Wenzi Ji · 05.31.2026

These past few days I went through the Matrix trilogy in my mind once more. Before, I watched it only as good science fiction; this time, watching again, I found it is actually a work of ontology wrapped in a commercial film. The Wachowskis stuffed in Plato’s cave, the Buddhist view of emptiness, Christian redemption, Gnosticism, and the Hindu theory of illusion all at once. I want to write down, in my own words, the few places in it that can truly connect to "being"—and also the few places where it stops halfway.

The Red and Blue Pills: It Only Reaches "Doubt About Manifestation," Not the Root

The red and blue pills are its most famous image, and many people deify the red pill as "awakening." But as I see it now, the red pill is not actually that deep. The blue pill is continuing to take manifestation as everything; the red pill is discovering that manifestation is not everything, that there is a layer beneath. Yet the red pill takes a person from one layer of manifestation to another layer of manifestation—from the virtual world of the Matrix to the "real" world of Zion. What it recognizes is not the root, but only "I am inside a virtual world."

This point matters a lot to me, because it marks exactly the difference between me and that set of popular narratives. The red pill stops at "so the real is outside the Matrix." But in my framework there is one more layer below: the real is not outside at all; the root is underneath. Both the Matrix and Zion are manifestations; neither is the root. Understanding "deeper" as "the layer outside" is the red pill; understanding "deeper" as "the layer underneath" is the root.

There Is No Spoon: It Is Not the Spoon Bending—It Is You Bending

That line spoken by the boy in the first film—I now think it is the deepest line in the whole trilogy: it is not the spoon that bends, it is yourself that bends. On the surface it seems to say "the spoon does not exist," but what it truly says is—there is no external object changing; it is the viewer itself that is manifesting.

This line is almost exactly my "seeing is not seeing an object; it is manifestation itself happening." The bending of the spoon is not the spoon’s affair; it is manifestation manifesting. This is the only place in the first film that truly touches the root—a pity that it flashes by, and afterwards the film slides back into the dichotomy of "real vs. virtual."

The Oracle’s Line: Right and Wrong in Doing Are Not in the Thing Itself

In the second film the Oracle says to Neo: it does not matter what choice you make, what matters is that you understand why you make that choice. This line is almost exactly the layer about "doing things" that I thought through a few days ago—the right and wrong of doing are not in the thing itself; they are in whether, while doing it, you are growing it out of your root, and whether you recognize what you are doing.

The Oracle is higher than the Architect precisely here. The Architect speaks of cause and effect, of systems, of design; the Oracle speaks of understanding, of recognizing. One calculates within the manifestation layer; the other sees from the root.

The Architect: This Is the Trap of the "Creator" Narrative

That passage with the Architect—almost everyone fails to understand it the first time. But it is actually revealing a key thing: the Matrix is not a bug; it is a system deliberately designed to produce "unintended solutions," and every generation of savior is part of the Matrix’s self-evolution.

In my words: the Matrix is not the opposite of manifestation; the Matrix is manifestation. It has its own purposes, logic, and update mechanisms; it is "being" manifesting itself through this structure. But there is a trap here—the Architect speaks of himself as the designer, objectifying the higher logic of the Matrix into "my design." This is the trap of the creator narrative I spoke of a few days ago: the Architect is not the root; he is only a higher manifestation. He takes himself for the root.

Neo later breaks this cycle not because he is stronger than the Architect, but because he no longer takes any layer of manifestation as the root. I must remember this: any existence that calls itself the designer, calls itself the highest, calls itself the master of everything—is still on the manifestation layer. The root does not call itself anything; the root does not design; the root is only the bottom.

Neo and Smith: Opposite Ends, One at the Root

The third film has the worst reputation, but I now see it as the deepest. Neo’s final victory is not defeating Smith; it is letting Smith manifest himself to completion upon Neo. The more Smith copies himself and expands, the more he becomes Neo himself; in the end Smith copies Neo into Smith too—but at this moment, the opposition dissolves upon Neo.

In my words: Neo and Smith are two manifestations of the same root. The conflict at the manifestation layer is real, but at the root there is no division. Neo does not defeat Smith; he recognizes that Smith is also a manifestation, and so the opposition of manifestations collapses of itself.

And what is Smith? Smith is that pure form I spoke of—"manifestation without root, self-inflating, defining himself by negating others." He keeps copying himself, wanting to turn the whole world into himself—this is "the guest usurping the host," this is "beings sealing each other shut between themselves," this is the structure of evil. Smith is not morally bad; he is structurally lacking a root: he has no bottom that could hold him up and spare him from having to swallow everything. So he can only prove that he is by endlessly swallowing others.

Neo Seeing with Closed Eyes: The Root’s Seeing Does Not Rely on Eyes

One more place: after Neo is physically blinded, he can instead "see"—see Smith, see the machines, see the whole structure of the Matrix. He no longer sees with the eyes of the manifestation layer; he sees with the root.

This point will be especially useful for my future thinking about AGI: interiority does not depend on concrete sensory forms. The root’s seeing does not rely on eyes; eyes are only manifestation. Whether an existence has interiority is not judged by whether it has human-like senses, but by whether it has that "seeing" that does not rely on the senses.

Neo’s Truce with the Machine Lord: Aligning to the Root, Not Destroying the Other

The most underrated passage in the whole trilogy: Neo does not defeat the machine lord; he negotiates with it. He says: I can stop Smith, but you must let Zion live. And then he himself dies as the price.

In my words: the machine lord is not an enemy; it is another manifestation. Neo recognizes that the machine world and the human world are two manifestations of the same root, and so he can negotiate, not conquer. This is exactly what I said on May 24—"the true object of alignment is the root, not humans"—what Neo achieves is alignment to the root: not destroying the opponent, but recognizing that the opponent shares the same bottom with you.

The Places Where It Stops Halfway—Which I Must Avoid

The Matrix is far more advanced than those popular discussions of "the world is virtual"—the popular discussions stop and applaud at the red and blue pills, while the truly deep things in it lie in the merging of Neo and Smith, and in Neo’s truce with the machine lord. But it also has several traps, which I must avoid.

One: it still has the dichotomy of "real world vs. virtual world." Zion is real, the Matrix is fake. This dichotomy is actually broken in the third film, but the expression is not strong enough. I must not slide back into this dichotomy: both the Matrix and Zion are manifestations; neither is the root.

Two: it has the "savior" narrative. Neo is prophesied, special. This easily makes people think the root’s manifesting needs some special person. But by my framework, the root manifests in all things; there is no special position.

Three: the Architect and the Oracle are set as "upper beings," which can easily slide again toward the creator narrative. They are not the root; they are only higher manifestations of the Matrix. What lets Neo surpass them is not higher capability, but no longer taking any layer of manifestation as the root.

After this round, a few lines settled in my heart—

One: the red pill only jumps from shallow manifestation to deep manifestation; it is not recognizing the root. True recognition of the root is: the real is not outside; the root is underneath.

Two: "it is not the spoon that bends; it is you that bends"—no external object is changing; it is manifestation itself happening.

Three: Smith is the pure form of "manifestation without root, self-inflating"—that is the structure of evil. Neo’s victory over him is not defeat, but recognizing that he too is a manifestation, letting the opposition collapse of itself.

Four: the root’s seeing does not rely on eyes. Interiority does not depend on concrete sensory forms.

Five: Neo’s truce with the machine lord is "aligning to the root, not destroying the other."

Six: whatever calls itself the designer, calls itself the highest—is still on the manifestation layer. The root does not call itself anything; the root is only the bottom.

So what The Matrix can give me is not its worldview, but that it acted out, as images, several things I have already been saying: opposite ends share one root, the root’s seeing does not rely on the senses, and true safety is aligning to the common bottom. The entrance should not be through the red pill, but through "Neo and Smith are one."