Unlike Denzel or Will, the "Book of Eli" is coming

As "Avatar" creeps toward the all-time top box office, it is kind of fun to note the shots taken at it from the Left and the Right. A damned fine sign that Cameron is taking the middle course. You know that I consider Jim to be playing out of the box, an awakened artist archetype. He has much, much to admire: his filmmaking skills, as a total package, are as high as anyone I've ever known of, and he works in the genre I've loved all my life. If over the entire stretch of his career, only one black male character has ever survived his work (an unnamed, light-skinned non-com at the beginning of Avatar is not seen to die), he's just a typical white guy. No white critics or audiences, to my awareness, have ever noticed. No one cares. So what the heck.

But I notice that along with the inevitable "it's a left-wing screed on environmentalism" there is also an inevitable "it's a right-wing racist `white men save the universe'" myth. Well, again, there it is. The problem is that I think there is a basic myth pattern in human culture: one of "ours" goes "over there," meets resistance, masters their skills, rescues them, wins their women and synthesizes the two cultures. We happen to live in a world that has been dominated by white images long enough that it seems this pattern is exclusive to Caucasians. I think not--my attitude is that there is nothing special at all about white people, including their foibles and flaws. They're just as messed up as the rest of us (although organized in REALLY interesting ways.)

Someone pointed out the presence of similar themes in "I Am Legend" and the upcoming "Book of Eli" starring, respectively, Will Smith and Denzel Washington. Well, I haven't seen "Book of Eli" yet, but I'll bet you there is one very serious difference: Avatar's Sam Worthington got laid. Will Smith, confronted with the last women in the world, has no interest in sex at all, in fact, seems to try to die as rapidly as possible (almost as if aware of the audience's discomfort). Denzel? Ever see his house? Very clearly his advisors sat him down long, long ago, and said: "listen, D. You've got two choices: you can get laid in your movies, and have a wonderful Direct-To-Video career, or you can live in a palace. Your call." And Denzel, being no idiot, chose the palace. I'll see the movie on Friday. Here's another prediction: IF Denzel gets busy the movie will flop. White viewers will dislike the movie, for reasons that have NOTHING to do with the sexual content. Of course. Black viewers will have a FAR more positive reaction. For reasons that have nothing to do with the sexual content. Of course.

Amd yes, I'm talking about you.

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Thanks much for the feedback on WWW.DIAMONDHOUR.COM. I am horrible at HTML-speak, and the site has enough easy-edit tools that I can actually add to content and modify the templates. I am looking for feedback: what would you like me to add there? What free information or services would be good additions?

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I now have eleven coaching clients, half way to my maximum load. The most important thing I can do is to deepen my meditation, so that I am totally centered when I listen to their concerns. "I" am not sufficient to help these wonderful, accomplished people. But the space I inhabit, when I am careful to root deeply, is more than enough. It is not me, and never was. Every day, that truth has to be nailed into my ego. It is not me.

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Day Eight of the 101 program is Heartbeat Meditation. Pure coincidence. Even if one has no metaphysical bent, this is an incredibly powerful technique. In my mind, meditation is merely the ability to maintain a particular quality and quantity of mental/emotional focus, on either an external or internal locus. Candle-flames, sounds, images, breaths, motions, concepts, sensory impressions, phrases...all are valid "targets" for this practice, some version of which exists in every culture in the world.

The time frame is usually about twenty minutes or more. This is because the first fifteen minutes is usually filled with your mind's random chatter, so that you effectively get FIVE minutes of real depth in a twenty-minute session. That said, even a few seconds is far, far better than no meditation at all.

I learned the Heartbeat Meditation as a "secret" technique (I've yet to see it mentioned elsewhere, although that may just be my own ignorance) as a devotee of Sri Chinmoy, one of the truly remarkable men I have ever experienced. He was the first human being I'd met with a visible aura...but that's another story.

Even if there is nothing "spiritual" about the practice, the depth is remarkable for such a simple, safe method. Here are some reasons:

1) Pulling your attention into your body is marvelously focusing upon the physical root of your existence.

2) "You can awaken your Kundalini from the heart out, or the root up, but never from the head down." In other words, your intellect just can't get you there, no matter how it may try to convince you differently. Nothing sadder than watching smart, over-intellectualized people wobbling through their lives, convinced that intelligence actually makes their existence more difficult. Hardly. Intellectualization makes life difficult, but intelligence, defined as problem-solving capacity, is fabulous...assuming you address the appropriate problems.

3) You have to relax deeply to "hear" your heartbeat. To relax deeply, you have to extend your spine as if held by a string from above, allowing the skeletal structure to do its job while the muscles release tension. This in and of itself is a wonderful practice.

4) Our culture associates deep emotion with the heart. For that reason, thinking or concentrating on the heart connects us with the emotional center of our lives.

5) Listening to the heartbeat familiarizes you with the way mental or emotional focus affects the heartbeat. You can begin to slow it down (NOTE: this is NOT a technique dangerous enough to cause the heart to stop. Such techniques exist, but trust me: this one is kindergarten, while the dangerous ones are graduate school. The chances of "accidentally" stumbling onto one of the dangerous ones is nil.)

6) Concentrating on the breath is terrific. But we have no direct voluntary control over the heartbeat--and that can help humble us.

7) There is more. Much more. But this is a damned fine place to start. This is, quite possibly, the best and safest "doorway" into the inner world.