AVATAR: THE EMBODIMENT OF HOPE
January 24th, 2010
By Shari Landau ATR-BC and Jonathan Cohen PhD
We recently went to see the new movie Avatar with our 12 yr old son. In addition to our son’s enthusiasm, we had been told by many friends and colleagues (all on the spiritual path) that this movie was phenomenal. Despite the glitzy graphics and intense action scenes, we found ourselves enthralled and deeply moved. What reached our hearts was the underlying message of unity consciousness and the emergence of a new way of life for humans.
The movie illustrates archetypal themes and characters that in our view represent the old dying consciousness of humans on Earth. In the movie there is the path of greed and materialism, the path of the fearful militaristic aggressor, and the narrowly focused scientist. All of these roads are intertwined and interdependent and had led to the decimation of the Earth (and could potentially destroy the new planet humans ventured onto).
The main character, Jake is a human who does not have the use of his legs and is wheelchair bound. His physical hindrances mirror his emotional/mental/spiritual limitations. He starts off as a cut off, self-serving, immature, and unconscious person. However, he develops into a soulful, deeply connected and conscious being, an Avatar. His evolution occurs when he experiences the beauty, depth and grace of another civilization. His initiation into their world, a world of non-separation, brings him “sight”. He honors them, himself and all of life, when he truly embraces this inner sight. In fact, he learns to fly, or as we say in our shamanic tradition, “to soar wing to wing with Great Spirit”. His liberation comes from recognizing the magnificence of all life complemented by his dedication to the sacred principle.
In the movie there was a tree of life central to this non-human civilization. This tree was made of Light and held the ancestral energies and healing power. Symbolically it felt like an enormous heart, the central Soul of the people and all beings on their planet. All life was woven from this central organ, and the people knew, they “saw”, the interconnectedness of all things. Being rooted deep into this central life-giver, the people were in balance and life was in balance.
This movie was so poignant for us because we are living in times that call for the release of these old destructive patterns, perceptions, and behaviors that are based on separation. These outdated modes of existence have spawned countless massacres of indigenous people, entire cultures, and the Earth. These patterns are so pervasive in human consciousness that it is incumbent upon each one of us to identify our inner parts which are entrenched in the old paradigm. It is imperative for us to identify how we have consciously and unconsciously manifested these patterns. How have you been greedy; narrowminded, paralyzed by fear and scarcity; aggressive to yourself or others; overly analytical and cut-off from your emotions and heart? Just like the main character in the movie, it is time for us to grow up, to mature beyond the infancy stage of human consciousness.
We have entered our own period of initiation where we must deepen our vision and reconnect to our “tree of life”. Outside of the illusion of duality is wholeness. Our evolution as a species and a planet is calling us forward through a return to our Source. Once we respond to this call we too will be rooted in a place of great sacred power and balance. One definition of the word Avatar is “the embodiment of hope”. As we embrace unity consciousness we all become avatars and usher in a whole new way of life.
December 13th, 2009
“How do you walk in the world?”
Are you living awake, aware, alive to the present moment, or are you comfortably numb? Or perhaps you are uncomfortably numb?
For many, life is lived in a trance state; we are on autopilot, moving through the daily routine like robots. Even our speech becomes scripted and polite. We pass people and reflexively inquire: How are you? The answer matches the reflexive question: “I am fine” or “Good, thank you, and you?’ These utterances have lost their meaning, hanging in the air like empty shells. William Safire the noted opinionist wrote about a little boy who when citing the pledge of allegiance said, “I led the pigeons to the flag”. This week our yoga instructor said there was a student in her class (a forum for awareness and awakening), who at the end of class thought that everyone bowed to each other and said quickly “Have a nice day” when they were all saying “Namaste”. This is an example of someone missing out on the profound nature of an exchange. Namaste means that “the divinity in me recognizes and honors the divinity in you.”
This numbing sleep state is so easy to fall prey to. On Mondays Jonathan drives 45 minutes into town and many times he is not aware of anything that he passes or even the weather of the day. He and his car and are on cruise control. These moments are spent on the treadmill of life, when we shallowly breathe and barely notice or engage the environment. David Whyte, a brilliant awakener and poet said, “When we stop paying attention to the world, the world stops paying attention to us.” We succumb to living inside a narrow band of perception, a bubble, constructed to be comfortable, predictable and safe. However, this so-called safety means that we walk in the world as zombies.
What is the antidote to walking numbly? What is the path of awakening? It is finding the open space, the void, the breath between breaths. What is the easiest way to experience the void or the space? Simply stated, it is breath. As we breathe we not only experience the space within ourselves but we are literally bringing in the molecules of the universe into our lungs and distributing that reality throughout our bodymind. We must go into the void, which is often seen as the dark. David Whyte exhorts us to “go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own.” It is our travel into that dark space that allows us to fully awaken into the light of life. As we descend into winter it is a perfect opportunity to enter into our inner world.
Many do not travel into that darkness because at first it can feel unfamiliar and lonely. Our culture gives us every opportunity to avoid the night and emptiness, both literally and figuratively, as we are showered with information and distraction faster than ever. The media surrounds us. We can go onto the computer from our cellular phones. There are even television stations at banks and gas stations to “amuse” and distract us, lest we have a few moments of silence. The result of this bombardment and our willingness to absorb it is a numb population whose inner space is as foreign as Mars. The more alienated we are from our inner night/void, the more distant we are from our Essence.
To shift our lifestyle from comfortably numb to vibrantly alive we must first become uncomfortably numb. It takes courage to leave the artificial seemingly safe zone, where the nightlight is always left on, and we never have to get to know what is lurking in the depths of our own being. Once we are uncomfortably numb, restlessness ensues and this inner agitation catapults us into wakefulness. We gather the strength to inhale deeply, to peer into the darkness, to search out the stillness and richness of experience that arises in each moment. As John O’Donohue says in Anam Cara “Darkness is the ancient womb. Nighttime is womb-time. Our souls come out to play.”
Astonishingly, when we reject numbness and brave our fears surrounding darkness; as Whyte says; “you can be sure you are not beyond love. The dark will be your home tonight. The night will give you a horizon further than you can see. You must learn one thing, you must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in. Give up all other worlds except the one to which you belong. Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn that anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.” Once we breathe into the darkness and the depth of our aloneness we tunnel down into the realization that our moments of life are truly gifts and we begin to make choices of people and activities that add to our sense of aliveness.
The term comfortably numb was sung in a song by the rock group Pink Floyd who also admonished us that by conforming without thinking we can easily become “another brick in the wall.” It is time for us to wake up as individuals and as a planet. Let’s break down the walls that surround our hearts, breathe deeply and love fully.
NATURE THE NATURAL STRESS RELIEVER
September 5th, 2009
Within the word natural is nature. It is our re-source of energy, vitality and relaxation. Nature is not something outside of ourselves, it is us, and as humans, it is our birthright. We define Nature as all form, that which we live in and on, and that which houses our Self, namely our bodies. It is critical that we return to this awareness and embrace life sustained by the loving and healing energy of Mother Nature.
The times we live in now present us with much change, chaos, and crisis. Crisis in Chinese means both danger and opportunity. Many of our clients say they are “stressed out’, that their lives are unraveling, that the challenges of these times are overwhelming. Research demonstrates that stress directly affects the body. Hans Selye, a pioneer in stress research, defines stress as “the rate of wear and tear within the body”. Many are experiencing this “wear and tear” as illness, a feeling of deterioration and dismantlement, within their own bodies and around them on the Earth. Our bodies are made of the Earth, of natural materials, and most people are able to recognize the connection between humans and the world we live in. People are waking up to the fact that the Earth is mirroring us, that Nature is also experiencing the impact of natural stressors. We are in this together. The good news is Nature and our own bodies have an amazing resiliency. Moreover, when we consciously choose to work together as equal partners, the power for healing and transformation is enormous.
As conscious beings we can choose to stay in fear or scarcity and remain prisoners, or we can choose freedom. Our culture supports imprisonment and a disconnection from our authentic nature. The media with its messages of doom and violence, the fast food industry, our addiction to caffeine and sugar (like triple espressos and Red Bulls that even our young people are consuming), the dieting industry, the compulsive use of cell phones, all keep us running in fear as fast as we can. We remain unhappy with our body size, the size of our home, the size of our bank accounts, and we search relentlessly for a product/answer that will finally make us happy. There are a plethora of artificial options available today that keep humans numb, asleep to their own potential, and on edge (stressed out). Like in a nightmare, these self-imposed prisoners remain unconscious, as they chase after something elusive and outside of themselves to find peace.
Freedom and a stress free existence remain an option. Waking up to who and what we are, slowing down enough to be in the present moment, thawing out from our deep and numbing freeze is possible. Re-partnering with Nature is essential. Though sent to the underworld by humans, Nature remains available to us if we but remember and recall her back into our lives. We have a wonderful opportunity in these changing times to shift our consciousness. It begins with recognizing our Essence, and how Nature is us. We need to stop cutting ourselves off from our bodies, from the ground we walk upon, from the food we eat, from the air we breathe, from the relationships that we have with this most abundant life-giving and sustaining Earth.
The Greek Philosopher Heraclitus talked about the four elements being fire, air, earth and water. For Carl Jung these symbols were essential parts of us. He said that air represented the intellect, water our feelings, earth our sensations, and fire our intuition. He said to be complete human beings we were to develop (and we would say-live) all of these elements. Many people embrace Nature only through their minds, by naming or labeling what they see or by reading about it. Others try to control Nature, interacting with it in a tame and organized framework (air conditioned homes, manicured lawns for instance). But Nature needs and wants to be deeply felt and experienced. The wildness of Nature and our natural self is what is in order. This does not mean that we all have to go on survival training in remote corners of the world. It does mean that we spend time experiencing the trees, the plants, and animals (and even our bodies), that are in our lives already. We must deeply interact with, respect and ingest the gifts of Nature that abound right here and now.
When we were planning our honeymoon, we chose to go to Peru for shamanic training instead of Italy. We camped in the jungle and also climbed 16,000 feet into the mountains to learn from the Quechuan shaman of this beautiful land. At times staying in sparse accommodations (as opposed to the comfort of five star hotels) was a challenge. On one freezing mountain night, as we left our tent to sojourn to the toilet (and that is a generous word for the bucket we had!) we longed for the great food and comfort of Florence. However, the honeymoon gift of this trip was transformational on a cellular level. We got to experience firsthand how the native healers and shaman experience Nature in a natural way. They never disconnected from Pachamana (their word for Mother Earth), so the mountains, lagoons, rivers and jungles, and all that is contained within them, are alive like ancient friends. We felt a richness in these relationships linking their bodies/minds/spirits to All That Is. The sun, moon, stars, and all other parts of Nature are seen as beloved beings, as vibrant and real as their family, and this was reflected in their daily lives as well as in their rituals and ceremonies.
People might say that there is not enough time to take a walk, or to check in with their own body to see what it needs, or to eat something natural, or to smell a flower and breathe in its beauty. There are too many tasks to be done. Yet, that walk outside or laying on the Earth or whatever real and dynamic connection we make between ourselves and Nature, allows us to be held and healed. Lao-Tzu, the phenomenal Chinese sage, said it very well: “Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished”. Commit to at least one act per day of consciously interacting with Nature, see and know deeply that you are Nature. You will feel your life improve and you will be revitalized and more alive.
Shari Landau, MA, ATR-BC
Dr. Jonathan Cohen
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