely One in its unlimited Being. When we identify with this Presence, we can simply observe the whole game our character is playing within the matrix of the larger computer programme as a detached witness, knowing that it is not really real and nothing that appears to happen is really happening except in a computer game. This is who I am and you and all the other characters in the game playing their separate games with their separate characters really are. We are playing the characters in the game so well that we have all but forgotten that there is only one mind, which is our false mind or ego mind, that seemingly disconnected itself from this Presence eons ago in order to play its own game and make an identity for itself that is separate from this Presence in the process, even though that is really impossible, because this Presence is actually everywhere all the time and you really cannot be or do anything apart from it, even though you may think you can.

The adventures your particular chosen character in this particular game or life time you are playing at the moment can seem very real and frightening - in fact, they have to seem to be this in order for the game to be convincing enough to keep you playing - but none of them are real and neither is the supposed character you are playing in the game. The Presence that has nothing to do with the game or its creation, keeps calling to the mind of the character you are playing in the game, which does not want to listen because it has become addicted to the drama of the game it is playing, even though that drama makes it think and feel like it is suffering and occasionally even dying in the game.

Occasionally, the mind of the character in the game cannot help but feel the strong call of this Presence coming from outside the game to simply awaken from the game and realise that there really is no game and the mind is in fact only the Presence that cannot possibly suffer or experience anything but total peace because there really is nothing else. However, because it is addicted to playing the game and fearful of losing its own identity that only exists within the construct of the game, this fictitious character keeps forgetting this Presence in order to continue playing its imaginary game and keep its illusory identity in the game. If the character dies in the game, the false mind or programme that used the character simply picks another character in order to start playing another game that has a whole new set of characters, rewards, punishments and drama in it. 

Occasionally, one of the characters in the dream, usually after playing many, many games, hears the call of the Presence beyond the game and begins to question the game and its purpose. The true mind of the character wakes up from the game and remembers that it is only the Presence, and the mind that has been pretending it is many different characters in the game really does not exist. It knows that it has played the game many times before and has experienced pain, pleasure and many adventures, but it has never really achieved anything, because no matter what happens in each game, the game always ends with the death of the character it has been playing and then it feels compelled to start playing another game as another character where it has to start from scratch again and has none of the rewards it accumulated in the last game.

The whole game and continuing to play it seems completely pointless and for a while, the character becomes depressed and apathetic with moments of anger and resentment that it finds itself caught up in such a game, but the Presence keeps speaking to the mind playing the character in the game, reminding it that it has chosen to play the game and is in fact the writer of the software for the whole game, so all the characters and experiences it is seemingly having in the game are in fact coming from it and it could simply choose to give up its false identity as the character and stop playing the game.

Eventually, the voice of the Presence becomes so strong and persistent in the mind of the character that it realises completely that it has just been playing a purposeless and ultimately wearying and depressing game to which there is no real ending, as it will simply start playing another game when its character in the particular game in the process appears to die, and it lets go of its identification with its character in the particular game it is playing at the time, as well as the illusory consciousness or programme that keeps playing the game over and over using different characters.

The character in the game it is playing is still apparently in the game, but now it is the Presence that has filled the whole mind of the character and that is directing all the words and actions of the character, all of which are now directed towards helping the other characters in the game that it encounters while playing it to realise that they are not really these characters at all, but in fact, the Presence, and that they need not continue apparently suffering by playing the game, but could simply remember they are the Presence too and stop believing that they are the character experiencing all the pain and suffering in the game they are playing at the moment or any of the characters they have played in previous games. The game, and all the pain, pleasure, hopes, fears, guilt and drama that are an integral part of the game, will then be over for each character and they will realise that they are the Presence outside the game, as are all the other characters in the game. When all the minds who have created characters in the game realise they are really the Presence, the one mind they make up that apparently decided to play the game on its own so long ago will cease to exist and there will be only the Presence, which in truth was all there ever really was or will be.  

That morning a month ago, I woke up in more ways than one and realised fully that I am the Presence outside the game that is All That Really Is and not the character of Jonathan Quail in the game and this analogy of life as we think of it being just a computer game came to me as part of this revelation. I know it is your destiny to awaken fully to the Presence of your true Self and to finally free yourself from the dark dreams of drama, disaster and death. This is a call from the Presence to do that NOW. I know this is something your ego mind fears greatly because it would mean the end of it and its imagined identity that it confirms through the dramas it creates in the game. Take it from me, you are only letting go of pain, suffering, turmoil, death and disaster and finding something that is so awesome it is beyond description in words. I will help you in whatever way I can possibly help you to realise that you are the Presence you have been seeking and avoiding over many life times by playing various characters in the computer game that is the universe.

I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of me and this message. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I can’t tell you how the dream of your existence in this computer game called the universe is going to end finally, only that it will end. But I can tell you how it's going to begin to end. I can show you what the part of your mind that doesn’t want to know the truth doesn’t want you to see. I can help you to see a world without separation of any kind. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible because there is nothing that is impossible for the Presence that is what we all really are. What you do now is a choice I leave to you… but ask yourself who is the ‘you’ that is deciding what to do in this moment?

This article was written by Jonathan Quail, a spiritual teacher, speaker, trainer, life coach, entrepreneur, transformation expert and co-founder of Lifebuild. For more information about Jonathan and the work he does, click here to visit his web site or here and send the email that pops up. If this article resonated with you, you are welcome to watch ‘The Matrix’ movi and come connect with like-minded people on a 2 Personal Alchemy Retreats happening mid February 2012 and April 2012 that will help you to discover who you really are and how to turn the lead in your life into gold. Visit www.lifeshops.co.za for more information about these and other events. To listen to a free half-hour interview with Jonathan on how to overcome the fear that keeps you imprisoned in the Matrix of your mind, click here.