tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post9078461422472347364..comments2024-03-29T11:07:05.031+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Follow Your Bliss? Is everyone the genius of himself?Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-51715549062277879252015-01-23T18:24:28.169+00:002015-01-23T18:24:28.169+00:00I think we agree Nicholas on some level. I have ex...I think we agree Nicholas on some level. I have experienced the elan vital, the flow, the creative impulse of the Divine! And I am certain I am a conduit to manifest my destiny. How that expresses itself in the particulars of life is another matter. It may not be through vocation (as it hasn't been for me). We all have an idiom to express, and how that shows up is going to look very different for all of us. But like you said, it is the transformation itself that is significant. tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07354048695798015131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-66984951047360280532015-01-23T13:56:14.026+00:002015-01-23T13:56:14.026+00:00@ted - We can all be as an instrument which is tun...@ted - We can all be as an instrument which is tuned to that which inspires a Shakespeare or a Bach. We can hear the same inner music born of desperate silent longing, and with much hard work of listening and self-refining become a beautiful expression of that music. <br /><br />I have no illusions that I will be a Bach or Shakespeare, but that really is not the point. The point is to listen faithfully and allow myself to be trans-formed into my particular expression of that deep music. <br /><br />First I hear, then I am drawn, and lastly I am transformed. Nicholas Fulfordnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-72653683962954206792015-01-23T13:26:50.197+00:002015-01-23T13:26:50.197+00:00@Nicholas: You bring in some good fodder here. And...@Nicholas: You bring in some good fodder here. And I think some distinctions need to be made. Campbell's hero's quest can be viewed from both a more universal and a personal perspective. In the particular of everyday life, it appears I live an ordinary, comfortable life (which I allude to above). But in a bigger sense, I have given my life over to God and have struggled with my faith. I spend my days studying, contemplating, meditating, and trying to bear what fruits I can in my day to day existence. In this sense, I feel I am on a deep quest in my life. It is not always comfortable, and yet there are rewards of inner bliss. I believe what Bruce may be alluding to is more particular in Campbell's statement. And that we all can't be Steve Jobs and William Shakespeare. And there are tradeoffs in that also.tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07354048695798015131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-63934776894179279512015-01-23T11:02:16.530+00:002015-01-23T11:02:16.530+00:00I don't know if his prescription works for eve...I don't know if his prescription works for everyone, but I do know that doing that which draws one as say Froto and Sam are - on a hero's quest - is both extraordinarily challenging and rewarding. One becomes more than one felt it possible to be through doing what what did not know one could do. We tend to set limits within which are not the real limits. These imaginary prisons bind a person as surely as chains, until one day the desire to leave the prison, provides sufficient impetus to open the door a crack and then push it open as the illusion of limitation is realized for what it is - a fear. To use a Christian analogy it is as a "Pilgrim's Progress", but first their must be a bliss/faith to move beyond the dissatisfaction of a paralyzing illusion of comfort. <br /><br />To me life is a process of personal growth and evolution beyond what I am today, towards something over the horizon. There is a level of bootstrapping in this, though what is doing the bootstrapping may not be quantifiable because that 'self' is not yet and yet is in a nascent form present. And that is the Bliss that Campbell says we should follow. <br /><br />What is rewarding may not be comfortable, and what is comfortable may not be rewarding, but eventually there is that which draws the hero - not yet manifest - into being the hero manifesting. That is my understanding of Campbell, and it is very sage advice in my limited experience.Nicholas Fulfordnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-28468402003446951092015-01-23T10:38:50.842+00:002015-01-23T10:38:50.842+00:00Wow! You nailed this one. I have always had a diff...Wow! You nailed this one. I have always had a difficult time acknowledging that I don't love my job. I get many rewards from it, and I generally like most of the tasks, but I would leave in a second if my employer stop paying me. Some people in my life have remarked that I have not followed my passion (while bemoaning their own situation). But I have always known my limits, and intuited that my interests were not going to pay the rent. So while I've struggled with some guilt over this, more recently I have made my peace with it also. I am not a genius, nor do I wish to be one.tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07354048695798015131noreply@blogger.com