This is a modification of the yesterday’s post, worth reading even if you read it yesterday.
I’ve been reading Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, Doubleday, 1988. It is so clear and useful, I want to share some of it with you. As with the Course in Miracles, I will be quoting and re-arranging quotes, but the work is all fundamentally, Campbell.
Myth is the “commonality of themes pointing to a constant requirement in the human psyche for centering in terms of deep principles, for having an interior road map of experience,” that gives it meaning and allows us to live day-to-day and know we are part of an ultimate, mysterious Reality that transcends language and art. “Myth is a mask of God, a metaphor for what lies beyond the visible world.”
At its best, myth enables us to be healthy, viable individuals, group members and world citizens. At its worst, it is contradictory and exclusionary. “For example, the ten commandments say, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Then the next chapter says, ‘Go into Canaan and kill everybody in it.’ (Here) the myths of participation and love only pertain to the in-group, the out-group is totally other.”
Though the dictionary defines myth as stories about god, with god being a personification of a motivating power or a value system that functions in human life and in the universe – powers in our own bodies and nature, metaphorical spiritual potentialities of human beings, with the same powers animating our lives that animate the world, there are two totally different orders of mythology. One relates us to the natural world, the other is strictly sociological, linking us to a particular society.
The biblical tradition is socially oriented mythology. Nature is condemned. In the Bible, eternity withdraws, and nature is corrupt, nature has fallen. In biblical thinking, we live in exile. Nature religions, on the other hand, are not attempts to control nature but to help us put ourselves in accord with it. But if nature is thought of as evil, as it is in the Bible, you don’t put yourself in accord with it, you control it, or try to, and hence the tension, the anxiety, the cutting down of forests, the annihilation of native people, the separation from nature. We have contempt for nature, subjugate and dominate it because the Bible says it is merely something to serve us. We “don’t know how to apply religious ideas to contemporary life. It’s the failure of religion to meet the modern world.”
We need a new myth, one that will identify the individual not with his local, sociological group, but with the planet. A model for that is the United States. Here we see thirteen different little colony nations that decided to act in the mutual interest, without disregarding the individual interests of any one of them.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Joseph Campbell, 1
I’ve been reading Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, Doubleday, 1988. It is so clear and useful, I want to share some of it with you. As with the Course in Miracles, I will be quoting and re-arranging quotes, but the work is all fundamentally, Campbell.
Myth is the “commonality of themes pointing to a constant requirement in the human psyche for centering in terms of deep principles, an interior road map of experience,” that gives it meaning and allows us to live day-to-day and know we are part of an ultimate, mysterious Reality that transcends language and art. “Myth is a mask of God, a metaphor for what lies beyond the visible world.”
At its best, myth enables us to be healthy, viable individuals, group members and world citizens. At its worst, it is contradictory and exclusionary. “For example, the ten commandments say, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Then the next chapter says, ‘Go into Canaan and kill everybody in it.’ The myths of participation and love only pertain to the in-group, the out-group is totally other.”
Though the dictionary defines myth as stories about god, with god being a personification of a motivating power or a value system that functions in human life and in the universe – powers in our own bodies and nature, metaphorical spiritual potentialities of human beings – the same powers that animate our lives animated the world, there are two totally different orders of mythology. One relates us to the natural world, the other is strictly sociological, linking us to a particular society.
The biblical tradition is socially oriented mythology. Nature is condemned. In the Bible, eternity withdraws, and nature is corrupt, nature has fallen. In biblical thinking, we live in exile. Nature religions are not attempts to control nature but to help us put ourselves in accord with it. But if nature is thought of as evil, you don’t put yourself in accord with it, you control it, or try to, and hence the tension, the anxiety, the cutting down of forests, the annihilation of native people, the separation from nature. We have contempt for nature, subjugate and dominate it because the Bible says it is merely something to serve us.
Myth is the “commonality of themes pointing to a constant requirement in the human psyche for centering in terms of deep principles, an interior road map of experience,” that gives it meaning and allows us to live day-to-day and know we are part of an ultimate, mysterious Reality that transcends language and art. “Myth is a mask of God, a metaphor for what lies beyond the visible world.”
At its best, myth enables us to be healthy, viable individuals, group members and world citizens. At its worst, it is contradictory and exclusionary. “For example, the ten commandments say, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Then the next chapter says, ‘Go into Canaan and kill everybody in it.’ The myths of participation and love only pertain to the in-group, the out-group is totally other.”
Though the dictionary defines myth as stories about god, with god being a personification of a motivating power or a value system that functions in human life and in the universe – powers in our own bodies and nature, metaphorical spiritual potentialities of human beings – the same powers that animate our lives animated the world, there are two totally different orders of mythology. One relates us to the natural world, the other is strictly sociological, linking us to a particular society.
The biblical tradition is socially oriented mythology. Nature is condemned. In the Bible, eternity withdraws, and nature is corrupt, nature has fallen. In biblical thinking, we live in exile. Nature religions are not attempts to control nature but to help us put ourselves in accord with it. But if nature is thought of as evil, you don’t put yourself in accord with it, you control it, or try to, and hence the tension, the anxiety, the cutting down of forests, the annihilation of native people, the separation from nature. We have contempt for nature, subjugate and dominate it because the Bible says it is merely something to serve us.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Humor
You can retire to Phoenix, Arizona where
1. You are willing to park 3 blocks away because you found shade.
2. You've experienced condensation on your butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl.
3. You can drive for 4 hours in one direction and never leave town.
4. You have over 100 recipes for Mexican food.
5. You know that "dry heat" is comparable to what hits you in the face when you open your oven door.
6. The 4 seasons are: tolerable, hot, really hot, and ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!
You can retire to California where
1. You make over $250,000 and you still can't afford to buy a house.
2. The fastest part of your commute is going down your driveway.
3. You know how to eat an artichoke.
4. You drive your rented Mercedes to your neighborhood block party.
5. When someone asks you how far something is, you tell them how long it will take to get there rather than how many miles away it is.
6. The 4 seasons are: Fire, Flood, Mud, and Drought.
You can retire to New York City where
1. You say "the city" and expect everyone to know you mean Manhattan.
2. You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.
3. You think Central Park is "nature."
4. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.
5. You've worn out a car horn. (end note: if you have a car)
6. You think eye contact is an act of aggression.
You can retire to Buffalo, NY where
1. You only have four spices: salt, pepper, ketchup, and Tabasco.
2. Halloween costumes fit over parkas.
3. You have more than one recipe for deer.
4. Sexy lingerie is anything flannel with less than eight buttons.
5. The four seasons are: winter, still winter, almost winter, and construction.
You can retire to the South where
1. You can rent a movie and buy bait in the same store.
2. "Y'all" is singular and "all y'all" is plural.
3. "He needed killin'" is a valid defense.
4. Everyone has 2 first names: Billy Bob, Jimmy Bob, Mary Sue, Betty Jean, Mary Beth, etc.
5. Everything is either "in yonder," "over yonder" or "out yonder." It's important to know the difference, too.
You can retire to Colorado where
1. You carry your $3,000 mountain bike atop your $500 car.
2. You tell your husband to pick up Granola on his way home and so he stops at the day care center.
3. A pass does not involve a football or dating.
4. The top of your head is bald, but you still have a pony tail.
You can retire to the Midwest where
1. You've never met any celebrities, but the mayor knows your name.
2. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.
3. You have had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" on the same day.
4. You end sentences with a preposition: "Where's my coat at?"
5. When asked how your trip was to any exotic place, you say, "It was different!"
AND You can retire to Florida where
1. You eat dinner at 3:15 in the afternoon.
2. All purchases include a coupon of some kind -- even houses and cars.
3. Everyone can recommend an excellent dermatologist.
4. Road construction never ends anywhere in the state.
5. Cars in front of you often appear to be driven by no one.
1. You are willing to park 3 blocks away because you found shade.
2. You've experienced condensation on your butt from the hot water in the toilet bowl.
3. You can drive for 4 hours in one direction and never leave town.
4. You have over 100 recipes for Mexican food.
5. You know that "dry heat" is comparable to what hits you in the face when you open your oven door.
6. The 4 seasons are: tolerable, hot, really hot, and ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!
You can retire to California where
1. You make over $250,000 and you still can't afford to buy a house.
2. The fastest part of your commute is going down your driveway.
3. You know how to eat an artichoke.
4. You drive your rented Mercedes to your neighborhood block party.
5. When someone asks you how far something is, you tell them how long it will take to get there rather than how many miles away it is.
6. The 4 seasons are: Fire, Flood, Mud, and Drought.
You can retire to New York City where
1. You say "the city" and expect everyone to know you mean Manhattan.
2. You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.
3. You think Central Park is "nature."
4. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.
5. You've worn out a car horn. (end note: if you have a car)
6. You think eye contact is an act of aggression.
You can retire to Buffalo, NY where
1. You only have four spices: salt, pepper, ketchup, and Tabasco.
2. Halloween costumes fit over parkas.
3. You have more than one recipe for deer.
4. Sexy lingerie is anything flannel with less than eight buttons.
5. The four seasons are: winter, still winter, almost winter, and construction.
You can retire to the South where
1. You can rent a movie and buy bait in the same store.
2. "Y'all" is singular and "all y'all" is plural.
3. "He needed killin'" is a valid defense.
4. Everyone has 2 first names: Billy Bob, Jimmy Bob, Mary Sue, Betty Jean, Mary Beth, etc.
5. Everything is either "in yonder," "over yonder" or "out yonder." It's important to know the difference, too.
You can retire to Colorado where
1. You carry your $3,000 mountain bike atop your $500 car.
2. You tell your husband to pick up Granola on his way home and so he stops at the day care center.
3. A pass does not involve a football or dating.
4. The top of your head is bald, but you still have a pony tail.
You can retire to the Midwest where
1. You've never met any celebrities, but the mayor knows your name.
2. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.
3. You have had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" on the same day.
4. You end sentences with a preposition: "Where's my coat at?"
5. When asked how your trip was to any exotic place, you say, "It was different!"
AND You can retire to Florida where
1. You eat dinner at 3:15 in the afternoon.
2. All purchases include a coupon of some kind -- even houses and cars.
3. Everyone can recommend an excellent dermatologist.
4. Road construction never ends anywhere in the state.
5. Cars in front of you often appear to be driven by no one.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Bridging the Little Gap
[This is written in first person – “I.” It is meant to be read in first person, with the “I” being you, the reader.]
Spirit builds a bridge to Itself across the little gap, but only in the space left clean and vacant by the miracle. The seeds of sickness and the shame of guilt It cannot bridge, for It can not destroy the alien will It did not create. If I let the gap’s effects be gone and won’t clutch them eagerly to keep them for myself; the miracle will brush them all aside, thus making room to bridge the gap and return me to Itself.
As I count the silver miracles and golden dreams of happiness as all the treasures I’ll keep within the storehouse of the world, I awaken to my reality. What is the world except a little gap perceived to tear eternity apart, and break it into days and months and years? And what am I who live within the world except a picture of a child of God, broken into pieces, each concealed within a separate and uncertain bit of clay?
I will not be afraid but let my world be lit by miracles. And where the gap is seen to stand between my siblings and I, I will join them there. And sickness will be without a cause. The dream of healing lies in forgiveness, gently showing we never sinned. Like the sea rushing in to cover and smooth the ship’s wake, the miracle would leave no proof of guilt or bring witness to what never was.
And in my storehouse, will be a welcome for my siblings and God. The door is open so all those who have had enough of starvation, fear and anger may come and feast and no longer cherish illusions, dark dreams and sickness. It will be a feast like nothing the world has known. For here, the more that anyone receives, the more is left for all the rest to share. No one is deprived or can deprive. Here is a feast the spirit lays before its children, to share equally with them. And in their sharing there can be no gap in which abundance falters and grows thin. Here the lean years never enter and time waits not upon this feast, which has no end. For Love has set its table in the gap, the space that seemed to keep my guests apart from me.
Spirit builds a bridge to Itself across the little gap, but only in the space left clean and vacant by the miracle. The seeds of sickness and the shame of guilt It cannot bridge, for It can not destroy the alien will It did not create. If I let the gap’s effects be gone and won’t clutch them eagerly to keep them for myself; the miracle will brush them all aside, thus making room to bridge the gap and return me to Itself.
As I count the silver miracles and golden dreams of happiness as all the treasures I’ll keep within the storehouse of the world, I awaken to my reality. What is the world except a little gap perceived to tear eternity apart, and break it into days and months and years? And what am I who live within the world except a picture of a child of God, broken into pieces, each concealed within a separate and uncertain bit of clay?
I will not be afraid but let my world be lit by miracles. And where the gap is seen to stand between my siblings and I, I will join them there. And sickness will be without a cause. The dream of healing lies in forgiveness, gently showing we never sinned. Like the sea rushing in to cover and smooth the ship’s wake, the miracle would leave no proof of guilt or bring witness to what never was.
And in my storehouse, will be a welcome for my siblings and God. The door is open so all those who have had enough of starvation, fear and anger may come and feast and no longer cherish illusions, dark dreams and sickness. It will be a feast like nothing the world has known. For here, the more that anyone receives, the more is left for all the rest to share. No one is deprived or can deprive. Here is a feast the spirit lays before its children, to share equally with them. And in their sharing there can be no gap in which abundance falters and grows thin. Here the lean years never enter and time waits not upon this feast, which has no end. For Love has set its table in the gap, the space that seemed to keep my guests apart from me.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Sickness and the Little Gap
[This is written in first person – “I.” It is meant to be read in first person, with the “I” being you, the reader.]
No mind is sick until another mind agrees they are separate. And thus it is their joint decision to be sick. If I withhold agreement and accept the part I play in making sickness real, the other mind cannot project its guilt without my aid in letting it perceive itself as separate and apart from me. Thus is the body not perceived as sick by both our minds from separate points of view. Uniting with another’s mind prevents the cause of sickness and perceived effects. Healing is the effect of minds that join, as sickness comes from minds that separate.
The miracle does nothing just because the minds are joined, and cannot separate. Yet in the dreaming has this been reversed, and separate minds are seen as bodies, which are separated and cannot join. Allowing another to be sick, by not feeling our fundamental oneness, abandons them to their dreams because I’m sharing them with them. The others have not seen the cause of sickness where it is, and I have overlooked the gap between us, where the sickness has been bred. We are thus joined in sickness, preserving the little gap unhealed, where sickness abides carefully protected, cherished and upheld by firm belief, lest God should come to bridge the little gap that leads to It. I need to stop fighting Its coming with sickness, dreams and illusions, for it is Its coming that I want above all things that seem to glisten in this dream of living.
The end of dreaming is the end of fear, and love was never in the world of dreams. The gap is little. Yet it holds the seeds of pestilence and every form of ill, because it is a wish to keep apart and not join. Thus it seems to give a cause to sickness which is not its cause. The purpose of the gap is all the cause that sickness has; for it was made to keep us separated, in a body which I see as if it were the cause of pain.
The cause of pain is separation, not the body, which is only its effect. Yet separation is but empty space, enclosing nothing, doing nothing, and as unsubstantial as the empty place between the ripples that a ship makes in passing. And covered just as fast as water rushes in to close the gap, and as the waves in joining, cover it. Where is the gap between the waves when they have joined, and covered up the space which seemed to keep them separate for a little while? Where are the grounds for sickness when the minds have joined to close the little gap between them, where the seeds of sickness seemed to grow?
No mind is sick until another mind agrees they are separate. And thus it is their joint decision to be sick. If I withhold agreement and accept the part I play in making sickness real, the other mind cannot project its guilt without my aid in letting it perceive itself as separate and apart from me. Thus is the body not perceived as sick by both our minds from separate points of view. Uniting with another’s mind prevents the cause of sickness and perceived effects. Healing is the effect of minds that join, as sickness comes from minds that separate.
The miracle does nothing just because the minds are joined, and cannot separate. Yet in the dreaming has this been reversed, and separate minds are seen as bodies, which are separated and cannot join. Allowing another to be sick, by not feeling our fundamental oneness, abandons them to their dreams because I’m sharing them with them. The others have not seen the cause of sickness where it is, and I have overlooked the gap between us, where the sickness has been bred. We are thus joined in sickness, preserving the little gap unhealed, where sickness abides carefully protected, cherished and upheld by firm belief, lest God should come to bridge the little gap that leads to It. I need to stop fighting Its coming with sickness, dreams and illusions, for it is Its coming that I want above all things that seem to glisten in this dream of living.
The end of dreaming is the end of fear, and love was never in the world of dreams. The gap is little. Yet it holds the seeds of pestilence and every form of ill, because it is a wish to keep apart and not join. Thus it seems to give a cause to sickness which is not its cause. The purpose of the gap is all the cause that sickness has; for it was made to keep us separated, in a body which I see as if it were the cause of pain.
The cause of pain is separation, not the body, which is only its effect. Yet separation is but empty space, enclosing nothing, doing nothing, and as unsubstantial as the empty place between the ripples that a ship makes in passing. And covered just as fast as water rushes in to close the gap, and as the waves in joining, cover it. Where is the gap between the waves when they have joined, and covered up the space which seemed to keep them separate for a little while? Where are the grounds for sickness when the minds have joined to close the little gap between them, where the seeds of sickness seemed to grow?
Monday, October 4, 2010
Practicing Miracles
I get all this intellectually and am able to actually apply it to my life more and more and achieve better and better results: more peace, clarity, less conflict, and greater productivity. The problem is I frequently get stuck: some situation or condition arises and tho I know I don’t have to perceive it as I do and I can ask for help to see it differently, and I do ask for help, my heart and mind are stuck, just going round and round. Eventually, I’ll get the different perception I pray for and the peace and clarity that go with it, but until that happens, I feel awful and experience a lot of stress.
Part of my inability to let go arises from fear, my amygdyla - the primitive lizard part of my brain, gets triggered, adrenalin pours into my system and I get uncomfortably stuck. Deep breathing, going for a walk, meditation and prayer all help with that when it’s happening and as a preventative practice to make me less susceptible to it.
The fear driven need, frequently, the desperate need to be right, often camouflaged as ‘standing up for what’s right’ or ‘doing God’s will,’ also keeps me holding on to perceiving the situation or condition as the world, the unforgiven world, sees and defines it and keeps me from letting go and letting God and the goodness, peace, love and compassion that God is, flow into me and through me, into the situation. After all, if I’m right, if I’m doing what I’m ‘supposed’ to do, ‘should’ do, then I shouldn’t be afraid, right? Except who says what I’m ‘supposed’ to do, or ‘should’ do? The Bible? My parents? My boss? My political party?
The trick is to be mindful and aware, to feel the Presence in everything, no matter what, not take things so seriously, not need to be right, and stay empty – have no feelings, thoughts, beliefs and opinions, at all, but especially none that weigh me down and cause me to blame, judge, exclude, punish or hurt others. As soon as I start blaming, taking things seriously and need to be right, I want to become aware I’m getting stuck and ask to perceive and experience what’s going on as spirit would perceive and experience what’s going on, with love, compassion, joy, peace and inclusiveness. Do you know why angels fly? Because they take themselves so lightly!
Part of my inability to let go arises from fear, my amygdyla - the primitive lizard part of my brain, gets triggered, adrenalin pours into my system and I get uncomfortably stuck. Deep breathing, going for a walk, meditation and prayer all help with that when it’s happening and as a preventative practice to make me less susceptible to it.
The fear driven need, frequently, the desperate need to be right, often camouflaged as ‘standing up for what’s right’ or ‘doing God’s will,’ also keeps me holding on to perceiving the situation or condition as the world, the unforgiven world, sees and defines it and keeps me from letting go and letting God and the goodness, peace, love and compassion that God is, flow into me and through me, into the situation. After all, if I’m right, if I’m doing what I’m ‘supposed’ to do, ‘should’ do, then I shouldn’t be afraid, right? Except who says what I’m ‘supposed’ to do, or ‘should’ do? The Bible? My parents? My boss? My political party?
The trick is to be mindful and aware, to feel the Presence in everything, no matter what, not take things so seriously, not need to be right, and stay empty – have no feelings, thoughts, beliefs and opinions, at all, but especially none that weigh me down and cause me to blame, judge, exclude, punish or hurt others. As soon as I start blaming, taking things seriously and need to be right, I want to become aware I’m getting stuck and ask to perceive and experience what’s going on as spirit would perceive and experience what’s going on, with love, compassion, joy, peace and inclusiveness. Do you know why angels fly? Because they take themselves so lightly!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Undoing the world
The world is ‘undone’ as the Course talks about undoing, first by being transformed in our minds. Ultimately, for the Course, the world is already ‘undone’ because it is not real – only what God creates is real. But since we are asleep dreaming we are in the world it is real to us, tho the Course says it is an illusion, not created by God. So we come closer to our reality and undo the world, by waking up to our own, and humanity’s, oneness with God, by first transforming our perceptions of the world in our hearts and minds.
We do this as a daily, moment to moment practice, by having the mental and emotional discipline to be aware of our perceptions, thoughts and feelings. We transform the world, not because we ‘saved’ it from anything, but rather because we actively participate in life, demonstrating our belief that God is good and acting from our connection to Its goodness with peace, love, compassion, wholeness and inclusiveness.
Since our experience of a thing is, for us, that thing, when we come from the inside-out, awake and aware that the world can be transformed for us by our own connection to spirit, by thinking, feeling and acting with spirit, the world IS transformed for us! When we control our experience of something, for all intents and purposes, it is the same thing as shaping the thing itself. It is in this way that we ‘undo’ the world.
And have you noticed that when you drop your resistance to unwanted conditions, how they change? That’s because they are free to change, no longer held in place by all the energy we’re pouring into holding them in place. It’s almost magical. It’s an inside-out thing. The connection between consciousness and the so-called material world is one of the last great frontiers of human knowledge and expansion. And you don’t need a Ph.D, a laboratory, or a wagon train to reach that frontier and explore it, you can do it right now, right where you are by waking up, taking responsibility for yourself and knowing there’s much more to Reality than meets the eye.
We do this as a daily, moment to moment practice, by having the mental and emotional discipline to be aware of our perceptions, thoughts and feelings. We transform the world, not because we ‘saved’ it from anything, but rather because we actively participate in life, demonstrating our belief that God is good and acting from our connection to Its goodness with peace, love, compassion, wholeness and inclusiveness.
Since our experience of a thing is, for us, that thing, when we come from the inside-out, awake and aware that the world can be transformed for us by our own connection to spirit, by thinking, feeling and acting with spirit, the world IS transformed for us! When we control our experience of something, for all intents and purposes, it is the same thing as shaping the thing itself. It is in this way that we ‘undo’ the world.
And have you noticed that when you drop your resistance to unwanted conditions, how they change? That’s because they are free to change, no longer held in place by all the energy we’re pouring into holding them in place. It’s almost magical. It’s an inside-out thing. The connection between consciousness and the so-called material world is one of the last great frontiers of human knowledge and expansion. And you don’t need a Ph.D, a laboratory, or a wagon train to reach that frontier and explore it, you can do it right now, right where you are by waking up, taking responsibility for yourself and knowing there’s much more to Reality than meets the eye.
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