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From Joseph Campbell’s interview with Bill Moyers:
Myth is a manifestation in symbolic images, metaphorical images, of the energies within us, moved by the organs of the body, in conflict with each other. This organ wants this, this organ wants this: the brain is one of the organs.
Is anyone else a little taken aback by Joe having presented his simplistic, objective vision of ‘how myths are made’ as an absolute truth?
My intent for bringing this quote forward is not to denigrate Campbell, I have great respect for his work, rather, my intention is to shine a light on the limitations he (unconsciously) placed on awareness, limitations that prevent awareness from realizing its omnipresent casual nature. There are many quotes in the interview with Bill Moyers that reveal Joe’s unconscious insertions of dualisms, two of which are:
That which is beyond even the concept of reality. It’s that which transcends all thought. It’s putting you there all the time, and in some way giving you a line to connect with that mystery which you are, and the myths do it, by gosh, they do it.
That goes down and down and down. And you can get all mixed up with complexes, you know, things like that, but you’re standing on the lord of the abyss, really. There’s a Polynesian saying that frequently comes to my mind: “Standing on a whale, fishing for minnows.” We are standing on a whale. The ground of being is the ground of our being, and the outward turned, we see all these little problems here, but inward, we are the source of them all. That’s the big mystical teaching.
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When you say “dualisms” I take it you mean contradicts himself? I don’t see that, please expand more. All I understand from his statement is that the rational mind is incapable to explain the mystery and even though we try and we think we know, we still “Standing on whale, fishing for minnows”.
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Hi drewie, by dualisms in relation to Joseph Campbells works, I mean that although he correctly points out that reasoning cannot explain the mystery of what or who we are, in his quote to Bill Moyers about the cause of myths being the energy conflicts between organs, he is doing precisely that. So yes, Joe is contradicting himself. He also uses the term “beyond” and “utterly transcendent” and while I believe I understand what he is trying to suggest, in truth, there is no “beyond” nor is there something that is “utterly transcendent”, there is only THIS.
In declaring that we are standing on a whale fishing for minnows or that we are a lord standing on the edge of an abyss, is Joe not presenting awareness as if it/we are peering at our causal life-source as if looking down from above?
The whole point of ‘enlightenment’ is to clear away the belief that the mysterious (to the intellect) source or cause is somehow separate or different from what you or I ARE. (Non mythical/symbolic) phrases such as “Being here Now” or “I am” are purposed to help one do just that.
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I think Campbell often appears contradictory because he is talking from several point of views at the same time. The tension of duality is a necessary step for the development of enlightenment whatever that word means. Here is a quote from Pathways to Bliss.
“I recently became acquainted with the work of a great German psychiatrist named Carlfried Graf Durkheim (not to be confused with the French sociologist Emile Durkheim). This psychiatrist has summarized the whole problem of health – psychological and physical – in view of the myth, continuing the work of Carl Gustav Jung and Erich Neumann.
According to Durkheim, a life-giving wisdom lives in us. We are all manifestations of a mystical power : the power of life that has shaped all living things, that has shaped us all in the mother’s womb. And the wisdom that lives in us is the influence of this force, this energy that flows into the field of time and space. However, it is a transcendent energy; energy that comes from an area inaccessible to the forces of our knowledge.
And the same energy in each of us – in this body – takes on a commitment. But the mind that thinks, and the eyes that look, are sometimes so entangled in concepts and local, temporal tasks that we stiffen and do not let it flow freely through us . And then we get sick. Energy is blocked and we are thrown out of the center – an idea very similar to the principles of traditional Chinese and Indian medicine. Therefore, the psychological problem, the way to protect yourself from blockage, is to become – here is your phrase – transparent to the transcendent. That is all. ..
The benefit of myth is that it points beyond the field of phenomena to the transcendent. The mythical figure is like the compass with which you drew circles and arcs at school – one foot is in the field of time, and the other has stepped into eternity. A god may have a human or animal form, but his essence refers to something beyond that form.
Bold mine. The way I see it is that field of time is the human experience, trying to survive, feeling sorrow, and eternity is that place where you know all these things… (enter each individuals experience of transcendence.). Now I might not be the best person to explain this but this is what I am getting from him. Duality and transcendence you need to have both to make sense of them. But if you concretize the mysterious aspect of life or transcendence or whatever you wanna call it then its probably not that.
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Eternity is not a place, you, as awareness, are eternal. When you see this truth, your dualistic perspective of a field of time with all its thoughts of survival will gradually come to an end. . But of course in order to realize your eternal, unified nature, you must desire with all your heart to uncover this truth. Joe acknowledged he was a scholar that collected knowledge, not a truth seeker.
I once was a myth maker. It was a very helpful bridge between dualistic perspectives, as if from gross to subtle, but the bottom line is that any identification with image or thought causes a split perspective. So while it is true that the dualistic perspective is present in the seeking for Truth, if one does not realize that the dualistic perspective is wrong view (a Buddhist term) they will not be able to let go of their attachment to myth.
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