Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth - penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words, beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told. So this is the penultimate truth. It's important to live with the experience, and therefore the knowledge, of its mystery and of you ...

Myths tell us how to confront and bear and interpret suffering, but they do not say that in life there can or should be no suffering. When the Buddha declares there is escape from sorrow, the escape is Nirvana, which is not a place, like heaven, but a psychological state of mind in which you are released from desire and fear. Your life becomes harmonious, centered and affirmative, even with suffering. The Buddhists speak of the bodhisattva - the one who knows immortality, yet voluntarily ente ...

The hero sacrifices himself for something - that's the morality of it. Now, from another position, of course, you might say that the idea for which he sacrificed himself was something that should not have been respected. That's a judgment from the other side, but it doesn't destroy the intrinsic heroism of the deed performed.

We don't have to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, will be with all the world.

The ancient myths were designed to harmonize the mind and the body. The mind can ramble off in strange ways and want things that the body does not want. The myths and rites were means of putting the mind in accord with the body and the way of life in accord with the way that nature dictates.

The power of life causes the snake to shed its skin, just as the moon sheds its shadow. The serpent sheds its skin to be born again, as the moon its shadow to be born again. They are equivalent symbols. Sometimes the serpent is represented as a circle eating its own tail. That's an image of life. Life sheds one generation after another, to be born again. The serpent represents immortal energy and consciousness engaged in the field of time, constantly throwing off death and being born again ...

The serpent represents the primary function of life, mainly eating. Life consists in eating other creatures. You don't think about that very much when you make a nice-looking meal. But what you're doing is eating something that was recently alive. And when you look at the beauty of nature, and you see the birds picking around - they're eating things. You see the cows grazing, they're eating things. The serpent is a traveling alimentary canal, that's about all it is. And it ...

All our names and images for God are masks, signifying the ultimate reality that by definition transcends language and art. A myth is a mask of God too - a metaphor for what lies behind the visible world. However the mystic traditions differ, they are in accord in calling us to a deeper awareness of the very act of living itself. The unpardonable sin is the sin of inadvertence, of not being alert, not quite awake.

The hero's journey is not about denying reason. To the contrary, by overcoming the dark passions, the hero symbolizes our ability to control the irrational savage within us.

The Indian yogi, striving for release, identifies himself with the Light and never returns. But no one with a will to the service of others would permit themself such an escape. The ultimate aim of the quest must be neither release nor ecstasy for oneself, but the wisdom and the power to serve others. One of the many distinctions between the celebrity and the hero, is that one lives only for themself, while the other acts to redeem society.

What is a myth? The dictionary definition of a myth would be stories about gods. What is a god? A god is a personification of a motivating power or a value system that functions in human life and in the universe - the powers of your own body and of nature. The myths are metaphorical of spiritual potentiality in the human being, and the same powers that animate our life animate the life of the world. But also there are myths and gods that have to do with specific societies or the patron deities ...

The individual has to find an aspect of myth that relates to his own life. Myth basically serves four functions. The first is the mystical function - realizing what a wonder the universe is, and what a wonder you are, and experiencing awe before this mystery. Myth opens the world to the dimension of mystery, to the realization of mystery that underlies all forms. The second is a cosmological dimension, the dimension with which science is concerned - showing you what the shape of the universe i ...