A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living (Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)

A Joseph Campbell Companion:
Reflections on the Art of Living

Copyright 1991, Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF.org)

This electronic edition, copyright © 2011, Joseph Campbell Foundation

Published by Joseph Campbell Foundation

Cover art: Photograph by Joseph Campbell; copyright © 2003, 2011, Joseph Campbell Foundation

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Joseph Campbell Foundation. To quote from or reprint sections of this book, contact JCF at
[email protected]

For information about this edition, see 
the Foreword
.

 

 

Ebook by

tillpoint Digital Press

Thank you for maintaining this ebook for your personal use.

If you have received this book 
gratis
, please join the JCF's associates in supporting our on-going efforts to bring out new, inspiring editions such as this
 
by making a donation at JCF.org.
 

The Joseph Campbell Foundation is a registered 501(c) 3 United States not-for-profit corporation.

For further information, contact us on our website (
www.jcf.org
) or at the following address:

Joseph Campbell Foundation

Post Office Box 36

San Anselmo CA 94979-0036

United States of America

ISBN 978-1-61178-006-2

  

W
ELCOME
to the first electronic edition of one of Joseph Campbell's most popular works. 
A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living 
has long been one of our favorite Campbell titles, and it is perennially one of this quotable man's most quoted.

This book was drawn from transcripts of a month-long series of workshops that Joseph Campbell gave at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California in March, 1984—the year of his eightieth birthday. The idea for the book was conceived by workshop attendee Diane K. Osbon in 1990, some three years after Campbell died. The text was edited into its present form by longtime Campbell editor and JCF president Robert Walter. 

Filmed segments from this same month-long celebration of Campbell and his work are available in
The Hero's Journey
, which is available as part of the
Collected Works of Joseph Cambpell
series in both
video
and
print
formats.

A Joseph Campbell Companion
was originally published by HarperCollins in 1991. In addition to this edition, the book is currently available in
a paperback edition published by HarperPerennial
.

This electronic edition was published in August, 2011. It contains the complete text of the original print edition, with some minor changes in style and spelling, except for an introduction to the print edition, which has been omitted.

The photograph used in the cover art of a
yamabushi
 conducting a Shintō fire ceremony was taken by Joseph Campbell in Kyōto, Japan in 1956.

Campbell intended that his essays spark thought and discussion. To comment or discuss this book locally, we encourage you to find one of our local
Mythological RoundTable
^®
groups
, meeting regularly in small towns and big cities around the globe. To discuss mythology, psychology, religion, art, and just about everything else under the sun (or over it) with readers from around the world, visit the
Conversations of a Higher Order
, the on-line forums for Joseph Campbell Foundation. The
[Discuss]
links at the end of each chapter lead directly to a forum dedicated to the discussion of this book.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for maintaining this ebook for your personal use.

If you have received this ebook
gratis
, we hope that you found it inspiring and thought-provoking. We invite you join our associates in supporting our on-going efforts to bring out new, exciting editions such as this
by making a donation at JCF.org.

If you have had problems viewing the text in this book—if, for example, you are seeing odd
?
s or boxes scatterred among the characters—try changing the font preferences in your ereader. The best fonts are Unicode fonts such as Times or Palatino. If you have feedback about other aspects of the book, please contact us at [email protected].

David Kudler, Managing Editor
Mill Valley, California
August 1, 2011

T
HE
privilege of a lifetime

is being who you are.

W
hat
you have to do,

you do with play.

Life is without meaning.

You bring the meaning to it.

The meaning of life is

whatever you ascribe it to be.

Being alive is the meaning.

T
he
 warrior’s approach

is to say “yes” to life:

“yea” to it all.

Participate joyfully

in the sorrows of the world.

We cannot cure the world of sorrows,

but we can choose to live in joy.