I direct my reply to Dan Rosenberger’s post above. I feel his words and agree with so much of what he says — and yet am compelled to ask him to take a deep look at (his) use of the word ‘only’ above.

An imperative in healing our shared past and empowering a bright future is to address the shadow that fundamentalism casts upon our future. Most obvious in religion, fundamentalism is equally damaging in any arena of critical thinking. The belief that anything is the ‘only way’ marks the place where thinking ends, and only fear based connection can grow.

Oneness of the creator.
Oneness of mankind .
Oneness of faith.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1‘%C3%AD_teachings#Unity

I have seen Avatar, six times! six times I have gone back to see this movies, am I insane? or is just the 3D and mind blowing CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) tying a knot in my heart and brain. It floats in my mind like a glimpse of paradise lost, beckoning me to find it. I see magic in this simple well trodden tail where the Navi have a simplistic undivided spirituality that leaves them totally united with their surroundings and the various animals of their world including themselves. This coupled with the outstanding realism pulls on my heart strings with a longing that I know cannot be equaled in my real world, but wait lets engage some imagination, dream a little or a lot and see what might be, if only. Imagine “The Oneness of Mankind” a united humanity, free from the ravages of war, “The Elimination of Prejudice of All Kinds” and “The Equality of Women and Men”. Imagine “The Essential Harmony of Science and Religion” where the application of science would be for the benefit of mankind and his environment. Imagine the earth filled with hearts and souls linked and united in the glory of “The Oneness of Mankind”, “The Oneness of Religion” and its effect on the earth our mother. Knowledge arts and sciences taught to all “Universal Compulsory Education”, is this our Pandora, a real tangible vision of what could be. Well according to Baha’ullah its our destiny, waiting for us to just mirror forth spiritual attributes to reflect our noble promised future, just waiting for us to cast aside the veils that have hindered and stopped such a noble cause from fruition. So maybe Avatar plucks my heart strings as a fantasy based on a deep down longing that every person has imprinted on the very fabric of their being, One Country, One World, One Race, but wait its just a movie and dreams are for fools? it could never happen, we don’t have a living neural network like Pandora, this may be true, but think maybe not a natural built system, but a man made system. Consider since the invention of Morse Code in 1844 in just over 160 years the mind boggles as the World Wide Web streams out like roots to all parts and places of our globe, and each single individual can connect millions, billions of others at near the speed of light. So is this a fools dream? or from a prison in ‘Akka did Baha’ullah call out to our hearts to fulfill our destiny and James Cameron’s Avatar just by chance happened upon a hidden dream deep down in soul of each and everyone of us just waiting to be released from the prison of our hearts and minds. As you can tell I am a Baha’i, but I don’t know how else we could reach Pandora on planet earth.

Great piece. My Wife JoAnn and I have now seen Avatar three times, twice in 3D and most recently on IMAX 3D. We’d see it again in a heartbeat!

The bit I want to add to the conversation has to do with the “I see you” greeting. Right towards the end, when Ney’tiri (Na’tiri?) is cradling Sully (in his human body) in her huge hands and and declares, “I see you.” She “knows” him (his essence) even though she has never seen his human body before.

This idea, that we can “see” the animating force (God/Goddess, Spirit et. al.) in each other (Namaste) is a basic premise of many spiritual traditions. The notion that we could “see” this great truth in other species is such a joyous transpersonal insight that tears come each time I deeply consider the possibility.

One of the great joys of Challenge Day is the opportunity to engage in deep eye-gazing, to understand that the eyes are truly windows into the soul. That we can transcend our stories and “see” each other beyond our bodies (including our personalities and male/female dance) is one of the great gifts of the embodied life.

I See You

For many years I have been teaching the concept that all customers wear a giant sign on them that says ME. In my classes I explain that what customers are really saying without actually saying it, is pay attention to me, let me know you care about me, listen to me, respect me, acknowledge me, remember me, in essence see me with your heart, soul and intelligence not just with your eyes.. There is such a desperate need “out there” that paying attention to these human needs actually make the business needs infinitely easier to master because there is no greater human need then to believe that you have really been deeply seen. All this is to preface the thrill I felt while watching the three D phenomenon, Avatar and realizing that a worldwide audience was not only hearing the message but actually getting and understanding it. The standard greeting in Pandora, the fictional planet where Avatar takes place is “ I see you ” James Cameron has summed it all up into three simple words. .. The gift of being seen by another person is what everyone is not only craving but what everyone deserves. As a service provider, if you could satisfy this deep human need by imagining that the standard greeting in your place of business was “I see you” what would you do differently? How would you behave? What would the results of the service provided be if each of us took the extra moment to stop and really see people. We would no longer have “Fronts”, #’s or transactions. We would have connection and relationships, resulting in loyalty and repeat business which is of course, the ultimate goal of every service business. Because you subscribe to Service Moments I thank you for “seeing me” and because you are reading this…
I definitely see you.

I think you are right on-target with the messages of this film, particularly the interconnectedness of the Navi with each other and their environment. That is a parallel to our lives today, reminding us to remember our sense of connection to each other and our Mother (Earth) which we are depleting.

I recall one line of the movie where it was stated (perhaps by Sully, I don’t recall) that “Our Mother has no green anymore” referring to the state of Earth in the 22nd century, and what will happen if we do not take enough ecological actions to save our planet.

Another significant parallel is the idea of the Earth people exploring and exploiting a new geographical region for the sake of financial gain. The region is plundered, destroyed and the people are forced to leave their home and their beautiful land. Gee, where else did that take place — perhaps with the Native Americans several hundred years ago! So I think this movie also parallels that period of history, and it’s not a time period to be proud of. With all the native references and sacred ceremonies as well as reverence toward nature there are strong similarities.

I enjoyed your review, Mike — sounds like an interesting assignment for you, a little bit different from your regular posts!

We have been charged with cherishing and nurturing our planet, not with dominating and controlling it. More men have been killed in the name of God, than for any other reason followed closely by greed and the ‘need’ for power! We continue to overpopulate, pollute and basically destroy our world. Where will it stop? Will we eventually render this world inhospitable and uninhabitable? Or, will we one day experience a world wide awakening? To banish fear and greed and a self-serving desire for power?

I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony…

Did James Cameron really need to infuse that much footage of guns, firepower and massacre in this movie? Do we need to project the old paradigm of violence and destruction in the year 2154?

Yes, I get that perhaps the motivation of including this part of the storyline was part of making a statement of ‘let’s stop the violence now … before we see more destruction” and how devastating these actions are and all the visual and moral meanings to this end.

However, my soul and conscious did not need nor was it expanded by the visuals and the noise of all this destruction. In fact, it was peacefully absorbing the natural beauty of could be! All the things you cited including inter and intra -connectedness and empowerment.

I’m not exactly sure that I needed to be jolted out of this energy by firepower - which seemed to go on way too long.

Perhaps it was mainly a marketing strategy … In the words of my 12 year old son, “Mom, James Cameron was being very clever!” “With the beauty he was able to capture the females audience and with the violence, the male audience~~!!!” “He wanted to make another blockbuster; don’t you see that?”

“Yes, son, unfortunately, I do.”

It was a mainstream movie … with mainstream objectives. I’m wondering whether this movie would have been more to my visual and conscious liking had it been more of an independent movie production.