Inception's hidden Buddhism: the Prison

Hollywood writers on dreaming

(Buddha's Wisdom) Inception's hidden Buddhism: The real prison was never the "dream" (maya).

Inception is an American science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced it with his wife Emma Thomas.

The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious of targets.

To whom are we still hopelessly attached?

He is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.

The ensemble cast includes Ellen Page [now living as Elliot Page], Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Dileep Rao, and Michael Caine. More

• Upādāna: "clinging"
• Maya: the dreaming, the illusion
• Nirvana: release, liberation, freedom, emancipation
• Śūnyatā: emptiness, impersonal, without self
• Mara (demon): the Tempter, Mel, the seduction
• Hungry ghost: the realm of hopeless clinging
• Bardo: limbo, the intermediate state between rebirths
• Let Go: stop being so clingy, detach, be free
• Avidyā (Buddhism): ignorance that keeps us trapped

Buddhism in The Matrix

(Buddha's Wisdom) Buddhism in The Matrix | Red Pill isn't bodhi

That's the guy from Little Buddha

Buddhism in The Matrix goes deeper than most of us think (other than Wachowski Brothers). The Wachowskis built this film on Buddhist philosophy—but Neo (Keanu Reeves, who played the Buddha in Little Buddha) goes on a journey that reveals something most viewers miss: Taking the red pill isn't enlightenment, it's just the beginning. This video explores what The Matrix gets RIGHT about Buddhism, what Neo gets WRONG about awakening, and why the ending is actually the most Buddhist part of the entire trilogy. More (See The Matrix Trilogy)

HOW do we get out of this prison?

We are trapped in a prison of our own making. Realizing it does NOT free us. Letting go does. But how can we let go? We can't. It isn't an act of willpower. It's by seeing things as they are. Okay, okay, that makes sense! How are they? This is not a belief-system to believe. We must go in and see kalapas and cittas, particles and mind-moments, which means we must first cultivate samadhi (stillness, absorption) to purify and intensify the instrument of seeing (the mind). Then when we really know-and-see what is there, letting go happens by itself free of effort. The mind/heart lets go when it sees all things are marked by Three Universal Characteristics.