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Follow Your Bliss
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Follow Your Bliss |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan 
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. “Everyone with the slightest familiarity with Joseph Campbell, of course, knows the famous catch-phrase: "Follow Your Bliss". And everyone pretty much knows what it means, as well: Figure out whatever your passion is, and responsibly and diligently move forward, and pursue it... for the rest of your life... above and beyond anything else.” http://www.amazon.com/Pathways-Bliss-Mythology-Personal-Transformation/dp/1577314719 Yet, even when that following is without conscious deliberate harm to anyone else, can it still be morally wrong? Does anyone remember what it was like in that miserable before time when the imperative was not following your bliss but doing the “right thing”? This was a Boomer victory . . . for which I am personally grateful. John . [This message has been edited by Huan Yi (06-29-2008 03:19 PM).] |
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Stephanos
since 2000-07-31
Posts 3618Statesboro, GA, USA |
I still think its about doing the right thing, and figuring out that that is what really yields the most satisfaction. Though we are in a society where many (most?) are following "their own thing" rather than finding out what is right, I don't think satisfaction or "happiness" is greater as a result. Stephen |
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serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
Oh John... Again, you roll the coin, and aptly show both sides, and you have the answer in all the 3-D, and ask us to choose either/or.... tsk... How can anyone follow a "bliss" that is not morally inclined to balance to the favor of their own perspective? (smile...this reminds me of those old push/slide carnie coin games...) |
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oceanvu2 Senior Member
since 2007-02-24
Posts 1066Santa Monica, California, USA |
Ah John, RE: Yet, even when that following is without conscious deliberate harm to anyone else, can it still be morally wrong? Does anyone remember what it was like in that miserable before time when the imperative was not following your bliss but doing the “right thing” You make too much of it. If following one's bliss includes doing the "right thing," there is no moral conflict that I can see. It is, IMO, actually possible to be a decent human being being and at one with one's self and others. If a particular Bliss-trip involves conscious acts of violence and other heinous behavior, the blissed out psycopath hasn't a clue of what Campbell or many others are talking about anyway. They're not mentally sound. Can't fix it, can't sweat it. Follow your bliss. Jimbeaux  |
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MOCindy Member
since 2008-07-30
Posts 73 |
Bliss or passion is personal feelings. And it is original and authentic in human. It can not be judged. But the way to achieve it can be judged and is under the observation of all kind of laws, rules, cultures and everything. C thought |
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Bob K Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208 |
Once again another interesting question, Huan Yi, this time one that follows a "Should we do this or should we do that?" format. Questions of this sort enter the discussion by attempting to tell the participants what sorts of rational inquiry will be off bounds. This is permissible, I suppose, in a legal discussion, where lives and property and freedom may be at stake, and where there are places for these side discussions to be held, and decisions made as to what the rules will be for this particular situation in order to preserve fairness all about. In other words, Serenity has a right to Kvetch. You're stacking the deck from the beginning. Most people on a minute to minute basis don't have a clue as to what they actually are doing simply because they're unfocused and aren't paying attention. What other people think they should be doing may be somewhat more clear, but often they have no ability to distinguish between what other people think they should do and their own thoughts on the matter (should they in fact differ). What they want and what their bliss may be are questions as off the chart for them as it was for their great great grandmothers. Theodore Roethke may have been right when he came up with the good line in a not so good poem— "The right thing happens to the happy man." I'm afraid that for most of us, the prospect of paying enough attention to our own ongoing and unfolding experience is too terrifying over the long term actually to find out, even or perhaps especially when that experience is blissful. Pragmatically we may simply be more cheerful as the compliant servants of our fears, complaisant in our beliefs that we know what the right thing may be. Once again, Roethke: "In heaven, too, you'd be institutionalized." Or something of that sort. Sincerely, Bob K. |
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oceanvu2 Senior Member
since 2007-02-24
Posts 1066Santa Monica, California, USA |
Bob: RE "Most people on a minute to minute basis don't have a clue as to what they actually are doing simply because they're unfocused and aren't paying attention." Ain't that ever the truth! "Pay Attention," or "Be Here Now" are such profound concepts that you can spend a lifetime trying to understand them, or an instant just getting it. Chop wood. Carry water. There are so many things we can do with our eyes shut. How much more beautiful with eyes open. Best, Jim |
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Essorant Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada |
True bliss true Wisdom sows indeed, He cultivates and learns to lead, But Fools will follow any bliss Like dungbeetles a dunghoard kiss. |
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oceanvu2 Senior Member
since 2007-02-24
Posts 1066Santa Monica, California, USA |
Aw, Ess, a fool can't follow his/her bliss, being unable to grasp the concept at all due to foolishness. Campbell's concept of bliss has nothing to do with willy-nilly impulse, or slavish dedidication to pushing one's crap into a ball. The misconception links "bliss" with temporary infatuation, or a blind devotion to something which might be absurd. Campbell's "bliss" is a fairly simple concept. "Do what works," is a possible summation. And like all fairly simple concepts, it's a bugger when one doesn't have a handle on it, and inescapable whether one has a handle on it or not. Campbell's point, I think, is that if one shuts down the brain-yap that prevents one from being whom one is, "bliss," an experiential "being-ness" is an inevitability. It doesn't necessarily make one "happy," a misreading of "bliss," but it gives one the opportunity of living life withn the context of one's own authenticity. It has nothing (and maybe everything)to do with getting on with things. Enough already from me. Best, Jimbeaux |
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