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People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s all finally about, and that’s what these clues help us to find within ourselves.
John liked this
“Follow your bliss.”
we’re not going on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves.
The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there’s no doubt about it. The world without spirit is a wasteland.
The thing to do is to bring life to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life is and become alive yourself.
ultimately, the last deed has to be done by oneself.
Like all heroes, the Buddha doesn’t show you the truth itself, he shows you the way to truth.
He is like a lighthouse that says, “There are rocks over here, steer clear. There is a channel, however, out there.”
You’ve interpreted that to express the Western emphasis upon the unique phenomenon of a single human life—the individual confronting darkness.
“Are you up to your destiny?”
The way to find out about your happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you really are happy—not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy.
Yes, but then life can dry up because you’re not off on your own adventure.
The ultimate backing of life is chance—the chance that your parents met, for example!
I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I’ve never met an ordinary man, woman, or child.
But just living with one’s heart open to others in compassion is a way wide open to all.
You unlock it by getting somebody to help you unlock it. Do you have a dear friend or good teacher? It may come from an actual human being, or from an experience like an automobile accident, or from an illuminating book. In my own life, mostly it comes from books, though I have had a long series of magnificent teachers.
It’s important to live life with the experience, and therefore the knowledge, of its mystery and of your own mystery. This gives life a new radiance, a new harmony, a new splendor.
You learn to recognize the positive values in what appear to be the negative moments and aspects of your life.
The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure. MOYERS: The adventure of the hero? CAMPBELL: Yes, the adventure of the hero—the adventure of being alive.
GAH this book is so good. Prepare to be swept up in It.
