i've been thinking a lot about inner peace lately after a tumultuous decade in my 20s
filled with anger frustration insecurities impatience i've been curious to understand what
a life with inner peace looks like of course when i think of inner peace i think of uncle iroh from
avatar the last airbender and all of his wisdom but what about iroh screams inner peace i think
there are three things number one iroh knows what his role in life is number two he knows what he
is and he knows what he's not number three he is very ambivalent to what other people think of him
as a result iroh is very happy no matter how difficult his circumstances no matter the peril
the modest living or the call to start a new life after banishment this insulation to unhappiness
and his ability to maintain hope in the darkest of times is iroh's show of incredible inner strength
and inner peace so that's what we're going to talk about today we're going to talk about the journey
to inner peace by looking at uncle iroh and other characters from avatar the last airbender
but before we get into it if you're new here please hit that subscribe button so you can
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thank you. okay back to inner peace the process to get to inner peace is to answer three very
important questions number one who am I? number two am i good enough? number three
what do I want? interestingly enough irho actually asks zuko two of these questions when he finds out
that zuko is trying to steal Appa. it's time for you to look inward and begin asking yourself the
big questions who are you and what do you want. so let's dig into answering these three questions
who am I? this is the first and most basic question usually we're caught between two
different ideas who am i and who do i want to be the farther apart these two concepts the
more we're in conflict with ourselves for example if we don't react to an issue the way we want to
or let someone walk all over us we feel frustrated with ourselves hence the conflict this is Aang's
struggle he's the avatar he knows what he needs to do he needs to bring balance to the world
by defeating fire lord Ozai but he's also a pacifist that fights defensively rather than
offensively this is the main journey that we follow and learning all the elements in
order to face his final foe but it's not just about learning water bending or earth bending
mastering each element represents philosophical and internal exploration the reason aang struggled
with earth bending was because he needed to learn how to stand his ground the reason he struggled
with fire bending was because he was too timid and needed to learn to trust his own strength
iroh talks about this idea about exploring outside of your own internal confines to discover what
other cultures ideologies philosophies have to offer because it helps people build a stronger
sense of self it's the journey that he went on himself that helped him realize the teachings
within the fire nation were limited that the war they were waging against other nations wasn't
as mutually beneficial as he was being told and through wide exploration he changed and involved
and became the wise person we know him as today to discover ourselves to answer the question who
am i we have to look beyond what we know and form a new more cohesive sense of self this goes for
our work as well often people don't know what they want to do professionally until they try a couple
of things out in aang's case his exploration of different cultures thoughts philosophies
all lead him to that final question should he kill ozai everyone around him certainly seemed to
think so but ultimately it didn't fit the type of person aang is aang's desire to be true to himself
leads him to continue to explore other options and ultimately discover and learn the power of
energy bending allowing aang to achieve his goals while still being so angry about it
so after we've discovered who we are we have to answer the next question are we good enough
there are two parts to this question one is answered when we get acceptance from other people
this could be friends family colleagues but the second part and the harder part is
getting acceptance from ourselves the reason getting acceptance from others is easier
is because most of us know how to fit in how to say or do something that will please other people
that's the idea behind peer pressure and people pleasers but it can often come at the cost of what
we really want iroh was the crown prince of the fire nation he was a respected military leader and
considered ruthless in his pursuit of his goals but the death of Lu Ten his son made him realize
that he was not living the life that he wanted i think the act of abandoning a respectable position
or passing up your place in line for the throne requires incredible humility to accept that people
will look down on you even laugh at you takes incredible strength throughout the series iroh
is often taunted for his decisions for his so-called deterioration from a great leader
to a buffoon but instead of jumping to his own defense he revels in it he invites it and that's
because ira has faith in himself simply put he likes himself and he likes himself because
instead of spending his life out for blood and power he now lives for love and helping others
and of course t as he explains to zuko it's often pride the desire to be looked at a certain way
that drives us to do things we don't want to and ultimately be ashamed of ourselves and humility is
the antidote to ourselves because we accept what we are and what we aren't ira was a tea maker
and not a fire lord and the acceptance of that brought him joy and true love for himself and
that doesn't need to be a lonely place yes ira lost his family and the respect of his people
but through his travels he found like-minded people with whom he formed a powerful bond
and alliance so that brings us to the last but hardest question what do i want to do
this is probably the most prominent theme in avatar the importance of finding your own
destiny what is your path in life but finding your path in life can get complicated because
of the concept of inherited destiny this is what we watch zuko struggle with for much of the show
like iro before him zuko is a crown prince and in line for the fire lord throne
that comes with all sorts of expectations that clearly zuko internalizes and after being banished
his sole obsession is to capture the avatar but every time he comes face to face with achieving
his goal he can't follow through and that's because he doesn't really want to catch the avatar
he's really just trying to please his father even manzuko gets everything he wants he gets to go
home his father restores his honor and his place as his right hand man zuko doesn't feel happy
discovering what you really want to do is a very difficult thing as we see through zuko's struggle
the question we have to ask ourselves is are we on the path that we're currently on because we
want to be or is it because we think we have to be this comes back to that desire to be seen by
others a certain way i wanted to be seen by others as a founder of a startup but that's not really
what i wanted to do what i really wanted to be doing is this to be creating content so just like
iroh pushed zuko you have to ask yourself the same question what do you want forget what other people
will say think laugh it really does matter what do you want to do the three questions above aren't a
linear path to inner peace there is overlap and it also goes hand in hand in our effort to understand
who we are we might discover what we want and our pursuit of what we want will earn us our
own respect and help us realize we're good enough for aang zuko and iroh their exploration of these
questions brought them face to face with their destiny but we're not here waging wars liberating
cities or challenging psychotic siblings but if we find the answers to these questions
we'll be as happy and at peace as uncle iro drinking a cup of tea thanks for tuning in folks
i've been thinking about those three questions for the last five years and i couldn't miss the
opportunity to merge it with uncle iroh's journey and his wisdom if you enjoyed this video please
let me know in the comments and give it a like and a subscribe and i'll see you in the next one
you