Joseph Campbell and the Bliss of Now
by Susan Scharfman
“In the true tradition of Islam, everything starts with the acceptance of the Unity of God, that there is just One Absolute Being from which all stems, and within which all exists. To get through the eye of the needle you have to lose your opinions, realizing that you know nothing.”
– Reshad Feild, "The Last Barrier"
While filmmaker George Lucas was making “Star Wars” he consulted at length with Joseph Campbell whose knowledge of world religions, mythology and exotic languages was exhaustive and unparalleled. Campbell coined the phrase, “follow your bliss” when few of us in the western world were following ours except maybe chemically.
Man of a Thousand Myths
Joseph Campbell studied Hinduism, Buddhism and the ancient Sanskrit scriptures in European universities and in Asia for several years. He then isolated himself in a rough cabin in upstate New York for five more years to read, read, read. All this prior to becoming professor of Comparative Mythology and Religion at Sara Lawrence College in the 1930s. In 1949 he published “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” Volumes followed on primitive mythology with “The Masks of God” in which he wrote that all the religions of the world, all the rituals and deities, are "masks" of the one unknown truth or force.
From Lucas’s work with Campbell the hero’s journey trilogy was born. By that time Eastern religious beliefs and practices were finding their way to U.S. shores with plenty of seekers ready to move on from Woodstock. So it is no accident that Lucas Films and others such as the “Matrix” series with references to biblical, philosophical and religious works became especially popular among seekers of enlightenment. The Luke Skywalker figure from “Star Wars” suggests a balance between the material human and the spirit force in which the hero is comfortable in both the inner and outer worlds.
The Eternal Wisdom of Mythology
Joe Campbell believed that all spirituality is searching for the same Divine truth from which everything came (the inner formless Absolute), in which everything currently exists (the outer Relative world of form), and into which everything eventually returns. He characterizes the Divine by the various deities or holy heros such as Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed–all metaphysical figures of spirituality in the world. Even the ancient Egyptian gods Osiris, Ra, Horus remain vital in East and West African religions and mythology.
Myths are universal and occur throughout human history regardless of which epoch or culture or society–themes and legends people perceive as integral to their culture. Before the written word stories were handed down in the form of rituals and oral traditions. I’ve witnessed the practice of Shamanism both in Japan (Shintoism) where people regard their ancestors and nature as sacred, and in Africa where people are transformed in some way or cured of illness. Whether written or oral, these practices continue to appear repeatedly in different mythologies, including our own Native American Indians. They represent universal truths about humans and they are eternal.
Absence of Mythology in Modern Society
Joseph Campbell died in 1987, shortly after his renown PBS Television series “The Power of Myth With Bill Moyers.” Campbell and Moyers concluded that the elimination of classical studies from modern public education in our country has led to a lack of awareness of the mythological foundations of western society's heritage.
For the average American, the mythology and wisdom of ancient Greece may as well never have been. Yet it is part of the fabric of western culture. Notwithstanding the formidable rites of native Americans, which honor the divine presence in nature and the natural order of life, mythology is absent from the American psyche.
The Song of Bliss and The Power of Now
Belief in the essential goodness of each individual soul appears absent from the collective consciousness, as Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” The song is Bliss, consciousness–that which is beyond form or any mind concepts, beyond dogma and religious bigotry.
“If you 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. Wherever you are–if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.” — Joseph Campbell, “The Power of Myth”
In his book, “The Power of Now,” Eckhart Tolle teaches that there is never ever anything wrong with right now, the present moment. Like other cultural wordplay sometimes language gets denigrated into cliches for the sake of advertising and marketing. But if you can put your mind on hold for an instant, consider these words from a Sufi master to his pupil: “How wonderful are the ways of God, Who manifests for each of us all that is necessary for the moment.”
“In the true tradition of Islam, everything starts with the acceptance of the Unity of God, that there is just One Absolute Being from which all stems, and within which all exists. To get through the eye of the needle you have to lose your opinions, realizing that you know nothing.”
– Reshad Feild, "The Last Barrier"
While filmmaker George Lucas was making “Star Wars” he consulted at length with Joseph Campbell whose knowledge of world religions, mythology and exotic languages was exhaustive and unparalleled. Campbell coined the phrase, “follow your bliss” when few of us in the western world were following ours except maybe chemically.
Man of a Thousand Myths
Joseph Campbell studied Hinduism, Buddhism and the ancient Sanskrit scriptures in European universities and in Asia for several years. He then isolated himself in a rough cabin in upstate New York for five more years to read, read, read. All this prior to becoming professor of Comparative Mythology and Religion at Sara Lawrence College in the 1930s. In 1949 he published “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” Volumes followed on primitive mythology with “The Masks of God” in which he wrote that all the religions of the world, all the rituals and deities, are "masks" of the one unknown truth or force.
From Lucas’s work with Campbell the hero’s journey trilogy was born. By that time Eastern religious beliefs and practices were finding their way to U.S. shores with plenty of seekers ready to move on from Woodstock. So it is no accident that Lucas Films and others such as the “Matrix” series with references to biblical, philosophical and religious works became especially popular among seekers of enlightenment. The Luke Skywalker figure from “Star Wars” suggests a balance between the material human and the spirit force in which the hero is comfortable in both the inner and outer worlds.
The Eternal Wisdom of Mythology
Joe Campbell believed that all spirituality is searching for the same Divine truth from which everything came (the inner formless Absolute), in which everything currently exists (the outer Relative world of form), and into which everything eventually returns. He characterizes the Divine by the various deities or holy heros such as Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed–all metaphysical figures of spirituality in the world. Even the ancient Egyptian gods Osiris, Ra, Horus remain vital in East and West African religions and mythology.
Myths are universal and occur throughout human history regardless of which epoch or culture or society–themes and legends people perceive as integral to their culture. Before the written word stories were handed down in the form of rituals and oral traditions. I’ve witnessed the practice of Shamanism both in Japan (Shintoism) where people regard their ancestors and nature as sacred, and in Africa where people are transformed in some way or cured of illness. Whether written or oral, these practices continue to appear repeatedly in different mythologies, including our own Native American Indians. They represent universal truths about humans and they are eternal.
Absence of Mythology in Modern Society
Joseph Campbell died in 1987, shortly after his renown PBS Television series “The Power of Myth With Bill Moyers.” Campbell and Moyers concluded that the elimination of classical studies from modern public education in our country has led to a lack of awareness of the mythological foundations of western society's heritage.
For the average American, the mythology and wisdom of ancient Greece may as well never have been. Yet it is part of the fabric of western culture. Notwithstanding the formidable rites of native Americans, which honor the divine presence in nature and the natural order of life, mythology is absent from the American psyche.
The Song of Bliss and The Power of Now
Belief in the essential goodness of each individual soul appears absent from the collective consciousness, as Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” The song is Bliss, consciousness–that which is beyond form or any mind concepts, beyond dogma and religious bigotry.
“If you 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. Wherever you are–if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.” — Joseph Campbell, “The Power of Myth”
In his book, “The Power of Now,” Eckhart Tolle teaches that there is never ever anything wrong with right now, the present moment. Like other cultural wordplay sometimes language gets denigrated into cliches for the sake of advertising and marketing. But if you can put your mind on hold for an instant, consider these words from a Sufi master to his pupil: “How wonderful are the ways of God, Who manifests for each of us all that is necessary for the moment.”