An article by Sha'Tara, local writer and friend.

Observations from the Control Deck

[thoughts from     ~burning woman~     by Sha'Tara]

My purpose was always very simple.  Get to know the modus operandi of the world you live in; analyze it; decide then whether it’s the kind of world you can accept as is and live comfortably in, or if it’s the kind that needs help.  Does it have obvious problems and if so, are there solutions to those problems?  If there are solutions, are they being assiduously applied by those in charge (meaning leaders and professionals in general) and if not, why not?  If there are problems that as yet appear not to have solutions, can you come up with some?  Can you test these solutions within the context of your personal life?  These were the questions I applied to my life, questions that kept me from getting lost in the otherwise mindless tick-tock, humdrum that passes for a life on this world.  They were the questions that forced me to make certain choices in life that would change me.

Quote from something I wrote a time back:  When you near the end of your personal ‘run’ of one life on one world, it should be inevitable that the thinking patterns would change; moving from the selfish survival instinct of early life to the ever-expanding views of life seen in the context of awesome infinity.  Certainly all the pride, anger, prejudices and acquisitiveness based on fear should be making way to a desire for detachment from the personal mundane stuff in order to enter a time of greater awareness based first of all on compassion.  There should arise a new kind of calm acceptance of ‘what is’ without losing track of the purpose for being ‘here’ in the first place.

Some things that become obvious as one moves on mentally and spiritually, questioning beliefs, challenging assumptions, questing after the future: what one has accomplished fades into the background, becoming less and less relevant.  Where one happens to be is more of a terminal than a home.  Family and friendships are downplayed.  Detachment plays a key role in understanding where one is, and is going.  Whatever plans, dreams or vision one has for the future include, but are not bound by, whatever was in the past or what passes for the present.  Most aspects of past/present are let go to make room for the future, past events remaining only as fading beacons in background fog. 

Clearly, life is a force that moves itself "forward" through endless series of contradictions resulting in a fabric made up of a somewhat frustrating pattern of what hasn't worked and what works.  Life is experimentation.  Certainly this is so on earth.  Evolution is all about experimentation, what works adapting and moving on, holding its own or expanding, what doesn't work disappearing.  Here we have a tendency to understand life in terms of nature, probably because as physical beings we are biological units and much of life on earth is seen in terms of biology.  Our lives are too short to really understand life on the basis of oceans or mountains, or weather patterns or earth changes such as tectonic plate movements.  We want to observe change "instantly" so to speak and if we do not see this change, we tend to ignore it, or not believe it exists.  Now imagine if we had to engage life from interaction with what we still call "space" by observing planetary movements, or how solar systems interact with their respective galaxies, or by letting our minds wander the whole universe, looking to understand, discovering that there are other kinds of life not of this universe, utterly alien to anything our minds could as yet touch meaningfully.

If we could do this, if we could engage the macro as easily and simply as we engage a cloud passing over the sun while lying on a lakefront beach in the summer, that would certainly have quite a sobering effect upon the ways we now interact with our planet.  We would be stunned, cowed, amazed, struck dumb.  To be shown how insignificant; how foolish, how destructive our race of Earthians has become would shock all of us into a whole new concept of universal adulthood.  We are equipped for this, of course, but we have, as a race and a collective, constantly refused to use our intelligence properly.  The fault does not lie entirely with man: much can be laid at the feet of the race's gods, of course.  They created and maintained a dummied-down race of dependent slaves which they eventually dumped upon untested leadership.  Every Earthian should know this by now but that is not the case.  The need to be dependent on gods, angels, "stars," leaders, systems (such as the financial system for example) and even to a willingness to trust unknown alien entities remains as strong as ever.  That means earth remains a dysfunctional system and if we understand life, we have to conclude that earth is neither evolving, nor in a loop, but on a self-destruct countdown.

Perhaps that is not "your" conclusion.  Perhaps in your belief system there's a good fairy waiting for the propitious moment to wave her magic wand and make it all better.  Or perhaps there is a God, a redeemer-savior of some kind waiting in the winds for a signal to save the world from destruction, or to give you a better one, so you can continue to give in to your unchecked lusts to exploit, oppress, kill and destroy without qualms or guilt. 

In my world, there are no Powers who will intervene to save life on earth.  All such interference in the past has resulted in totalitarian control and eventual entropy of entire systems.  So, if that is not how it works, what then?  Enter the Avatar.  Why should the Avatar be more legitimate than any other "intervening" power?  A good question.  What is an Avatar?  The Avatar is a being evolved from the very same muck and mire which gave life to the rest of the worlds s/he has experienced.  The Avatar is no stranger to the world, nor to its weaknesses, hopes and dreams – ah, yes, even the rocks dream, you know.  All of it is life.  The Avatar is intimately aware of what goes on.  Of necessity an empath, the Avatar senses and feels.  How many know that of the close to 7 billion intelligent, sentient and self-aware Earthians here, any and all can be Avatars?  The Avatar is not chosen, nor sent.  It is a completely independent and personal choice one makes at some point during some incarnation.  Once that choice is made, it seems that everything changes to validate the choice.  That choice leads to self-empowerment, complete distrust of all institutions, reversal of every value held by the common weal, freedom from any and all false authority, total rejection of Earthian understanding regarding relationships.  It leads to personal detachment from all things held dear or sacred by the authorities and the sheeple. 

So now that you've made your choice and entered the path of the Avatar; now that you are aware of what you no longer need to do, what do you do?  What replaces the losses in your life?  To the Avatar, that's simple: the Cosmos replaces the dead-end processes of an Earthian life.  That means the Avatar becomes a navigator of life's undulations of contradictions to whatever temporary safe harbor can be found, to assess, recoup, restock and go at it again.  The Avatar has no home, not in terms of beliefs, possessions or relationships.  You are not "making a name for yourself" or leaving "important" wisdom for others to learn from, nor tracing a path for others to follow.  Such methods have been tried in the past and have not worked. 

The Avatar, whose purpose is to contribute to the betterment of life for all, takes his cue from life.  He becomes an interpreter for life, and the Avatar's life becomes a natural demonstration of how that works, moving on with purpose but without any discernible pattern.  For the Avatar learns in all of this that it is in the pattern that one gets lost.  Patterns are webs of deceit; illusions of stability constructed from fear of the unknown and ever-assailing doubts caused by change.  Patterns are used by controlling authorities to capture individuated sentient life and entrap it into endless arrays of repetitive motions within collectives.  If nothing else, certainly I have learned this from my times as a self aware being.

Try to imagine how it would feel to wake up each morning to experience the sense of freedom an Avatar possesses!  Imagine living a life without ever being snagged in webs of despair, depression, sense of loss or abandonment, untouched by any unsatisfied want or need, independent of capricious whims of divinities.  While this may not be entirely true for my own life, I always know how to return to that place when I get temporarily lost in the world.  There's a beauty here because the place of the Avatar is not someone else's world, like a heaven or a hell, but a place of my own making, more real than any thing ever seen, ever known.  But more, it is a ship sailing the seas of the infinite; a vessel I can pilot to any place and at any time to serve my own purpose.  And the best part of this awareness is knowing that it is completely inclusive.  Anyone can choose such a life.  Nothing and no one can deny this choice.  This is what Earthians have yet to realize and may very well fail to comprehend in the short time still remaining to them.