What? Not what you had in mind?
Avatar is a soul-seizing movie, and perhaps the best 160 minutes of film I’ve ever watched dance across the big screen. Calling it a ‘movie’ really doesn’t capture the breadth of the experience- it is a complete assimilation into a different world. No popcorn needed to enjoy this one.
While the film’s title may bring to mind those tiny headshots that adorn blog comments and internet forums, an Avatar is actually a spiritual archetype: A brave and enlightened being who restores the balance of good and evil when the latter grows too strong. This kind of Avatar is what the film is all about. And more than that, I’m convinced it’s what our lives should be about.
If ever humankind has needed leaders fiercely devoted to the good of all, it’s now. And while I can’t help you become a 7-foot blue humanoid (nor do I suggest you adopt a loincloth as your primary apparel), I can offer some insight into what it takes to become a real Avatar, working right in this world.
The 5 Steps to Becoming a True Avatar
1. Know who you are.
You are not your mind or body. You are soul. You are consciousness. This is the fundamental insight you must return to again and again if you want to become an indefatigable force for good. We human beings have a heck of a time getting our egos to accept this. Sure, we can intellectualize it, but to actually live from that understanding you are more than your physical senses and vigilantly maintain identification with consciousness over the mind- that’s hard.
How to know yourself: Meditate first thing in the morning, before you begin expressing yourself in the real world. This way, you don’t even give your mind a chance to assume control, and it becomes much easier to act in harmony with this basic spiritual insight. You’ll still screw up over and over- a little spiritual ping-pong is part of the equation for most of us. But thankfully, you can always get that self-knowledge back. And when you do get it back, the joy you feel will be uncanny.
If your identity isn’t grounded in consciousness, your only other choice is ego. How can you fight evil when you identify with the very engine that produces it? So being an Avatar starts here: Know thyself.
2. Master your inner realm.
The moment you were born, the forces of creation entrusted you with a supremely valuable property- your inner (e)state! There is one catch, however: this property has a persistent pest known as Your Ego. If you plan on maintaining a harmonious inner realm, you’ll have to get him under control.
How to tame ego: Keep a log of the number of negative thoughts you have each day. I keep a tally in my pocket notebook, which I then update throughout the day. This may sound distracting, but maintaining this spiritual “diary” will actually increase your present moment awareness dramatically. You won’t slide into negative states so easily, and your ego will have a much harder time taking root. To really take control, combine a spiritual diary with daily meditation. You can’t go wrong.
3. Make gratitude your dominant way of being.
No great being has ever been without gratitude. When you see how precious and perfect everything around you is, you can’t help but love it, cherish it, and defend it. It’s absolutely essential to your Avatar-ness!
How to be truly grateful: Take a lesson from the Na’vi: Realize that all energy and all life is merely borrowed for our short time on earth. Every breath, every bite of food, every spark of an idea- all of it is on loan from the invisible power of creation- God, Tao, Consciousness, call it what you will. Make it your habit to take nothing for granted from the moment your feet hit the floor in the morning, to the moment your head hits the pillow at night. This constant, daily gratitude will breed responsibility- the kind of humble, inspired responsibility an avatar needs to take big risks for the greater good. And unlike overoptimism, gratitude keeps you fully grounded in truth.
We must constantly remind ourselves of our deep indebtedness for the gift of life, coming back again and again to a state of gratitude whenever ego craftily obscures it.
4. Identify and conquer your unique challenges.
The laws of the universe prohibit us from doing everything at once. Wherever we are, we should master that place, doing our absolute best with the resources, opportunities, and yes, setbacks that we encounter. To the Avatar, every challenge is a resource, a lesson, a checkpoint amidst a greater journey.
How to face down challenges: By implementing all of the above strategies, we should be wide awake to the change we must initiate. We should meditate on the particular results which we judge to be in the greatest interest of good, and then summon courage- courage from within- to create these changes. Challenges can be a tremendous test of spiritual faith, but for the Avatar, they never cease to dampen his unwavering commitment.
If you can’t find the presence to spot your unique challenges, nor the courage to conquer them, then you can’t be credited with bringing much good into existence. The deeper you dig within, the more courage you will command outside.
5. Fight the real evil within.
The path to becoming an Avatar ends where it begins: The inner battle between consciousness and ego. I told you we’d come back to that.
Evil doesn’t just spring up out of empty space- it begins in the minds of living beings. All but the most saintly of sages have some vestige of evil within them- the question is, do you identify with it? Are you unwittingly permeating more evil into the world, or dissolving it within yourself and those around you?
Most of us are utterly neglectful of the powerhouse of evil- ego- that is nesting within our own minds. That’s why the Avatar is so rare.
Wake up to this reality. The planet is saturated enough with egoic negativity without you or I adding to the aggregate of waste. What it needs are Avatars- brave beings who will face down evil on the battlefield of the brain. This inner peacemaking- even more than outer peacemaking- is the work we must concern ourselves with.
That’s what a true Avatar looks like. Do you have the courage to become one yourself?
perhaps of interest: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/
@Joe: That’s an interesting article- it doesn’t surprise me one bit that people are depressed by the elusive wonder of planet Pandora. What those people are neglecting, I think, is the indescribable beauty of the world they already live in. You don’t need glowing flowers and pterodactyls to achieve beauty- it’s already there, right outside, no escapism necessary.
Thank you. I needed that.
Signed,
An Avatar in Training
Its really hard for some people to be an Avatar but if they have trust surely they will be. They just need to take time and continuously do the good things.
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