PNTV: A Joseph Campbell Companion by Joseph Campbell (#69)

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Hey, this is Brian. Welcome to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got another one of my favorite books, a Joseph Campbell Companion, which is a collection obviously of Joseph Campbell's wisdom. Awesome book. We've got the six page PDF Philosopher's note. Joseph Campbell occupies the grandfather slot in my spiritual family tree. Absolutely love him. Above him we've got Abraham Maslow. Then way back we've got Ralph Watto, Emerson, and everyone else who I adore and I put into my spiritual family tree. But Campbell's one of the few teachers who I've done three notes on. So in the hundred notes, we have notes on a Joseph Campbell Companion, Pathways to bliss. Awesome book. And the Power of Myth where I talk about a lot of his great ideas. Campbell, as you know, if you've read some of these or watched the other episodes, was a mythology expert, super passionate, great guy, and brought the idea of a hero's journey to life for us through his book, A hero with a thousand faces, and talked about the idea of following your bliss. So in this note, we're going to look at a few of my favorite big ideas. I'm actually going to skip follow your bliss. Check out the other episodes where I go into detail on that and where he came up with that whole phrase, follow your bliss. It's from the Upanishads. Really cool. How about this? We'll start with this idea that again, a hero's journey, we are called to live a hero's journey. And he says to refuse that call leads to stagnation. And what you don't experience positively, you're going to experience negatively. In anxiety, depression, there's this energy that's begging to be expressed. And if you don't experience it positively, you're going to experience it negatively. And it's actually a gift, if we think about it. Nature, God, the universe, whatever you want to call it is rewarding or giving us a sign, a signal that we're not quite on. It's kind of like if you cut your finger, you feel pain. Well, your soul feels pain. And if it's not doing what it's destined to do, right. So what we don't experience positively, we're going to experience negatively. Really, really big idea that we're going to go through more and more and more. So this idea of a hero's journey, we're called, we've got to answer that call if we want to feel fully actualized. It's Abraham Maslow 101. We've got this hierarchy of needs and as we move up it, we've got this ultimate need to self actualize, fully express ourselves and give ourselves to the world completely. To the extent we're not feeling that, it's literally like our soul can't breathe. It's not getting the oxygen that it needs. That we talk about in the Maslow note and throughout these notes. Now important point, he talks about this. On the hero's journey there's a, in mythology there's a forest that we go into, right? So there's kind of like a local community. And imagine the ancient hero that's going into the forest, into the unknown, the mythological, metaphorical unknown. Now if you go into that forest on a path that already exists, that's not your hero's journey. If you're living someone else's life, if you're following someone else's trail, one that they cut into the forest of the unknown, that isn't your hero's journey. So it's one of the great signs that you're not on the right path. If you're simply following someone else's path, that's not your destiny. You're never going to fully express yourself just following a cookie cutter route that someone else laid out for you. You've got to have the courage and the audacity to check in, see what your true self is asking for and then go there. So that's the idea of the heroes forest and you got to enter it often the darkest part, the unknown aspect. Really cool idea in order to do that. Another metaphor, Campbell says the old skin has to be shed before the new one can come in. Nietzsche says something similar. He says the snake that cannot shed its skin must perish. Imagine a snake in nature, if it doesn't shed its skin, however often it does that, it's going to die. It needs to release that old identity, if you will, that old physical structure. Well, we need to release our old psychological identity. We need to shed that skin if we want to be reborn into the new version of ourselves. And he talks about the fact, he says, quote, if you want resurrection, you must have crucifixion, right? So the only way you get to a resurrection moment is after a crucifixion. So the same idea of that shedding of skin, you've literally got to crucify that old identity that is no longer serving you and, and be born into the new. And if that sounds intense, it's because it is. That's a pretty, pretty Hardcore, intense process that takes a hero to be willing to go for really, really powerful stuff. And part of that he talks about the fact that all these great kind of images. He's a great storyteller. And if you are feeling this, check out the note, check out the book and the other notes and the other books, and check out the DVD series called the Power of Mythology. I have a note on that you can check out with Bill Moyers, where he goes off, and he's somewhere near 80, 82, right before he passed away. And just a vibrant, beautiful human being telling all these stories. Another one of the stories he says is, you can't make omelets. Let's say you want to make omelets. I personally don't eat omelets. Let's say you do. You can't have omelets without breaking the eggs. It's naive to think you're somehow going to create an omelet without breaking the eggs. Isn't that a cool way to look at it? So the same thing with our lives. It's silly to think we're going to create an extraordinary work of art that is our lives without breaking some eggs, without making some mistakes, without skinning our knee or falling down or bumping our head or whatever it is. Of course we're going to go through those moments. Of course we've got to break some eggs, shed some skin, go through some death and rebirth processes in our own lives. And if we want to create the ultimate vision of our ideal lives, really cool. Another big idea. He's got this great story, talks about a Native American who's counseling a young man as he's going through his transition. He says, look, you're going to get to a great chasm in your life, right, where there's a separation between where you are and where you want to be. A chasm.

And.

And he says, when you get there, jump. It's not as wide as you think, right? When you get to that chasm in life, jump. It's not as wide as you think. Really cool idea, this idea that we have way more strength than we think we do. The moment we go for it, the strength shows up. There's something powerful there. And of course, we've got to go for it diligently, patiently, persistently and playfully. It's not about going for it. Then in midair, looking down and saying, oh, wait, I don't want to do. I don't know. And then straight down, you got to jump. You got to really go for it. Fully commit yourself and then be willing to go through all of the challenges and all the processes to actually get through those challenging times. I'm stating the obvious but powerful stuff. Another really, really cool idea. He talks about the idea of loving your fate and, and he references Nietzsche. Nietzsche described this as amour faiti love of your fate. And the basic idea here is whatever happens to you, no matter how great and tragic of a train wreck your life might be right now or it has been in the future or might be in the future, has been in the past or might be in the future, whatever your situation is, act as if you wanted it to happen. See it as an incredible challenge and opportunity and love your fate. And you have a choice. He says you can bring love to that moment. You can cherish it as a hero would his challenges and say, this is making me stronger. There's something here for me to learn. Love the opportunity, love the growth opportunity and challenge. Or you can curl up into a little ball and a little victim and complain and criticize and blame and not do anything to move through it, but live from a sense of entitlement, that life should be just perfect for you. You've worked so hard, you should never have any challenges. Who do you think is going to thrive and survive and really have the life they want? The one who views whatever challenge as an opportunity. And the fact is, when we get far enough past our most challenging times, we tend to see it as one of the most amazing times. And I share a story in the note about how I dropped out of law school, ended a five year relationship in the same week, had no idea what I wanted to do, super traumatized, just in the worst place I've been in my life. And out of that tiny, out of that great challenge, I had a tiny amount of intuition and bliss and I followed it. It led to me creating a business I never could have imagined, raising a bunch of money, working with some awesome people. And it's amazing, a little trace of bliss. And I can see now that when I have challenging times, I can learn. And I have learned to love my faith when wow, there's something here. There's a place for me to grow. Really big idea. I talk about it more in the note. If you're feeling it, check it out. Final idea. He says this. He references Sri Ramakrishna who says, don't approach enlightenment unless you approach it. As a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond. You got to be intense. You're not dilly dallying when your hair is on fire. You go Find a pond. Same with life. We've got to go for it. Live our hero's journey fully. Go out and crush it and have fun and seek it like our hair was on fire. So that's Joseph Campbell's companion. Hope you dug it. Look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have an awesome day. See ya. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optimize with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.

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