Mythos
The Shaping of the Eastern Tradition
5Episodes
In Mythos II – The Shaping of the Eastern Tradition, Joseph Campbell explores the spiritual realms of the East, focusing on Hinduism and Buddhism. Through a series of engaging lectures, Campbell examines how myths evolve to reflect changing beliefs about nature, God, and life, delving into the core myths of the great Asian religions, the Buddha and enlightenment, the connections between East and West, Yoga and transcendence, and Kundalini yoga with the seven chakras. Presented in the final years of Campbell's life, this collection illuminates how Eastern traditions shape consciousness and spiritual understanding.
Episodes
1. The Inward Path: The core myths of the great Asian religions
Campbell introduces us to the core ideas at the heart of the Eastern traditions and explores what Aldous Huxley called the Perennial Philosophy and how it is realize in Hinduism and Buddhism. He traces the development of the idea of spiritual emancipation from the early Indus Valley civilizations through the Vedic literature to the Upanishads. Campbell identifies the point of departure between the Eastern and Western traditions. Finally, Campbell explains the concept of Nirvana and sets the stage for the arrival of the Buddha.
2. The Enlightend One: The Buddha and enlightenment, East and West
Campbell uses stories of the Buddha's life and enlightenment to reflect the essence of the Buddhist religion. He explains the difference between the two principal types of Buddhism - Theravada (Hinayana) and Mahayana. Campbell also probes the differences between Eastern and Western religion by focusing on Buddhism as a religion of "identification with" the divine rather than on of "relationship to" it. He also compares Buddhism with Taoism and Confucianism and explores an ancient collision of East and West.
3. Our Eternal Selves: Yoga and transcendence
Our Eternal Selves introduces us to the systems of yoga that grew out of the mainstream of India spiritually. Campbell demonstrates how the Eastern way of perceiving consciousness is radically different from how it is perceived in the West. He demonstrates how yoga acts as a mediation to bring the practitioner to ever-higher stages of consciousness, to unite one's personal consciousness with the eternal, undifferentiated consciousness of the divine.
4. The Way to Illumination: Kundalini yoga and the seven chakras
Perhaps the most sophisticated form of yoga, Kundalini Yoga, concentrates on the seven chakras or symbolic centers of our psychic energy. Campbell explains the full chakra system of Kundalini Yoga and makes comparison with modern Western psychology and Christian concepts. Explore how this system teaches rituals and mediation practices so unit the spiritual power in the human being with the spiritual force of the universe.
5. The Experience of God: Tibetan Buddhism and the spiritual journey that is death
Campbell demonstrates how Tibetan Buddhists turn the ritual experience of death into a spiritual exercise. Trace with him the stages of the Tibetan Book of the Dead in which the Llama prepares a dying man and his family for the final moments of life. This passage, in fact, is a journey downward through the chakras, the centers of energy of Kundalini Yoga. Campbell reveals how the Eastern tradition reaches its most sophisticated expression in the art, philosophy and mysticism in the Buddhism of Tibet.
