The Hindu avatar Rama (pictured with his wife Sita) has the same blue skin tone used by the Na’vi race in James Cameron’s film Avatar

Whether intentional or not, James Cameron’s film Avatar contains many spiritual analogies. Here are seven examples I observed:

1. The Na’vi race have a striking similarity to depictions of Hindu avatars like Krishna and Rama. Coincidence? Apparently not. James Cameron admitted to Entertainment Weekly that he made the Na’vis blue “because there’s a connection to the Hindu deities, which I like conceptually.”

2. The paradise world of Pandora represents the higher realms of spiritual consciousness or the “Inner Garden of Eden” that we all aspire towards.

3. Just as the humans came to Pandora for its mighty ore so we often turn to spiritual realms for superficial and material motives.

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	In many ways I see Christianity as a subdivision of what is generally referred to as “Hinduism.” (Image from Thai Exotic Treasures.)

When people ask my religion I like to tell Christians that I’m Hindu and Hindus that I’m Christian.

You see, Hindus generally treat me like an outsider since I’m as white as a Canadian-Irish can get. And my interpretations of Jesus’ teachings are so far removed from mainstream Christianity that some Christian would think I’m in league with the devil.

But between you and me here’s my take on the matter: Jesus was a “Hindu.”

In its truest sense Hinduism isn’t really a religion. Go to India and you’ll find hundreds of sects worshiping different incarnations of God with different dogmas. In my eyes, Christianity is just another sect that worships God’s incarnation as the Lord Jesus.

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Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) author of the Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy.

C.S. Lewis is oft quoted for having told people: “You don’t have a soul.”

I couldn’t agree with him more.

I’m glad someone in “authority” finally tried to put an end to all this “my soul” “your soul” nonsense.

As C.S. Lewis writes: “You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”

As far as I can reckon… What we are not thinks it has a soul. And we (the soul) tend to identify with what we are not. Hence, the delusional thought that “we have a soul.”

As a swami I knew in California would like to remind us: “When you look in the mirror you need to realize

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	My wife, Nicole, and son Jonah hanging out at the cemetery.

I slipped on my boots without tying them and ran out the door with no jacket. The cold February air quickly sunk into my bones.

Not far from home, I found my wife Nicole semi-conscious, unable to talk and barely able to stand. Our three year old son stood by her side.

As soon as she saw me she collapsed.

Nicole’s diabetic and, for whatever reason, her insulin pump had dropped her blood sugar almost to nothing.

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	In the Italian film, Cinema Paradiso, Toto pursues the love of Elena like an artist pursues the muse and a spiritual seeker pursues God.

In the Italian film, Cinema Paradiso, young Toto Salvatore falls in love with the new schoolgirl, Elena Mendola.

Night after night Toto stands across the cobbled medieval street staring up at Elena’s window – waiting for her to acknowledge his love. Months pass. Each night she sees him, closes her windows and turns off the lights.

Finally, one night, Toto says he’s had enough of standing out in the rain. He heads home, never to return.

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(Click Here to Read Part One)

	A depiction of Jesus (between Peter and Paul, top center) from the second half of the 4th century — back when a belief in reincarnation was widely held by Christians (before the Church “declared” it a hersey).

I’d known many of the faces sitting before me for over 12 years. They now looked at me as if I’d gone insane.  Only ten minutes into my grade 12 presentation of “Reincarnation and Christianity” and the Catholic classroom appeared ready to give me an opportunity to test my theories about reincarnation… with my own life.

Last week, I left you with that cliffhanger. Here’s how I made my narrow escape…

“I gotta question,” one oriental student asked. “If reincarnation is true, why does the population of the planet continue to grow? Shouldn’t it stay the same?”

Everybody gave me a “yeah-answer-that” look.

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A grade 12 classroom of 30 students stared back at me with astonishment, disbelief and anger. The subject of my presentation and 80-page essay? Reincarnation in Christianity.

It wasn’t so well received by my Catholic peers.

“This is crazy,” said the teacher. “You need to get down on your knees and pray for understanding.”

“That’s what got me here,” I replied.

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150 years ago you could send a short “text message” at the local telegraph office. Today, you can instant message 20 people while sitting on the throne.

At this rate, many futurists predict, we should be living in some technological paradise before 2100. Robots doing our laundry. Devices to heal every disease. Vacations to Mars.

I don’t know. The way I see it much of our progress is just an illusion. A few examples

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Much like St. Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s day is more or less a secular holidays with a saintly title. Today, people are more interested in imaginary heroes portrayed in movies and television than spiritual seekers who devoted their life to conquering the limited perceptions of matter.

Yet St. Patrick’s Day was originally a much more

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Seems people are still heading out in droves to big IMAX theaters to see James Cameron’s epic motion picture with the Hindu title — Avatar.

What’s motivating them? Is it the revolutionary special effects? The Mother Earth overtones? The battle scenes? The overdone eco-green propaganda? The strange merging of Pocahontas and Terminator?

Probably all of the above.

But at a deeper level I can’t help but think it’s

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