12 May 2012
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As with the third portion of this series of lectures, there is a lot to
unpack, so I will just touch on a few things that resonated with me.
There is a very poignant letter Campbell reads at the beginning from a
Native American. One of the parts that stuck out for me was “what will
happen when all the buffalo are slaughtered. The end of living and the
beginning of survival.” This is so true and so prophetic. As a people we
have ceased to live, we have ceased to know life and ceased to know how
to tap into life. The slaughtering of the buffalo represents the
depletion of resources, the severing of the connection between man and
nature. We have made man and nature dualities: two sides of the same
coin. In actuality this should be true in our minds “man did not weave
the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.” It is true, but we do not
live as if it is. As Jedi, restoring our understanding and the “thou”
status of nature, we become more in tune with the Force.
A story also caught my attention: A man in mortal danger is saved by a
police man potentially at his own peril. The interesting thing about
this story is the power that compelled the police man to reach out a
hand and help the fellow. Campell calls it at one point: “this THING”.
Immediately, I knew it was the Force. The policeman did not recognize
it, most people probably don’t. But it is the Force which surrounds us,
penetrates us, and binds all things together. The policeman was
compelled by the bond of the other man to him. If we believed in the
Force, I mean all mankind, there would be no war, there would be peace.
Could that be what the first part of the Code means: “I am a Jedi, an
instrument of peace.” We would not compel men to live by our words, but
by our actions. Or perhaps, as it has done for us, the Force will draw
others.
On finding your bliss I have but one thing to say, when we have found
the bond that connects us one to another and one to everything around
us, we will live in a better world, a world of bliss. However, we must
sacrifice our own desires in order to attain this goal of bliss.
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