Myths to Live By

by Joseph Campbell

Which left the second, however, without meat to quell his hunger and in anguish he asked Śiva, “Whom, then, do I eat?” to which the god replied, “Well, let’s see: why not eat yourself?”

“I shall call you ‘Face of Glory,’ Kīrtimukha, and you shall shine above the doors to all my temples. No one who refuses to honor and worship you will come ever to knowledge of me.”18

All societies are evil, sorrowful, inequitable; and so they will always be. So if you really want to help this world, what you will have to teach is how to live in it. And that no one can do who has not himself learned how to live in it in the joyful sorrow and sorrowful joy of the knowledge of life as it is.