I’m listening to Bill Moyers interview with Joseph Campbell: “The Power of Myth” in my car at the moment. And I now have a new favorite quote.
“You are manifestation of the mystery of Brahma in the field of time. This is a high privilege. Appreciate it. Honor it. And deal with life as though you were what you really are.”
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
The whole story is quite lovely, and you can read it on this webpage if you would like.
I also found this passage quite interesting:
“There are a number of services that myths serve. The basic one is opening the world to the dimension of mystery. If you lose that, you don’t have a mythology — to realize the mystery that underlies all forms.
But then there comes the cosmological aspect of myth: seeing that mystery as manifest through all things, so that the universe becomes as it were a holy picture. You are always addressed to the transcendent mystery through that.
But then there is another function, and that is the sociological one of validating and maintaining a certain society. That is the side of the thing that has taken over in our world. Ethical laws. The laws of life in this society. All of Jehovah’s pages and pages and pages of what kind of clothes to wear, how to behave to each other, and all that — you see, in terms of the values of this particular society.
But then there is a fourth function of myth, and this is the one that I think today everyone must try to relate to. That’s the pedagogical function: how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances. Myth can tell you that.”
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
I’ve really enjoyed the series so far.
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