The Avatar Movie

I watched the Avatar movie over the Christmas holidays. I must say I liked the whole plot and storyline. Not forgetting to mention that the entire movie was also beautifully crafted, again with alot of subtle threads linking their imaginary world into our own world. I just wanted to share what I got out of it.

Mankind has discovered a very valuable mineral (read worth alot of cash) on the beautiful lush green (again more puns of money growing on trees) world of Pandora. Tempted by greed, humans have encroached into the homeland of the Navis in an attempt to reclaim these very expensive and valuable mineral, even to the extent of destroying the very home that these folks lived in (kind of reminds me of elves living in their tree homes). Their home is this HUGE GIGANTIC tree that literally housed the entire tribe (like Yggdrasil, the world tree in Norse mythology).

The Navis believed that everything is linked to one another (Eywa is the mother of all things on Pandora, in the movie Sigourney Weaver's character said that all the plants and trees on Pandora were linked via a network of roots that is even more complicated then the human brain). That all come from the energy. Such energy is only borrowed (all living things on Pandora). Eventually that energy would have to be returned (death, and the Navis bury their dead under the roots of their home tree).

In the movies, there were these little floating jellyfish like creatures. Neytiri (the main female charater of the Navi, and Jake Scully's love interest) describes these creatures as very pure spirits, seedlings from the mother tree (sounds like their translation of the devas in our world, they even look a little like them if you have ever seen them before in photos). So anyways, I doubt I should go on any further for the benefit of those who have not seen the movie. For the practitioners of Buddhism, it is not too hard to see the links at this point. In Buddhist teachings, we have been told that we all come from the same thing, and will return to it someday (when we realise our ONE TRUE SELF). That we are all one, therefore we should not differentiate, but treat each one equally for we are one and the same. That is also why all things are transient (forever changing) and hence empty (not real; we may think that it is real because we were conditioned to think thus. Just like when one is sleeping and having a dream, everything in the dream would be real to the dreamer, once the dreamer awakens, he/she will realise that it was a dream. Just like how Jake Scully becomes his Navi Avatar in the beginning). Thus, the life we lead now is empty. It is not too difficult to see that if we are empty, and everything we can see and touch is empty, why do we then insist on accumulating even more stuff that is also empty. When we pass on, we cannot bring any of it into the after life (or next life, depending on how you look at it).

However, this is not to say that you should give up everything immediately. If you do decide to do that, you would have achieved alot of what most people cannot (of course all the Buddhas and Boddhsattvas of the 10 directions of incalculable realms of existence will rain down blessings on you, if you could do that) . There is still the responsibility to others around us. We must always keep that in mind when we act. We may strive to achieve spiritual greatness, but we should also strive to not affect negatively of others around us (this is why greed is bad, becoz greed tempts people to accumulate what they want irregardless of the consequences to others. This is illustrated very well in the whole movie).

Before I end this post, I would just like to add that when the outlook of things look bad, everything looks bleak, all hope is loss, and you feel hopeless. It may not be a bad idea to just quiet yourself down and pray (to whatever God, Diety, Boddisattva, or Buddha) tell them of the problems, and what you will need help in. Your prayers might just be answered in the most unexpected ways, you will just have to be patient. From my own personal experience, if your prayers were of unselfish motives, the answer will definitely come. If you feel that your prayers may not be answered, there is still no harm in trying. What you gain is a moment of peace, what you lost is just a few minutes of your lives. (Just like what Jake Scully did in the movie, despite what Neytiri said about Eywa, his prayers were answered) These loving spirits who watches over us are closer then you think they are.

2012 The Movie

So I watch the movie 2012 a few weeks ago. It was exactly what I had expected it to be, alot of "action" and "drama". The movie did a pretty good job of weaving all the little pieces of factual information peppered all over the world about the "end of the mayan calendar", into an action packed tale. Hopefully, the good intentioned message for the entire movie was not lost amongst all the drama and special effects.The underlying message was that we all need to abandon all our masks, and pretenses. No matter how rich, or how powerful you are; at the very basic level we are all still human, one of the same kind, both weak and frail in comparison to the wrath of mother nature. And when we are near the end, none of that really matters. When we are stripped down to our basics, and bare necessities, we are all nothing, and all we will have is each other, and possibly the clothes on our backs to keep us all decent. Time to repent, shed all our prejudices, pretenses, masks, and arrogance. Embrace our humanity as we should have done right from the start, like we are all equal and from the same family.