Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.
Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.
Is the system going to flatten you out and deny you your humanity, or are you going to be able to make use of the system to the attainment of human purposes?
I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.
I think the person who takes a job in order to live – that is to say, for the money – has turned himself into a slave.
Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.
What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else.
When people get married because they think it’s a long-time love affair, they’ll be divorced very soon, because all love affairs end in disappointment.
Marriage is a recognition of a spiritual identity.
When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you’re sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship.
Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.
The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.
Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.
Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion.
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Há quase um ano, teci um comentário (estava lendo O vencedor está só (The Winner Stands Alone)) sobre o quão eu estava feliz e surpresso ao ver você tão engajado no uso, conhecimento, disseminação da Internet. De lá pra cá, o conceito subiu e subiu sem precedentes. Vejo a entrevista ao NerdCast 231, e pronto o cara tem moral mesmo. Saca de tudo é o maior escritor (ou sendo mais preciso, o mais internacionalmente lido) brasileiro vivo e ainda distribuindo tudo isso na era da Internet. Parabéns você é o cara ! Vou ler o Aleph mesmo! (só redizendo: o vencedor está só foi um dos melhores livros que li, muito BEM ESCRITO e com uma história fascinante. E que fique bem claro que não digo isso só porque recebi um reply: http://twitter.com/paulocoelho/status/1739718480 até porque quando recebi o reply já havia lido o livro)
A maioria dos seus críticos, são críticos de leitura… leem aqui e dão opinão alí. Ora como posso dizer que o Aleph ou outro livro é ruim se não li.
Deus te abençôe, você é maior do que imagina.
[ps: olha que trabalho com Tecnologia da Informação, logo me supreender com informática não é algo simples]
VOCÊ É FODA MESMO!
Gracias Paulo por compartir los pensamientos de Joseph Campbell, creo que leere sus libros, me gusta muchisimo lo que dice aqui.xoxo
Paulo, muchas gracias por compartir. Nunca he leido de Joseph Campbell pero creo q ahora lo hare. Gracias
I didn’t know about this person befor, his ideas is very important, he put you in front of the truth, you can’t just ignore it. or say this thing don’t happen with me, I don’t think like this.
Thank you for sharing Mr. Coelho.
Hola Paulo, gracias por estas lineas de Joseph Campbell, siempre tan sabio!!! gracias por la alegria que nos das al compartir.
Un abrazo!!!
Patty
Thanks Paulo, to switch on the light when we are in the dark
Wow… i just had a wonderful drive. i should have read his books before. Im surely reading more of his stuff again. Please somebody suggest a starter. thk you.
trovo giusto quanto leggo,generalmente si inizia cercando di capire da dove proveniamo,poi si finisce col dare un senso alla propria vita.Da qui il meraviglioso viaggio,tutto puo’ sembrarci diverso,tutto si veste di nuova luce.Degli autori del passato mi piace la definizione che l’anima non e’dentro di noi,ma riveste tutto cio’ che e’ all’esterno,di fatto e’ importante ritrovarsi in cio’ che ci circonda.Leggero’ di Joseph Campbell
Thanks for quoting this particular paragraph from Joseph Campbell! I have never heard of him and never read his single line until now. I will definitely read his book. Yes, I believe that taking a job for earning money is turning us into be a slave. I believe that we have to find out who we truly are and what we truly are. And we must find out what we want to do for the rest of our lives from the heart. Otherwise, life will be meaning less; just humdrum existence. Thanks again for this wonderful quote!
Dear Shogo, Joseph Campbell is a MASTER.I am pretty sure you will enjoy his books and make your journey even more colorful. I have read “The Power of Myth” and ” The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. I recommend to start with “The Power of Myth”. Good luck! :)
Querido Paulo,
Nem sei se este é o local correto para comentar isso, mas como é a postagem mais recente, lá vai: Ouvi hoje a sua participação no “Nerdcast”. Cara! Realmente muito inspiradora a sua entrevista. Já li alguns dos seus livros, mas nunca tinha lido (ou escutado) nenhuma entrevista sua. Gostei muito da forma simples e espirituosa de expor suas idéias. Quando li que o Nerdcast era com você, até estranhei, pensando que talvez fosse um tema sério demais para a descontração costumeira dos caras. Qual nada! Você ficou como um verdadeiro peixe dentro d’água lá.
Parabéns, muito obrigado e, mesmo a casa não sendo minha, digo: volte sempre!
Um abraço.
I believe that we are able to build everything with our minds,the power is in us.Thank you for describing and writting all in good words.You make my day happier.:)
These days , I was discussing with my mind the issue of the meaning of my life and how can I bring meaning to a meaningless life. Of course , I consulted the famous slogan of descarte ” I Think therefore I exist”. Also I asked very important question whic is , with respect to the famous slogan of Descarte , now that I exist , and so what? what is the purpose of my life? I dare not ask this question for many reasons. First , I am a novice in the field of philosophy and reasoning. Second, My societ , government , some teachers and others tought me to consume not to produce. Third, I am working on other literary and linguistics issues.
Anyway , this article gives me another motivation to challenge the asked question and others. Also it is a great chance to read and appreciate thoughts and ideas of a great mind like Joseph Compbell.
Thanks
The power of myth!
Personal life also hero myths structure.
Anyone who has my life story drew must be the owner.
So, it is perfectly together when done in a dream the myth is completed.
Thank for the daily inspiration. Love, Christine
Thank you Paulo, Nice Of You to Remind Everyone…
…True and Agree…
Good Health Love Peace and Hope for The Better World Everyone…:)
Paulo, thanks for the awaking, So many locked minds and so many different keys. Thanks for many keys you provide!
Some things to think …
I could agree with almost all, but some of his ideas, maybe not.
Here a phrase I love:Marriage is a recognition of a spiritual identity. When you make the sacrifice in marriage, you’re sacrificing not to each other but to unity in a relationship.
Well, this is awesome. I think is happiness formula, for married people!!!
Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.( another amazing thought)
But…about:Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.
I dont know…I think environment and other conditions are a part of the whole, so part of…the blame. I think at poorest in Africa. Are they only to blame? Or could I gie so many examples.
I remember Halle Berry taking her prize for worst actress, the golden berry I think:well, she was wise, she was thanking all her staff for that result…As they use with Oscar, there they thank all the people they worked togheter…So, I think , maybe nothing is about somebody alone.
I need desperately a job, no sign I will get one. Than, if I will work for money, I will be slave? Might be, but what to do…Sometimes one must survive.
Me gustaron sus palabras no lo conocia ,muy sabio, pero no estoy de acuerdo, hacia la pareja..en el amor hay que dejar todo de uno,,,yo lo hice por 25 años deje mi vida por el otro,hasta llegue perder mi indentidad,luche 25 años , probe todo los caminos.inxistia que el el matrimonio era lo mas sagrado,me quedaron tres hermosos hijos son mis amores…como volver a confiar? uno se cierra ya no quiere sufrir mas. yo creo en el amor, mi vida se envuelve por sentimientos,me hace muy feliz ayudar tender una mano,hace doce años me separe,y respire de nuevo..pero no acepto a nadie que me pongan los puntos,quede muy marcada..
+
Obrigado Paulo… Joseph Campbell is a true hero.
There’s a biography, ‘Joseph Campbell: A Fire In The Mind’ (by Stephen Larsen) which is hugely inspiring.
i love joseph because his words takes my breath every time i read it
So true !
‘Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself’.
I haven’t read any of Joseph Campbell’s books, but reading his biography in the Google I was impressed that he has met all the famous people of his time. So he had formed his own ideas.
I like the above quote which puts our destiny in our hands. The big responsibility of our FREE WILL and THINKING.
LOVE,
Thelma xxx
These and many other quotes can be found in Diane Osbon’s wonderful book “Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion.” She had foresight to collect Campbell’s lectures from a month-long Esalen Institute workshop in 1983, adding passages from his writings as well.
‘The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.’
-by being you, you give all you can give,.. yourself.
that is sufficient all in you that is comes from this
‘We cannot cure the world of sorrows,
but we can choose to live in joy.’
- spread light warmth, smiles.
Thank you, love this, never heard of him before,.. sorry :)
a joy to have now.
I Love Joseph Campbell, thanks for posting him. My favorite of his books is:
THE MASKS OF GOOD
In all my searches, in all my meanderings of the mind, the heart, the spirit, I’ve come realize that living means embracing all of life, even the shit we convince ourselves we should hide. Spirituality can be a trap. It leaves you longing for that which isn’t, some ridiculous, mind-numbing, soul-killing buzz, and to me is just another way to deal with the fact that life fucking sucks sometimes. Fuck eloquence, fuck some half-hearted, long-winded idea of perfection. Do YOU. All of you, the good, the bad, and probably not the ugly if you know it’ll hurt someone, but find a way that doesn’t. And realize it’s ALL a part of this experience. Love it or hate it, whatever you fucking feel like on that particular day. There isn’t some stairway to Heaven. God won’t love you more for trying to be perfect. He loves you any way you are. Trying to flatline life by homogenizing it just drives people MENTAL. Causes them to hate themselves, and therefore disconnect from life. We all have to live our own truths. Mine involves experiencing the entire spectrum, from the most basal to the most enlightened. Recognizing ALL of this is enlightenment. You cannot rid yourself of darkness. And to try, is to choke yourself with your own halo.
I dream of a world where we all get this. That way we can stop feeling bad about being human, and stop blaming each other, stop holding some image of perfection over each others’ heads, stop hiding, and start actually LIVING.
That’s is my two cents.
Not bad your two cents
at least they are your own, authentic. it is better to die in ignorance than assuming one’s enlighetnement. U say “You cannot rid yourself of darkness. And to try, is to choke yourself with your own halo. ” for getting rid of darkness, all one needs is to bring in light. as Osho used to say, darkness of ages cannot say that i have been here, so long so i will not leave now when light is brought in, darkness has to go, when light is in.
expereincing teh entire spectrum is why the entire spectrum ( and its is always wider than u can fathom )exists; expeerince, but with awareness, awarenss is that rorch which illuminates. with awareness there is no darkness. initially it feels like choking, in fact awareness is death for you as u know yourself to be at this time. and that death is necessary for u to be reborn.
spirituality, as pedalled by peddlers of spirituality, and everyone who earns his bread by pedalling spirituality is a pedller of spirituality, can be a trap. a craving mind, first we crave this and that in the world and then we bring the same craving mind to matters of spirit, that is a trap. awareness is the only antidote to all things dark. when enlightenment happnes you can feel it inside and outside you, for starters u are no more the same person who set out.
love
Thanx Paulo for highlighting Joseph Campbell today and another thanx to @ Katie who wrote beatifully in the comments about Campbell . All that Campbell said is so true love grows with every sacrifice one makes for it is painful at the time sacrifice is made but very rewarding afterwards as time passes by .A combined growth of two people together brings about beautifully loving children who learn in their turn to give and share it is a blessing that is passed on….
I love, love, love the writing of this fascinating man! Still, I haven’t read all his work. What I have read is just amazing. Let me pick one quote;
‘Aren’t children lovable because they’re falling down all the time and have little bodies with the heads too big? Didn’t Walt Disney know all about this when he did the seven dwarfs? And these funny little dogs that people have – they’re lovable because they’re so imperfect’. From ‘The Power of Myth’ with Bill Moyers (1988)
sorry to sound as i am about to do. god makes everything perfect, there is no imperfection isn go’d creation. its is our comparing mind which starts to mix things and see things as perfect or imperfect.
I too was never exposed to writings of this chap, but whatever u have quoted makes me wonder, what did he mean. children are lovable because …… this because is the problem, and if some because is our dire need, may it be something good e.g. children are not loveley because they keep faling all teh time, they are loveley because they keep falling and smilingly or sometimes even in pain, tehy keep getting up, falling does not make them stop trying to walk, and when they walk they try to run, joyfully, remember the first time some child u know learnt to walk, remember the joy with which teh child could not stop running around. just for the joy of it. I may read more of this chap, but his focus seems a little pessimistic, a hotch potch of ‘wisedom’ from various sources, not experiencial !
love
I think We could be great creatures that god ever create if we follow our sense of humanity to serve others and enjoy simple and small things in life,this is the utmost peace the human can ever reach within.
Thank you so much for your great words.
Abeer
Dear Paolo
What I felt this morning as I saw the picture in black and white of this man, read his words, noticed the date, made me feel warm inside and happy. For that made me look at this past of mine where as a little child until my thirties I felt so alone, so afraid of getting out of my retreat because what I observed and listened made me fear life as it was. Nobody in school, in my family, in the church never spoke as you, these persons you present. If I had access to those, I would have felt that life what worth it, my heart would have pounded instead of slowly becoming slow and a sound that I did not want to hear.
“Life is without meaning.” I have tried so much to put a meaning to the sense of living. In the education I had, as a “girl”, no dreams were possible. Well, as my mother put it to me, “if you do not want to get hurt, don’t dream too much”. For me, life was you have to enter the meaning of what others do and think if you want to be part of life, which I rebelled to and after did to slowly have the same result … an intense desire to die. But today I see that I had to enter this world in order to find the meaning of life is is “life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it.” And that is an aspect of the education that I give to my children … walk your path and listen to your heart and act upon because that is for you the meaning of your lifes.
Love, Jojo.
jojo, i stumbled upon your comment on this bright morn and i simply want to thank you for articulating it as it has blessed my path today. i am learning to relax into all of these things right now and to trust them. your words have helped me to trust.
thank you and take care
love,
lauren
jojo, so, true for me, too.
working with all your comments for a good year. I now know & feel it: I cannot take life for granted, imposed on me.
life is a gift that I want to appreciate & acknowledge, and …. well take care of. in the same way I take care of a child.
this believe gives me a basis to go through a tough time, but still feel the joy when having good things during a day; and not the feeling of drowning anymore.
I am really grateful for having found this blog & you all sharing your thoughts.
namaste to you all.
Hia jojo !!
hope u continue to remain in pink of your health both inside ( your consiousness / soul, U, whatever )and ouside ( your body )..
Dream and dream some more, ddreams necessitate action, but remember that realsing your dream is not in your hands, can one be euqally happy if dreams are relaised or not; i can say for sure that eventually a chaser of dreams is equally unhappy whether dreams are relaised or not. avoiding hurt is not teh way to live, i feel, it’s the hurts that make u grow as a human being, have u noticed !! not that one should crave to get hurt, but if one is hurt and is able to heal oneself, one becomes a healer of not only themselves but of others too.
love
aditya
“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”
excelente!!! la vida es construccion!!!,somos protagonistas “activos” en el quehacer diario….estamos inmersos en un universo “panoptico”…todos vigilan a todos…pero tambien necesitamos y “existimos” a travez de esa mirada…Ahora bien, la construccion tambien necesita de la interioridad de cada uno,de la propia espiritualidad…de lo contrario, seriamos esclavos del afuera,de la mirada del otro.En fin,debemos ser con el otro y no para el otro…
This is well said, and it is true and a very good statement.
Thank you for sharing the wonderful words of Joseph Campbell.
These are words of someone who has already started to live.
These are words of inspiration and hope for those who are still lost.
Dreams are NOT myths. I completely disagree…
I totally agree! We turn our dreams into reality.
Thanks for posting this, SO timely!
Thank you for bringing these words of wisdom to us. I think life is about using all means, including marriage to transform by going beyond what is small is us, to what is the Ocean is. Such a great affirmation, this! :))
I agree with everything, especially the paragraph about reasons why people get married. Sometimes we wait for all our lives to experience that extraordinary physical chemistry with someone, believing that only such an intense feeling can make a marriage survive through the years. We do not realize that if a feeling is that madly intense, it cannot last in time. As Campbell says, all love-affairs end one day.
after the love affair ends, love may begin if one lives with awareness !! what is awareness ??
love
aditya
I agree very much. I wonder why people fix their eyes to something that is fleeting. I hope I can find people of whom I share the same interest – observing. I am fond of observing things and wonder why they do such things.
ditto………
even the dull and ignorant have their own story, everything have their own account- interesting or not would be based upon who listen,read,feel, or look at it…..animals,trees, clouds….i observe these things and find all these wonderful..
I’m doing a phd in creative arts but working with a myth. Campbell was a wonderful theorist, but even he missed the sexism in most mythological and corresponding psychological theory, although there was more room for women in his theories than some others.
whow!
thanks!
“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.”
any thoughts / expereinces on what this might mean, has anyone here, expereinced / wondered about what this tranformation may be ???
“Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself.” why be blame foucsed, why not say your life is teh fruit of your own doing, you have yourself and existance ( are they separate, not really ! )to thank for it. have we wondered, while to blame, a desire / an expectaion is a must, whereas to express gratitude, thanks, just being is enough.
love
I think the transformation is finding that unity and expansion, being melted into the omnipresent truth…
Love Joseph Campbell and Enjoyed his books very, very much! ‘Follow your bliss’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xplGaNWSoU&feature=related
Thankyou Paulo, Love to All,
Jane xo
I wish he were alive.I do my PhD n comparative religions
Joseph Campbell, one of the greatest authorities, if not the greatest, when it comes to studying and interpreting Mythology! He used lots of C.G Jung methods in his work.
“A hero with a thousand faces” is one of his best known works, and one of my favorites, though all his works are a great read..
Thank you Paulo for bringing such a remarkable thinker to the spot light in your blog.
Lots of love
Tarek
The way to handle the situations in life makes your future destiny if you are handling situations in a way which are not appropriate it means you are digging a ditch of problems for you and you will lend into trouble, but if you are HANDLING all the situations as a signs from God and solve them of face them wisely you can make your future prosperous. It all depends on how you take things .
I really adore you !! Thanks …
Aargh… love every single piece that he said! :)
Thanks for posting this.
hmmm, campbell!
A typical universalist, in learning, understanding & curiosity. the “problem” with him is: he wrote too many books & gave too many talks that are all recorded (hehehe).
my goal has been always to scan through them all. but I always postpone it until my retirement.
fascinating is that many libraries have his whole collections of talks.
in his talks, he is clear & simple full of exuberance, easy to understand. listening to him, I sometimes think he comes from a different universe.
what I really like about him is that he just dropped academia, did not go for a PhD, and made good, lively research. good that his understanding did not get lost in academia or in that fight. would have been a pity for us.
” Los mitos son sueños públicos, los sueños son mitos privados. ”
Esto no resume todo lo que Cambell comenta pero la verdad que esta frase es fabulosa . . .
” Los sueños son mitos privados”
En mi opinión cada sueño en mí se hará leyenda porque si nos ha costado cumplirlo por muy pequeño que sea merece ponerle el letrero de “mirenlo” lo conseguí . . .
” Los mitos son sueños públicos”
Pues puede ser un sueño llegarlo a conocer a usted, pero no estoy nervioso, me encuentro relajado . . . Las palabras saldrían solas, no llevaría nada escrito porque nunca lo he hecho . . .Es más no se que día, ni cuando ni donde pero nos vamos a conocer :)
Great!! All he said is true even though truths are harder to bear, at times.
It’s all up to us to create the world and live we wish to experience, it is hard to bear that responsibility but the price, ultimate freedom, is well worth the growing pains.
Je ne suis pas foncièrement ses vérités ,mais il divise plutôt qu’il réunit .Personnage très controversé,très universaliste .Très bon penseur ,beaucoup de mots qui lui sont attribués semblent vrais .L’utopie fait partie de nous ,mais nous ne pouvons pas être des Joseph Campbell en puissance .
and who is a master ?? dear natalia
u too are only u are asleep to this fact, if u beleive zesus, u are a king who has forgotten teh fact and lives / feels like a begger. awaken to yourself.
love
Paolo by expressing blessed my path, and my own expression blessed yours and yours will bless … for me, that is the power of relation, of sharing experiences, of sharing one’s heart. For me, that is responding to our true nature which is a fraternity united at its origin.
Love, Jojo
Yes, it is so great to be able to feel joy even in tough time, being able to see light even in dark, and yes all that was made possible by many ways, and most of all, because you decide and act upon. Love to you, Jojo.
HIA Aditya :-)
I truly believe that realizing my dreams are in my hands, it is just that sometimes the realization or the ending is not as I had imagined in all its details but the feeling is the same. Yes, hurt is a path for learning, mostly when not attentive and aware. But as develops the capacity of intention, attention, listening, seeing, feeling, intuition, etc, less and less is the hurt. More rapid! By avoiding hurt, I hurt myself harder. By accepting hurt, I started to heal, to learn. Now, one day I said to myself: “You do not need to suffer that much Jojo. You just need to now actualize all the learnings, to practice in order to feel the wind changing before the storm arrives.”
Love, Jojo.
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