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Spiritual Transformation: Your Divine “Avatar”

By Ellen Luksch

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

I have seen the movie Avatar twice.  Both times there was much applause in the theatre and even a young group of people voicing their approval from the back.  It seems to be quite a phenomenon and is playing to sold out theatres where I live after three weeks.  It also appears to be inspiring many points of view generally and among the young people I work with specifically.  

As often in such genres, good is confronting evil once again.  The evil is clearly drawn with healthy doses of greed, hostility and ignorance.  The good is misperceived as “less than” and subjected to a healthy dose of torment.  And in the middle of that old formula is a theme of union, the Na’vi people are capable of joining their consciousness to the natural world all around them, to their ancestors and to the planet they inhabit.  One human gets to fully explore this possibility through the use of an “avatar”, a genetically engineered Na’vi body that can be inhabited by his human consciousness. 

I wonder, can we as viewers allow ourselves to see our humanity reflected through all of the mirrors of the characters and the emotions that we experience in this film?  We cheer for the Na’vi and feel a reflection of our own communion with our mother Earth or the reflection of our desire for a greater sense of union with our planet and with each other.  We leave the theatre feeling empowered, or asking questions, or incensed or with a sense of longing.  The movie even falls flat for some whose critical thinking gets hooked into noticing the flaws of plot.  These are all aspects of ourselves.  We are the Na’vi and we are the “jarhead clan”.  We feel, we criticize, we attempt to control, we have trouble letting go, we surrender, we are jealous, we grow, we love and we are connected to each other in so many ways.  

When we allow ourselves to see all these aspects of ourselves, we can begin to move away from seeing other points of view as “weird” or “dumb” or “less than”.  Can we even move to embrace all these aspects of ourselves rather than idolizing some and demonizing others?  Can we really begin to move toward union by seeing the root cause of our separation: our rejection of aspects of ourselves? Our self- rejection then projects our disowned “self” out onto others.  “They” are the problem and they need to be fixed.  If they cannot be “fixed” then they need to be cast out or annihilated.  And so we project our internal drama out into the world over and over and over once again. 

At the root is the fear of not being enough; of needing to adopt a certain identity to count, to matter, to be worthwhile.  I am if I can prove you are not.  And that is what we say to all those “less than” parts of ourselves.  I am worthy if I can control my fears, my anger, my jealousy, my “weaknesses”.  I can feel superior and perceive my group, my nation and my planet as superior.  What is out of reach, though, is a deeper sense of worth and belonging, a sense of connection to the force of Life that flows through everything, even Colonel Quaritch.   He is a reflection of the darker side of our own fear and of our need to manage and control so we feel safe. He is the security officer.  He simply takes it to the extreme so that we can feel the tension of living on fear and observe the results of that dream of separation.  Perhaps, the more we take responsibility for our angry feelings and the need for control in our own mind through the process of acceptance, the less need there will be for the external mirror. Unity is the result of creating union within, from accepting all that we are with compassion and forgiveness.

Finally, a word about the longing many people feel for an experience of unity and communion like that of the Na’vi.  You are that which you long for.  You have a remarkable heart that emits an electromagnetic field that is experienced by everything around you: plants, animals and the earth itself.  Your heart is an intelligence waiting to be tapped.  It is your link to communion with yourself and your surroundings.  When that heart field is filled with unconditional acceptance of all that we are, that heart field is unified and all of Life feels that energy.  This website is filled with heart wisdom and a community that delves deep into the possibilities that are experienced when we surrender our notions of less than/better than and open to the flow of Life that we are.  When we surrender our opinions and drop deeply into the wisdom of our hearts and feelings, we embody the Avatar of our awareness and union is the result. “I see you” takes on a whole new meaning.

Posted in Emotional Awareness, Spiritual Transformation |