Joseph Campbell--The Mythic Symbology of Release

You want to be my disciple, pick up your cross and follow me.
- Jesus

I die daily.
- Paul

I believe Joseph Campbell illuminates these words, which are central to being a disciple of Jesus.

In my world, Joseph Campbell, gets even more wise, the farther I go in my own walk.
Here is a great 4 minutes from him: Joseph Campbell--The Mythic Symbology of Release
And I typed about half of it out, because it is awesome, and I didn't see it anywhere on the net:

You don't have to be quit of your bondage in order to expereince the release, the two go together.
In an individual's life, oh this is really a great mystical expereince.
That he no longer identifies himself with the history of his carnal body, but with the consciousness that informs that body.
And when you are identified with the consciousness rather than with the vehicle, the bondage of the vehicle has nothing to do with the bondage of the consciousness.
You see what I mean?
You are free in bondage.
Mythologically, the shackles fall without leaving your wrists.

...in the world, in the field of bondage, the eternal power plays.
And so you have this... joyful participation in the sorrows of the world.
You can't eliminate the sorrows of the world, time involves sorrow.
And if you are in the field of time, that is the expereince of your carnal body.
But that which is participating in this has another dimension, the eternal dimension, and it can joyfully affirm this.

...Eternity participates voluntarily in the processes of time - which are sorrow and death.
So he (Jesus) comes to the cross  - which is the cross of life and time, voluntarily.
And, when you get that affirmative aspect, you've got a sense of the Christianity which is heroic.

... Christ triumphant, with his eyes open, voluntarily, on the cross.
And that is where we all are.
And, when you can identify yourself with that myth, you are released...
When the ego is capable of that participation in the crucifixion, then you are in ... the imitation of Christ.
And I would say, you have achieved the goal of the Christian message.

The Miracles of Surprise Sithole: Belief and DESIRE!

Hello!
This blog is regarding the text and video of an inspiring blog post:
The Miracles of Surprise Sithole

I suggest reading and watching and having your own expereince, before reading mine
(but, I am not in charge, you are ; )

.
After I read the text, this is literally, what I had to say:
(but please don't get stopped here, because the Magic happened when I watched the video ; )

1)
Sithole has a beautiful testimony.
(I am not saying that this testimony is true, because IDK, but I do know it could be true. And hopefully is ; )

2)
The whole time I was reading the Sithole article, I was basically thinking, what he beautifully says near the end:

belief in miracles is not optional for a Christian:
“If you are a true believer, you have to believe in miracles.” 

In his book he discusses “why so many miracles occur in Africa while
they seem to be so rare in America and Europe”. 

His answer is that
Africans have “simple faith”, while Western people “question everything..."

3)
Systematic Theology about Miracles is like Dancing about Architecture 

(this occurs as nuts to me, with all respect ; )

Intellectualizing/ Rationalizing/ Pigeonholing is Most of the Reason we don't expereince the small miracles around us, every minute;

 and why we block big miracles from happening, at all. IMHO.

We block the power and glory and light and love and truth of God.

.

BUT THEN, I watched the video with Sithole!

And then I wrote:

WOW what a Huge Blessing to expereince his energy.

NOW I can say, from my perspective, this guy is for Real ; )

I expected to find him with a lot of Certainty/Faith - and I did - the energy of his Belief is strong.

But, I found a wonderful Surprise
- even stronger than his Belief is something else, very dominant in his BEing.

He is Hungry, very hungry.
And where he is in the world, there is a lot of food for his hunger.

This is what I see:

As he eats, he grows larger and can eat more, and grows larger.

At first this picture was, as if he was a snake doing this.

Then the picture changed to a whale - back and forth, back and forth in a rich feeding-ground.

Finally, I realized what I was seeing was:
this hunger was desire, 

and fulfillment of desire, 

and then growing desire. 

But, it wasn't in the unhealthy way that one can see often in our general culture...

The healthy gift of Desire.

.

And here is the Gift - I am not aware that I have seen such beautiful, pure, holy Desire.

• Usually I see Desire for crap - for money, for stuff, for security, for power, for prestige, for attention, for validation, for lovers - on and on.

• Mostly I see Desire for the things of this world - which pass away, and which do not really Satisfy us,  and which can easily distract us from our Delicious BEIng IN God, our Glorious Path IN God.

I had to look and look, what is it that Sithole Desires?
It wasn't a common thing that I ever really saw before, like this, in anyone.

What I finally found was, he desires Hope and Light.

He Desires for Hope and Light to Grow,
and he goes around where there is a lot of Hopelessness and Despair and Darkness
- so much that it is a good feeding ground -

And he eats it up, and leaves trails of Hope and Light
- like paths through the jungle, like trails to water in the desert.

And this feeds him, he grows, and he keeps on eating more.
He doesn't stop.

That is what I notice, YMMV

.
My teacher would say, we create...
(most Christians would more comfortably say, we co-create with God - for me: same, same)

We create through Belief and Desire.

That IS what this guy is doing, 

it is an inspiration to learn from him energetically/spiritually. 

I have had issue with Desire, becasue I don't much-Desire the things of this world
(I do Some, I AM human ; )

But, relatively, I don't Desire very much the things of this world.
This has been challenging for me, becasue it has affected my ability to create.

.

It helps me A LOT to see someone Desiring in a holy way 

- in a way I can relate to.

Learning from him energetically, I can access more of what *I* am passionate about:
loving and serving God, loving and serving people,
INviting Healing, Light, Love, Truth, Life, Hope, Way INTO the WORLD, in REAL ways.

I just don't care Enough about money and things, 

I don't care Enough about prestige and success in the world's terms;
I have been unable to utilize these desires as a big enough lever to really matter.

But I do Desire to Heal up from the crap,
to Grow Fully into who I AM,
and to come to Fruition
- and to share, to shine God's Gifts in the world, in my unique way.
 

THIS IS a big enough lever!

.

Right this minute, I am integrating more about Desire than I ever have.
I saw Desire as a bad thing, for most of my life.
Then I learned that, without attachment, it as a very useful thing,
but I never felt like I had enough.

.
But I DO have enough Desire, it is just different than expected!

I felt a little broken in this area of Desire.
But really, how I am is just right - this is a Huge, Blessing for me.

- it is a GIFT to Desire God and Life in God, and Being Blessing in the world.

The Seed of Desire for BEing these Blessings in the world
is much more awakened by Sithole's spiritual modeling, 

I can feel it growing.

I can feel the holy hunger drawing me forward more than I ever had before, 

as I saw him being drawn.

I am grateful, I will continue to energetically learn from him.
in life! Wendy