Quotes from Joseph Campbell:
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The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
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The goal of your quest for knowledge is to be found at that burning point in yourself, that becoming thing in yourself, which is innocent of the goods and evils of the world as already become, and therefore desireless and fearless. That is the condition of a warrior going into battle with perfect courage. That is life in movement.
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Myths and dreams are manifestations in image form (metaphors) of all of the energies of the body, moved by the organs, in conflict with each other.
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A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation:
“As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm.
Jump.
It’s not as wide as you think.”
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The warrior’s approach is to say “yes” to life: “yea” to it all.
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Nothing is routine, nothing is taken for granted. Everything is standing out on it’s own, because everything is a possibility, everything is a clue, everything is talking to you. It’s marvelous.
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I don’t think of God as up there. I think of God as right here in whatever I’m knowing and loving and serving.
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It’s very difficult to find in the outside world something that matches what the system inside of you is yearning for.
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(Han) Solo was a very practical guy, at least as he thought of himself, a materialist. But he was a compassionate human being at the same time and didn’t know it. The adventure evoked a quality of his character that he hadn’t known he possessed.
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MOYERS: What about this idea of good and evil in mythology, of life as a conflict between the forces of darkness and light?
CAMPBELL: That is a Zoroastrian idea, which has come over into Judaism and Christianity. In other traditions, good and evil are relative to the position in which you are standing. What is good for one is evil for the other. And you play your part, not withdrawing from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but seeing that this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder: a mysterium tremendum et fascinans.
