"Life is like arriving late for a movie, having to figure out what was
going on without bothering everybody with a lot of questions, and then
being unexpectedly called away before you find out how it ends."
~~ Joseph Campbell
--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> Please don't interpret my three previous rants this
> morning as indicating I don't like myth. I *love*
> myth. I see a good myth the same way that Joseph
> Campbell did, as a kind of "consciousness battery"
> that "stores" the essence of a certain state of
> attention, a certain level of consciousness.
>
> The best myths can elevate and inspire higher states
> of consciousness. But the worst can *lower* states of
> consciousness. I'm a proponent of being careful about
> WHICH myths one chooses to be inspired by.
>
> For example, many of the myths in the Bible and in
> the Gita and in the Vedas are about the glorious nature
> of *revenge*. I'm sorry, but I don't see those myths
> of warfare and genocidal slaughter as uplifting. I see
> them as a way of perpetuating a *low* state of conscious-
> ness by glorifying it.
>
> Many of the myths of humanity are about "heroes." And
> many of those heroes prove their herohood in battle;
> they are warriors. Do I see upliftment and inspiration
> in tales of the warrior mindset? Sometimes. Being will-
> ing to fight to the death for what one believes IS
> inspiring, IF "what one believes" is inspiring in itself.
>
> The noble warrior fighting for justice is way cool, IF
> it's really justice. But if what the hero is fighting
> for is really INJUSTICE (for example, the perpetuation
> of the caste system, or the ascendancy of one race or
> religion over another), is it really "justice" that is
> being portrayed?
>
> I've seen people on this forum justify war by pointing
> to the Gita, and holding it up as an example of how an
> evolved and/or enlightened person does and should act.
> I've seen people on this and other forums point to
> stories in the Vedas about some supposed "hero" killing
> enough of his fellow human beings to fill lakes with
> blood as noble, and in accord with the laws of nature.
>
> I'm sorry, but I think those folks may be missing the
> *point* of myth by focusing on the *wrong* myths.
> Which is more uplifting and consciousness-transforming,
> the myth of Jesus' anger when he's turning over the
> tables of the money-changers in the temple, or the
> myth of him teaching people to forsake anger and revenge
> and turn the other cheek?
>
> Well, kinda depends on the reader of the myth and what
> they're *looking* for in a myth, doesn't it? For those
> who *get off* on righteous anger, the temple myth prob-
> ably gets their Clint "Make my day" blood pumping. But
> for those who might be looking for a more noble way of
> living one's life on planet Earth, the "Turn the other
> cheek" myth might be more uplifting.
>
> Gordon Charrick once said (wisely), "You know you've
> created God in your own image when he hates the exact
> same people that you do."
>
> I say (possibly not as wisely), "You can discern the
> extent of a person's spiritual progress by *which*
> myths he or she chooses to focus on."
>
> Most of us here are familiar with the plotlines of the
> myths that make up the bulk of Indian, Biblical, Jewish,
> and Islamic traditions. Most of them center on war and
> battle and righteous anger and "justified killing." And
> if you *get off* on those tales, so be it.
>
> Me, I get off on other myths. Some of them are about
> the Buddha, and since *his* story wasn't written down
> until centuries after his death, *they* might be *just*
> as fictional as some of the tales of gods and goddesses
> cavorting in Brahmaloka. But the Buddha myths -- if
> they are myths -- are often *cooler* than the myths of
> other spiritual traditions in my opinion. They center
> on *rejecting* warfare, on *rejecting* righteous anger
> (and anger itself), and focus instead on Finding Another
> Way To Live, one that isn't so damned barbaric. Here are
> a few lines of one of these myths, from the beginning of
> the Dhammapada:
>
> We are what we think.
> All that we are arises with our thoughts.
> With our thoughts we make the world.
> Speak or act with an impure mind
> And trouble will follow you.
> As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
>
> We are what we think.
> All that we are arises with our thoughts.
> With our thoughts we make the world.
> Speak or act with a pure mind.
> And happiness will follow you.
> As your shadow, unshakable.
>
> Look how he abused me and beat me,
> How he threw me down and robbed me.
> Live with such thoughts and you live in hate.
>
> Look how he abused me and beat me,
> How he threw me down and robbed me.
> Abandon such thoughts, and live in love.
>
> Cool myth. Not exactly movie material, though. You can't
> exactly imagine Clint saying this and the audiences in
> the theater cheering like they do when he says, "Go ahead,
> make my day," and then wastes the bad guy with the most
> powerful handgun known to man. They cheer at that, too,
> and then they leave the theater in a certain state of
> consciousness, and with a certain look on their faces.
>
> Compare and contrast to the look on the faces of the
> audiences leaving a showing of, say, Gandhi, after hearing
> Ben Kingsley say, "When I despair, I remember that all
> through history the ways of truth and love have always won.
> There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time
> they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall.
> Think of it...always." Different look on their faces, and
> different state of consciousness behind those faces.
>
> Many, many spiritual teachers through history have said,
> "What you focus on you become."
>
> I'm suggesting that this focus extends to the myths that
> we revere, and that we should take some care about which
> ones we choose to focus on.
>
