Top Ten Joseph Campbell Quotes
Joseph Campbell was the world's foremost authority on myths and their significance in everyday life. His work was unparalleled and led to a completely new way of thinking about society and religion.Most people think mythology is simply Greek stories of Gods and Goddesses but classical mythology is only a very small part of the whole. From Native American stories of buffalo kings to rituals of cannibalism in Papua New Guinea, myths are the stories that shape our cultural understanding.
Cave paintings show the myths of our ancestors relating to the hunt while modern Catholic mass depicts an entirely different myth about leaving the temporal word and entering the spiritual. Most myths from a society have a parallel version originating elsewhere in the world which serves to show that the stories that shaped our civilization are universally needed and understood.
Joseph Campbell shined the light on the origins and meaning of mythology as it relates to our cultural past and future. Below are some of his best quotes about life, love, responsibility, and happiness.
Myth: a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.
Truth doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it. While one definition defines myth as a false belief or idea, as with many other words, it is defining "myth" used in a particular way and not as an axiom of the word.
Taking the scriptural stories literally (a 6 day creation or a 40 day flood of the earth, etc. ) serves to divide people who essentially believe the same things. When taken as a metaphor, religion unites and unifies - or can.
With all due respect, Mr. Finch, your rebuttal misrepresents your first post. One cannot "find a sense of (one's) own beliefs and nature" by "(losing) all sense of identity." And when "turning inward," should one expect to discover some distinctly different "identity" than one had assumed for a lifetime?
If so, one has been seriously self-deluded, and the odds of accepting one's newly discovered, effectively foreign identity would be poor, at best.
Whether it's classical meditation or practicing martial arts or a sport, everyone needs a time to lose all sense of identity and turn inward.
I just sit in my room doing nothing a lot. Because there's nothing else to do!
Get real, Finch. You're grossly misrepresenting this Campbell quote.
He said what he said. Words have meanings. You're choosing, time and again, to torture interpretations from Campbell's words that defy credibility.
That's not scholarship, or even informed opinion.
It's transparent advocacy.
The Buddhists call it Nirvana, Christians call it Heaven, but no matter what name it gets called, rapture is a frame of mind. Find happiness in the life you lead and you will have found Heaven. There's nothing to wait for that you can't find right now.
What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of a flower? Or a fly. Or a cloud. There is no meaning, it just is. Life has no meaning other than to just be. What we are really looking for is what will lead us to truly experience being alive. What gets you up in the morning? What excites you? That is what makes you feel alive and that is your purpose of the moment.
Nihilism and religion.
You say "neither is more dangerous than the other."
Nihilism caused 300 million deaths in the final 83 years of the 20th century, alone.
While acknowledging the deplorable abuses of religion over the 6,000-year history of civilization, you are challenged to compare those atrocities to the havoc wrought by nihilism in fewer than 100 years.
Stop passing the buck and saying you're not where you should be because of this, that, or him, or her. Every moment in your life is a choice. There is absolutely nothing you HAVE to do but live and die. Nobody MAKES you do anything or feel any certain way that you haven't chosen to do. True there are consequences and some of them may be negative, but it's still your choice to face your fate and choose one option or the other.
Marriage isn't just two people choosing to be with each other every day, it's deciding that the relationship is more important than either individual. When you compromise in a relationship you aren't conceding to the other person but to the relationship. You must work to keep it alive and above all else or it will end.
Most people believe in a force or way of being that transcends what can be described by language. Try to describe bliss or Nirvana and words fall short. Most people call the indescribable "God". Some people have put a literal definition to the word and subscribe to the "man in the sky" theology while others stay with the metaphor and believe bliss is within us all.
While it may seem cliche, the adage that "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" is definitely fitting. Only difficult situations can lead us to growth and change.
When the time comes to prove your inner character, will you be up to the challenge? Will you do what needs to be done in all situations, no matter how difficult or miniscule they seem? "Perfection" is a lot of small things done well. Do all the small things in your life well and you will achieve greatness.
There is an underlying current of believe and morality that affects us all. When we dream, our personal myths surface and can teach us what we need to learn.