The idea of the hero is universal. So is the idea of God, as well as the hero's journey. The hero stories are told because the hero is you, if you can begin the journey.
All hero stories follow a separation-initiation-return progression. We need not follow a psychologist, necessarily; one only needs to follow the hero's path. Campbell writes that our life adventure is a series of mini (and sometimes major) deaths and rebirths: In order to live a more conscious, spiritual life, we must die to the old one with its mistakes, sins, and ego-centrisms.
The image the Christ on the Cross and the Buddha under the Tree of Life are the same. (Christ’s image further calls us "to suffer with," the definition of empathy.) We die to our body, our physical side, our ego and all it's desires. Instead, we gain eternal bliss of the spirit. Only in submission, through virtue, in service to others, are we heroic. Only in dying to our primal drives and submitting to service do we, in fact, gain the Christ Within.
The "call to adventure" to begin the separation stage of the quest into a fateful region of treasure and danger may be a blunder. Or, if the calling has been ignored, the reason to stop procrastinating may be pain. Proverbs, 1:24-27, 32: "Because I have called, and ye refused... distress and anguish cometh upon you."
This is where I am in the book. However, I can see that in the hero's return, he becomes the master of two worlds (yin-yang, the duality/multiplicity is whole) and achieves true freedom in a conscious, vibrant life. The realm of the gods is a forgotten dimension of the world we know. Heaven is here. When Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." He really meant, literally for once, "Heaven is in your hands, right where you are." However, individual destiny is not the motive or the theme for the hero's return. The hero returns and shares glimpses of "the One (God) who cannot be named." The God that can be named, defined, categorized by our little minds is not the true God (Tao).
Bhagavad-Gita: "Do without attachment the work you have to do... Surrendering all action to ME, freeing yourself from longing and selfishness, fight -- unperturbed by grief." Through sacrifice/submission to others and to the fulfillment of God's destiny for us, we gain honor in everyday life. The hero is the champion of things becoming.
Namaste', I recognize and celebrate the divine Christ within you,
PS- J. Campbell says, "Follow your bliss." BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands?
JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. My general formula for my students is "Follow your bliss." Find where it is, and don't be afraid to follow it.
PSS-Some favorite quotes from some hero tales, this one (parts of it) starts my dissertation...
Jerry Maguire: "Two nights later in Miami at our corporate conference, a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough.
(continuing)
It was the oddest, most unexpected thing. I began writing what they call a Mission Statement for my company. You know -- a Mission Statement -- a suggestion for the future. What started out as one page became twenty-five. Suddenly I was my father's son. I was remembering the simple pleasures of this job...
And suddenly it was all pretty clear. The answer was fewer clients. Caring for them, caring for ourselves, and the games too. Starting our lives, really.
SHOT OF SENTENCE: We must embrace what is still virginal about our own enthusiasm, we must crack open the tightly clenched fist and give back a little for the common good, we must simply be the best versions of ourselves... that goodness will be unbeatable and the money will appear.
"I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my life. I love my wife. And I wish you my kind of success."
No comments:
Post a Comment