Hello everyone. I certainly hope you remember the wonderful “Anonymous Asami Admirer,” our favorite LOK fan with a psych and philosophy background who from time to time will drop me beautiful and insightful essays/musings?

Well A^3 is back, this time analyzing the Avatar universe’s philosophical underpinnings in a thoughtful essay that tackles Eastern vs. Western concepts and how they shape the Legend of Korra. Enjoy!

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Wan, The First Avatar: Recycling Ancient Wisdom

The Avatar universe borrows very heavily from Asian cultures, mingling ancient thought with more recent western ideas. This fusion of east and west makes for relatively creative storytelling with the added bonus of introducing western audiences to some important concepts from eastern cultures. Exploring these eastern concepts can deepen our understanding of the show and its lessons.

The Avatar lineage begins with Wan, a lower-class boy who struggles to survive in a hierarchical and unjust society. We could contrast Wan’s story with that of the Buddha who began his life as an Indian prince, completely unaware of poverty and hardship. When he finally stepped outside his sheltered life and saw human suffering for the first time, he immediately dedicated his life to finding a way to overcome aging, death, disease, and suffering. Wan, on the other hand, began his journey from a place of suffering yet always maintained compassion for those who were even worse off, often stealing food not for himself, but to share with those around him. Thus, Wan and Buddha, from different social backgrounds, began their spiritual journeys with a similar motivation: to ease pain and suffering.

Wan lives in a dualistic world. Dualism is an old philosophical concept, made prominent by Plato, who is one of the most influential thinkers of western civilization, and he had a major impact on Christianity. Some historians claim eastern and western cultures comingled and exchanged ideas a lot more than previously believed and some of Plato’s ideas can be potentially traced back to Indian philosophy.

Plato believed that the universe was made up of two realms: the physical and the non-physical. The physical or material realm is what we know through our senses/bodies. To Plato, the non-physical realm was most important because it represented all that is perfect, good, and eternal, whereas the physical realm was just a poor imitation of those non-physical ideals. This brings us back to Buddha who believed that everyday life was impermanent, full of change and suffering. Part of his spiritual journey to alleviate suffering was to find and connect with something permanent and eternal. Both Plato and Buddha thought that if a human mind/soul could connect with the permanent realm underlying our physical reality, s/he could reach a higher level of existence or spiritual enlightenment.

Avatar’s dualistic universe is material and spiritual. Wan lives in a world where human and spiritual beings interact but are wary of each other, to the point where humans seek protection against spirits, even going so far as to wall themselves off. When he is cast out from human society, Wan is forced to confront his fear of spiritual beings, and he then learns that humans and spirits are not as separate as previously thought.

Spirits are reactive and deeply affected by human emotions because humans have a spiritual side that they have been increasingly cut-off from. Because Wan is compassionate and pure of heart, the spirits eventually allow him to join their ranks, even developing affection for him. Through his strong connection to the spirits, Wan begins to perfect his bending, even inspiring disadvantaged humans to leave their lives of suffering behind in order to forge new paths. One could say that Wan, in his ability to befriend spirits, has already reached a higher state of being.

Wan sets out to explore other human settlements where he discovers other humans bending other elements. The idea of four (sometimes five) elements can be found in many ancient cultures, from Egypt to Greece to China and Japan. Wan eventually comes across a battling Raava and Vaatu, spiritual embodiments of light and darkness. This is where eastern and western ideas begin to collide.

In the Avatar universe, Raava and Vaatu battle every ten thousand years during harmonic convergence. This is similar to an idea found in Indian (Hindu) philosophy, where the universe is constantly undergoing a cycle of creation and destruction, with each cycle lasting billions of years. Wan is manipulated into severing the tie between Raava and Vaatu, setting Vaatu free, and potentially unleashing ten thousand years of darkness and chaos. Raava decides to team up with Wan to master all four bending styles in order to defeat Vaatu during the next harmonic convergence. In Chinese culture, martial arts was thought of as a primarily spiritual practice. It was a way to gain mastery over body, mind, and spirit. There are old Chinese tales which claim that ancient martial artists had the ability to fly, but the wisdom was so well guarded that it was eventually lost.

Wan’s determination to perfect bending and fuse with Raava conveys his willingness to sacrifice earthly existence for spiritual gain. He is making a conscious decision to reach a higher state of being, all for the greater good. Wan genuinely wants to save the world. According to Plato, a true philosopher (read: an enlightened person) is a genuine lover of wisdom, someone who spends a lifetime to understand the non-physical realm. Similarly, Buddha was able to transcend the physical world by realizing the true cause of suffering and vowing to help eliminate it in all sentient beings. He did this by connecting to eternal goodness and compassion, mainly through meditation. Meditation is heavily featured on the show and is used by many of the more “spiritual” characters as a way to connect with the spirit world, like Uncle Iroh, Zaheer, Tenzin, and Jinora.

To both Plato and Buddha, the human physical world is something to be remedied - it is the realm of blight and imperfection. This idea of the physical/body being impure, almost like a prison for the eternal/soul, was deeply influential later in Christian thought. After the Dark Ages in Europe, Christian scholars began rediscovering Plato and his influence grew as the centuries passed. Christians developed a negative view of the body and earthly temptations. The physical/earth/body was associated with the feminine, while the transcendent/heavenly/spiritual was associated with the masculine, thereby justifying man’s dominion over women. The idea of God/Satan as the embodiment of good/evil became prominent, even giving rise to a system of angelic vs. demonic beings. Good and evil are in constant battle for the human soul and we are urged to use our free will to choose good over evil.

Wan fuses with Raava permanently, closes the spirit portals, and locks up Vaatu in the tree of time, located between the two portals in the spirit world. It is notable that the spirit portals are next to each other in the spirit world rather than at the poles like in the physical world. Looking from above, the portals in the spirit world are located in a crater type formation, resembling a yin-yang symbol. Yin and Yang is an important concept in the Daoist religion, which itself was heavily influenced by Buddhism (and vice versa).

Yin and Yang represent opposing/conflicting ideas such as dark/light, female/male, etc. However, according to Daoism, these opposing forces are actually complementary and must maintain balance in order to achieve harmony in the universe. Understanding this idea of harmony in the universe can also bring harmony to oneself. So, in the physical world, we see the spirit portals on each pole=opposites, whereas in the spirit world, we see the portals as yin-yang=complementary. The balance of yin and yang holds darkness (Vaatu) in check.

On one hand, the Avatar universe is about balancing opposing forces in the world. Korra rightfully reopens the spirit portals so that humans can reconnect with their lost spirituality. On the other hand, the Avatar universe is also influenced by the Christian idea of good vs. evil. Instead of Wan finding a way to fuse Raava and Vaatu, HE, using his free will, fuses with Raava (God) and banishes Vaatu (Satan).

This huge step away from eastern thought into western thought instantly makes the Avatar universe fraught with contradiction. Wan is seen dying in battle, having failed to save humans from themselves. Why is this? Because he hasn’t understood the yin-yang principle. He believes he can fight against evil and eliminate it. But that is impossible. And each Avatar after him is doomed to the same fate. All they can do is try to alleviate as much pain and suffering as possible.

Once Wan dies, Raava states that they are bonded forever and a new avatar is born. This obviously parallels the Tibetan Buddhist idea of the Dalai Lama, a spiritual leader who is reincarnated from one life to the next. Each time a Dalai Lama dies, a group of high lamas is sent out to search for the next incarnation. The Dalai Lama is believed to be an earthly incarnation of a particular bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is a human who has reached a high level of spiritual being on the way to Buddhahood and there have been many throughout history, some depicted as male and some female.

What moral lessons can we draw from the Avatar story? On one hand, life requires balance. Going to extremes leads to strife and suffering. This is true for personal and political life. This was clearly illustrated through all the villains on the show. On the other hand, the Avatar story says that we should aim to be one with goodness and compassion. We should shun the dark side. These two lessons seem contradictory. Isn’t shunning the dark side just another example of going to extremes? Won’t a refusal to engage with darkness lead to more problems?

We see Korra fighting several enemies over four seasons, with varying levels of success. She finally makes a breakthrough with Kuvira by engaging with Kuvira’s hidden trauma (her dark side), and she even sacrifices her own safety by saving Kuvira’s life. It seems that Korra, after a long line of Avatars, finally understands how important the concept of balance is, even in the fight between good and evil. Evil is not something to be destroyed, instead, it is something to be understood.

Reconnecting the material and spiritual worlds, as well as allowing room for failure when dealing with enemies and her own mental health, proves that Korra has reached a critical understanding of balance. At the beginning of the series, she was only focused on making herself strong, as a way to banish weakness. However, by the end of the series, she has realized that there is dark and light in everyone, including herself. When she is finally able to accept this, she reaches a place of inner peace and harmony - spiritual enlightenment. This arguably makes her the smartest and most successful Avatar so far. Not to mention, she reaches this understanding on her own, which is perhaps why it was necessary for her to be cut-off from previous Avatar incarnations - she needed a fresh perspective. Korra is truly a new Avatar for a new age.

Muddling eastern and western thought does lead to some contradictions in the moral philosophy of the show. However, we should be appreciative that an animated show for young people is even willing to tackle such important themes. Of course, there is no space to delve too deeply into the philosophical ideas mentioned above, but I hope this essay has brought to light some of the eastern ideas the show has drawn upon, so that the origins of those ideas are not erased or lost when viewed by a western audience.