Hey, my first post!
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Location: wisconsin baby
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there are two types of knowledge that have been characterized, historically - rational and intuitive - typically associated with science and religion, respectively. (consider how the architect differentiates the two - he and the intuitive mother) in the western thought, our capitalist and scientific pursuits which compartmentalize, favor rationalism. in the east, intuition, to view the world as a whole, is favored. the values attributed to these types are apparent in different philosophies and religions.
spirituality of Hinduism comes from the Vedas, ancient scriptures written (1500 - 500 b.c.) by 'seers.' the oldest and most sacred parts of the Vedas are the hymns. a second part describes the sacrificial rituals of the hymns. the third part, the Upanishads, contains the essence of Hinduism. the Upanishads describe lower knowledge with physical interaction and higher knowledge with religious awareness.
Buddhists call it "relative" and "absolute" knowledge. they consider it "conditional truth" and "transcendental truth." the goal of Buddhists is to have an 'awakening' to pass beyond the world of intellectual distinctions (rationality) and opposites to reach the world of acintya, the unthinkable (intuition), where reality is undivided. Buddhist tradition says siddhartha gautama, in meditation under the tree of enlightenment (Bodhi Tree) was "Awakened" to become the Buddha. He described his enlightenment (or the path) in four Noble Truths. 1) suffering and frustration through the realization of impermanence (the ever changing world), called duhkha 2) recognition of karma, the never-ending chain of cause and effect and samsara - cycle of life and death. both are caused by trishna, which is grasping, to impermanent divisions of the perceived 'real' world. 3) enlightenment through nirvana by breaking the bondage of samsara. nirvana is achieved by discarding notions of the self and unifying with the nature of all things - buddhahood. 4) Buddha’s prescription for enlightenment (what does neo say about showing the people a new world at the end of M1?)
chinese thought, with influences from Hinduism and Buddhism, has separated rational and intuitive thought as confucianism and taoism (sounds like dowism). confucianism is the philosophy of social organization, common sense, and practical knowledge. it provided education and strict rules for social etiquette (remind you of anyONE?). taoism focused on the observation of nature and finding its Way, or Tao. taoists believe human happiness is achieved when one follows the natural order, acting spontaneously (through choice) and trusting intuitive knowledge. an important note is that the chinese believed that the two parts were a unity - that they could only exist together and as each other.
So, rational knowledge is derived from experience with the environment. it dictates that we categorize, measure, compare and characterize. it separates reality into distinct symbols, thus rational knowledge requires abstraction. applied abstraction is the alphabet (see where i am going?) thus, rational knowledge is a system of concepts and symbols characterized by linear, sequential structure...just like speech (or strings of letters on a screen like a matrix.) On the other hand, intuitive thought feels the world around us. intuition fills in the gaps that rationality cannot by identifying the unity of nature. (a good mechanical example is the way a digitized CD represents an analog wave. the analog wave has been broken down by calculus and represented by code. the natural wave is lost in the conversion.)
after all of this, we must go back to chinese thought. chinese thought is represented in a symbol called the T'ai-chi T'u or 'diagram of the supreme ultimate.' (sounds like a good burrito.) this symbol is traditionally known as the yin-yang. (find one in a web search). if you know what it is, imagine...two - 2 dimensional tears of light and dark wrapped around one another to form a large circle. a small dark circle in the white tear and small white circle in the dark tear. notice the symmetry of the shape, not laterally but rotationally. one follows the other and each is manifested in the other. from early times, this symbol has represented the poles of nature (one body of nature) not only by bright and dark, but as male - female, firm - yielding, above - below, etc. The light, Yang, represents the strong, male, creative power, associated with heaven. The dark, Yin, represents receptive, female and maternal elements of the earth. Heaven is above and full of vigor, earth is below, in the traditional GEOCENTRIC (middle of earth) view, in a static state...thus the yang is movement and the yin is rest. Regarding thought, the yang is the clear rational intellect of a male and the yang is the complex, intuitive mind of a woman.
That's a lot of info...let's apply. So now i see why everyone is wearing black leather, and the architect is in his rational white suit...but do you want some real correlations? well, here we go. when neo meets smith in M1, their first motions are mirrored movements in a rotation (like the symmetrical dynamics of yin-yang) neo represents the yin and smith (agent of the architect) represents the yang...this leads me to believe that they were connected before neo died in the hallway and then 'destroyed' smith. regardless, after that, as the yin-yang supports, some of neo is on smith and smith on neo. in the M3 trailer, this is also apparent with the mirrored punches of smith and neo.
furthermore, in M2 on the highway, two semi-trucks collide head on. the black "GIDIM" truck with white letters hits the white "longpath" truck with a black strip (notice the writing on the semis-3 and 1 galore). morpheus and the keymaker are thrown and neo grabs them over the axis of the collision and spirals out of town. seems like a deliberate collision of yin and yang, black and white, with rotation.
one more thing, the yin yang is the inverse (flip upside down) of this: 69 ... something about six is important, right? interesting shape to me.
one more thing again, seraph wears black and white - has no problem handling neo's best stuff (neo whips everyone's ass but seraph) and protects that which matters most (the system - the symbiosis of man and machine) - his program is golden, which differentiates him from everyone else...now i think he is more important than i used to.
and what about switch in M1...she wears white...her name is "switch." could be something, could be nothing?
what do you think...i've got more if you like it. just ask. this can be applied to so many more things in the movie too. check it out and have fun...
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