Follow your bliss, become the hero: A Palm Sunday reflection

“Palm Sunday” marks the beginning of “Holy Week”, regarded as the most important in the whole Christian calendar. Now some will say what do these events, that seem impossible to believe in, have to do with we who live 2,000 years later? What relevance do they have to we who live today? How can we possibly believe in them? Well, I would say there is so much here to teach us about human living, about spiritual living actually. There is more to the Easter mythos than the historical accuracy or inaccuracy of the Biblical accounts. In fact to get lost in the detail of what did or didn’t actually happen is to miss the whole point of the mythos. “Mythos” isn’t about whether something is true in a historical sense; “Mythos” is more about deeper universal truth; “Mythos” is more about the human condition regardless of time or place. Another way to think of “Mythos” is to see them as a metaphor. Here Joseph Campbell explains what is meant by myth or metaphor:

“Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions, for example, are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies”…

Joseph Campbell taught that mythos are metaphors for human life. That they are eternal and universal tales that can teach us about our lives right here right now. He believed that by understanding these mysteries we can begin to understand who we truly are and what life is all about.

With this in mind I can find so much in the “Holy Week” narrative that does speak to me, but then again there is much in other traditions, both ancient, modern and post-modern that speak to me too. I am a Universalist in every sense of the word. That said “Holy Week” compels me to look more deeply at Jesus, his teachings as well has his passion and death and how that can bring meaning to mine and I hope your lives.

Central to the “Mythos” is this concept of love incarnating in human form. Now it seems clear that this occurred in the life of Jesus as it is told in the Gospels. My main argument with traditional Christian orthodoxy is the view that this occurred only in one form and at one point in human history. This I find impossible to accept. I only have to look at my life and I know I have experienced this love in the lives of so many other people. I believe that we all have the capacity to become channels of the divine in this life. We can all incarnate love through our very being. We can all become the light of the world. Sadly, all too often we fail to do so; all too often we fall short and we betray one another. This aspect of our humanity becomes all too clear in the narrative of Holy week.

On Palm Sunday, the beginning of “Holy Week”, Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on the back of a humble donkey or Colt and is received by the crowds waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna, hosanna in the highest heaven” The crowds welcome Jesus who they believe will save them. This though does not happen and just a few days later he is betrayed, rejected, brutalised and killed. The body is killed, the figure dies, but the love that is left behind lives on. It is this love that I believe is the true Easter mythos. A love that can live on and once again incarnate in the lives of all people. This is the universal mythos found in the “Holy Week” narrative.

There is though something more that is universal about the “Palm Sunday” and “Holy Week” narrative, than this concept of universal love. It is not just a mythos about Jesus, it is also about the crowd and all the people around him. People just like you and me. Just like them we can all get caught up in the crowd mentality can we not? We can all identify with the crowd despite the world in which we live being very different today. We share a common humanity with them. We are all formed from the same breath of life, we all have the Divine spark within us; well at least I believe that we do. We are not God’s though, although we can become the light of the world if and when we live in love. We are fully human just like those folk on the side of the street waving their palms grateful for any reason to celebrate, looking out for a hero to follow. People are always looking for something to celebrate, doesn’t seem to matter what this is. People looking for joy, looking for meaning, looking for a bliss to follow. People who just like us are prone to disappointment, who fail to live up to the very ideals they would like to strive for. People who fall short, get ill, and become bogged down in little and bigger things, finite human beings. People who are looking for hope, to lift them out of their suffering. People looking for someone or something to lead them to better things, to give them another chance to live better lives. People just like us who want to not only find, but also follow their bliss. People looking for a meaning to their lives. People looking out for a hero.

Jesus though is the central figure. It is he who is following his bliss continuing on what Campbell called his “Hero’s Journey”. A phrase inspired by James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake”. The week begins with the triumphant entry, but soon turns into what Campbell has described as the stage known as “The Ordeal” There are many ways to describe this stage. It can be seen as a trial, a fire walk, an opportunity to choose between the transient things of this world and the lasting things of “heaven.” Perhaps our individual call to let go of the personal ego, with all of its mind-made facts and truths, and to grab hold of the Divine Nature that is the essence of each of us. Again, this is something we all face in life, if we remain open to it. We can all be the hero we have been waiting for, but still we are always holding out for another hero, someone to save us, or at least inspire us. It reminds me of a song from a film that I remember from my childhood.

I have a friend who in recent times has been catching up with a load of films from her childhood, films she hasn’t seen, she is a similar age to me. She had never seen “Ghostbusters” or “The Goonies” and a whole load of others. By the way classic stories of groups of people being called out on their heroic journeys.

One film she had seen though was “Footloose”. Does anyone remember it?

It is story of a streetwise teenager Ren (played by Kevin Bacon) who moves to a small town in middle America, what would be called Trump country these days. The town is dominated by a fundamentalist preacher who has banned all forms of modern music and dancing. The town is deeply repressed and are “Holding Out for a Hero”, to liberate them. In fact the title song, performed by Bonnie Tyler depicts this perfectly

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn
And I dream of what I need

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life!
Larger than life

So many folk are looking out for such a figure? Well, this is the mistake. Our real task is to be called out on our own journey and become the hero we have all been waiting for. We have to slay our own dragons and bring back the treasure for all to share, just like the Goonies and the Ghost Busters. We have to follow our own bliss. Yes, be inspired by the examples of others, but not await rescue like some princess from a fairy tale. There are no white knights coming. We must become the heroes we have all been waiting for. We must be called out to follow our own bliss.

The “Triumphant Entry”, The “Palm Sunday” narrative and the whole “Holy Week” Mythos, is an archetype of “Following your Bliss.”

But what does it mean to “follow your bliss”? Well according to Joseph Campbell it is a sacred call to action. It is a call from your soul to light the fire within you to do what destiny asks of you, to bring yourself fully to life and therefore to become a light in the lives of others. Following your bliss is about doing the things that bring meaning and fulfilment despite the troubles that may accompany it. It is about meaningful living despite the very real suffering present in all life. As Campbell says by following our bliss doors will open up for us where we could only see barriers before.

Following our bliss is about saying yes to this call and beginning our own heroic journey. In doing so synchronicity will seemingly be abound and luck will follow. By following our bliss we seemingly become guided by something more than ourselves. This is what Campbell observed and it has certainly been my experience, at least for the last 20 years.

Following our bliss though is not an easy ride, quite the opposite actually. Yes there maybe moments of triumphal entry when all are for us and no one seems to be against us, but there will also be moments of suffering and betrayal when everyone and everything seems to be against us. As Campbell observed that like all heroic journeys there are tests and trials along the way. There are monsters and dragons to slay on the journey although most of these are the ones we carry with us. It is our fear of the adventure that is our greatest enemy. It is this that stops us taking the first vital step.

Human history is littered with figures who have been drawn out of themselves, have followed their bliss and begun their adventure thus inspiring others to do likewise. Some have done this on a mass scale, figures like Nelson Mandela, and many others have done so on a much smaller, but no less important scale. All have had to face their trials and tribulation and all brought so much light to our world. They were not special people though, they were ordinary people just like you and me; ordinary people who followed their bliss. Ordinary people who found the courage to be all that they were born to be.

The journey, is arduous at times and filled with fear, betrayal and all kinds of ordeals, there will be temptation to turn away. The key to the journey is to continue on, despite the very real fear. Just as Jesus carried on despite all the fear and doubt and all the barriers that built up ahead of him. He followed his bliss, what he saw as his destiny and in that “courage to be” this lived on as an example to us all of what we can be if we follow our bliss. We can become the “light of the world”. The one’s we and our world have been waiting for. We don’t wait for a hero on a white horse to come and save us, we need to find the hero inside ourselves and go on our own courageous journeys.

So as we stand on threshold of Easter, in this early spring on the days of new beginnings. Let us do so in trust; let us trust in life. That despite the many struggles, sorrows and grief’s, that despite the suffering present daily in life we can know love, beauty and deep meaning if we would but only find the courage to be and “follow our bliss”

Please find below a video devotion based on the material in this "blogspot"

Oz or Some Other Place

One of my favourite places on earth is Crosby Beach. What I love are those 100 identical sculpture’s that go by the title “Another place”. There they stand staring out to sea, perhaps looking for another place, any place but here. These naked, lonely scarecrows staring out into the great big nothing, dreaming of another place. Have you ever felt like that? I have. I have stood there staring out to sea so many times dreaming of something other than the life I was living.

There was a pinky orange glow to everything, not just the sky, on Monday morning. I heard people describing it in many different ways, one friend called it a “Vanilla Sky”, a mystical, mysterious sky, pointing to some kind of otherness. Some folk didn’t like it, I know it disturbed them, change can do that to people. The strange sky somehow tapped into the fear of the unknown that is inside each of us.

Now don’t they say “Red sky at night, shepherds delight, red sky in the morning seaman’s warning?/ I suspect that the mysterious sky was a fore warning of Hurricane Ophelia that was coming in from the Atlantic. There have been some terrible destruction caused by such winds on the other side of the Atlantic this year, there was in Ireland on Monday. Are there more storms these days than in the past? There may well be. Or is it that we just hear more about them these days? Is the news of the destructive winds merely a symptom of the fear based global news state that we currently live in? I suspect it is not an either or question, but that both are true.

On Monday as I took in the strange tint of the atmosphere I too dreamt of another place, I too became like one of those Gormley statues. I dreamt of another place, but not for long as I soon entered into the day, I felt at home in my own body and at home in the ground I found myself. As I walked through the streets of Altrincham that morning I realised I was not like those cold lifeless statues; I realised I was not a brainless scarecrow, or a heartless woodman or even a cowardly lion. As I walked through the streets words began to filter into my mind of someone else who dreamed of another place, but who too learnt to find that their treasure was found at home and not some technicolour dreamland.

Someday I'll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney top
That's where you'll find me

Oh, somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly
And the dream that you dare to,
Oh why, oh why can't I?

Dangerous words those sung by Dorothy in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz”, for did they not bring the Tornado. In fact the sky that Monday morning reminded me somewhat of her Kansas sky. Dorothy dreamed of another place somewhere over the rainbow, a place away from dull, grey, flat Kansas. Is there another place that we dream about, that we Hope for, a Heaven, a Nirvana. Who knows, I don’t. Either way I do not believe that we are meant to live our lives dreaming of another place, a place beyond this life. Our task, I have come to believe is to create heaven here and it begins within each and everyone of us. I much prefer to follow that simple message in the  “Sermon on the Mount” and become the light of the world. To create the Kingdom here and now.

We bring heaven alive through our loving living or we create Hell by fearing one another, fearing life, turning away and dreaming of some other place, somewhere over the rainbow, somewhere beyond this life.

That said it is so human to dream of some other place, way over there, somewhere over the rainbow, like those Gormly statues. Sometimes to appreciate what we have, what is our heaven, we have to go away or even almost lose what we have. The Holocaust survivor Eli Weisel said of gratitude, that it was a gift of the night. It was not something that came from the good things we have in life, instead it comes almost as a sense of relief as we step outside of a living hell. Finally by almost losing everything, certainly what is dearest to our hearts, we learn to want what we have.

Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" is a wonderful example of learning to want what you have, to find the realm of love within, where ever you are. Her journey is an archetype of the spiritual quest; her journey symbolises a movement towards self-actualisation, whole-ness, atonement, at-one-ment, holiness; her journey symbolises what it means to return, to remember, to become who you are; her journey symbolises re-birth. It is important to realise that the word conversion comes from the Latin “Convertere” which meant to turn, or to return, that is what re-birth means, something that can happen a thousand times or none at all in a person’s life. Re-birth is of course never the end, it’s a new beginning.

All the great stories, especially the journeys of the heroes within them, share much in common. Dorothy is an archetype of what Joseph Campbell called the “Hero’s Journey”, just like Jesus, the Buddha, Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Hercules, Arthur, Jack and the Beanstalk and countless others throughout human history.

Dorothy shares many similarities with Jesus in the Gospel accounts. Both had questionable parentage; began life as very ordinary people; had to escape danger when very young; travelled a path that was laid out for them with an end that could not be avoided; battled many forms of evil and power; found imperfect companions who joined them on the way and who fled when trouble hit; travelled through wilderness; found a hidden power deep within that helped them transcend their experiences; eventually returned home leaving behind those same companions; finally they both took a stand for what is right and just, they stood against power. You will see similar characteristics in all the heroes of human mythos.

That said I suspect the characteristic that stands out about Dorothy, more than any other, is her desire to return home, how she learnt that this is where she belonged, that this was her hearts desire, rather than her dreams of some distant Nirvana, or Heaven or Oz. I suspect she is not alone. You see the true spiritual quest is to uncover the beauty where we find ourselves and to bring the love deep within alive in our lives. I believe that the spiritual journey is about learning to be at home, to create heaven here on earth, to bring the love alive in our lives, Dorothy says towards the end of the film that she was looking for her heart’s desire. Isn’t that what we are all looking for, our hearts desires? Isn’t this the spiritual journey, what Joseph Campbell called “Following Your Bliss”

Most folk begin their spiritual quest just like Dorothy did hoping, longing, desiring something more, but her desire like so much desire is aimless, a road to nowhere. So Glenda (The Good Witch) suggests that the best place to start is at the beginning, or what David Whyte describes as “Close in, with the first step”. Dorothy’s journey begins with the yellow brick road. This is the road that leads us home.

No path is ever straight. Dorothy on her journey met all kinds of people, each representing aspects of both the inner and outer life. The most obvious are the three that travel with Dorothy: the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. These three were seeking brains, a heart and courage. Now don’t we all need our brains, our hearts, and to keep our nerves on our journeys? For after all isn’t it true that to live spiritually alive is to feel with all our heart, to use our minds thoughtfully and to act courageously. The spiritual life is about using our minds compassionately so that we can give our whole selves to life, in love and service for all.

The three main characters who join with Dorothy believe that they are lacking something, this is why they join her on her journey. Remember also that Dorothy misses home, something she rejected. She left home in the first place because she felt that something was missing. She ran away following some aimless desire. Now she’s in Oz though she has found an aim, to get home. In order to do so she has to find the wizard. Now don’t we all fall for the fools gold of finding a wizard or some other shinning thing that will fix our problem? Don’t we all look for answers outside of ourselves? Don’t we all miss the treasure deep within?

The four companions do eventually find the Wizard, as they arrive at the Emerald City. They ask the Wizard to give to them what they believe they lack. This he promises to do if they would kill the "Wicked Witch" and bring to him her broomstick, a task which he believes is beyond them. But of course they succeed and return to the Emerald City expecting their reward.

Despite doing all that was asked of them, the Wizard disappoints them. During a frantic scene Toto pulls back the curtain revealing the truth about the Wizard. It had all been a case of smoke and mirrors he is an ordinary man, with no magic powers. Dorothy tells him that he is a very bad man. To which he replies "Oh, no, my dear; I'm really a very good man, but I'm a very bad Wizard, I must admit."

A disappointing end it would seem, there was nothing there at the end of the rainbow. But is this true? Let’s look a little more closely.

The scarecrow did indeed find his wonderful brains; the tin man did indeed find his lovely heart; the lion no longer lived as a coward. And in the end Dorothy did find her way back to Kansas as she clicked her ruby slippers and recounted the chant...“there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” She got her heart’s desire, she discovered her bliss.

Surely this is the lesson from this beautiful tale. Wherever we journey, however we get there and whatever it leads to in the end the real purpose is to uncover that pot of gold that we already have within each and every one of us. Hopefully by uncovering our own pots of gold we will help others to do likewise.

Surely this is the purpose of free religious communities. To help one another uncover our pots of gold and to let them shine.

Surely this is the purpose of the spiritual life, to learn to be at home wherever we find ourselves and to help others to do the same.

You see the truth is that Kingdom of God is already here, we just need to let it shine out of us; we just need to learn to become the light of the world; we just need to learn to follow our bliss.

So let’s stop dreaming of some other place, let’s learn instead to be at home, here now, lets learn to let out our heart’s desires and become the light of the world, the ones that we have all been waiting for.

Start Close In...With the First Step...

I woke up the other morning with the following thoughts singing in my heart and soul…

"Some say that freedom comes from seeking your own answers to the questions of the day; to the questions that others asks you. I am not so sure that this is real freedom.

Who decides the questions? Who says that these are the questions that you should even be asking yourself?

What are the questions that your own heart, your own soul, asks?

Finding your own voice is not about only finding your own answers, but also about asking the questions your own soul demands of you, your own heart asks you.

That said it is not enough to merely ask the questions that your heart desires. I am learning that to truly join in the courageous conversation requires me to follow my bliss...

It begins right here, right now, it begins close in, close at heart, with the first step...It begins by asking my heart, what my heart desires to know and not what someone else's heart desires..."

Now where that came from is the great mystery...Where does anything come from?

I think that the thoughts were influenced by a poem I had been listening to by David Whyte. The poem being “Start Close In”. Below is a clip from YouTube of him reciting his own poem followed it in written form...

"Start Close In"

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take.
Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.
Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people's questions,
don't let them
smother something
simple.
To find
another's voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.
Start right
now
take a small step
you can call your own
don't follow
someone else's
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don't mistake
that other
for your own.
Start close in,
don't take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take.

I love the challenge of this poem. It’s really about engaging in what Whyte calls the courageous conversation, which he says is about how we live authentically listening to our own hearts desires and truly living from our own souls. It’s about not being swayed by others too much and simply following their leads. Instead it’s about listening to that still small voice within and following its call and then beginning the journey “close in, with the first step. Not the second or third, but close in with the first step.” And how does this begin? He says “Start with your own question, give up on other people’s questions. Don’t let them smother something simple”

It is so easy to become swayed off course by others. I know I can be swayed of course by the questions and opinions of others. Less so these days as I have learnt to trust that still small voice within. That said I wonder how many times indecision has grown in me because I have been too easily swayed by the opinions of others. Opinions I have not even asked for by the way. How often in life do people give us unasked for advice? How often does this advice breed uncertainty about our paths within us? How often does it complicate something that was so simple?

Now there is another difficulty with beginning journeys of change, being too focused on a perceived goal. If we face ahead, looking purely at our perceived goal, we will not really experience all that is around us. In so doing we fail to hear that still small voice present in all life. I suspect being too single minded eventually leads to failure, because it is impossible to sustain.

This is the danger I have had to pay close attention to these last few months as I have radically altered my lifestyle and lost almost 6 stones, or 82 pounds in weight. I suspect that if I had focused purely on the end result I would have eventually failed. Instead I started close in. I began with the first step, with the ground at my feet. I made a beginning and have experienced every aspect of my ever changing life these last few months. It truly has been amazing as I have connected and opened in new and wonderful ways. I began shyly, nervously and with little confidence, but I began and as the journey has continued it has become nothing but bliss. And of course to top it all I have lost a phenomenal amount of weight and have enjoyed the journey at the same time.

Why? You may well ask. Well because I have fully experienced it. In so doing I have “followed my bliss”

Now “Following your bliss” comes from the teaching of the mythologist Joseph Campbell. He described “bliss” as that intuitive, deep-down way of knowing what is right for us, what is good for us, what makes us “truly happy”, that un-commonsense that can only be found deep down in the marrow of our souls. Campbell emphasised something that is known at an intuitive level, that we will never know real contentment, we will never feel truly fulfilled, unless we are “following our bliss”, unless we are doing with our lives what our hearts truly desire us to be doing, being who we truly ought to be and living by the values that we know in our souls are our ultimate values.

So why don’t we all “follow our bliss”? Well one reason is that it is shot through with uncertainty and danger, it is a step out into the unknown. To “follow our bliss” is to take the “Hero’s Journey” that Campbell also spoke of. Such a journey is riddled with danger. In the ancient myths these dangers would be deep dark forests and dragons and all kinds of other beasts. These are metaphors for the dangers we face in life today such as anxiety, dread and life sucking emptiness. There is also the danger of need to seek the approval of others. These dangers can press in on us so tightly that they stop us following what our hearts and souls truly desire. How many of us fail to hear the voice deep down within us, because we are too busy listening to fears and so called rationales of those around us?

Now of course there is always a price to pay for “following our bliss”. Such a price may seem too much for many of us. We may have to lose some things that we claim we hold so dear, that make us feel safe and secure in order to truly “follow our bliss”. A wonderful example of this is found in Mark's Gospel chapter 10, which depicts an encounter between Jesus and a “Rich Young Man”. The rich young man meets Jesus just as he has sets out on a journey – Jesus is an archetype of someone “following their bliss”- he kneels before him and asks what he must do in order to follow him. Jesus tells him that he must give up everything he owns and give all his money away to the poor. This the man cannot do, for him it was too much of a price to pay and so he walked away in shock and grief for he had many possessions. The rich young man could not “follow his bliss” because he could not sacrifice these things in his life in order to be free, to follow what his heart truly desired. How many of us are held back from being truly free by the things that we think make us who we are? I’m not merely talking about material things here, it could just as easily be status, ideas and or beliefs.

Now David Whyte is someone who took the courageous step, who was able to “follow his bliss”. He gave up a career in corporate America and became a poet and writer and eventually a deeply inspirational speaker. Much of his work is about finding "a work" a meaning in life. He himself began close in, with the first courageous step and experienced every ounce of meaning along the way. This was not easy. But he always followed what his heart and soul called him to do. It began for him when he stopped asking himself the questions others were asking him and began instead asking himself his own questions. The questions his own heart and soul asked of him.

Now this all seems a bit drastic for most us and I’m not suggesting that we follow his lead and give up our lives and responsibilities and go off and become poets. We do not have to do this to live authentically, to “follow our bliss”, I very much doubt it would be ours to do in any case. No what I am suggesting is that we find ways to truly listen to our own hearts and not become distracted by what others demand of us. What I am suggesting is that we learn to tune into that still small voice within each of us and begin close in, with the first step. Perhaps it could begin by asking ourselves what the questions our own hearts and souls are asking us rather than answering other people’s question. Maybe this is how we start close in, with the first step. Perhaps this is how we begin to live authentically, perhaps this is how we begin to “follow our bliss”.

Amen