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trystinnA thoughtful member of the BTW Seekers list shared this:
In the words of Joseph Campbell. . ."I greatly admire the psychologist Abraham Maslow. As I was reading one of his books, however, I found a sort of schedule of values, values that his psychological experiments had shown that people live for. He gave a list of five values: survival, security,
personal relationships, prestige, and self-development. I looked at
that list and i wondered why it should seem so strange to me. I
finally realized that it struck me as strange because these are
exactly the values that mythology transcends.
"Survival, security, personal relationships, prestige, self-
development - in my experience, those are exactly the values that a
mythically inspired person DOESN'T live for. They have to do with
the primary biological mode as understood by human consciousness.
"Mythology begins where madness starts. A person who is truly
gripped by a calling, by a dedication, by a belief, by a zeal, will
sacrifice his security, will sacrifice even his life, will sacrifice
personal relationships, will sacrifice prestige, and will think
nothing of personal development; he will give himself entirely to
his myth. Christ gives you the clue when he says, 'He that loseth
his life for my sake shall find it.'
"Maslow's five values are the values for which people live when they
have nothing to live for. Nothing has seized them, nothing has
caught them, nothing has driven them spiritually mad and made them
worth talking to. They are the bores. (...Ortega y Gassett once
wrote, 'A bore is one who deprives us of our solitude without
providing companionship.')
"The awakening of awe is the key here, what Leo Frobenius, the
wonderful student of African cultures, called 'Ergriffenheit,' being
seized by something that pulls you out.
"Now, it's not always easy or possible to know by what it is that
you are seized. You find yourself doing silly things, and you have
been seized but you don't what the dynamics are. You have been
struck by that awakening of awe, of fascination, of the experience
of mystery - the awareness of your bliss. With that, you have the
awakening of your mind in its own service. The brain can enable you
to found a business in order to maintain your family and get you
prestige in the community; given the right mind, it can do these
things well. But the brain can also impel you to give all that up
because you become fascinated with some kind of mystery.
"One of the most vivid examples I know of this phenomenon is the
life of the French painter Paul Gauguin. He was a perfectly
prosperous businessman with a family and a house; then he simply
became fascinated by what began to open up for him in painting. You
start doodling with things like painting and they might doodle you
out of your life - that's what happened to Gauguin. He just went off
on this adventure, forgot his family and everything else. His
awakening led him to Tahiti and all those beautiful paintings. He
forgot all about Maslow's values and began simply to live his bliss."
Notice, Joe doesn't say Maslow's research is faulty or his
conclusions are wrong - indeed, seems it does apply to mostpeople.
In the paragraphs that follow this passage, Campbell points out that
Maslow's hierarchy of values relates to the first three chakras of
the kundalini system - but once we reach Chakra Four - the Heart
Chakra - from there on we transcend those values.
Just as some critics of Campbell mistakenly believe that the
maxim "Follow your bliss" is little more than an embrace of hedonism
("do whatever you want"), many well-intentioned types often suggest
that what Campbell means by "follow your bliss" is simply personal
development
- but it is so much more than that.
Following one's bliss, one's passion, often entails great pain and
suffering as much as joy and elation. I think of a good friend of
mine who picked up a guitar at 17 and never put it down. He
practices hours a day, plays every chance he gets with everyone he
can - all the while working the day job, landscaping, to pay for his
bliss. Financially he could be doing better; his wife and children
see little of him - unless they tag along to endless rehearsals and
gigs - family vacations consist of attending blue grass festivals
where Dave has graduated from working the gate to backstage
security, when he isn't playing on stage himself. Dave, seized by
his art, is living his bliss - but economic security and personal
relationships suffer, and he's focused on making music, not personal
growth - so Maslow's hierarchy of values are out the window. He just
finished a CD, and is on the verge of giving up the landscaping job
to write and play music full time, which will mean significantly
less income - but he doesn't really have a choice ...
Elsewhere Campbell speaks of Joyce, who pursued his art with
singlemindedness - while he and his family lived in poverty for
decades, his daughter institutionalized, his own life cut short
because his art was more important than his health ... another life
at odds with Maslow's values. Joe suggests we wouldn't want to take
Joyce as a model for living a successful, well-adjusted life - but
he is the epitome of the artist, and is still generally recognized
as the greatest western writer of the twentieth century.
Of course, being seized by one's bliss, living a mythic life, isn't
automatically all darkness and disaster, nor always leads to
divorce, poverty, or an early death - however, for those who are so
seized, it wouldn't matter if it did ...
"Mythology begins where madness starts."
Hmn...not sure I understand or agree with all that, but there you go.
In the words of Joseph Campbell. . ."I greatly admire the psychologist Abraham Maslow. As I was reading one of his books, however, I found a sort of schedule of values, values that his psychological experiments had shown that people live for. He gave a list of five values: survival, security,
personal relationships, prestige, and self-development. I looked at
that list and i wondered why it should seem so strange to me. I
finally realized that it struck me as strange because these are
exactly the values that mythology transcends.
"Survival, security, personal relationships, prestige, self-
development - in my experience, those are exactly the values that a
mythically inspired person DOESN'T live for. They have to do with
the primary biological mode as understood by human consciousness.
"Mythology begins where madness starts. A person who is truly
gripped by a calling, by a dedication, by a belief, by a zeal, will
sacrifice his security, will sacrifice even his life, will sacrifice
personal relationships, will sacrifice prestige, and will think
nothing of personal development; he will give himself entirely to
his myth. Christ gives you the clue when he says, 'He that loseth
his life for my sake shall find it.'
"Maslow's five values are the values for which people live when they
have nothing to live for. Nothing has seized them, nothing has
caught them, nothing has driven them spiritually mad and made them
worth talking to. They are the bores. (...Ortega y Gassett once
wrote, 'A bore is one who deprives us of our solitude without
providing companionship.')
"The awakening of awe is the key here, what Leo Frobenius, the
wonderful student of African cultures, called 'Ergriffenheit,' being
seized by something that pulls you out.
"Now, it's not always easy or possible to know by what it is that
you are seized. You find yourself doing silly things, and you have
been seized but you don't what the dynamics are. You have been
struck by that awakening of awe, of fascination, of the experience
of mystery - the awareness of your bliss. With that, you have the
awakening of your mind in its own service. The brain can enable you
to found a business in order to maintain your family and get you
prestige in the community; given the right mind, it can do these
things well. But the brain can also impel you to give all that up
because you become fascinated with some kind of mystery.
"One of the most vivid examples I know of this phenomenon is the
life of the French painter Paul Gauguin. He was a perfectly
prosperous businessman with a family and a house; then he simply
became fascinated by what began to open up for him in painting. You
start doodling with things like painting and they might doodle you
out of your life - that's what happened to Gauguin. He just went off
on this adventure, forgot his family and everything else. His
awakening led him to Tahiti and all those beautiful paintings. He
forgot all about Maslow's values and began simply to live his bliss."
Notice, Joe doesn't say Maslow's research is faulty or his
conclusions are wrong - indeed, seems it does apply to mostpeople.
In the paragraphs that follow this passage, Campbell points out that
Maslow's hierarchy of values relates to the first three chakras of
the kundalini system - but once we reach Chakra Four - the Heart
Chakra - from there on we transcend those values.
Just as some critics of Campbell mistakenly believe that the
maxim "Follow your bliss" is little more than an embrace of hedonism
("do whatever you want"), many well-intentioned types often suggest
that what Campbell means by "follow your bliss" is simply personal
development
- but it is so much more than that.
Following one's bliss, one's passion, often entails great pain and
suffering as much as joy and elation. I think of a good friend of
mine who picked up a guitar at 17 and never put it down. He
practices hours a day, plays every chance he gets with everyone he
can - all the while working the day job, landscaping, to pay for his
bliss. Financially he could be doing better; his wife and children
see little of him - unless they tag along to endless rehearsals and
gigs - family vacations consist of attending blue grass festivals
where Dave has graduated from working the gate to backstage
security, when he isn't playing on stage himself. Dave, seized by
his art, is living his bliss - but economic security and personal
relationships suffer, and he's focused on making music, not personal
growth - so Maslow's hierarchy of values are out the window. He just
finished a CD, and is on the verge of giving up the landscaping job
to write and play music full time, which will mean significantly
less income - but he doesn't really have a choice ...
Elsewhere Campbell speaks of Joyce, who pursued his art with
singlemindedness - while he and his family lived in poverty for
decades, his daughter institutionalized, his own life cut short
because his art was more important than his health ... another life
at odds with Maslow's values. Joe suggests we wouldn't want to take
Joyce as a model for living a successful, well-adjusted life - but
he is the epitome of the artist, and is still generally recognized
as the greatest western writer of the twentieth century.
Of course, being seized by one's bliss, living a mythic life, isn't
automatically all darkness and disaster, nor always leads to
divorce, poverty, or an early death - however, for those who are so
seized, it wouldn't matter if it did ...
"Mythology begins where madness starts."
Hmn...not sure I understand or agree with all that, but there you go.
