[Buddha-l] Re: Withdrawal of the senses

[jkirk]

I saw the film and noticed some verbal maneuvers that could be attributed to 
Buddhist ideas, but there's another source that the blue and red pills 
suggest: the two trees of Eden:

"And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant 
to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the 
garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:9).

The latter tree would be the red pill (in fact, the infamous red Apple); the 
tree of life the blue pill--innocence: the unexamined, unquestioned life.

This ancient myth of the two trees of Eden was misconstrued by theologians 
to signify much more than a description of the two main options available to 
thinking humans. But it seems that the ancient myth imaginers actually 
figured out something accurate about the existential predicament of being 
human.

Joanna Kirkpatrick
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael LaTorra" <mlatorra at nmsu.edu>

"In the Matrix, which pill would you take, the red or the blue?"
http://www.arrod.co.uk/essays/matrix.php

The question of which pill to take illustrates the personal aspect of the
decision to study philosophy. Do you live on in ignorance (and potentially
bliss) or do you lead what Aristotle called 'the examined life'...