When Your Vision Meets the World

I've been rereading The Crossing of the Return Threshold, a chapter in Joseph Campbell's brilliant classic The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Campbell describes the archetypal return from a transcendent, life transforming experience into the world of day-to-day concerns. The journey though the mystical realms left behind the values and distractions of the conventional mind. From the viewpoint of normal waking consciousness, the wisdom brought back from a mystical experience is baffling. The formless being encountered in visions has no apparent use among the usual pursuits of efficient action focused on money,time, power and fame.

If you are lucky enough to have had your life turned upside down by a direct encounter with the mystical unity of existence, you know the disorientation that can happen when you return to daily life. You see people living fragmented lives imagining themselves as whole. If you try to share the vision that dissolved the boundaries of your isolated self and connected you to the wholeness of creation, you know the blow of skeptical looks. You've passed through the confusion of dear friends not having clue as to what you're talking about. You find that what is essential and revolutionary to you is meaningless to the conventional mind. You face a daunting dilemma: how can the elusive wisdom of what is beyond words be expressed in common language?

You may wonder, why re-enter the ego-centered, dog-eat-dog world? What's the use of sharing the priceless jewel of radiant consciousness with those who would slice up the gem and sell off the pieces as stylish trinkets.

Yet, there's no turning back. The transcendent vision of the mountain top is lost in the commotion of the marketplace unless it is integrated into the day job of living in the world. To be truly whole, we must survive the impact of limited minds. The task of translating the unexplainable into the explainable cannot be avoided. Engaging this impossible task while knowing it will fail, is essential to the individual ego becoming transparent to the radiance of the universal soul.

Crossing the return threshold is the beginning of a whole new adventure. Discovering the elixir of cosmic understanding in the depths of consciousness was only preparation for discovering that healing power shimmering through every grain of creation. More on that in the next post...