What I have learned of Campbell was that he wanted us to understand
ourselves better. It’s in discovering our self every day that we
experience a real bliss. We, who are the hero of our own Life, undergo a
struggle every day that is thrown on our path by life. Only when we
discover our self and understand our self-better can we save the world
around us.“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 with our own innermost
being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being
alive.” We already know that Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth depends upon the
three stages: Separation, Initiation and Return. From what I have
learnt from Campbell, that we all are a hero in the journey of Life,
struggling every day to return back home with learning experience that
life throws on us. And, according to him, Life as such has no meaning;
it’s we who bring meaning to life, for we are the answers of the
question that we ask others. Campbell read Jung, and though he didn’t
completely followed him yet his above quote suggests that he wanted us
to experience life completely with all its struggle which began with us.
What I have learn from Jung's Shadow play with reference to the
Campbell's hero journey is that until and unless a hero accepts his
darker aspect of inner consciousness as present and real, he will keep
on moving in the circle of life until and unless he accepts it. It’s
when we lighten the inner consciousness with light can we see the truth
of life which is never based on any idealistic religious concepts. To
quote Campbell again, “Half the people in the world think that the
metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the
other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have
people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors
as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because
they think religious metaphors are lies.” Truth doesn’t lies outside
us, it lies within us. Thus he said, “Your sacred space is where you can
find yourself over and over again.” At times though being reasonable
and gentle we lose our sense of control, because we suppress lot of
things inside us. Jung says that we are living at the edge of Volcano,
though being reasonable and logical; we as a hero lose our control and
change instantly into a savage beast because we have been suppressing
that emotion for long and when it finds a medium it finds an outlet. No
one is perfect, it’s only when we accept our imperfection can we rectify
the inner repressed state of our conciseness. Our inner consciousness
as such keeps on changing according to the interest we carry. All the
struggle of accepting self-arises when we as a hero deny the acceptance
of that demonic self which has to be confronted with, as the problem
arising in our life lies within us rather than outside us. To remind
again what Campbell said, “Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning
and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when
you are the answer.” We are not separated from our shadow and the
acceptance of the shadow heals the half of the problem one has when one
struggles through the journey of life or through the day. To quote
Campbell, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” And,
in order to seek that treasure we have to confront that abyss. As
Campbell rightly said, “We're not on our journey to save the world but
to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence
of a vital person vitalizes.” The lighter our shadow is at the end of
the day, the better it is the next day to be reborn as a new soul ready
for the new struggle that life poses in front of us. Another important
fact that I have noted is what Jung says about despiritualization of the
world, which has led us to more struggle because of the curiosity of
finding things outside us. Though we see that the truth lies in front of
us, we deny the truth because it is not grounded with scientific
outlets which has only led to more dilemmas and suspicious in our minds
as a struggle of the hero. The denial of the demon that lies within us
can only lead to failure as a hero in the journey of Life. The light and
the darkness are two sides of a human life, undeniable. And, one who
stands out of himself and sees the two sides can see both the lighter
and darker aspect of oneself. A hero, who denies this access of standing
out of himself and assessing his complete self, with both the lighter
and darker aspect of it, is lost in his struggle with the shadow which
grows darker daily and one can hardly enlighten others with the
knowledge of learning, when he himself is lost in his own struggle of
it. We should not deny what Campbell said in his words, “The privilege
of a lifetime is being who you are.” Hope we never come to the end point
of realization where we end up as a complete failure.
