City of Ember

Ember is a city that seems to be decaying and falling apart. There is an ancient code stored in a metal case which contains the help and directions needed to save and restore the city; a city which has become closed off and is so in the dark that they have to use power generators to keep it lit because it doesn't have any natural light. As the generator starts to malfunction, there are fears among the people about whether or not they will survive. There are a lot of parallels between the city in this movie and the world we seem to live in.

 

It is the young and open-minded ones symbolized by Lina, Looper and Poppy who will lead the way and save the city and its people. They have to try to find the solution to what's going on; the problem underneath this world. There is corruption and deceit at the core of the City of Ember, and all of this has to be brought to the surface. In that sense it's like A Course in Miracles: bringing the darkness to the light. Everything needs to be turned right side up and raised up to the truth. 

 

Nobody understands the nature of the problems of the city so they don't really have any good solutions. The city and its people are depressed and uninspired. The young trio have to go to the core to uncover the mysteries underneath the city and find the answers. It is the same with mind training; you have to go into the core of the mind; you have to go underneath all of the rituals and all of the preconceptions that are held, to get down to the core and find the escape route to the light. 

 

Some deep questions are addressed in this movie which are the very questions we need to ask of ourselves throughout this awakening journey. Will I choose to find the escape hatch? Will I choose to go beyond all of the people that don't want me to even go near the escape hatch? Why? Because they are representing my doubt thoughts; because they are representing my fear of the light. They are representing my own fear about whether I can actually do this. They're just doubt thoughts that are projected out and seem to be proof that I don't really want to wake up. The world is a projection, not a fact. It's just the idea that somehow I could be blocked; that somebody could stop me from realizing who I really am!

 

Just like Ember was a substitute, this world is a substitute. You can't make a better substitute. Don't try to go for a better personal life. Don't listen to that voice that says, “Take it a little bit easier on yourself. Others may suffer but you can have a better life.” That's what the mayor in this movie tries for: to go it alone. Don't go for it. Don't settle for survival. You don't win anything when you survive this strange game. It doesn't do you any good. On this journey anything that you think will save you personally will just wind you deeper into the darkness of oblivion. 

 

Imagine as you move through your day that the decisions that you make in your mind with the Holy Spirit are for the good of the whole. When you are peaceful, you are doing it for the whole. When you're happy, you're doing it for the good of all. When you are joyful, that is the whole universe's joy; it just radiates out to the entire sonship. So if you have a moment of joy, that is a moment of release for the entire sonship. And then when you start to forgive, and start to really release all your judgments, then that joy gets stronger and stronger and more intense for the good of the whole; for the universal mind. It's for everyone.

 

The ego is not offering you an escape of joy. The ego is offering you all these tiny little pleasures of the body. When you still have cravings for this world, you've got inner work to do; you've got purification to do. You've got emptying out to do. When your appetites for this world start to go away that's a good sign. It means you're withdrawing your mind from the ego. 

 

Every little thing you do that's motivated by joy frees the whole universe because it frees the mind from the ego. That's the escape hatch from the City of Ember.