Welcome

Welcome to Matrix Flavored, Deepening In-A-Box. This site is based upon a presentation given to the Los Angeles Bahá'í pre-youth, in which scenes from the movie "The Matrix" were used to illustrate dual nature and other foundations behind our perception of material reality. This website was then created as a systematized guide for others wishing to duplicate the presentation.
For people simply looking for the video clip (.mpg) of the resurrection scene as an analogy to illustrate the eternality of the covenant.

Optional Intro

One problem we had at the prior pre-youth deepening was a comment that indicated a sense of arrogance, that being Bahá'í automatically exulted them above others -- rather than started them on a lifelong & eternal path of self-improvement. Rather than trying to verbally explain this, the following intro was devised for this presentation:

A friend of mine, who came to help out, and I filled a bedroom with inflatable boxing gloves, pillows, and nerf bonking devices. I was then tied up with heavy duty ropes, covered with a mask, propped up against the door and left alone in the room. She then began the presentation with opening prayers and recited the following greeting to the pre-youth:

Hi, I know you're used to a lot of games and activities at these presentations, but Ravi and I thought it's extremely important that we learn about our history of the dawn breakers and felt that this subject deserves a reverent session of reading together. At the same time, we want to make sure you pay attention while we're reading, rather than just daydreaming, so we devised a little reward if you pay attention. Follow me. [goes to door of room where I'm in]

Now, Ravi and I flipped a coin to see who would have to do this [or make up whatever other excuse you can think of], and Ravi lost, so now we get to beat him up -- enjoy! (most of the pre-youth were extremely confused at this point, but once Elham started wacking me with the inflatable boxing gloves, a mass mob began gleefully assailing me) [Elham then dragged me around the perimeter of the room where the presentation was taking place, and then stopped them/made them sit down again while I lay in the corner]

ok, so, if at the end of this reading you can all summarize what it said correctly we'll drag Ravi around one more time for you -- deal? Yeah!

[Reads first half of passage from the dawn breakers about how the Sha's men would drag Quddus around the streets in chains, and random villagers would come out and throw stones at Quddus]

So how many of you think that if you were living around this time you'd have thrown stones at Quddus? [nobody rose their hand]

[Reads second half of passage, questions pre-youth on comprehension (they got everything), and, as promised, proceeds to assail me again -- I was then released, and we proceeded to have a discussion of the contradiction in how many people wouldn't harm Quddus, but how many would gladly pulverize me -- just because the authority figure in the room said it was ok and was doing it too. We then concluded the intro with a short general talk about the Dawn Breakers.]

Superheroes

We opened the actual presentation by asking the pre-youth for their opinion of characters in movies who magically are able to dodge every bullet, never miss a shot, and miraculously take on legions of enemies unscathed -- specifically if they though this ever happened in real life, or if it's only confined to movies. Naturally, the overwhelming reply was one of "oh! of course that only happens in movies!"

Next, we asked them if they knew of Joan of Arc (this was not at all prompted by the terrible movie made about her). One girl had just finished studying her in history class and perkily told us everything we wanted to know about her; everyone pretty much agreed this to be a good real life exemplar of the type of phenomenon you see in movies; we simulated a pretend conversation they might have with a friend after seeing such a movie -- and how discussed how they could make it substantative. We then stressed Joan of Arc's extreme religious devotion and the spiritual principles she conferred upon the behavior of the French armies and asked if they could think of any other times in history when this phenomenon appeared ... YAY! someone came up with Fort Tabarci. So we played the lobby scene from The Matrix, and I recited whatever I could remember about Fort Tabarci as it was playing:

We then skipped the elevator scene (with much whining that we were skipping a scene) and went straight to the roof scene. Here we announced "as soon as someone sees a scene representing prayer, please raise your hand." The first time it played all the way through the roof scene with nobody raising their hand, so we rewound it half way and played it again (ironically someone said "wow! I wish we could do that in real life", during the prayer scene.) This time two shy girls in the back raised their hand, but nobody saw them so we rewound it (figuratively speaking as it was a DVD) and played it again. This time everyone got it and raised their hand as soon as trinity picked up the phone.

At this point we had a short discussion about what prayer is. (Communication with God. Communication with the concourse.)

A lot of them had the notion that heaven is this really cool place in the clouds where you go when you die, and other than that it's totally independent of Earth. So, I tried as best I could to explain the concepts behind dual nature and how when we're alive, we exist as both spiritual beings and material beings -- and death is more the shedding off of the material prison, rather than movement from one location to another (I don't think this really clicked until we got to the part on dreams).

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One or two of the pre-youth seemed a little startled that they were seeing guns in a Bahá'í presentation, so at points we stopped to discuss the use of the sword in Muslim and Babi times, its justification back then and the difference our current dispensation where we stress non-violence.

Matrix

Next we tried to further elaborate about the material component of dual nature and why it exists in the first place. We started with the definition of the word "Matrix" [Definition #2], reading and discussing a about it:

In the beginning of his human life, man was embryonic in the world of the matrix. There he received capacity and endowment for the reality of human existence. The forces and powers necessary for this world were bestowed upon him in that limited condition. In this world he needed eyes; he received them potentially in the other. He needed ears; he obtained them there in readiness and preparation for his new existence. The powers requisite in this world were conferred upon him in the world of the matrix ...

For the discussion I asked them to imagine they were in a super hi-tech future in which they were able to go inside the womb of an unborn child, in which the child had tied their arms in knots because it felt it was more comfortable. Doctors had told the pre-youth, however, that if the child continued this, it would be born paralyzed. The pre-youth, then, had the task of explaining this to the child (whom I played). They conceded pretty quickly that my vocabulary and comprehension was far to limited to explain to me why I should do something which I felt was uncomfortable. We then talked about all the things in our material life that we find comfortable and what it would take for someone to convince us we need to sacrifice them for a phantom spiritual life.

We lowered the volume on the following scenes and discussed/read quotes on aspects of dual nature/dual reality as it was playing.

Spiritual Development

With the purpose of material reality established as a construct within which to build a spiritual reality, we then, naturally, talked about development of the soul within the material world; the acquisition of spiritual virtues and importance of tests:

O Son of Being!
Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire we test the gold and with gold we test our servants.

Here we discussed the properties of fire, what it's like being in fire, what the effects of fire are on various materials. At this point I tried to dispel the notion some of them had, that hell is this geographic point at the center of the earth in which fiery beings prod one's soul with hot, pointy, implements for all eternity. Next I talked quickly about gold and materialism in general -- then asked them for examples of things they see people around them attaching themselves to that could constitute 'gold' in that hidden word.

-=-=Optional Here=-=-
Next I asked them how they avoid attaching themselves to such things, and got pretty much the rote answers "We don't get lots of money""we don't have sex""we don't do drugs." I tried to emphasis that there are, in fact, many Bahá'í's rich both spiritually and financially (especially who lived in that area!) and that the problem is more about focusing exclusively on and begin obsessed with being rich -- rather than begin rich itself.

Going deeper, I asked them for their interpretation of the Bahá'í conception of 'evil.' The responses weren't quite what I was looking for, so I steered them towards "Evil is the absence of God and our higher nature." (Getting to there, I made sure to dispel the notion that Evil is this supreme fiery pointy fiend at the center of the earth who is very powerful and fights with God.) From there I reworded it to "Evil is not doing Godly deeds" -- so, all these things are evil, primarily because they distract us from God. With that, we asked them to consider the spiritual development of someone who does nothing but sit in their living room all day, complaining about all the things everyone else does but doesn't do anything themselves.

We then asked them what the first thing they do when they walk into a room that is pitch black is; naturally, they said they turn on the light. Likewise, we explained, when we find ourselves being tested with dark, materialistic, tests in which we iterate to ourselves "I shouldn't be doing this, I shouldn't be doing this" -- what we should instead be doing is praying for and thinking of all the more productive and spiritually conducive activities we could be engaging ourselves in instead, to the point that we live such a lively and full life, that we no longer have any reason to dwell on the mundane fulfillment of material propensities.
-=-=Optional End=-=-

After talking about the importance of filling our life with Godly deeds, we then tried to instill an enthusiasm for the divine insight bestowed upon us in the form of the Holy Writings. For this, we played the above scene and referred back to the earlier exercise in which they were to try and explain to a child why it needed to give up its comfort for a phantom earthly world. We explained how one of Baha'ú'llah's titles is The Divine Physician, and likened our Holy Writings as a prescription which Baha'u'llah has come into this world to guide us as to how we can best develop ourselves for the next world.

Dreams

Next we asked the pre-youth's to share any really wacky/crazy dreams they had. We got all sorts of bizarre and endless responses, which we had to cut short in order to actually proceed. After that, we asked them what they thought dreams were and hi-lighted some of the better examples they gave. Again, we got all sorts of different responses, with just about every conception of dreams being represented. Next we read explanations from promulgations (which I unfortunately don't have access to right now) explaining the reality of dreams. Again, I tried to reiterate the earlier point of dual reality, that we exist in both a material and spiritual existence at the same time -- and presented [some] dreams as the suppression of our material existence and liberation of our spiritual existence. To demonstrate this, we took a lamp, removed the lampshade, and explained the lightbulb to be like the soul, while the lampshade like the body. I kept barking "awake!" every time I put the lampshade on and "asleep!" everytime I took the lampshade off.
We asked them, if they were stuck in a dream, how would they know the difference between the dreaming world and the real world, which led into about a 2 min. discussion, which we then steered into the following quote:

The human heart resembleth a mirror. When this is purified human hearts are attuned and reflect one another, and thus spiritual emotions are generated. This is like the world of dreams when man is detached from things which are tangible and experienceth those of the spirit. What amazing laws operate, and what remarkable discoveries are made!The human heart resembleth a mirror. When this is purified human hearts are attuned and reflect one another, and thus spiritual emotions are generated. This is like the world of dreams when man is detached from things which are tangible and experienceth those of the spirit. What amazing laws operate, and what remarkable discoveries are made!

after discussing that, we then played the following Matrix scene:

The Covenant

At this point attention spans were beginning to wane, and so we wanted to end by inspiring them with an admiration for the unique indestructibility of our covenant. We started by paraphrasing Dawn Breakers of how strongly the Iranian government wanted the Faith extinguished and how much effort/resources they dumped into trying to destroy the Bahá'í's and how, despite all those efforts to fight individuals, the Faith as an entity -- through the life of the Holy Spirit and the unity of the Covenant -- was unstoppable and grew to engulf the planet, long outlasting its persecutors. Also we briefly talked about Abdul-Baha's comments in Some Answered Questions about the resurrection of Christ and had a pretend conversation of if they were discussing that scene with a friend after seeing the movie.

Unfortunately I'm too lazy to explain this section out as this keyboard is way uncomfortable and it's pretty much self explanatory from the digital edit I made:

(Quick download version, .wmv -- 15 megs)
(Low quality video, .mpg -- 50 megs)

alternatively, you can look at the outline I used while making it.

Ending

I originally wanted to end with Deepening In-A-Box, Consultation Flavored! (link to be added someday) Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, we started late, so we ran out of time and simply ended with closing prayers.

One other thing that could be thrown in is these illusion faces (on my computer in California unfortunately) and the passage Abdul-Baha writes about how easily the senses are deceived and how futile it is trying to live our lives guided only by our senses. If Deepening In-A-Box were actually in a box, they'd be included as photographs, unfortunately, Deepening In-A-Box is very On-A-Webpage and you need to just print them out instead.