Paradox of the Modern Age
By Paul Cavel, Posted 10 March 2010
It took awhile to sink in when I heard that $500 million was spent to make a movie. At first it didn’t seem possible, then just ridiculous. Finally it dawned on me: $500 Million is three-quarters of the
How as a species can we justify so much time, energy, technology and money going into a movie when we have famine in Africa, earthquakes in
The Paradox
It’s quite a paradox when you consider that Avatar is about a world where Mother Nature is connected to all that live upon her and live in harmony with her. Yet the making of such a blockbuster no doubt contributes to the raping of our planet and takes us farther away from making a real connection as passively watching something happen is very different from experiencing it. Even still Avatar’s message is clearly positive and has motivated some interesting discussions about the dismal state of our planet on Facebook and other social networking sites.
Although it’s great that a movie can educate people and consider the value of tuning into the planet as a living being, it’ll only be a temporary state for the vast majority of viewers. You’ve actually got to do something if you want to make change. If thinking about change could make it happen, we’d all be thin (more or less), attractive, strong, intelligent and rich!
Tuning In
Tuning into the planet can only be achieved after waking up your internal senses. The internal arts, starting with qigong (energy exercises) is one way to do it. For me, I practised qigong whilst living on the earth under canvas (mainly in the woodlands of Southern England and
The curse now is that I’m hyperaware of the daily assault on my nervous system to buy products and services that are essentially useless to me and take me away from being a human being. All of it contributes to this surging wave toward destruction of the environment. It’s difficult to find a balance between the ancient way of connecting to and being led by the conscious planetary being and the modern capitalist method of social normality.
Spiraling Out of Control
The modern way is spiraling out of control because we cannot continue insatiable consumption without replenishing what we take…sewing the seeds for the future and all that. The core of every ancient tradition known to man has always recognised the delicate balance between life and death, and the importance of a spiritual path and rights of passage that ensured the vibrancy of the next generation. Today we reply on movies, television and advertisements to teach us morals and values.
Avatar of course is just a fictional movie, but some of the concepts within it aren’t too far from our ancestor’s understanding of life. However, Baraka, a movie without dialogue, will give you an amazing reality check on the timeless beauty of our planet—a tangible feeling of the juxtaposition of spiritual traditions and the absolute madness of the modern era. One scene reveals a monkey in the water, sitting quietly. It dredges up questions such as: Is the human being really more evolved than our primate ancestors? Are we moving toward evolution or devolution? What will it take for us to wake up?
Awakening Is a Daily Practice
As the monkey sits peaceful and still, you can see the intent in his mind and it clearly shows a primate moving in the direction of focused meditation. If we all took a leaf out of his book to centre ourselves and become quiet and conscious of our surroundings, we may make different choices in our daily lives that could eventually add up to positive change for all and everything on this planet.
Go inside, become aware, tune in and everything furthers.
© 2010 Paul Cavel—All rights reserved.
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