Laghima

:This article is about the Air Nomad guru who discovered the secret to weightlessness. For other similar uses, see Guru (disambiguation).
Laghima was an Air Nomad guru and renowned poet who lived at the Northern Air Temple around 3,829 BG. He discovered the secret to weightlessness, which allowed him to unlock the airbending ability of flight. This essentially allowed Laghima to become untethered from the earth and live the last forty years of his life without ever touching the ground. His writings and philosophy were very influential and continued to be studied for thousands of years, including by Zaheer, the leader of the anarchical group known as the Red Lotus.
He was regarded as one of the most influential philosophers in world history. Avatar Yangchen called Laghima the Air Nomads' "most legendary guru", and according to Zaheer, he was the wisest airbender who ever lived.
== History ==
=== Achieving flight ===
Guru Laghima grew up at the Northern Air Temple, at a time when the four nations had not yet been formed. He began writing poetry about subjects such as instinct and illusion, and had at least one contemporary philosophical rival, Guru Shoken. He eventually relocated to live alone on a mountain near the Northern Air Temple. At some point, Laghima discovered the secret to weightlessness by relinquishing his earthly attachments.
Having already become famous by this point, Laghima was visited by a young airbender who wanted to ask him about the quest for wisdom. The guru answered the visitor's questions, while they wrote down all he said. The master ultimately argued that "wisdom is formless". Having concluded their exchange, Laghima began to slowly levitate upward, much to the pilgrim's amazement. Although the details of Laghima's life have become unclear in the face of the disappearance of Air Nomad culture from public knowledge, it was later said that having discovered flight, Laghima lived the last forty years of his life untethered from the earth. It is thus possible that the meeting with the young pilgrim was the last moment in his life when he stood on the ground.
=== Legacy ===
Guru Laghima's poetry and writing were extremely influential and were later grouped together in at least one collection known as Poems of Laghima. This book also included a retelling of Laghima's exchange with the young pilgrim about wisdom. He remained well known not just among the Air Nomads but also in the Earth Kingdom, and his philosophy remained much more popular and well-known than that of his rival Shoken. The Pearls of Laghima was a collection of essays written over the generations to interpret his teachings. Avatar Yangchen was among those who studied Guru Laghima's writings, in addition to the works of Shoken, and she thought highly of his philosophy.
The mountaintop where he had lived was named "Laghima's Peak" in his honor, and several caves located two miles from the Northern Air Temple are adorned with statues of Laghima, along with other influential monks. Laghima's poetry survived the Hundred Year War, which ended nearly four thousand years after his death. Over time, however, the truth about his achievements was lost and his abilities were dismissed as children's stories and legends. Even Tenzin, himself a renowned airbending master, did not believe in Laghima's ability to fly.
Nevertheless, Laghima's literature profoundly impacted Zaheer, who used his poem about the false nature of instinct to realize that basing expectations of reality on what was immediately observable blinded oneself from the possibilities of something new coming to light. Consequently, he believed that the guru had truly discovered the ability of flight, and after gaining airbending, Zaheer attempted to obtain the ability himself.
Zaheer also recited excerpts from Laghima's poems several times, such as to several White Lotus sentries outside his cell prior to his escape, and to Ikki while on Air Temple Island after finding a locket bearing Laghima's image. While presenting the mission of the Red Lotus to Avatar Korra in Xai Bau's Grove, Zaheer quoted Guru Laghima and stated that new growth cannot exist without the destruction of the old.
Following P'Li's death, Zaheer was able to let go of his final earthly tether, unlocking the ability of flight on top of Laghima's Peak. As a result, the guru's abilities were no longer dismissed as legends.
== Known writings and sayings ==
* Instinct is a lie, told by a fearful body, hoping to be wrong.
* Let go your earthly tether. Enter the void. Empty and become wind.
* New growth cannot exist without first the destruction of the old.
* But what is wisdom? Is it poems written on a page? Is it actions done in my name? Is it words spoken on the wind? Wisdom is formless, for only the wind remains when all else is gone.
== Appearances ==
=== Avatar comics ===	
==== Other comics ====	
== Trivia ==
* Laghima is one of two known airbenders to have achieved flight, the other being Zaheer.
* Laghima is the first and only Air Nomad from the Northern Air Temple introduced in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. However, other Air Nomads from the Northern Air Temple are known from the novels and Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game.
* In yoga, "laghima" is a supernatural power attained through a spiritual practice known as a siddhi. It specifically deals with becoming almost weightless, which corresponds to Guru Laghima's character as he attained weightlessness prior to his death.
* Laghima was the earliest known user of a specialized bending technique, having unlocked the airbending sub-skill of flight around 3,829 BG.
* Laghima's writing about becoming wind was based on a concept creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko had written in the series bible for Avatar: The Last Airbender, though they were initially undecided on what the ability to "become wind" meant beyond it being the highest level of airbending.DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan & Dos Santos, Joaquim (December 2, 2014). "Enter the Void" commentary. Book Three: Change Blu-ray.
* The locket found by Zaheer that bore Laghima's image resembles a Thai Buddha amulet.
== References ==
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ru:Лагхима
Category:A to Z
Category:Air Nomad characters
Category:Airbenders
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Category:Comics characters
Category:Kyoshi novels characters
Category:Legend of Korra characters
Category:Minor characters (Legend of Korra)
Category:Minor characters (Yangchen novels)
Category:Spirituality
Category:Teachers and instructors
Category:Yangchen novels characters