#5

A legendary guru named Laghima, who lived more than three thousand years ago in the Northern Air Temple, wrote in his poems:

"Let go of your earthly tether.

Enter the void.

Empty and become wind."

It was believed that these lines contained the secret of being able to fly using only their powers, without the use of gliders, which all Air Nomads were forced to use.

Only Laghima himself managed to master this sub-skill of Air Magic and spent the remaining forty years of his life without ever touching the ground until his death.

Laghima himself is revered as one of the most influential philosophers in world history and the Air Nomads called him the greatest guru.

Even the monk Gyatso, the man who essentially raised Aang, called Laghima the wisest Airbender who ever lived and often told stories about him to Aang, setting him up as an example to the young Avatar.

In general, Aang was very fond of these stories, and he often talked with Gyatso about Laghima, since the guru became one of the idols of the young Avatar.

Although to be honest, almost all the children were very fond of stories about the Air Nomad, who could fly without assistance and dreamed of someday learning to do the same.

True, few people believed that this was feasible and it became more of a legend or even a fairy tale, very loved by children, while adult Nomads were sure that Laghima's ability to 'become one with the wind' is a fiction and is rather a kind of metaphor for a free spirit, which the famous philosopher adhered to.

But, among such skeptics, there will always be those who believe in a fairy tale and want to study the guru's treatises to find out the secret of Laghima to achieve the seemingly impossible.

But, even after so many years, no one managed to repeat the success of the legendary guru, and there were fewer and fewer enthusiasts who wanted to spend their lives to achieve this illusory goal.

So the ability to fly would have remained only an unrealizable fairy tale, if Zaheer (who had not even been born yet, but this is not important now), did not appear one day, not a magician who studied the works of Laghima, who believed that the natural order of the world is chaos.

The last statement is somewhat contrary to the philosophy of the other Nomads, but usually, such a worldview of the legendary guru was ignored in favor of his other achievements.

Imbued with a similar philosophy, Zaheer, who was an anarchist and believed that the Avatar only interferes with the world and his disappearance would be a blessing, one day became an Airbender, thanks to the Harmonic Convergence.

By gaining the ability to use Airbending without being an Air Nomad and unencumbered by their philosophy, Zaheer showed new facets of this type of magic and even gained the ability to fly, becoming the second person in history to be able to do so.

Of course, Zaheer discovered this ability far from immediately and only thanks to many years of studying the works of Laghima, his worldview, which was not limited to the education of peace-loving Nomads, and also the loss of his beloved, he was able, Zaheer was able to take off, becoming one with the wind.

And so I thought, why am I worse? Why can't I learn to fly too, especially since I have an example in the form of Zaheer who was able to do it?

Of course, it hasn't happened yet and I've seen it all in a children's cartoon, but since I now live in the world of this cartoon, no one said that I couldn't achieve the same as Zaheer.

Moreover, I know the secret of how to open this ability and what Laghima had in mind when he wrote his poems, because, in the animated series, everything was very clearly explained.

The way to find true freedom is both simple and incredibly complex at the same time. To gain weightlessness and learn to be one with the wind, you need to drop all your earthly attachments.

According to the teachings of Laghima, it is necessary, figuratively speaking, to break the chains that bind you to your loved ones, and discard your desires in order to become truly free.

And, frankly, it's terrible and stupid. Earthly attachments are the meaning of human life. Only if a person has someone he loves and what he appreciates, he can truly live a full life, and what Laghima proposes to do is more like death, perhaps spiritual, not physical, but still

Only a truly sick person can get rid of all attachments because attachments are life itself. I may not understand something, but, in my opinion, Laghima is more like a sick sociopath who simply was not able to feel attachments and who was able to give up his desires to take to the air, although all life, be on earth.

And no matter how legendary and wise the Air Nomads considered him, I think that it was thanks to this 'feature' of his that Laghima was able to become the only one who managed to learn how to fly.

Given that it is unlikely that the Air Nomads of that time had psychologists who could determine what was wrong with Laghima, this may well be true, and the guru himself did not even suspect that he was different from other people.

And the fact that Zaheer also gained this ability further supports my theory, because, even though he was not supposed to be a sociopath, because he loved P'Li, Zaheer was not the sanest person, from a moral point of view.

And this, there is no doubt, given that he was ready to kill a child (even if it was an Avatar), without much hesitation, to fulfill his goal.

Unlike these two 'flyers', I, would like to believe, a completely normal person, even though I am a mixture of two different people, born out of strange circumstances, so in a normal situation, I wouldn't be able to just throw away everything dear to me for the sake of being able to fly.

Even if this is a very cool power, for me, it is not worth it to lose all the most beautiful things in life. But, if I didn't assume that I could still achieve this despite my 'normality', I wouldn't even begin to think about it.

My current situation is far from normal, and I want to believe that this is what will help me unlock the first sub-skill of Airbending.

As I said, at the moment, I am a new person who has the memories and feelings of two people, which became the basis for my 'birth'.

Although I thought that what was left of Aang and the man from another world will not be affected to me, as today has shown, this is not true and something needs to be done about it.

If I want to start a new life, then I cannot allow myself to be influenced by the emotions of people who no longer exist, no matter how wrong it sounds.

And obviously, I want to get rid of that by letting go of all the attachments of old Aang and that other guy, which I thought I had already done, but it turned out to be not as easy as I thought.

And the opportunity to get flight skills is just a nice bonus on top. I, am a blank slate and I don't have any special attachments yet (in fact, I'm only two days old), except for Appa, but considering that no matter how high I fly, he will always be with me, I think our connection is not counts.

Of course, there are Sokka and Katara, but we are not that close yet, so I'm ready to let them go, especially since no one said, that it's forever. I will be able to create new bonds even if it blocks my ability to fly. It will be a shame if this happens, but now my inner purification from old attachments, which no longer make any sense, is more important for me.

From Aang's side, everyone is already dead for a long time and no one in this world would be truly dear to him (not counting Bumi, but I'm ready to say goodbye to feelings for a 112-year-old old man who will not live long anyway) and everything from what remains of him is the memories of the past, which burden and prevent me from moving on, so there is only one option for further events.

And talking about a guy from another world makes no sense at all because everything dear to him remained there and in general it makes no more sense to feel affection for something that will never be returned.

In general, I do not have anything to which I could feel affection, which would have at least some sense and would not interfere with me.

It may be a little cruel, but I have already decided that I will start living again, and if for this I have to reject the attachments of the people who became the basis of my new personality, then I will do it and I will never regret it. Moreover, I would not do this if it did not benefit me.

And certainly, I would not even contemplate doing something like that if it meant that by dropping my attachments, I would turn into an insensitive chump who could only fly. I'm ready to sacrifice what was and what will never return, but not ready to sacrifice his future.

And, I have a little theory that if it turns out to be true and I manage to bring it to life, not only will it help me 'cleanse' from unnecessary attachments, but will give me the ability to fly, even if I live a full life, following my desires, and I will make new attachments.

And now, to the theory itself. Does Laghima's words that only after renouncing earthly attachments and one's desires one can become truly free and master flight, doesn't it remind you of anything? They remind me very much because the idea has long been in my head that the way to open the flight skill is very reminiscent of the way to open the seventh chakra, located on the top of the head.

When Aang in the animated series was being trained by Guru Pathik to be able to control his Avatar State by opening his chakras, energy centers in the human body that help regulate the flow of Qi in the body of a bender, Aang just had problems with the seventh, last chakra, which opened access to cosmic energy, whatever that meant, and which opened only if you discarded their earthly attachments.

At first, Aang refused to do so, because he didn't want to renounce his love for Katara, but then, when the situation demanded it, he did it and mastered the power of the Avatar, and then... nothing.

Yes, Aang dropped his attachments, but somehow he was able to marry Katara later and have three children and he was still able to control the Avatar State, which means that the seventh chakra was still open even though he had attachments.

I think that under the 'renunciation of earthly attachments' there was some symbolic sacrifice, which Aang had to bring to pass the test and prove that he is worthy of the power of the Avatar and that if necessary, he is ready to sacrifice something for a good cause.

Aang was able to pass this test and proved that he was worthy of strength and therefore, the chakra did not close, despite the appearance of numerous attachments in the future.

At least that's my theory and I have no reason not to believe in it. Now, back to flying. I think that this skill is opened not so much by getting rid of attachments and desires, but by opening the seventh chakra to access the so-called cosmic energy, which helps the Airbender to use such a high-level unique ability that no one else has access to.

And renunciation of attachments is a test to open the seventh chakra. The theory is very coherent and even logical, if not for one BUT.

Aang opened all the chakras, but at the same time, he did not learn to fly. At least not without using Avatar's powers. And actually, I also have a theory about why this happened.

I think it's all about the order in which the chakras open. Aang opened them in order from first to seventh. But nothing is known about Laghima and Zaheer, but I can assume that the whole point is that they missed all the other chakras and immediately opened the last one, and this is what gave them the skill of flying.

I can't explain why only this way of opening the chakra gives access to the flight skill, while other methods don't, I can't, but we will assume that this is not important. I can only prove the theory in practice, and now is the perfect time for this, until I open other chakras and until I start new attachments that will already be mine, not from old Aang and a guy from another world, which I will not discard for anything.

I'm still a little worried because I don't know how the opening of the seventh chakra will affect me and whether I will be as good as Aang, but I need to get rid of those ties that I inherited anyway, and that really gets in my way, so I'm willing to take a chance for it and I don't even really care if I can learn to fly. Although, I would love to.

True, it is not yet a fact that I can do this without quite understanding the process of how this happens in general, but I will try anyway.

All of these thoughts have been on my mind ever since I returned to my igloo after dinner with Sokka and Katara, and they have helped me gain the courage to try to turn my theory into reality.

If nothing happens, it's okay, if it's the other way around, then it's fine, and if something goes wrong, then I hope Raava will help me and save me. Although, this is risk, but I am 80% sure that everything will work.

Assuming a comfortable meditation posture that Aang had been taught as a child, I began to try to do something that would help me let go of all unnecessary attachments. Hope it works...