Thursday, March 18, 2010

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...

6 comments:

  1. oh so beautiful and timely. I have had this experience many times, fortunately. I learned somewhere along the way that the love and light I open to and receive is merely passing through us all. The greatest gift is conscious receiving so that it might continue to flow, magnified, through me to others. I am happy to be a "light" post in the world, whether or not anyone ever notices. I would love to express the phenomena but know that just being and sharing is more than enough.

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  2. Thank you for this post, Anthony.

    I appreciate what you wrote, Elle. Though perhaps not easy, it is much simpler to receive it, embody it, live it, than to describe it in words. In my humble opinion, not even the most eloquent of words can equal such an experience or knowing. And for those who have had a shared experience (whatever it may be), it takes very few words to be recognized.

    I love, too, that you described this as a force that passes through all of us. We, each of us, are no more or less worthy. The concept of hierarchy is an illusion.

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  3. Wonderful post indeed... one of your best! I'm reminded too of the ineffable experiences of those with "Near-death experiences", and how that process has changed their lives profoundly. Integration is the key!

    I did a series of images about two years ago as a meditation on "Thresholds" :
    http://traceimages.zenfolio.com/gallery12

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  4. "that healing power shimmering through every grain of creation" is the goddess. this is a beautiful post as it describes so well the feeling of knowing what is real, while seeing everyone living the illusion. sometimes I try to describe it in words, other times I simply rest in the awareness of the simplicity of it all, knowing it's all really okay.

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  5. Lovely post Anthony - in my own life I've experienced the change in the outer reality that accompanies the inner transformation. There is, as I've noticed in myself and my clients, a period of time when it seems as if one has lost their community and is "wandering the desert" in search of their tribe. It can be lonely and disconcerting. The Hero's Journey helps to hold us through such times, giving meaning to our experiences. So, the hero returns home and what really is home now? Who is there to hear, to welcome to listen? Some tried and true friends and some new faces. The translating alone is a powerful lesson in the making.

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  6. Lovely post Anthony - in my own life I've experienced the change in the outer reality that accompanies the inner transformation. There is, as I've noticed in myself and my clients, a period of time when it seems as if one has lost their community and is "wandering the desert" in search of their tribe. It can be lonely and disconcerting. The Hero's Journey helps to hold us through such times, giving meaning to our experiences. So, the hero returns home and what really is home now? Who is there to hear, to welcome to listen? Some tried and true friends and some new faces. The translating alone is a powerful lesson in the making.

    ReplyDelete