Key to follow your bliss is YOUR

Joseph Campbell formulated what became his most quoted dictum, "Follow your bliss" in the decade before his death. Join this conversation to explore this idea and share stories.

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Drfreneau
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Key to follow your bliss is YOUR

Post by Drfreneau »

You must first know yourself before you can seek that bliss which is uniquely yours. Know yourself the oracle said, the unexamined life is not worth living Socrates proclaimed, seek your Buddha nature Sidhartha urged. Bliss follows the discovery of self, the heroes journey is a journey of self discovery and awareness. First listen, Benedict said to his monks, listen to yourself and to god, listen to find yourself. Listen to your dreams, listen to your heart, listen to your myth. In these places you will find yourself and in so doing your bliss.

CarmelaBear
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Re: Key to follow your bliss is YOUR

Post by CarmelaBear »

Drfreneau wrote:You must first know yourself before you can seek that bliss which is uniquely yours.
Dr. Freneau,

Welcome to the Conversations.

If you don't mind my saying so, I find your prose to be eloquent and succinct. It is a pleasure to have you join us in our ramblings.

~

Life makes knowing ourselves somewhat challenging. For myself, I am not clear about whether I will ever be accepted as myself, even if I find what seems most true about me. Unfortunately, many things in life involve being part of society, which can thwart the individual in ways that boggle the mind.

Examples:

I am one of those individuals who would find bliss in ridding our planet of climate-changing, filthy greenhouse emissions. People like me discover, the hard way, that we must be content with good intentions and inefficient, incremental changes.

Intellectually, I know all about diet and exercise. I try hard, and there are factors that make being good about healthy choices harder than feeling good about the moment.

~

At 63, I know my mind on some things, and I do not often see it reflected in the society in which I live. I know what is good for me, and I find myself departing from my own ideals when burdened with unavoidable stress.

For me, bliss has become an internal paradise, a defense against pain and death. Bliss is where life is beautiful, no matter what happens or what I actually do. Bliss is mine, and no power exists that can wrest it away from me.

~
Last edited by CarmelaBear on Sun Apr 06, 2014 6:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

Drfreneau
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Post by Drfreneau »

I think or perhaps it's better to say feel that we find ourselves in the now. The present is where time touches eternity CS Lewis said, the Buddaha nature is not in the past which is gone or in the future which is yet to come but in the now, mindfulness is the key to knowing yourself and bliss. And your right that it is a paradise of the mind. If reality is what our minds tell us it is then a blissful mind equals a blissful reality.

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Indeed.

:)

Sitting Owl
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Post by Sitting Owl »

Great thread, I loved it and can vouch for that fact Dr Freneau. In fact there is a Hawaiian shaman principle: Ike, that says that "reality is what you think it is." And Aloha, which is love: "To love is to be happy with..." whatever you are and whatever you have NOW!
Yours in Spirit
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Drfreneau
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So true

Post by Drfreneau »

Yes. As Campbell pointed out the cultures of this earth who came before us had great knowledge of these things.

CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

When children draw on the wall, we find it charming and harmless. We are happy with children.

We do not seem to be happy with the poor or with folks who cannot keep up with social norms.

I find society confusing. I do not know how to love those who make war on nations, on terror, on drugs. I do not understand the need for so much violence.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

Sitting Owl
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Post by Sitting Owl »

Hi CarmelaBear, If you understood what Joseph Campbell talks about the hero adventure and rites of passage, then you would understand that because our society doesn't have any functioning rites of passage we have all sorts thing were humans don't know how to be human. When our whole society starts embracing and implementing true functional rites of passage then I believe all of those problems would go away.
There is a natural need for men to have something to with the natural energies of protecting their tribe or community from invading ones, but if we take leave out of the indigenous cultures' books we would see that we can still have something like war games or dangerous competitive sports where as soon as one person is killed or injured that is the end of that game. Then the two sides can go and plan their attack for the next game.
I hope this helps you to understand a bit more of why we have the problems you are having trouble to understand.
Yours in Spirit
Sitting Owl
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CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Sorry to inform you, Sitting Owl, but societies with elaborate rites of passage were as likely to go to war as anyone else.

Humans are related to chimpanzees, who get very aggressive and competitive, and they kill. We are less related to the bonobos, who prefer making love, not war.

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

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Post by Sitting Owl »

I said nothing about elaborate rites of passage, I was talking about effective rites of passage; and I wasn't doubting the need to to go to war, but was saying that it can be more effectively used in a socially organised situation that closer resembles a game like one currently somewhat functioning system being the game of football.
Perhaps you need to study more of what Joseph Campbell says in 'Mythos I' part 3 'On Being Human', particularly about the importance of the men's club.
Yours in Spirit
Sitting Owl
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CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Owl, anything "effective" would, by definition, function to reduce aggression. I have gone through Mythos more than once, and I am quite familiar with the work of Professor Campbell. Rites may help, but they are hardly a panacea.

» The surest way to promote war is to favor male progeny over female (as they do in China). The oversupply of young males who do not have mates is generally correlated to the start of wars that occupy the sexually frustrated males and kill off their excess population.

~

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Post by Sitting Owl »

Are you saying that China is deliberately favouring male progeny just to let the kill each other?
Besides it might be that Mother Earth and Her natural disasters can not reduce our current over population to something that is sustainable well enough and needs some help from mankind in the current madness that is going all over the place.
Do you know the mind of God enough to say what is really going on in the big picture of which humanity is just a little piece? Do you know what God's plans are for humanity?
Yours in Spirit
Sitting Owl
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CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Sitting Owl wrote:Are you saying that China is deliberately favouring male progeny just to let the kill each other?
Besides it might be that Mother Earth and Her natural disasters can not reduce our current over population to something that is sustainable well enough and needs some help from mankind in the current madness that is going all over the place.
Do you know the mind of God enough to say what is really going on in the big picture of which humanity is just a little piece? Do you know what God's plans are for humanity?
Society in China, where they are famous for one-child laws, prefers one male child to the point of killing and abandoning female babies. They do not necessarily understand the possible consequences of their pro-male bias.

God is a metaphor for forces that impact our experience. These forces are as natural, (as contrasted with "supernatural"), as the nose on your face. The human connection to the "field of reality" is a phenomenon that was once regarded as the sole province (or "king"-dom) of God. The commander-in-chief patriarchal God is now facing the earliest form of challenge from his daughter, who is more democratic about the relations between the genders and the relations between the scriptural God of the old Middle Eastern religions and his progeny, who often describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious".

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

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Post by Sitting Owl »

Do you just want to argue everything. I never said if God was a he, She, or anything. In fact God is the ultimate Great Mystery that will NEVER be solved.
You were the one that said:
I find society confusing. I do not know how to love those who make war on nations, on terror, on drugs. I do not understand the need for so much violence.
I was offering you some food for thought or perhaps a review of what Joseph Campbell said on the matter you questioned. I assure you that I have lost count how many times I have watched Joseph in action and usually learn more every time; such is the depth of his understanding of society and how to live as human beings.
Yours in Spirit
Sitting Owl
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CarmelaBear
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Post by CarmelaBear »

Sitting Owl wrote:Hi CarmelaBear, If you understood what Joseph Campbell talks about the hero adventure and rites of passage, then you would understand that because our society doesn't have any functioning rites of passage we have all sorts thing were humans don't know how to be human. When our whole society starts embracing and implementing true functional rites of passage then I believe all of those problems would go away.
There is a natural need for men to have something to with the natural energies of protecting their tribe or community from invading ones, but if we take leave out of the indigenous cultures' books we would see that we can still have something like war games or dangerous competitive sports where as soon as one person is killed or injured that is the end of that game. Then the two sides can go and plan their attack for the next game.
I hope this helps you to understand a bit more of why we have the problems you are having trouble to understand.
Entering the military might be regarded as a secular rite of passage.

Also, on China, we are currently witnessing the process of Chinese leadership pushing for a greater international role for the Chinese military. In the future, we can reasonably expect that an army of only-child males could become a serious concern for our own national security.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/world ... .html?_r=0

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

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