Dark Shadows

"If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us."

                                                                             -Hermann Hesse

Our individual identities are the result of repeated interactions with society over time. As our experiences, reactions, and discoveries accrue, we come to understand with greater and greater accuracy who it is that we are. And while, as is obvious from this blog, I am a big believer in knowing oneself on a deep level, I have also noticed a significant problem. It seems to me that this whole identity formation process can have a remarkably anti-social effect on people. Once we decide, for example, that we are a person of "faith" we become resistant and hostile towards those people who have concluded that they are people of science. When we decide that we are "a liberal" or "a conservative" we develop an animosity and a fear towards those who have decided otherwise. People who define themselves as people of reason can become threatened by the slightest sign of emotional decision-making, and those who consider themselves "passionate" people may over time become quite reactive to analytical types. As our lives progress, and we continue to fine tune our personal identities, all of this splitting and social distancing only worsens. And yet, maybe the problem is that we're going about this whole identity thing in the wrong way.

If the wisdom of Carl Jung is to be believed, our hostility towards others actually results from the fact that these others represent repressed aspects of ourselves. Jung believed that, while we come into this world with our own unique strengths and leanings of temperament, we are also born with full access to the spectrum of human potential. We all have both thoughts and emotions, scientific and spiritual capabilities, liberal and conservative tendencies. Over time, however, as we develop individual paths through life, we inevitably ignore, forget, and repress those parts of ourselves that seem to conflict with, and threaten the people we become. Jung used the term Shadow Self to refer to all of the neglected and ignored capacities that lay dormant within us. Consequently, we may have strong reactions to people who represent our shadow selves (i.e. the people we could have become had things been different). Here's an examples of how this whole shadow thing plays out...

1. A guy and a gal fall in love and get married. They buy a house, have kids, and before long some resentment begins to build. The wife becomes upset because she is taking responsibility for all of the child-rearing and the laundry and the dishes and the shopping. The husband, meanwhile, becomes upset because the wife doesn't ever think about anything interesting other than the "to do" list. And over time, the wife develops the identity of the practical one, the person who gets things done. She begins to take pride in not having time for frivolous thoughts, and she actually begins to hate that esoteric part of herself. The guy, meanwhile, decides that he must be this really brilliant guy and he begins to hate his practical side, which would otherwise prevent him from thinking about his big ideas. Ultimately, the couple ends up with an interpersonal divide. The husband's practical side has become his shadow and the wife's abstract-thinking side has become her shadow. And the animosity that they develop towards one another is actually hatred of their inner repressed selves.

One can imagine how the above situation appears in all areas of society. As individuals, we take on identities as police officers, as scientists, as entreprenuers, as soldiers, as preachers. Within our various groups, meanwhile, we may take on the role of the "strong one" or the "helpful one" or the "compassionate one." And as we focus on those qualities that best serve us in our respective roles, we lose touch with, and develop a certain resentment towards, our shadows. We repress our "liberal" side or our "conservative" side, our emotional side or our rational thinking side, our vulnerable side or our strong side. And we become emotionally reactive and hostile towards people who represent these opposing qualities. Families fracture, as do workplaces, cities, countries, and international communities. And it's partly because of the fact that we're missing a big step in growing up, which is to develop an integrated self, rather than a fractured one. In the example of the married couple, I think there is a lot to be gained by this husband and wife realizing that, over the years, they have each lost part of themselves. They need to work on getting back in touch with their shadows if they are to become whole again and less reactive towards one another. The husband needs to claim his "to-do list" self, and the wife her brilliant, abstract thinking self. Only then can they begin to accept one another again. Incidentally, this "example" is certainly something my wife and I have experienced, as I know a lot of other couples have. So this post is dedicated to us getting back in touch with our shadow selves, as we've been working on doing for some time now. As a final note, here are my thoughts for how this whole "shadow self" problem fits into my model for adult development...

Identity Formation

Paradoxical vs. Split

Essentially we want to develop an identity, but not one that is so strong in one direction that the opposing direction must be repressed. Competing tensions within ourselves must be viewed as complementary, and should be included in our understanding of ourselves. At the same time, accepting the whole self should not come at the expense of identifying one's unique strengths and outlook. It would be no more healthy for a happy, world-renowned scientist to become an unhappy, relatively competent monk just for the heck of it, than it would for him to become a cold, calculating machine of a scientist who is hostile towards any mention of religious myth. So the key is to follow your own path in a conscious and non-reactive way. To develop an identity, while also accepting and loving (and not fearing) one's neglected aspects. I've labeled the two undesirable extremes of the identity continuum as "paradoxical" (accepting all of one's possibilities at the expense of knowing ones unique strengths and perspective) and "split" (having a narrow, fragile identity built on deep repression of a large shadow self). Somewhere in the middle lies the healthy medium. I guess I might call this ideal state the 'integrated self.'

Rocky and Continuity

So, my wife and I just finished our totally epic Rocky marathon, which with having a little one in the house, took us about 6 weeks to complete. But, man, what a joy it was to sit through these movies, all of which we really loved in different ways. And, given how much I appreciate these movies, I've been thinking about how to incorporate them into this blog about all things adult development. This was a tricky question. I mean, Rocky is Rocky, whether you’re watching Rocky I, II, III, IV, V, or VI. That's why we love him. And then I realized that it is precisely his continuity that makes Rocky of interest to no category. There will, of course, always be those things in life that require us to adapt, transform, and accept change. Over the course of the movie series, Rocky is challenged to put his family ahead of his fighting, particularly when his career becomes more of a health hazard. And he has to periodically adapt to fame, changes in his financial status, and the loss of a number of friends. But there is also something great about his ability to maintain a certain sameness…his ability to do the things he loves, be the person he is, and live in a way that emphasizes his strengths across the lifespan. Yes, Rocky is Rocky, and for this very reason he succeeds as a developing adult. I also have to point out that when a person is able to fashion their own path through life, they also manage to defy categories. And Rocky evades all of the simple, reductive boxes in which we'd like to place him. He is a brutal fighter, but a gentle and compassionate human being. He’s simple in many ways, and yet he has a clarity and wisdom about him. And despite the criminality of his youth (working as the muscle for an organized crime figure), he manages to live a life of virtue and honesty as an adult. So, here's my tribute to Rocky, a countdown of all 6 films, in order of my personal preference...

FYI - major spoiler alert on the following video clips.

Rocky I   

 The movie that put Sylvester Stallone, underdogs, and Philly, one of the world's very best cities, on the Hollywood map. It's the story of a loser who gets a shot at success and finds the courage to give it everything he's got, thanks in large part to the woman who loves him and believes in him. This amazing movie won Best Picture in 1976.

Rocky Balboa

This 2006 bookend to the series shows that you're never too old to give life another shot. Rocky Balboa probably tugged at my heart strings more than any other Rocky movie. So much so that I couldn't help shedding a few tears at the end of this one. I dare anyone to watch without doing the same.

Rocky III

 Four words. Eye. Of. The. Tiger. Rocky and Apollo become friends and Mr. T. puts in an exceptional performance as the scary Clubber Lang.

  

Rocky II 

 

A continuation of the plotline from the first movie, so it does feel a bit familiar. But Rocky II is still a great movie with the usual good writing and character development. 

Rocky V

This is an unfairly maligned movie, in my humble opinion. I love Rocky V. But, then again, I'm a sucker for father-son drama.

 Rocky IV

Rocky IV is just as much a classic as any other Rocky movie. But this one's a little light on the script. The movie follows the usual Rocky formula with more musical montages than before. Still completely entertaining. And it includes one of the most shocking plot developments of all the Rocky movies.

Buddhism: What Works For Me...What Doesn't

As a follow-up to my recent post on Buddhism, I wanted to talk about what parts of this impressively introspective and developmental spiritual tradition I plan to incorporate into my own personal mythology. Here goes…

• The Four Noble Truths: A colleague of mine with a Buddhist bend once said to me that “pain is inevitable, but suffering is not.” In hindsight, I believe that he was pretty succinctly paraphrasing the first and third Noble Truths. It’s an outlook on life that I’ve always found healthy; this notion that while we don’t always have control over our circumstances, we do have control over how we react to them. The Four Noble Truths, meanwhile, go on to identify which of our reactions are most problematic. The second Truth says that it is specifically our greed, our avarice, and our delusional expectations about the world that cause us suffering. And I tend to agree. Regarding the fourth Truth, the way out of suffering, I’ve devoted the next bullet point to the Noble Eightfold Path.

• The Eightfold Path: I didn’t need much convincing to see the validity of the Noble Eightfold Path as a means towards changing one's tendencies towards greed, avarice, and delusional expectations. In fact, I’ve been pretty amazed by the similarities between the thousands-years-old Eightfold Path and modern-day Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, one of the treatments of choice for anxiety and depression. The basic principle for both is that our thoughts and our behaviors are closely linked. In other words, you can’t simply change your behavior without changing some of your erroneous beliefs. And you can’t simply change your thinking without adding some new behaviors into the mix. The path out of depression, for example, involves doing things like getting out of the house, acting differently towards others, and building new positive memories, while simultaneously sitting down with a counselor once a week to rework some of those delusional thoughts about the self and the world. The Noble Eightfold Path is simply the mythological, moral, transcendent equivalent.

• My Inner Buddha: I’m not one for viewing other human beings as somehow special or godlike. So worshipping The Buddha is of no interest to me. But, if not for worship, then why consider having the story of The Buddha in my life. As I was pondering about this question (while smoking my pipe on a gently swaying rocking chair as I’m apt to do from time to time) it hit me. The Buddha myth is not about some guy who lived way, way, way back in ancient India. The myth is actually about all of us human beings alive in the world today. And all of the ones before us and all the ones after us. It’s about the “Buddha potential” that we all have. Our ability to grow and better ourselves and find peace. In effect, the Buddha is a possible manifestation of me. When I thought about it this way, the myth became quite relevant to my life and my personal mythology. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that the story of the Buddha jives really well with my outlook on life. The Buddha of myth makes no promises of other dimensions (i.e heaven and hell) or supernatural beings (gods, devils, angels, demons). And he makes no claim to be a god himself. In fact, the Buddha of myth does not even claim to be the founder of his teachings. He simply rediscovered this timeless knowledge that periodically gets lost and found by humanity over the millennia. This seems an appropriately humbling account of The Buddha and human beings in general. In a sense, human beings never actually create anything. We only find clever new ways of discovering, discerning, and manipulating what already exists. So, in short. Yay, Buddha. Yay, human beings.

• Karma as a Guiding Principle: I definitely believe in the principles of cause and effect, which are the basis of our sciences. And I completely agree that our actions create negative and positive energies in us (in the form of emotions, anxieties, and depression), which can, in turn, have a profound effect on the world around us, not only in the present, but also in our future encounters, in the lives of our children, and the many generations to come. So, while I'm hesitant to view karma as a sort of fair and just zero-sum game that provides one with karmic return equal to one's output, I very much value the concept as a messy and somewhat unpredictable guideline in life. I guess you could say that I am committed to improving myself as much for the effect that my development will have on those around me, as I am for the effect that it will have on me.

• Reincarnation as an Abstract Concept: I’ve heard it said before that energy doesn’t die. And that’s my basic belief on what happens to us when we die. Our energy, our heat, our mass, all of it works its way back into the cycle of life as we pass on from life as we’ve known it. In a sense, then, I think we do continue to live on forever through the infinite future life forms our energy will inhabit.

• The Middle Way: This concept is probably my favorite discovery about Buddhism. Essentially, The Middle Way says that while greed and avarice and delusional thinking are the sources of suffering, starving oneself of food, belongings, and human contact is not the solution. The ascetic life is just reactionary extremism on the other end. The Middle Way is about carving a path through life between the extremes of denial and indulgence. And it is this one concept, The Middle Way, that, in my opinion, makes Buddhism entirely relevant and important to the lives of everyday adults navigating this complex modern landscape. The Middle Way philosophy has also been used to address a number of metaphysical concerns in some really interesting ways. For example, according to philosophy of the Middle Way, 'the self' should not be thought of as completely real or completely imaginary. Any attempts to make absolutist statements about the nature of reality will always be partly true and partly false. I've got a lot of ideas about how to apply this thinking to mythology, adult development, and identity. So, stay tuned.

 

With that said, there is also one particular concept of Buddhism (albeit a big one) that just doesn’t work for me…

• The Concept of Enlightenment: I do not find the story of the Buddha reaching a state of sustained, irreversible perfection (thus allowing him to escape the cycle of death and suffering) to be a particularly helpful story for me. For one, I just don't believe it to be a real possibility. From my experience, life always takes work and attention, and always involves steps both forward and backwards, even for the most developed and enlightened among us. This concept of enlightenment as a fixed state is just a bit too supernatural for me. So, while I will happily embrace my inner Buddha as a guide to my human potential, I think I’ll stay away from any thoughts of reaching some state of perfect enlightenment. I have my hands full just working on being a little bit better than I’ve been so far (lyrical credit for that last line goes to The Avett Brothers, and their tune 'When I Drink').

The Four Functions of Myth

In anticipation of some future posts on developing my personal mythology, I wanted to share what Joseph Campbell has identified as the four purposes of myth. When I first read this a few weeks ago, I was pretty blown away by his precise breakdown of such a seemingly complex subject. And, as I've thought more about his ideas, I've come to realize that they will make for a pretty awesome framework as I try to map out all of the various religions, philosophies, sciences, and arts that comprise my personal mythology. In any case, here it is. These are the four functions of all mythological systems...

1. The philosophical - Being creatures with a consciousness, we are challenged by life in ways that other creatures our not. Namely we have to come to terms with many of life's more unsatisfactory realities, such as the notion that life feeds off of death. One major function of mythology, then, has been to help the individual to reconcile him or herself with these difficult realities. Campbell notes that there have been three basic mythological responses to the negative aspects of life. 1. Many ancient mythologies, including those from Native America, are completely embracing of all aspects of life, including the brutal human need to kill for survival. These mythological systems often include barbaric rituals, and stories of ancient meetings between men and animals in which the animals gave the men permission to kill them as long as they returned their spirits to the earth. 2. Other mythological traditions such as Jainism are wholly rejecting of the negative aspects of human existence, such as the practice of killing to perpetuate life. Jains will often suffer themselves so as not to kill any other living beings. 3. A third approach which includes both Zoroastrianism and Christianity have developed views in which the world contains both good and evil forces. They embrace those aspects of the world seen as bringing them closer to the good force, and reject those aspects of life seen as resulting from the evil forces.

2. The cosmological - This one's fairly simple. Mythology, throughout human history, has served to provide humans with an awe-inspiring image of the cosmos and its various dimensions. In the modern world, this function has been largely replaced by science.

3. The sociological - Another fairly straight forward function. Being the moral compass of a society, mythological systems have also provided societies with a shared and clearly defined sense of right and wrong, as defined by the Gods. In this way, mythology has served to validate and maintain a social order. In modern society, this function has been replaced by the secular legal system.

4. The psychological - Finally, mythological systems have provided individuals in societies with guidance on how to pass through the various stages of life. This is an area where old myths have become difficult to translate to the modern world. As Campbell points out, while old mythologies were effective in helping indoctrinate individuals into the tribe, they seem less useful with regards to the modern Western notion of growing up, which requires young people to discover who they are as individuals. Consequently, there aren't really any myths that carry people through this more modern manifestation of adulthood.


Whew! That's a lot to ponder. What I'll be doing next is incorporating these four categories into my personal mythology, which will be a permanent page on this blog that can be accessed from the home page. Beneath each of Campbell's four categories, I'll be detailing the myths, artistic objects, scientific concepts, and philosophies that enrich my life and provide me with my own functioning, living mythology.

The Chris Cornell Transformation

It recently struck me that one of my all-time rock heroes is deserving of a tribute on no category. Chris Cornell has probably, over the past 20 years, changed his sound more dramatically than any other rock singer I can think of. And, while his personal transformation may be musical in nature, it is also a testament to our ability as adults to continue to learn and to grow. His musical career shows how a commitment to adult development can lead one to new heights of possibility. Here's the rundown of this remarkable singers career, so far...

Chris Cornell first entered the public eye as the front man for Soundgarden. Here's their video for 'Outshined' circa 1992. The band started out playing a heavier brand of grunge rock than many of their contemporaries like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Stone Temple Pilots.

Soundgarden eventually broke into the mainstream with their 1994 album Superunknown. Many of the album's songs were slower and more introspective. Here's the video for 'Fell on Black Days.'

It was probably inevitable that Chris would one day set out on a solo career, and explore his potential as an individual artist apart from his band. Here's the video for 1998's Can't Change Me, which I think is one of the best compositions of his career.

Cornell's solo career has recently taken him in a direction that no one could have ever predicted. His latest album, Scream, which was produced by Timbaland, is a mix of rock, pop, and r&b. And I, for one, have loved watching this rock icon see what he can achieve in this foreign musical landscape. In my opinion he has succeeded immensely with his new sound, which is fun and interesting and, as with this song 'Long Gone,' quite moving. I can't even guess where Chris will go from here, but based on past history, I'm sure it will be exactly where he wants and needs to go.

Hermann Hesse and Siddhartha

 

"From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny. There shone in his face the serenity of knowledge, of one who is no longer confronted with conflict of desires, who has found salvation, who is in harmony with the stream of events, with the stream of live, full of sympathy and compassion, surrendering himself to the stream, belonging to the unity of all things."

And so Hermann Hesse describes the bliss that his protagonist achieves at the conclusion of his immensely popular novel, Siddhartha. The book chronicles the spiritual journey of Siddhartha, an Indian man living during the time of the Buddha, from its meandering beginnings to its transcendent conclusion. I decided to read the book as one way of jump-starting my malnourished spirituality. And I think the book has helped in this respect. Siddhartha is an inspiring read. It's short, but when read slowly, a few pages leave one with more than enough to ponder for the rest of the day. (one side note: I made the mistake of choosing my copy of Siddhartha because it was a "like new" hardcover. As a result, I ended up reading one of the older and more disparaged translations...Hilda Rosner's 1951 version. In doing some online research, it appears that Susan Bernofsky's 2006 translation is receiving a lot of praise, so I would recommend this new version to anyone interested in reading the book). In any case, here are a some of my specific thoughts about this deservedly praised book...

• First, the novel is a great introduction to some of the philosophical traditions of Buddhism, a religion of particular interest to my own spirituality (for a basic primer on Buddhism as I have come to understand it, take a look here). Hesse actually organized his novella according to the principles of Buddha's path to enlightenment. The four chapters of Part One correlate with the Buddha's Four Noble Truths. The eight chapters of Part Two correspond to the Buddha's Eightfold Path. In reading the novel and acquainting myself with some of these basic principles of Buddhism, I'm struck by how compatible the religion is with many of my aims with this blog. Two basic principle of Buddhism are that 1) development takes place across the lifespan and 2) adult development requires a conscious effort towards self-improvement. The religion not only provides a clear mythological image of what a developed adult should look like - essentially, one never has to think too hard about 'What would Buddha do?' Chances are, the answer is well documented in Buddhist literature - but it also provides a detailed road map, one that is surprisingly relevant to the challenges of the modern world. So, thank you H. H. for igniting my interest in Buddhism. It's certainly a religion I'll be drawing from heavily as I continue to develop my personal mythology.

•  Second, Siddhartha's journey is yet another example of the sort of adult development and transformation that I love to highlight with this blog. Through his search for spiritual peace and enlightenment, Siddhartha goes through a series of what I might call "phases."Here's the brief rundown...
• Ascetisism: Born into privilege, a young adult Siddhartha leaves home against his father's wishes in order to lead a life of material deprivation.
• Desire: After realizing that the ascetic life provides only temporary relief from his suffering, Siddhartha comes to fully embrace his 'self,' his desires, and human life. For a little while he experiences some bliss, but eventually falls prey to the anxieties of human life.
• Transcendence: Siddhartha, weary from the trivial concerns of human life, and having no faith in the ascetic life, finds a simple occupation ferrying people across a river. Distanced from the dogma of religious teachers (even The Buddha), and with a better understanding of himself and the world, Siddhartha begins to find peace. He begins to internalize some deep revelations like how the river can be all places at once, and how every moment contains an eternity. Siddhartha's spiritual journey culminates with the moment of enlightenment described at the beginning of this post. Ultimately, while Siddhartha never joins the Buddha, he follows a path towards enlightenment that mirrors that of The Buddha. In this way the novel endorses the teachings of Buddhism, but also insists that we can only find peace through following our own personal journey.

Hermann Hesse 1877-1962

• Third, I wanted to point out that Hermann Hesse was going through some fascinating adult development of his own when he wrote the book. Having been attacked for his attempts to apply love and higher values to German politics, and living in an unhappy marriage, Hesse was looking to attain the peace and completeness of The Buddha described in his novel. Whether or not he was ever able to achieve the perfection that Siddhartha reaches, I can't say. Ultimately, however, I am left to wonder if Hesse's fixation with attaining spiritual perfection wasn't an unhealthy approach to adult development. This goal of perfection, in fact, may be my biggest problem with Buddhism, but more on that later.

So I guess my big question after reading Siddhartha and looking into Buddhism is how to incorporate Buddhist principles into my life in a satisfactory manner. I'm certainly not about to spend the next year of my life sitting beneath a tree seeking enlightenment. And yet, I don't want to be someone who strings up some Tibetan prayer flags and then goes back to the trivial concerns of my life. So where lies the balance? In the future, I'll be talking about which aspects of Buddhism work for me and which, well, don't.

Buddhism: The Basic Concepts

From the time we first mastered symbolic communication, humans have been trying to reconcile ourselves to the realities of our world. Life. Death. Compassion. Cruelty. Every artist, scientist, philosopher, and religious seeker throughout history has, in his and her own way, been engaged with this dilemma. And thanks to this eons-old human exploration, there is nearly infinite raw material for the modern adult to engage in a productive "spiritual" journey of sorts, one that can result in making peace with this increasingly-insane world. There are, of course barriers. In America it often feels like our culture is intent on sabotaging any personal development in this area. Having an existential crisis? Don't read Nietche or Jung or Faulkner or Black Elk. Buy a new car. Feeling lost and confused? Don't take a trip to the ocean and turn off your blackberry and walk barefoot in the sand. Buy a new video game system. And for those who do try and undertake a spiritual journey of sorts, there are all of these rules. You can't just read the Bible, or the Torah, or the Koran, but you have to become a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim. And you can't mix Darwin with Jesus. And you can't get involved in too much of that flaky Eastern stuff. And you can't read Marx. Period. All in all, it's just not a very enlightening experience. And, as a result, I think a lot of free-thinking grown-ups either stay away from the bigger questions, or they address them in an ultra-secular way. Well, this blog is my way of giving myself permission to develop my own understanding of the world without anyone else's rules. And a big part of this experience has entailed mapping out my own personal mythology, an amalgamation of a lot of different things that aren't typically allowed to be together. So, as my second post dealing with my personal spirituality, I'd like to present some basic ideas from one of humankind's greatest spiritual traditions. Here's Buddhism, as I've come to see it...

Buddhism is an ancient spiritual response to the "suffering" of life. The Buddhist definition of suffering is quite specific, referring to the general disquiet that we experience throughout our lives. This suffering can take many forms - sadness, anger, fear, frustration, and grief - but these forms are all ultimately related. Buddhists believe that most of this suffering is the result of the greed, avarice, and delusional desires that we acquire throughout our lives. It is important to specify "delusional" desires (i.e. our desires to attach ourselves to objects, alter certain things about the world, and prevent death and loss) as this highlights our unrealistic desires, as opposed to those desires that are intrinsic to a happy life (our desires for food, water, sleep, and enlightenment, for example).

Gautama Buddha (or just The Buddha), is a mythical figure believed to be the first person of the current age to have achieved permanent liberation from suffering. In ancient India, at the age of 35, after having lived a life of spiritual struggle, The Buddha is said to have found enlightenment after meditating beneath a tree for 49 straight days. He subsequently traveled across India sharing what he had learned so that others could also achieve liberation from suffering. Buddhists believe that The Buddha's teachings are comprised of age-old truth that has been periodically lost and then regained throughout time. The Buddha of our age, then, is believed to have actually rediscovered this wisdom through his rigorous engagement with life and deep self-reflection. Here are some of the basic principles.



I. The Buddha's most essential teachings are The Four Noble Truths:

1. The truth of suffering. Over time, we all experience pain, sickness, old age and death. We will also experience sadness, anger, fear, frustration, and disappointment. As these painful experiences mount, we find it hard to experience any sort of sustained peace. We suffer (i.e. develop long-term, chronic discomfort).
2. The truth of the cause of our suffering. Over our lifetimes, in response to the painful experience of living, we develop certain maladies of thought and behavior...1) greed, 2) avarice, and 3) delusional desires (desires to attach ourselves to material objects and people, to avoid pain and death, to have a self that is separate from others, to change certain inevitable things about the world). These are the causes of our suffering.
3. The truth of the end of our suffering. If one can escape greed, avarice, and delusional desire, one can achieve liberation from suffering.
4. The truth of the path that leads to the end of our suffering. The Noble Eightfold Path details the Buddha's path towards escaping greed, avarice, and delusional desire and becoming enlightened.

II. The Noble Eightfold Path, then, is the Buddha's detailed account of his path towards enlightenment. The principles are separated into 3 sections: Wisdom, Ethical Conduct, and Discipline. The Eightfold Path is often symbolized by the eight-spoked "dharma wheel" shown at the start of my post:

Wisdom

   1. Right Understanding: viewing reality as it is, not as it
         appears to be, or the way one wants it to be.

   2. Right Intention: directing one's thoughts away from
        desire, ill will, and harmfulness and focusing them on
        renunciation, good will, and harmlessness.

Ethical Conduct
   3. Right Speech: speaking in a non-harmful way (not lying,
         speaking with slander, engaging in idle chat, etc.). Speaking in
         a way that promotes friendship and harmony.

   4. Right Action: acting in a non-harmful way (not taking
         life, stealing, etc.). Showing kindness and compassion for
         other living beings.

   5. Right Livelihood: doing work that is non-harmful (not
         selling drugs, dealing in weapons, etc.)

Discipline

   6. Right Effort: directing one's "energy" towards
        wholesome thoughts, intentions, and actions. Essentially, it
          takes a lot of energy to follow the eightfold path
          which requires one to 1) prevent new unwholesome states
          from arising 2) abandon unwholesome states already in
        motion 3) arouse new wholesome states and 4) maintain
          wholesome states already achieved. Devoting oneself to this
        level of change requires diligence and perseverance.

   7. Right Mindfulness: maintaining complete awareness
         of one's body, thoughts, feelings, and the outside world.

   8. Right Concentration: focusing one's
         faculties completely on wholesome thoughts and actions
         without distraction. Only a well-honed mind is able to escape
         the greed, avarice, and desire of everyday life.

III. Some Other Important Buddhist Terms:

Atman: A term meaning 'self.' I include this because there has been some debate among Buddhists on whether the notion of self is desirable or not. Some say that attachment to a self is a cause of suffering, while others say that the enlightened person is someone with a highly developed self. Perhaps, I'll develop some of my own ideas on this in the future.

Samsara: The cycle of rebirth and suffering that all humans are born into. It is thought that attaining liberation from suffering frees one from this cycle.

Karma: The events that result from a person's actions (of body, speech, and mind). While most Karma will reinforce one's ties to the cycle of rebirth and suffering, following the Eightfold Path is thought to induce Karma that frees one from this cycle.

Dharma: Literally 'truth,' In Buddhism the word usually refers to The Buddha's teachings.

The Middle Way: An essential aspect of The Buddha's perspective, and what really distinguishes Buddhism from some of the other religions of ancient India (i.e. Hinduism and Jainism). The Middle Way refers to the Buddha's realization that both the extreme of indulgence (characterized by a complete surrender to desire) and the extreme of self-mortification (like the abstention from food and drink that many other Indian spiritualists were practicing at the time) perpetuate suffering. Both result in only a temporary escape from suffering. He learned that one can only attain a sustained state of enlightenment by learning to escape greed, avarice, and delusional desire while continuing to live a healthy human life.

Anyway, I hope that some of this made sense. I've tried to make it user friendly both for myself and anyone else interested in learning more about Buddhism. For some more detailed analyses, I found two pretty good web resources here and here, both of which informed much of my own descriptions. I'll be back next time to talk about Siddhartha, the novel by Hermann Hesse that first exposed me to Buddhist thought.

Follow Your Bliss

Joseph Campbell 1904 - 1987

Joseph Campbell was a teacher and religious philosopher who spent his life inspiring students to trust in themselves, and to look inwards to find their own path through life. Campbell, it so happens, also learned firsthand the importance of listening to one's inner voice. Having started out as a literary scholar of James Joyce (Finnegan's Wake specifically), Campbell became "sidetracked" relatively early in his career by his growing interest in religious mythology. As he began to devote more and more of his scholarship to the topic of myth, he revealed an uncanny ability to see the commonalities that exist between religions (across cultures and times). It wasn't long before his books on the subject of myth were capturing the imagination of a lot of people. And no wonder. They read more like modern-day translations of ancient religious truth than academic studies. Maybe even more important than his relevance as a thinker, however, was Campbell's impact as a teacher. In following his own passion in life, Campbell developed an enthusiasm for his subject that was contagious and inspiring to his students. He was a living example of his own advice..."follow your bliss."

So, here's my tribute to Joseph Campbell. He is an important figure in my life not only as a model of adult development, but also for his inclusive and practical perspective on religion. His framing of religion as metaphor, rather than historical fact, has been particularly helpful to me in opening my mind up to religion. So, in anticipation of some of my upcoming posts on my personal mythology, here are some quotes and video clips from Joseph Campbell. Also note that I've included a long description by Campbell of his childhood home in Pike County, Pennsylvania...Yes, the very same Pike County, Pennsylvania where I myself grew up. Before I read this passage this morning, I had absolutely no idea that we had grown up just miles apart (albeit with 70 years between). So yeah, I had to include that one because it made me a little giddy. And it was cool to learn that we had very similar experiences growing up in this very isolated, but very beautiful, part of the world.  

                                                 "Follow your bliss and the universe
                                                 will open doors for you where there
                                                 were only walls."
                                                 -Joseph Campbell




"Every religion is true one way or another. It is
true when understood metaphorically. But when
it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting
them as facts, then you are in trouble."

             “God is a metaphor for that which transcends
             all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple
             as that.”




                              "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are."




"Well, my parents found a lovely place in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania along about 1917, and right nearby was a man whose books about Indians I had been reading. And so he became my first guru, or teacher. His name was Elmer Gregor and he wrote books about American Indians. he had been out in the Indian country. In those days - this is 1912, '13, '14, '15 - the Indian wars were still going on, and "the only good Indian was a dead Indian" and all of that. So there were Indians in the wind, even though we were in the East. And so this beautiful place became my real discovery of nature. My emphasis on biology and nature and the body in my writing about myth comes out of those years. It is really a combination that comes from this man, who was a naturalist as well as an Indian scholar. He put me right on the road."