reading Joseph Campbell

After sitting quietly on my bookshelf for over five years, the time was apparently right for me to take a crack at Joseph Campbell's The Masks of God Vol. II Oriental Mythology. Described succintly on the back cover as "An exploration of Eastern mythology as it developed into the distinctive religions of Egypt, India, China, and Japan."

Heavy reading, as in, I can manage maybe two or three pages before I'm done when I read before bed. I've actually written down several words from this book to look up in the dictionary later, which is unusual for me. PBS aired a Joe Campbell video during their last couple of fund drives, and I really liked the way he lectured. He had a very lyrical and poetic way of relating the stories of myths of the ages, and when it gets really challenging to understand his writing, it helps if I imagine that I'm listening to him speak the words on the page.

Early in the book, he uses a simple phrase to elucidate the main focus of Indian and Far Eastern spirituality: "All is illusion, let it go," and "All is in order, let it come," respectively. Further, in India, meditation is with eyes closed, in Japan, with eyes open. Both have the goal of release, but each is different. What a fantastic encapsulation.