April14_2025
Vince Gilligan specifically said he is doing Mythology in an interview. https://youtu.be/kFrffEktluo?t=3315
Lecture I.1.2 - The Individual in Oriental Mythology
By Joseph Campbell
Date: February 20, 1961
Venue: The Cooper Union
Location: New York, NY
TRACK 10: Letting Go: the Fierce Yoga of Jainism
Now, in the last fifteen minutes, I want to speak about the various ways of quitting and coming back, which I think will indicate something about the Oriental ideas of the individual.
The first idea is that this reincarnating monad—this reincarnating principle — is in essence absolutely pure. It is like a pure bubble; it has no quality, it has no individuality, it has no character. But it is contaminated by karmic matter — by the stuff of the world. And the whole world in fact is nothing but a seething mass of these monads, trapped in the substance of the world.
There are two principles here. This is a strict dualism. This is the point of view of the Jains—Jainism. There is a strict dualism. There is the pure self, and there is that self in play in the world. All action contaminates that self, even what we call pure action. There are said to be six colors that pour into the soul—into this monad—through action. The grossest roughest color activity is the color black to the soul. Next comes the color dark blue, then comes the color of smoke, then comes the color of fire, then yellow color, and then white. The soul itself is translucent; it isn’t even white.
Now, these colors weigh the soul down, and souls that are black are born in the lower regions of the cosmic body. Souls that are light are born further up. And souls that are white are born up in the brain — this would be heaven.
So you have this cosmic being with the different stages of development indicated in various parts of its body. In order to get above that, and rise to a place that is called slightly tilted — it’s an enormous umbrella up above this being — yet to go up there as a pure bubble, you have to perform certain very strict yogic exercises. And this yoga of the Jains is based on the idea that you must stop acting, stop moving, stop eating, stop thinking, stop feeling — finally, stop breathing. [laughter]
But it’s no good dying unless you have quelled absolutely all interest in life. If there is one little spark of Oh, wouldn’t it be nice left in you, you’ll be back. [laughter]
Furthermore, as you proceed down the line — it’s a fierce yoga — as you proceed down the line, you build up more pressure for coming back, so that in the last stages of this furious affair the slightest little thing can dislodge you and you come right back.
Well, you can understand that this is a rigorous, fierce affair, and by gradations, one takes vows. One vows not to eat anything that has life in it — that is to say even an apple that has been picked from a tree. You eat only dead things. You take vows not to walk more than four or five steps a day, because in walking you hurt things: you step on insects, also you apply pressure to the molecules of the earth. You can see in Bombay to this day, people walking with a little gauze over their mouths — these are the Jain monks and nuns. And that is there not only so that you shouldn’t breathe in an insect, but also when you breathe you shouldn’t hurt the air, and you shouldn’t hurt the tissues of your throat — these are all very tender things. Well if life is that delicate, let it go — you know, get out. This doctrine… Well, there are two kinds of monks here: the strict monks are called those clothed in space, digambara — the absolutely naked monks. They take off all their clothes, they pull out all their hair — they reject everything having to do with a reference to society. And you can see the images of these great, stark naked figures standing perfectly still in the posture known as kayotsarga, which is dismissing the body — let it go.
The other variety of monk is much less strict. This is known as svetambara, dressed in white; they wear white garments and you can see them in cities with these protections.
There is a very funny story connected with this order. You know, pious people are strange everywhere. [laughter] In this particular case, two chaps come along through the streets of Bombay with a cart full of bed bugs. And they call, “Who will feed the bugs? Who will feed the bugs?”
And some lady in the window tosses out a coin — that means she will feed the bugs. So one of the chaps lies down in the bed for a rupee, and the bugs have their dinner, and she has gained credit for assisting this inferior type of life to have its little enjoyment and move on, you know — it will be up in about eighty-four more incarnations perhaps going around with the cart saying, “Who will feed the bugs?”
Monday, March 7, 2011
I Google searched a sentence about the apple, found only one public hit, me:
March 7, 2011 (On that day... I was living the Arab Spring in Amman Jordan, just relocated from Algeria. Media ecology and Levant comparative mythology - lived in Amman for years before going to Hindu Indonesia - Bali)
https://old.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/fylty/comment/c1jo4ha/
"Reminds me of a lecture from Joseph Campbell. February 20, 1961"
Absurd that JCF keeps these 1960's lectures behind paywalls and hadn't public domain them for all humanity.
More on Yoga
“The aim of yoga in India is to make the mind stand still. Our minds are spontaneously very active, in constant movement. It's as though a wind were blowing over the surface of a pond and activating all the water; the waves break up images so all you see are broken reflections that come and go. And so it is in our lives. All we see are broken images.
But if you can take the wind away (that's what the word nirvana means: "de-spirated, blown out" — the wind is gone), the pond stands perfectly still.
Make the wind withdraw. Let the pond stand still, and you'll see the one image that was broken in all these reflections.
When the mind stands still, you see the one reflection, that Being of Beings of which YOU are a reflection. That is God. Do not identify your historical, physical body with that Being of Beings. Your body is but one of the reflections of that energy that informs the world and informs your life.”
-Joseph Campbell
Myth and Meaning page 87