Be Now Here

     In the Thomas Gospel, on the other hand, when the apostles ask, “When will the Kingdom come?” — Jesus says, “The Kingdom will not come by expectation. They will say ‘see here, see there.’ The Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it.” That’s Gnosticism.

     Gnosticism is the Western
     Counterpart of Buddhism.

     Thomas says, in other words, that there is a revelation possible to you right now. It is here. So, “to be happy with Him forever in heaven” means to reach that depth now. It’s a totally different slant.

     If you read Christian mythology
     in the Gnostic way,
     it makes universal sense.

— Joseph Campbell, Joseph Campbell Companion, Diane K. Osbon (sel. & ed.), pp. 174-175.

     This bringing together of Joyce’ esthetic theory with the maya idea was a wonderful illumination for me. I just woke up one morning and said, “My god, I have finally got it after eighty years.” I have known the implications of esthetic arrest, but I’d never linked it up to the maya idea. It is your mental attitude that determines whether you experience the projecting or the revealing power. The world is there in both modes. It is not that the world changes, it’s your consciousness.
     Esthetic arrest is the result of this change of focus. “The Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth and men do not see it.” You see it in esthetic arrest. But to develop the inward depth experienced through this change of focus, those who seek to achieve fully the goal of life should set aside a sacred space. The sacred space, when you think of where it appears in traditional cultures, is for initiations and meditations. If you are so fulfilled already that no further initiations are necessary, then you can do without such a space. But, insofar as you’ve not struck the ultimate depth and are interested in enriching and building the interior, in addition to the external aspects of your life, then you have to have some place, some way, to practice this.
     All the world will open up when you’ve achieved this inner depth, and your play in life will be informed by this radiance….
— Joseph Campbell, Ibid., pp. 252-253.

     Participate joyfully
     In the sorrows of the world.

     The obvious lesson . . . is that the first step to the knowledge of the highest divine symbol of the wonder and mystery of life is in the recognition of the monstrous nature of life and its glory in that character: the realization that this is just how it is and that it cannot and will not be changed. Those who think — and their name is legion — that they know how the universe could have been better than it is, how it would have had they created it, without pain, without sorrow, without time, without life, are unfit for illumination. Or those who think — as do many — “Let me first correct society, then get around to myself” are barred from even the outer gate of the mansion of God’s peace. All societies are evil, sorrowful, inequitable; and so they will always be. So if you really want to help this world, what you will have to teach is how to live in it. And that no one can do who has not himself learned how to live in it in the joyful sorrow and sorrowful joy of the knowledge of life as it is.

     We cannot cure the world of sorrows,
     but we can choose to live in joy.

— Joseph Campbell, Ibid., p. 289.