A warrior’s love is the world. He embraces this enormous earth. The earth knows that he loves it and it bestows on him its care. That’s why his life is filled to the brim and his state, wherever he’ll be, will be plentiful. He roams on the paths of his love and, wherever he is, he is complete. ~ don Juan, Tales of Power

One of my favorite quotes, previously used, will be used again. I go to the movies about once a year. I usually fall asleep. After seeing the previews for Avatar I knew that this would be my once a year theatre experience. I donned my 3-D glasses, was mesmerized for the entire three hours and never nodded off.

The first thing someone said to me at work this morning was, “have you seen Avatar yet? I wish we lived in a world like that!” I wanted to scream, “we do, we do!” but instead held back and remained silent. Have you not seen the magical lights in a forest I wanted to ask? Have you failed to experience the deep connection that we share with all sentient beings? You mean to tell me you don’t feel the pulse of the earth!? You haven’t experienced how she responds when you walk gently and in gratitude upon her body? You haven’t had any signs? How sad indeed.

Why, I cry, doesn’t everyone share the connection that is so readily available and accessible to all of us? Are Toltec Warriors and Pagans the only ones??? When are people going to wake up and get it? Why are they always looking “out there” for the paradise that is right here? It’s no accident that the Avatar tribal family resembles that of Indigenous cultures, they knew of the connections, they walked in beauty, they lived in ceremony whether it was through honoring the trees and the skies, the natural environment, the sacred hunts and the rhythm of this beautiful mother earth. This is not a far-fetched, alien reality, it is real and it is right here at our finger tips!

In the movie we were shown that the Na’vi tribe connected their hair to the animal that they wanted to connect with. This is known as creating a sacred hoop in Native American culture and more importantly, for a Toltec warrior it is connecting with intent. And you don’t need to use your hair to accomplish this! We have everything we need to live in balance and in alignment with the values and principles through which the Na’vi live, people have just become so distracted for so long that they forgot how to utilize their own life force energy and instead constantly pay homage to various sets convoluted stories of how we should live, act, breathe, think.

The overall theme of the movie is basically a day in the ordinary life of an impeccable Toltec warrior, to walk in heightened awareness in every moment with a level of consciousness extended to that upon which you walk. To connect with intent knowing that there is more to the universe than just us and that we are all part of a beautiful and natural rhythmic and intricate web of life.

Since we are made of pure energy living amidst pure energy then it is evident that our species must release their interpretations of what is and allow themselves to perceive this energy directly. Don Juan declared that the entire world of human beings is composed of an endless repertoire of interpretations where human senses play a minimal role. In other words, only the visual sense touches the energy influx which comes from the universe at large, and it does so only in a superficial fashion that lacks awareness.

According to don Juan, the shamans of ancient Mexico described intent as a perennial force that permeates the entire universe — a force that is aware of itself to the point of responding to the beckoning or to the command of shamans. By means of intent, those shamans were capable of unleashing not only all the human possibilities of perceiving, but all the human possibilities of action. And if the shamans can hone their skills to a level to which they can perceive at these levels then ultimately everyone has the capacity to do so.

Don Juan believed that there is a false boundary that prevents humans from utilizing the totality of resources locked within the human organism and that these resources are never used, but are kept in place by preconceived ideas about human limitations, limitations that have nothing to do with actual human potential and Avatar is proof of his beliefs. Or, perhaps, the movie has been created in part with don Juan’s beliefs. Either way…

The movie gives me hope that people will wake up and stop reaching and grasping for something that they already have at their disposal and to stop thinking that they have to live on another planet or amongst a different species in order to have the amazing beauty, love and connectedness that was present in this movie. Be the change you want to see in the world. Live life in gratitude, gentleness and beauty. Simplify and know that we already have everything we need from our beautiful mother earth; food, medicine, water, sunlight, energy, natural resources, everything. The rest is useless, over consumptive excess that does nothing more than bind one and limit their freedom.