Personal log: Goodbye to a Dear Friend (Response by Betty)

After posting my earlier homage to Mario, I received this heartfelt correspondence from his loving wife Betty, and felt that it deserved much greater prominence than a simple blog response. So I would like to share with all of you this spiritually enlightened introspection from her.

To Betty, I know that I can speak for everyone when I say that our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, and we all surround you in the light of God's love. One more thing worth noting, please go to Art by Mario to view some of the amazingly beautiful artwork from this wonderful and creative Soul. Namaste:


Thank you Darrell, dear friend. I am touched by your kindness and compassion. It's people like you who make surviving a personal tragedy more bearable. Even though Mario died from an accident, there are really no accidents. We only may take different paths to meet our destiny where all our choices will eventually lead...by one road or another. What we learn along the way and the love we share is what is most important. His thirst for knowledge and love of Truth was his driving passion in life and I believe Mario achieved what he came here to do. I choose to see him as having gone ahead to lead the way for others through his shining light which will serve as a beacon for those who loved him. I'll miss you always Mario, but in time grief will be replaced by joyful memories. I am fortunate to have shared 26 years with you.

His loving wife, Betty

Personal log: Goodbye to a Dear Friend

I just received word that a good friend and spiritual brother of mine, Mario, has transitioned to a higher realm. His passing was sudden but as I understand it, serene, despite having been fatally wounded from a fall he suffered in Brazil. His loving companion, Betty, is coping with the loss the best way she can, and is now in the comfort of friends and family support. While she is completely awake and totally aware of her and Mario’s true identity as Soul, the sudden shock of such an episode still cuts deeply, evoking questions of “why?” or “what if?” But Soul never dies, and Mario is still among us, certainly surrounding Betty in a warm and intense love embrace, and connecting with family and friends. In honor of Mario, I wanted to share a poem that he wrote some time ago entitled “Before the Sound Was ‘I’”. It speaks to the depth and breadth of this wonderful man’s spirit, awareness, and heart. It expresses the dynamic of spiritual entropy, chaos to order, that we as a collective consciousness have been working through in pursuit of divine love and truth. We’ll miss you Mario. Be well, keep in touch:


Before the Sound Was "I."

Sonic malignant waves touch all in their wake;
Shrill, pinching sounds, unhealthy tonic of embedded harmonics
Roaring to unholy rhythms, progressive artful resonant fusion,
Sweeping over RNA neuron pathways of God in a hell-storm of confusion.

The planet of our unconscious world is a distant dilated pupil,
Hanging in Satan's firmament, closed-eyed and fearful,
No longer a shining star emanating goodwill and gentleness of Soul,
A synthesized construction, paced and placed to the beat of discipline.

The sleeping mind hears naught but bliss and octavian leads
Tugging on heart strings leading to labyrinths of slavish minotaur.
Our world is built on undulating forms, stiff and rigid,
The harmonics of control, the science of robotics.

A grand orchestra of Oz plays a frontal lament, a guitar gently weeping.
Yes, we all cry and sway, utterly fatigued by the dance of poly-fragmented characters,
As we stand back and watch our human-ness undulate dimly on the wall.
Truly life is spent in pursuit of real music...

And yet from wretchedness, behind it all, is the knowledge of harmony,
The truth of elements and true gods.
Where creation is built on symmetry and love.
A soulful wave of happy entities...we are Truth...after all.


Mario

I See You: Avatar’s Spiritual Essence

First and foremost, what an amazingly breathtaking movie Avatar is. Director James Cameron (of Titanic fame) has, in my opinion, really raised the bar for what the future of movie viewing will now be. This is a real game changer. The cinematic beauty and visual detail alone fills the senses in a way not quite experienced before. Add to this the element of 3D and you have a paradigm-shifting film. But the power of Avatar does not lie in its visual effects; it lies in the story. This is not a 3D movie, but an amazingly beautiful, poignant story and cinematic journey that happens to be in 3D.

For me, what makes this movie experience so fulfilling is the spiritual essence that the story of Avatar contains. Without going into too much plot detail, Earthlings have found an inhabited moon called Pandora that contains an abundance of life and a wealth of natural resources, just prime for the taking. The indigenous humanoid life forms on Pandora are known as the Navi, blue 10-foot aboriginal beings that share a very close connection with the land. This connection is not to be taken lightly for it is the essence of their existence on Pandora. Humans, through bio-technology have developed Avatar host bodies who look almost identical to the Navi. These Avatars can be controlled by DNA-linked humans through a remote harmonized synaptic connection, thereby allowing them to interact with the natives directly. Of course things become problematic when the need for the Navi to protect the land goes head-to-head with human shareholder interests to excavate and pillage the rich planetary resources abundant on the planet. This of course is not a new theme, and I recognize some similarities to another great movie, Dances With Wolves.

But the true power of this epic tale lies in understanding the spiritual connection that the Navi have with its planet and all things contained in it, and the balance created when people respect and honor the land and its resources vs. the misguided and disconnected notion of supreme ownership, entitlement and conquest. There are some movie critics who make the assertion that Avatar reeks of a pagan, pantheistic focus on spirituality. While this is an interesting interpretation, these critics clearly do not get the significance or importance of what this movie is trying to convey. It is about how maintaining a harmonic balance between sentient beings and their surroundings is a key ingredient to spiritual upliftment. This is only one of the many messages that Avatar imparts. The connection to the planet and its resources shown very literally in this movie is an allegory to the actual literal connection that everyone in fact has to the earth, to all living things, and to the universe as a whole; we have simply forgotten this connection exists.

The Navi have an affectionate greeting of endearment to one another, which in their native tongue they affirm “I see you”. This greeting goes much deeper than “I see you standing there”, but that “I see into you, I see your soul and your essence”. In fact, I get you. This is just one illustration of the deep and wonderful solidarity that the Navi have. The Avatar humans slowly come to understand this significance, and as more and more of them begin to see deeper into the true meaning behind this spiritual way of life, they become increasingly conflicted with the ultimate plans that are about to be inflicted by their employers on the Navi. It is from here on that things really get interesting.

I have mentioned a few key spiritual aspects of this movie. But there is one more important theme that was made very clear to me while watching. This is the fact that we are all living in Avatars ourselves. The truth is that our human bodies are nothing more then vessels designed to allow us to have mobility in 3 dimensional space. But in fact, we are not the bodies we occupy; we are Soul, a divine spark of spiritual awareness. We are truly sparks of the eternal itself using a human host to live, breath and have our being on this physical plane.

If I have any criticism of the movie at all, it would probably be that the bad guys seem a little overly two-dimensional to me. There wasn’t enough conflict of conscience for my taste, but that’s just me. I am tempted to go into much greater detail about the movie and its many layers, but I will refrain from doing so in case you have not yet seen it. I highly recommend that you do. It is a sensory filled treat, and has much to say about who we are and where we should be going in our own respective spiritual journey. More than anything, Avatar symbolizes the vital importance of connecting to our higher essence. It is a siren song for us to awaken to our true selves as Soul. Many are getting this message and are heeding the call. To all of you who are getting it, I SEE YOU.