Joseph Campbell - Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion

A Joseph Campbell Companion:
Reflections on the Art of Living

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W ELCOME to the first electronic edition of one of Joseph Campbell's most popular works. A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living has long been one of our favorite Campbell titles, and it is perennially one of this quotable man's most quoted.

This book was drawn from transcripts of a month-long series of workshops that Joseph Campbell gave at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California in March, 1984the year of his eightieth birthday. The idea for the book was conceived by workshop attendee Diane K. Osbon in 1990, some three years after Campbell died. The text was edited into its present form by longtime Campbell editor and JCF president Robert Walter.

Filmed segments from this same month-long celebration of Campbell and his work are available in The Hero's Journey, which is available as part of the Collected Works of Joseph Cambpell series in both video and print formats.

A Joseph Campbell Companion was originally published by HarperCollins in 1991. In addition to this edition, the book is currently available in a paperback edition published by HarperPerennial.

This electronic edition was published in August, 2011. It contains the complete text of the original print edition, with some minor changes in style and spelling, except for an introduction to the print edition, which has been omitted.

The photograph used in the cover art of a yamabushi conducting a Shint fire ceremony was taken by Joseph Campbell in Kyto, Japan in 1956.

Campbell intended that his essays spark thought and discussion. To comment or discuss this book locally, we encourage you to find one of our local Mythological RoundTable groups, meeting regularly in small towns and big cities around the globe. To discuss mythology, psychology, religion, art, and just about everything else under the sun (or over it) with readers from around the world, visit the Conversations of a Higher Order, the on-line forums for Joseph Campbell Foundation. The [Discuss] links at the end of each chapter lead directly to a forum dedicated to the discussion of this book.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for maintaining this ebook for your personal use.

If you have received this ebook gratis, we hope that you found it inspiring and thought-provoking. We invite you join our associates in supporting our on-going efforts to bring out new, exciting editions such as this by making a donation at JCF.org.

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David Kudler, Managing Editor
Mill Valley, California
August 1, 2011

T HE privilege of a lifetime

is being who you are.

W hat you have to do,

you do with play.

Life is without meaning.

You bring the meaning to it.

The meaning of life is

whatever you ascribe it to be.

Being alive is the meaning.

T he warriors approach

is to say yes to life:

yea to it all.

Participate joyfully

in the sorrows of the world.

We cannot cure the world of sorrows,

but we can choose to live in joy.

When we talk about

settling the worlds problems,

were barking up the wrong tree.

The world is perfect. Its a mess.

It has always been a mess.

We are not going to change it.

Our job is to straighten out

our own lives.

W e must be willing to get rid of

the life weve planned, so as to have

the life that is waiting for us.

The old skin has to be shed

before the new one can come.

If we fix on the old, we get stuck.

When we hang onto any form,

we are in danger of putrefaction.

Hell is life drying up.

The Hoarder,

the one in us that wants to keep,

to hold on, must be killed.

If we are hanging onto the form now,

were not going to have the form next.

You cant make an omelet

without breaking eggs.

Destruction before creation.

O ut of perfection

nothing can be made.

Every process involves

breaking something up.

The earth must be broken

to bring forth life.

If the seed does not die,

there is no plant.

Bread results

from the death of wheat.

Life lives on lives.

Our own life

lives on the acts

of other people.

If you are lifeworthy,

you can take it.

What we are really living for

is the experience of life,

both the pain and the pleasure.

The world is a match for us.

We are a match for the world.