joseph campbell talks about an inexhaustible center in life in his killer book 'the power of myth'. this center that we originate from is neither afraid nor desiring, it is just becoming. like a newborn. when you can lose the fear and the desire for material things you get back to that center and that is where your bliss is.

you don't see the grass in your front yard going, 'damn, whats the use of growing if you're just going to keep cutting me down?' you don't see animals in the wild sitting around feeling sorry for themselves, even in the most horrific conditions. all the other forms of life are busy just being. but not us.

if we could just follow our bliss. there's something inside you that knows when you're on bliss track or not. and if you get off the track just to earn money, you've lost your way on the journey in this life. don't get me wrong, i dig money, but it needs to be my servant and not my master. and it is the journey thats important because the end keeps hopping down the path in front of you just as you think you're getting closer.

the bible says 'the kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it.' it's like we're at this fantastic banquet called life and most poor souls are starving to death spiritually. seek your center. the more you seek it, the more you get back on track. it just feels right.

'People say what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive so that the life experiences that we have will have resonance within our own innermost being, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.' j. campbell

posted by bluematrix at 06/27/07 23:05 | link | comments (2)

Mythologist Joseph Campbell, in his famous The Power of Myth (a really, really good book) answered the question of The Meaning of Life in the following way and I tend to agree with him:

"People say what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive so that the life experiences that we have on the purely physical plane will have resonances within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.."

i have been searching for meaning a lot more lately, with only little success unfortunately. the books strongly resonate in me as i read them, and the better ones for days afterwards. but grasping life-changing, empowering ideas, and actually putting them into practice day after day are two very different things.

but for most of my adult life i have felt the need to 'experience being alive' strongly and i think this ties into why i have chased after life experiences more than most of those around me. travel is one of the best and easiest ways to gain interesting life experiences and if i were to become rich tomorrow i would travel extensively.

a bit more daring is the thrill seeking i continually embrace like sky-diving, motorcycle racing, mountain climbing, etc. life suddenly becomes more precious when its at risk. (my friend mark just sent me a link to a story of a physician from here in st. louis last weekend who became the 6th person to fall and die in the last year on the Angels Landing trail we hiked in the fall.)

my younger days found me pushing the experiential envelope of my mind thru the use of chemicals, but practicality has forced me to leave those inner adventures behind for the most part. but the doors that were opened and the thresholds i crossed during those journeys remain with me today.

i'm getting a sense that the meaning changes as we ourselves change. the meaning for a teenager would be different from that person as old man. know what i mean?

posted by bluematrix at 06/13/07 16:01 | link | comments (2)

i try to be a very understanding kind of guy. i try to always give people the benefit of the doubt because its hard to know enough facts to judge others. especially when reading a news item because by necessity the journalist takes a point of view in order to tell the story. but sometimes...

a man was taking his daughter to the emergency room for a serious brain trauma. on the way, he decides that he has enough time to stop and buy some crack. the deal takes longer than he thought. by the time he reaches the hospital, the doctors are unable to save his daughters life, which they could have if they had seen her just a little earlier. omfg.

i'm trying to see the other side of the story here, but am having trouble with this one. i mean yea, addiction is a bitch, and makes you do things you wouldn't normally do, but really now. yes, drugs cloud your judgement, i get that. yes, the need for drugs is sometimes overpowering, i get that. but i'm trying to picture the scene... you're in your car, your own kid needing a hospital quickly or she'll die...and you stop to buy crack??? i mean, drop the kid off at the hospital and then run back and score. or call a frickin ambulance and don't even take the kid.

ok so maybe the head trauma was mostly internal brain hemorrhaging and maybe it was hard to tell the severity, but - it was severe enough for him to know that his daughter needed to go to the emergency room.

you need a license to drive, or buy a gun, or to play guitar on a downtown sidewalk. i know the ethical pros outweigh the cons for a childbearing license, but cases like this make me wonder sometimes.

posted by bluematrix at 06/06/07 16:12 | link | comments (1)