1.2.2. The Matrix of Conditioned Reality
“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes.”
The Matrix represents the fundamental structure that gives rise to and sustains our experienced reality. This chapter explores how consciousness, matter, and mental factors interweave to create the fabric of conditioned existence. Through understanding this matrix-like structure, we gain insight into both the nature of our current experience and potential paths beyond it. Like the alchemist’s understanding of base materials, this knowledge forms an essential foundation for the Great Work of transformation.
What do we mean by Matrix? A matrix is a structure upon which things can propagate — the word matrix is derived from roots that include mother and illusion. It is the name we give for our world of senses and ideas, but with an emphasis on a nurturing element. The Matrix out of which we come, those structures that support and permit both life and the propagation of life.
In Gnostic terms we have the Pleroma, from which all creatures arise, the living beings, creatura, driven by a need to differentiate. Go forth and multiply.
A model of this Matrix (out of which being arises) is the subject of the Abhidhamma. The Abhidhamma begins by outlining four types of absolute reality. Three of these types are conditioned — which means they are part of the reality of conditioned beings — pretty much all of us. A fourth type of reality is unconditioned, or Nirvāṇa, and is the experience of full enlightenment.
Conditioned reality is the experience of being a being within the physical world of matter and mental worlds of awareness and the mental factors that accompany this awareness.
The Three Components of Conditioned Reality
- Matter (Rūpa)
- Consciousness (Citta)
- Mental Factors (Cetasikas)
Matter represents all phenomena that arise from the four great essential elements: earth (tangibility), water (cohesion), air (movement), and fire (entropy). A further 24 types of matter are constructed from these essentials.
Consciousness arises when specialised sensitive matter detects sense objects. For example, the retinal cells detect photons and convert this into visual consciousness. Consciousness appears singular and continuous, but it is neither.
Eight Types of Consciousness
- Visual consciousness (sight)
- Auditory consciousness (hearing)
- Olfactory consciousness (smell)
- Gustatory consciousness (taste)
- Tactile consciousness (touch)
- Discriminative mind (dualistic evaluating mind)
- Self-consciousness (subjective identity)
- Ālaya (storehouse or seed consciousness)
The discriminative mind incessantly compares and judges. The self-consciousness fills with concepts of identity and becomes corrupted by self-idolisation. Ālaya serves as the deep foundation out of which all awareness arises.
In Buddhist Abhidhamma classification, consciousness is described even more precisely, with Citta divided into 89 (or 121) detailed types, accompanied by 52 mental factors.
While matter (Rūpa) is inert and cannot feel or perceive, Nāma (mind) experiences sensations, thoughts, and emotions. Even physical contact occurs entirely in the mind’s perception of the interaction between body and object.
Summary Table of Conditioned Reality
Category | Components | Notes |
---|---|---|
Matter (Rūpa) | 4 Great Elements + 24 Derived | Physical, insensate matter |
Consciousness (Citta) | 8 (Sūtra model); 89–121 (Abhidhamma) | Moments of awareness |
Mental Factors (Cetasikas) | 52 types | Conditions experience quality |
The initial aim for the alchemist is to update their objective reality with a model crafted to understand experience, with the goal of escaping conditioned existence. This understanding guides the mind towards a breakthrough allowing glimpses of unconditioned reality.
To summarise:
- Conditioned Reality is divided into Nāma (mind) and Rūpa (matter).
- Consciousness is neither singular nor continuous; it consists of distinct moments and types.
- The mind experiences contact, not the body itself — all experience occurs in awareness.
- The Buddhist Abhidhamma provides the most detailed map for the aspiring alchemist to study conditioned reality and move toward liberation.
“The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”
This text is excerpted from the book Nigredo: A Course in Modern Alchemy. The complete book includes additional study guides, resources, and appendices. View the full book here.