Blissed Off
The world is waiting on each individual to awaken and simply be that person we are intended to be. This is it- this is all we are here for.
What is yours to do? What is your bliss?
JOSEPH CAMPBELL: If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.
BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands?
JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.
Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: sat-chit-ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked.
The Joseph Campbell Foundation
posted by isaiah @ 10:59 AM
3 Comments:
Tommy -
I'm so glad you posted this. It provides the forum to ask the question that has sat in my mind for some time regarding Campbell's take on BLISS.
In the profoundly spiritual movie "Office Space" (wink), Michael says something along the lines of - "If everybody did only what they wanted, there would be no one to take out the garbage."
What Campbell is saying is that we all need THAT THING that makes us come alive, but how does this co-exist with living symbiotically with others (SOME people have to be janitors - and I doubt for very few it is their DREAM) and/or keep from living the ego-centric life of what do "I" want?
Thoughts?
Trev,
Not everyone is going to choose to follow their bliss (remember the powerful illusion of fear stops many from following their happiness) therefore there will be no shortage of trash men and janitors.
“Chop wood and carry water” can as easily be restated as “carry trash and wash windows.” There are those who find their happiness doing exactly what they do- no matter how trivial and mundane it may seem to another.
BTW- the average pay for a unionized trash man and janitor hovers around the low 60's- some would say a blissful salary.
I believe we here in the west have mistakenly associated pursuit of happiness with living an egocentric life. I would offer you that when we are happiest, when we remember that no amount of unhappiness can ever change lower states of consciousness, we are living out our truest nature.
Now- define happiness. To me happiness means that state of consciousness which offends no one (including ones self), does harm to no one (again including ones self), and which delights in being held prevalent. All beings want to be happy and the ranges of happiness are many. “Don’t worry-Be happy” isn’t just a catchy song- it is a powerful affirmation (mantra) and hold so much truth.
I believe what Campbell was saying is that if something is missing in your life, you need to seek that which makes you most happy, as defined by doing no harm to ones self or others, and begin to practice ‘being happy’ more often than not.
We tend to not know and forget that happiness is our truest nature.
I take encouragement from this post, Tommy. Too often I've settled for too little, now I'll soon be forced to choose again.
I want to follow my bliss.
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