Joseph Campbell: Trending quotes

Source: The Power of Myth

Episode 2, Chapter 13-14
The Power of Myth (1988)
Context: Campbell: Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. And if you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. There's a wonderful formula that the Buddhists have for the Bodhisattva, the one whose being (sattva) is illumination (bodhi), who realizes his identity with eternity and at the same time his participation in time. And the attitude is not to withdraw from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but to realize that this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder and to come back and participate in it. "All life is sorrowful" is the first Buddhist saying, and it is. It wouldn't be life if there were not temporality involved which is sorrow. Loss, loss, loss.
Moyers: That's a pessimistic note.
Campbell: Well, you have to say yes to it, you have to say it's great this way. It's the way God intended it.

Variant: Follow your bliss and doors will open where there were no doors before.
Source: The Power of Myth

Source: A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

Source: A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

Variant: The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
Source: A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

Variant: You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.

Source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Source: The Power of Myth

Source: Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research

Variant: Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.