Oriental Mythology

The Masks of God #2

by Joseph Campbell

It has perhaps never been more important than it is today to understand the world around us and the world’s religions. It is now well understood that health, climate, and economic issues are truly global. On completing The Masks of God, Campbell wrote, “Its main result for me has been the confirmation of a thought I have long and faithfully entertained: of the unity of man, not only in its biology, but also in its spiritual history, which has everywhere unfolded in the manner of a single symphony . . . irresistibly advancing to some kind of mighty climax, out of which the next great movement will emerge.” Upon the publication of this volume, in which Campbell delves into the fables and folklore of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Shintoism, Professor Robert Gorham Davis of Columbia University wrote, “It is impossible to read this startling and entertaining book without an enlarged sense of total human possibility.” Oriental Mythology remains mesmerizing in its eloquence, its scope, and its tantalizing vision of what may next emerge.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Religion, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology

576 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles.

Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities. 


After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey.


Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.


Reviews

[Dmitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Literature professor Joseph Campbell was not on the cutting edge of scholarship. Popular in the 80’s for a PBS special with Bill Moyers 'The Power of Myth' he was criticized for a generalist appeal and his lack of a specialized approach. Ditching a PhD pursuit at Columbia U. in 1929, he spent five years during the Great Depression in a shack in Woodstock reading sixteen hours a day. Campbell was friends with John Steinbeck and Heinrich Zimmer, completing the latter's posthumous works on Indian art and philosophy. He lived in a Greenwich Village apartment with his wife for fifty years, teaching literature at a liberal arts college.

Campbell's contributions were in the arenas of comparitive mythology and religion, and the idea that all myths are variations of the same story, the 'Hero's Journey'. He incorporated psychoanalytical aspects of Freud and Jung into an understanding of subconscious symbology within myths. His theory on the evolution of mythology spanned primitive animal spirit worship, mother goddess cults, astrological priesthoods and modern romantic idealism. He saw Thomas Mann and James Joyce embodying the artist as makers of contemporary myths. His oft repeated phrase 'follow your bliss' meant to connect with our inner spirit.

The work at hand is a moderately lengthy summary of mythology and religion from near to far east. Ancient principles of human sacrifice and reincarnation are superseded by the battle of good over evil and imperatives for heathen conversion. The western and masculine forces of Zoroastrianism and the Abrahamic religions are seen as subverting earlier eastern worship of feminine fertility. Ancient Egyptian and Hindu polytheism were swept away by monotheism and non-dualistic Hinduism. In the far east Confucian moral philosophy and Taoist magic are replaced by Buddhism imported over Silk Road trade routes.

Campbell's widely discursive style is at times entertaining and at times wearying. If you are familiar with the people and places he bounces between it's a stimulating montage of history and religion. If not it could become disconcerting. Published in 1963, the research and sources are from the mid-20th century and earlier and seem quite dated. Reading quotes from Mortimer Wheeler on archaeology or Heinrich Zimmer on Indology may be fun from a historiographical standpoint but would be better augmented with more recent interpretations. These shortcomings are partly mitigated by the keen perception and wit of Joseph Campbell.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Make no mistake, the Masks of God series by Joseph Campbell is something fierce.

The level of scholarship and devotion to the whole subject of mythology blows me away. Where the first book devoted itself to ancient mythos, the kind we can only infer from lacking sources, this Oriental Mythology tackles time-periods closer to home if not always particularly close.

The exceptions to this are Taoism and Buddhism. Both of these are treated in the perfect storytelling-way that the rest are treated. (And no worries, Christianity will get its day with equal time.)

This is Campbell, after all.

What we get here is Babylonian, Egyptian, Buddhist, Taoist, and a smattering of some others.

Did I enjoy the collective treatment and the positioning that showed us, in grand glory, how traditions and stories carry on from one culture to another? Hell, yeah. Did I appreciate the insight and the perspicacity of the author in laying it out in such an obvious and clear-as-day manner?

What do you think?

Yeah. I'm a fanboy. For good reason. Campbell has reshaped our society in more ways than one. Our whole way of looking at things has changed thanks to him. And no matter what your persuasion, a God Fearing Christian or any other faith, a clear eye is better than none.

I can and will thank the man for this. :)

Never go blindly.

[Holly Lindquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent information, not crazy about the delivery.
Really not crazy about it.

I remember liking the Masks of God series a lot more when I was a teenager, but on a recent 2nd run-through I found it somewhat less satisfying. It made me feel unclean for liking Campbell in the first place, actually.
Why?
For one thing, Oriental Mythology is replete with massive amounts of information and anecdotes concerning various Eastern religions, but Campbell makes it quite clear where his personal judgments reside. This is where Comparative Mythology becomes something more like "Competitive Mythology". Apparently some religions are simply better than others. Some are more sophisticated. Some are more mature. (According to Campbell, these would be the religions of the West.) And the man gets very patronizing when he describes some of the quaint 'Oriental' myths that fail to measure up, so to speak.

The part I liked: as usual, I did enjoy some of the material taken directly from sacred texts. Good stuff, although where Campbell takes his interpretations is often a different matter.

Note: This is also the volume where I invented the Joseph Campbell Masks of God drinking game.
(You are strongly advised not to try it. I'm fairly sure it leads to fatal alcohol poisoning.)
Anyway, it's fairly simple. Every time Joseph Campbell mentions one of the following, you must take a drink: The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler, Thomas Mann, or Nietzsche.*

One final thought: Joseph Campbell fervently fondled the words of great men (not women, never any women!) men like Nietzsche, Spengler, and company.. and he was NOT sorry. He was possibly their greatest fan. They are the glorious shining bricks in this pompous monolith of mythological dissection.
This series is the sort of thing that begs to be read aloud at your next DMV visit or on public transport of your choice. Make a fun game out of it. Who will beat you to death with their shoe first?

* For total obliteration, add James Joyce and Freud.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bulgarian review first, followed by the English translation below



Именно на Кембъл принадлежи мисълта, че сънят е личен мит, а митът е колективен сън.

В този втори том от своя магнум опус Кембъл се е захванал да разкаже за различните маски, под които се явява този колективен сън, сънуван от човечеството от делтата на Нил до остров Хокайдо. Издигат се пирамиди край Нил за един единствен човек, считан за бог. Издигат се зикурати в двуречието между Тигър и Ефрат, чийто модел символизира вселената, а царете на Шумер и Ур вземат в отвъдното и целия си царски двор. В Индия древните дравидски (и понякога доста кръвожадни) божества безмилостно поглъщат арийските си волни събратя, оставяйки само имената им. Буда проправя средния път от Индия през Китай до Япония. Конфуций, Лао Дзъ, Мо Дзъ, Менций и древните китайски философи спорят за идеалното общество. В Япония превръщат чая и самоубийството в изкуство.

Насред множеството легенди и преразкази, придружени с опит за историческа хронология и солидно количество паралели - къде удачни, къде изсмукани от пръстите - Кембъл е доста консистентен в гледната си точка за Изтока. Изтокът - по Кембъл - изповядва насоченост навътре. Дуализмът е унищожен за сметка на личностната трансформация в посока откъсване от реалността и просветление, или в подчинението на личността на утвърдените обществени йерархии и касти като вечни и неизменяеми еквиваленти на божествения ред. Единствената форма на бунт е аскетизмът, а той - подобно и на по-светските философски източни школи - също набляга на заличаването на аз-а.

Донякъде съм съгласна, донякъде - не. Доводите на Кембъл се подриват на първо място от дразнещата му субективност. Той е избирателен в поднасянето на факти и материали, и ги поднася спрямо вече оформеното си мнение, а не обратното.

На второ място, Кембъл неизтощимо цитира западни автори от зората на 20-ти век, когато възгледите са били формирани от класическата имперска надменност и на всичкото отгоре са били все още оскъдни откъм по-дълбочинно познаване на т. нар. “Изток”.

На трето място - Кембъл често забравя, че говори за Изтока и се втурва в описване на Запада.

На четвърто място - ясната подредба не е авторовото форте, той във всичките си книги клони към поток на мисълта, което обаче конкретно в такова заглавие е неудачно. В резултат изскачат митологични мотиви без обяснение и контекст, или пък контекст - без прилежащите митологични мотиви. История, археология, антропология и митология не успяват да образуват хомогенна смес.

С две думи, енциклопедичността е много далеч от материала в книгата. Тя е по-скоро едно субективно - и доста интригуващо - мнение. Това мнение е ограничено и читателят следва да се запознае с всяка основна митологична “школа” поотделно в различни други публикации, за да си изгради по-богата и нюансирана представа. Но и тук има сочни зрънца, пришпорващи въображението и любопитството към нашия пъстър и необятен свят. Както и куп неприятни истини.

It was Campbell himself who suggested that a dream is a personalized myth, and a myth is a collective dream.

In this second volume of his magnum opus, Campbell sets out to chronicle the various masks worn by this collective dream, dreamt by humanity from the Nile Delta to the island of Hokkaido. Pyramids rise along the Nile for a single man considered a god. Ziggurats rise in the Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates, their structure symbolizing the universe, while the kings of Sumer and Ur take their entire royal court into the afterlife. In India, the ancient Dravidian (and at times rather bloodthirsty) deities relentlessly swallow their free-spirited Aryan counterparts, leaving behind nothing but their names. The Buddha carves the Middle Way from India through China all the way to Japan. Confucius, Lao Tzu, Mo Tzu, Mencius, and ancient Chinese philosophers debate the ideal society. In Japan, they elevate tea and suicide to an art form.

Amidst a multitude of legends and retellings, accompanied by attempts at historical chronology and a solid number of parallels—some apt, others far-fetched—Campbell remains fairly consistent in his perspective on the East. The East, according to Campbell, espouses an inward focus. Dualism is dismantled in favor of personal transformation toward detachment from reality and enlightenment, or through the submission of the individual to established social hierarchies and castes as timeless, unalterable equivalents of the divine order. The only form of rebellion is asceticism, which—much like the more secular Eastern philosophical schools—likewise emphasizes the erasure of the self.

I agree to an extent, and to an extent, I do not. Campbell’s arguments are undermined first and foremost by his irritating subjectivity. He is selective in presenting facts and material, tailoring them to fit his pre-formed opinion rather than the other way around.

Secondly, Campbell exhaustively quotes early 20th-century Western authors from an era when views were shaped by classic imperial arrogance and were, to make matters worse, still deficient in a deeper understanding of the so-called “East.”

Thirdly, Campbell frequently forgets that he is discussing the East and charges off into descriptions of the West.

Fourthly, clear organization is not the author's forte; across all his books, he tends toward a stream-of-consciousness style, which proves particularly unsuitable for a title like this. As a result, mythological motifs crop up without explanation or context, or context appears devoid of its corresponding mythological motifs. History, archaeology, anthropology, and mythology fail to blend into a homogeneous mix.

In short, encyclopedic rigor is a far cry from the material in this book. It is, rather, a highly subjective—and quite intriguing—opinion. This perspective is limited, and the reader would do well to study each major mythological “school” individually through other publications to construct a richer, more nuanced picture. Yet even here, there are juicy kernels that spark the imagination and spur curiosity toward our vibrant, vast world. Along with a handful of uncomfortable truths.

[Miss Ravi · Rating 4 out of 5]

آن روز که به دیدن گنجینه‌ی موزه‌ی لوور رفته بودم از جوزف کمبل ممنون بودم که حجم عظیمی از اطلاعات را در کتاب «اساطیر مشرق زمین» گردآورده تا من جرعه‌ای از آن بنوشم و دست‌کم در هنگام تماشای مجسمه‌ها و اشیاي قدیمی کلمه‌ و کلماتی برایم آشنا باشند و من بین موزه و صفحات کتاب در رفت‌وآمد باشم.
جوزف کمبل در این کتاب اساطیر را از منظر دینی بررسی می‌کند. او با سفری عظیم در مشرق زمین به شکل‌گیری مذاهب کهن می‌پردازد و رشد و استمرار این ادیان را در نقاط مختلف نشان می‌دهد.

«اگر تنها یک قلمروی تجربه‌ی انسانی باشد که بتواند چیزی بی‌تردید ویژه و بی‌نظیر، چیزی منحصربه‌فرد، به ما عرضه کند، بلاشک قلمروی زندگی مذهبی است.»

کمبل با کندوکاو در میان اشیای یافته شده سعی می‌کند اشتراکات مذهبی دنیای کهن را پیدا کند. پرستش زن-خدا و کشف اشیایی که طرحی از گاو بر خود دارند و دنبال کرد ردّ این نقش‌ها در نقاط مختلف مشرق زمین او را به این سو می‌کشاند که نقل قولی از پرفسور آنتون مورتگات بیاورد؛ «زن-خدا مادر و نرهّ گاو مقدس یعنی قدیمی‌ترین ترجمان یا نمایش معنوی ملموس و برجسته یا معنی‌دار فرهنگ زراعی دهکده نمودار افکاری هستند که شکل خود را طی هزاره‌ها در خاور نزدیک حفظ کرده‌اند.»
اما انسان‌ها شکل بیرونی مذهب‌شان را عوض می‌کنند. از پرستش مادرخدا و یا خدا دانستن فراعنه کم‌کم به مفاهیم دیگری روی می‌آورند. به طوری که می‌توان بعد از گذشتن از این‌ها به این فکر کرد که انگار یک مفهوم مشترک، نوعی نظم راستین وجود داشته که نمود بیرونی‌شان به نظر یکسان می‌رسد اما اصطلاحی که برایش به کار برده می‌شود متفاوت است. مثلاً در مصر ماعات، در هند دهْرمَ، در خاور دور تائو و در سومِر مه خوانده می‌شد. گویی انسان با هر اعتقادی همواره مایل بوده به مفهمومی قدّسی چنگ بزند تا امنیت روانی داشته باشد و تکیه‌گاهی محکم برای گذر از طوفان حوادث.
سرزمین هند، کشور هفتادودو ملت، سه فصل از این کتاب را به خود اختصاص داده؛ هند باستان، هند بودایی، هند در دوران طلایی. در بخش هند باستان به تمدن دره‌ی سند و ردیابی پرستش مادر-خدا می‌پردازد. بعد از آن به سراغ عصر ودایی می‌رود و بعدتر از آیین جِین صحبت می‌کند. اما در هند بودایی تا می‌تواند بودا، دوران پیش از روشنگری و پس از آن را تا می‌تواند می‌شکافد و این‌که چطور بودیسم منشعب شده است و در این انشعابات چطور تغییر پیدا کرده و براساس شرایط و نیازها و ویژگی‌های بومی هر منطقه رنگ عوض کرده است. بالاخره کمبل وقتی از هند می‌گذرد به چین می‌رسد و قاعدتاً باید از کنفوسیوس، تائویسم و بودیسم در چین بنویسد. کمبل سلسله‌ی امپراتوران چینی را برمی‌شمرد و اشارت مختصری به دوران حکمرانی هر کدام دارد.
ژاپن آخرین منزلگاه کمبل در این کتاب است. جایی که گمان می‌روند به اندازه‌ی هند و حتی چین در گذشته‌ی کهن خود پربار و غنی نیست، آن‌چنان که کمبل می‌گوید برای خود گذشته‌ای اساطیری ابداع کردند. و در ژاپن یافتن وجه متعالی فرد از طریق مناسک شینتو ایجاد می‌شود. نظرگاه بنیادی اخلاقی شینتو این است که فرایندهای طبیعت نمی‌توانند بد باشند و در نتیجه دل پاک از فرایندهای طبیعت متابعت می‌کند. اصطلاحات اساسی آن «دل روشن» (آکاکی کوکورو)، «دل پاک» (کی‌یوکی کوکورو)،‌ «دل درست» (تاداشی کی کوکورو) و «دل راست» (نائوکی کوکوو) هستند که هر چهار به هم پوسته «سه‌ای مه‌ای شین» می‌شوند: پاکی و سرخوشی روح.
خواندن این کتاب دقت و تمرکز می‌خواهد که من همواره آن‌ها را همراه نداشتم. بنابراین فکر می‌کنم بخش‌هایی از کتاب برای من دست‌کم نیاز به خوانش دوباره و چندباره دارد.

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book in Campbell's seminal quartet, this one is much more engrossing and interesting than the first, as it covers Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Tao and Shinto. The East, IMO, is more myth-heavy than the West. I enjoyed it immensely, even though it's a painstaking read.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Campbell's Masks of God series is, I think, the finest version of world history ever written. He exposes the choices, stages, tragedies and breakthroughs in an unfolding chorus of consciousness, expressed through art, story, and vision, that represents the real power and glory of the human adventure.

[C.G. Fewston · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Masks of God: Volume II, Oriental Mythology (1962) by Joseph Campbell is again one of those marathons of the mind. The knowledge that Campbell pours out is relentless for the entire 516 pages, but at the same time it is captivating to explore the development of ancient mythology and religion and civilization beginning with Central Asia (what is currently known as the Middle East), then to ancient India, then progressing to China and finally to Japan, ending briefly with Tibet.

In Chapter One, ''The Dialogue in Myth of East and West,'' Campbell explains how primitive belief of men who believed kings were in fact gods in flesh (found and explored in Campbell's Volume I, Primitive Mythology) is now becoming altered and slightly changed. Campbell writes:

''Man had been made not to be God but to know, honor, and serve him; so that even the king, who, according to the earlier mythological view, had been the chief embodiment of divinity on earth, was now but a priest offering sacrifice in tendance to One above--not a god returning himself in sacrifice to Himself'' (p 7).

In effect, the power structure of society is now changed. Priests are given the most high honor once held by kings, and this can still be found in monarchies where kings and queens in the social hierarchy are below the Church. Basic religion, at its earliest stages, has started to shape social belief structures.

In addition, primitive men who once thought they could know God, the Creator, by being, and later pretending to be, gods, is now starting to shift their paradigms of thought. Rather than being gods, men sought to know God and His relationship and connection to all men. Campbell explains:

''And the goal of knowledge cannot be to see God here and now in all things; for God is not in things. God is transcendent. God is beheld only by the dead. The goal of knowledge has to be, rather, to know the relationship of God to his creation, or, more specifically, to man, and through such knowledge, by God's grace, to link one's own will back to that of the Creator'' (p 11).

Only eleven pages in and we are beginning to see massive shifts in belief systems held for hundreds of years, and these shifts, or man's attempt to define and explore God's relationship to humanity will later help inspire the creation of most religions still found today (i.e., Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Taoism).

One of the reasons for this new attempt to define or understand God is humanity's conception and naming of the Ego, which is still often discussed and debated in professional circles of education and philosophy. ''As long as an illusion of ego remains,'' Campbell explains, ''the commensurate illusion of a separate deity also will be there; and vice versa, as long as the idea of a separate deity is cherished, an illusion of ego, related to it in love, fear, worship, exile, or atonement, will also be there'' (p 14).

One might liken this age of humanity as its infanthood. The infant first begins to shape the image of him-herself and once the Ego has been formed, the words utter out at the age of two or three, ''I want.'' The same happened to humanity. Humanity formed the Ego and then started to shape the wants, which can be classified in classic India's Four Ends, also discussed by Freud as the ''pleasure principle.'' Humanity, under Indian doctrine of that time period, defined the Four Ends as: [1] love and pleasure (kāma); [2] power and success (artha); [3] lawful order and moral virtue (dharma); and, [4] release from delusion (moksa); (I am currently going through a ''release of delusion'' in regards to modern civilization's absurd social structures and I believe number three is there to prevent number four from ever happening--which we will see later with China's horrific reaction to Tibet's religious order) (p 21).

Now, as the infant grows into a child, decisions must be made. Humanity is now entering into the state of childhood. The child must no longer focus on ''I want'' but must seek a greater understanding of self in his-her role in the family's hierarchal structure and later in the classroom's hierarchal structure. Remember, the role of godhood, priesthood and kinghood have all been established (especially in ancient Sumer and Egypt), but the role of Self is only now beginning to form. ''It is normally expected that an educated ego should have developed away from the simple infantile polarity of the pleasure and obedience principles toward a personal, uncompulsive, sensitive relationship to empirical reality, a certain adventurous attitude toward the unpredictable, and a sense of personal responsibility for decisions,'' writes Campbell. ''Not life as a good soldier, but life as a developed, unique individual, is the ideal. And we shall search the Orient in vain for anything quite comparable. There the ideal, on the contrary, is the quenching, not development of the ego'' (p 22).

What comes next might amaze you. The most developed minds begin to see ancient stories and myths of gods and divinity as nothing more than stories created by artists. The ego has died and the wild fantasy of childish eyes beside the campfire and all listening to gods battling demons in the thunderous skies become less than what we might think of as religion and more of creative understanding over one's creation, which some might argue is the next stage of a child's development. F.M. Concord explains, ''Greek theology was not formulated by priests nor even by prophets, but by artists, poets and philosophers...The mythology, consequently, remains fluid, as poetry; and the gods are not literally concretized, like Yahweh in the garden, but are known to be just what they are: personifications brought into being by the human creative imagination'' (p 30-31).

''These are the two discordant great themes,'' explains Campbell, ''of what may be termed the orthodox Occidental mythological structure: poles of experience of an ego set apart from nature, maturing values of its own, which are not those of the given world, yet still projecting on the universe a notion of anthropomorphic fatherhood--as though it should ever have possessed, or might ever come to possess, either in itself or in its metaphysical ground, the values, sensibilities and intelligence, decency and nobility of a man'' (p 32)!

So ends Chapter One.

I will not go in great detail with the rest of the book but one can gain a glimpse of Campbell's scope presented in the above section pertaining to his first chapter.

As Campbell starts to shape the early history of the world one sees how humanity and structured religion and civilization has not been around for very long. In much respect, after reading Campbell's accounts of ancient civilizations, I do not count the Sumerian and Egyptian efforts in language, religion and social orders as the age of humanity's formation of a mature civilization, but instead it is more an infantile conception of things to come. For one thing, despite originating around 3500-3100 B.C., Sumer and Egypt remained in the youthful Bronze Age (roughly 3200 - 2200 B.C.), toying with the invention of the wheel (c. 3500 B.C.) and the mature Iron Age (approx. 1200 B.C. - 400 A.D.) still had not come, and would slowly filter out and reach Japan very late in the game. Meanwhile, the perfection of weaponry and the wheel into a common form of transport, later developing into the emergence of the horse-drawn chariots, sword, and compound bow for war, would not be established until roughly c. 2000-1600 B.C., almost 1500 years after the wheel was invented. The reason the wheel is of vital importance is because it is then and only then we begin to see true, mature civilizations seeking to stretch its arms and legs through formalized religion, trade and war across Central Asia, Europe and India.

Campbell dates Egypt thus (p 58-59):

Predynastic Periods, c. 2900 B.C.
Old Kingdom Egypt, c. 2850-2190 B.C.
Middle Kingdom Egypt, c. 2052-1610 B.C.

The Nile for much of its Egyptian rule was a well-protected valley that cut off Egyptian society from outsiders and invaders and allowed dynasties to stay in power; the Hyksos, ''a mixed horde of Asiatic aliens,'' however, invaded the northeast frontier in c. 1670-1570 B.C. through the assistance of war chariots and compound bows and these men ruled without Re and lived without divine command as the Egyptians once lived (p 103). The Egyptians, like the Sumerians, are now exposed to the outside world, much like infants stepping out the front door of their home for the first time, and we begin to see the fall of these two great empires. Mature civilizations? Not in the least.

''We see the first signs of the new force in the sudden appearance, shortly following c. 2000 B.C., of the light two-wheeled chariot drawn by a pair of well-trained steeds. The wheel, as we know, had already appeared in Sumer c. 3200 B.C., and...At some point in place and time, however, roughly c. 2000 B.C. And probably north of the Caucasus range, the light two-wheeled chariot drawn by two swift horses came into use, and the wheels, which now were spoked, revolved freely on their axles, so that the cars could be readily turned...Furthermore, in Southeastern Europe, c. 1500 B.C., a new weapon, the sword, appeared, contrived for slashing from the saddle. From somewhere men were coming who had learned to ride'' (p 172-173). And Rome would later follow across the lands.

What comes next is not at all surprising. Humanity is maturing as it looks upon the power that is brought with the creation of the wheel and so forms religions out of this idea known as a ''wheel.'' The son of a king comes along and becomes the first Buddha around 563-483 B.C., and other such sages begin teaching about what awaits in death (here we may further note the maturing thought found in humanity). Such teachings later branch off into sects. One such belief is ''the idea of the wheel of rebirth'' and the ''First Turning of the Wheel of the Law'' (p 250, 281).

In addition, the origins of Zoroastrians can be placed between c. 1200 and c. 500 B.C., and distinguish the world into good and evil (please note the similar time frame correlating to the advancement of the wheel and the sword). Zoroaster from Persia, explains Campbell, should be seen more as a symbol of tradition, like Homer, rather than one man (and some might argue the same to William Shakespeare) and the Zoroastrians believed ''the world, consequently, is a compound wherein good and evil, light and dark, wisdom and violence, are contending for victory. And the privilege and duty of each man--who, himself, as part of creation, is a compound of good and evil--is to elect, voluntarily, to engage in battle in the interest of the light'' (p 7).

However it would be the Jains that form its ''religion without God'' (p 231) and establish two roads of afterlife, which other religions also share. The Jains believed in the Road of Flame that was a path to heaven and to the gods in the sun and this road was for those who were in essence righteous (p 234). The Road of Smoke (p 218) is a path to the moon, to the ancestors, and to a new life back on earth. The approach to afterlife is to accomplish enough good deeds in hopes of being worthy to ascend the higher road and the goal is to not be born again on earth, but to take one's seat in the house of the gods. Many religions share this view of paradise.

Winding down, there does seem to be a common agreement in the scattered histories of a ''mythic flood.'' A flood that encompassed the entire planet at the same time seems to be highly unlikely, however, and instead explained and interpreted ''as a local, not as a general Mesopotamian (let alone universal) catastrophe. It is of course possible that in each little city state itself the local flood was overinterpreted as a cosmic event, rendering present the mythological Deluge'' (p 121-122).

Campbell goes on to discuss in-depth about Buddhist India, the Indian Golden Age, Chinese Mythology, Japanese Mythology, and ends with a short chapter about Tibet's period of suffering at the hands of China.

It is with great satisfaction, therefore, that I strongly recommend this book for those serious scholars and other curious minds out there who take great interest in the history of the world. Excelsior!

Finally, please don't forget to check out my websites:

www.cgfewston.net

www.cgfewston.me

[Blaine Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone interested in cultural differences and cultural history should read Joseph Campbell. His insights into the foundational differences in world cultures are essential knowledge.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bill Moyers summarizes this passage from Oriental Mythology in his introduction of Campbell in The Power of Myth (an audio collection of interviews which I finished around the same time).

Well- and so our friend the sociologist met his friend the Shinto priest at a lawn party in the precincts of an extensive Japanese garden, where paths, leading down among the rocks, turned to reveal unforseen landscapes, gravel lawns, craggy lakes, stone lanterns, trees curiously formed, and pagodas. And our friend the sociologist said to his friend the Shinto priest, "You know, I've now been to a number of the Shinto shrines and I've seen quite a few rites, and I've read about it, thought about it; but you know, I don't get the ideology. I don't get your theology."

And the Japanese gentleman, polite, as though respecting the foreign scholar's profound question, paused a while as though in thought. Then he looked, smiling, at his friend.

"We do not have ideology," he said. "We do not have theology.

We dance."

For Moyers, Campbell's life epitomized the idea of the dance. As I understand, an attempt to experience the awe of all religious and mythological experience without constraining himself with the burden of subscribing to a particular doctrine. A personal view that lends itself well to the expansive 4-part series The Masks of God.

By chance, I began with Oriental Mythology, the second of this series. Starting with the division of Eastern and Western thought as far back as seen with the ancient Egyptians, Campbell's survey of Eastern mythology is geographically and chronologically expansive. The effort to cover so much material left me at times disjointed and unable to fully appreciate the ideas within. Perhaps Campbell presumes a greater familiarity with the esoteric aspects of many of the subsects of Hinduism, Buddhism and Eastern ancient history, but I suspect the writing simply suffers from the vast amount of information attempted in summary form.

Though the book suffers stylistically at times, Campbell's love of storytelling emerges throughout. At times, you can almost hear the enthusiasm he feels when relating the countless allegories and fables he acquired out of a lifetime of intellectual curiosity. He's become a member of my pantheon of individuals with whom one could only wish to spend a dinner conversation.

____________________________________

Two passages, both Taosit, stuck me as particularly worth noting.

There are four things," states a Taoist work of this age (the Lieh Tzu: third century A.D.), "that do not allow people to have peace. The first is long life, the second is reputation, the third is rank, and the fourth is riches. Those who have these things fear ghosts, fear men, fear power, and fear punishment. They are called fugitives...pg. 435

_______

"You misjudge me," Chuang Tzu replied. "When she died, I was in despair, as any man might well be. But soon, pondering on what had happened, I told myself that in death no new strange fate befalls us. In the beginning we lack not life only, but form; not form only, but spirit. We are blent in the one great featureless, undistinguishable mass. Then a time came when the mass evolved spirit, spirit evolved form, form evolved life. And now life in its turn has evolved death. For not nature only but man's being has its season, its sequence of spring and autumn, summer and winter. If someone is tired and has gone to lie down, we do not pursue him with shouting and bawling. She whom I have lost has lain down to sleep for a while in the Great Inner Room. To break in upon her rest with the noise of lamentation would but show that I knew nothing of nature's Sovereign Law." pg. 427

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the beginning I liked Oriental Mythology quite a bit more than the first volume Primitive Mythology, even if like that first book, it could be rather dry and scholarly and somewhat rambling in its arguments. I think part of that is I felt I could trust his arguments more. So much of Primitive Mythology is based on archeological finds it made me continually wonder how many of his "facts" had been overtaken by new discoveries in the over 50 years that passed since the 1959 publication of that first volume. In this volume, however, covering the mythologies of Egypt, India, China and Japan he's on more solid ground, with written scripture forming the basis of his study rather than archeological finds or the fluid rituals of indigenous peoples.

I found the first part of this book comparing and contrasting Oriental (Hindu, Buddhist) and Occidental (Judeo-Christo-Muslim and Classical Greek) mythologies fascinating and illuminating. He sees the two cultures, though joined at the root, "branching off" into divergent and distinctive worldviews. What is key in oriental theology Campbell believes, is the "myth of eternal return" i.e. reincarnation until and unless you can break through the unending cycle to find the divinity within. He further sees a distinction between Hinduism ("let it go") and Far Eastern Buddhism ("let it come."). Western mythologies in contrast have a vision of creation/fall/restoration in a cosmic conflict where sides must be chosen. The role of the individual in the two different worldviews are also very different. Campbell states of the Western view:

Not life as a good soldier, but life as a developed, unique individual, is the ideal. And we shall search the Orient in vain for anything quite comparable. There the ideal, on the contrary, is the quenching, not the development, of ego.

I'm not sure I'd describe the Western tradition as so different in those terms. Certainly the Christian mystical and monastic tradition emphasizes self-sacrifice, renunciation of the world and quenching of the ego as well. Although Campbell also mentions the idea of another strain in Western mythology distinct from the monotheistic "People of the Book." The Greek idea of theology as poetry and play rather than dogmatic scripture, and the Greeks in the conflict between Man and God are on Man's side--as encapsulated in the myth of Prometheus. I have to admit, if I'm aligned with any mythological school as described in the book, it's this rebellious one I find most attractive, and it's an interesting way of looking at the various mythologies. I'm curious how he'll further develop those themes in the next volume, Occidental Mythology.

But most fascinating was Campbell's demonstrations of the connections between and elucidations of Asian religions, mythology and philosophy. I don't think I've yet squeezed all I can out of his survey of Indian, Chinese and Japanese history and culture. I'll need to reread this book someday after further reading on the subject. Parts were so dry I admit I did some judicious skimming, and wished to skim more. Yet it's rare that I read a book that both makes me understand better other ideas and books I've come across and leaves me hungry for more. In the course of reading this book I put together for myself a 14-page timeline of history and was busy each night after reading chapters of Oriental Mythology googling articles on Indian and Chinese history and Hinduism and Buddhism and was browsing the Religion and History section of my neighborhood bookstore recently looking for more to read on the subjects Campbell touched upon. The book made me want to reread Lao-Tzu and Confucius and delve into Sanskrit literature--hopefully after reading Oriental Mythology with more understanding. Right to the last sentence Campbell was offering up piercing insights.

[Yana · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Nirvana is the goal, and the mind is beginning to crack - as it must, if that goal is to be achieved." p.313

"Stars, darkness, a lamp, a phantom, dew, a bubble;
A dream, a flash of lightening, and a cloud:
Thus should we look upon the world." p.319

"Fear not, fear not, O nobly born! The Furies of the Lord of Death will place around your neck a rope and drag you along; cut off your head, extract your heart, pull out your intestines, lick up your brains, drink your blood, eat your flesh, and gnaw your bones; but in reality, your body is of the nature of voidness; you need not be afraid..." p.515

[Terragyrl3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love everything ever penned by Campbell-highly recommend! Like Bettelheim with European fairy tales, Campbell delves into the ways folktales used to act as cautionary illustrations to channel human behavior. This would be morality based on the way society actually functions, not on church teachings about how the world should be. Younger readers may not grasp how fabulous Campbell’s worldview first appeared because now it is so thoroughly believed, used, and imitated. But writers take note: His books are Number One on the syllabus for Hollywood Screenwriting 101. Everyone working in the arts or education—or anyone human—should read Campbell.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily my favorite so far of Campbell's books. While at times it was hard to read due to references to other studies I over all found the book a great read and very informative. I decided to read it with the hopes of learning more about oriental proto-myth and belief systems and this book more then met that goal. I would suggest the Masks of God series to anyone interested in various cultures and how their respective faiths influence that culture.

[Amir Soleimani · Rating 3 out of 5]

انتشارات جوانه رشد این کتاب را با نام اساطیر مشرق زمین و ترجمه علی اصغر بهرامی منتشر کرده است
محتوای ارزشمند کتاب در کنار ترجمۀ ضعیف آن درست بشکلات خوشمزه ای میماند که در پوششی از خار بسته بندی شده باشد.

[Graeme Rodaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second in a set of 4 works. All of which are an indispensible resource if you have any ambition to understand Mythology and comparative religion.

[Yair Zumaeta Acero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph Campbell fue sin lugar a dudas (junto con Mircea Eliade) uno de los más grandes mitólogos y expertos en religiones comparadas de nuestro tiempo. Famoso por su libro El héroe de las mil caras donde planteaba la interesante teoría de que las narraciones mitológicas comparten con frecuencia una estructura fundamental, con patrones básicos que se pueden hallar en relatos mitológicos a lo largo de todo el mundo a través de lo que denominó "El Viaje del Héroe"; idea que sería la influencia principal para gente como George Lucas y la concepción de Star Wars.

Pero junto al afamado El héroe de las mil caras existe otra obra fundamental en la bibliografía de Campbell: Nada más y nada menos que una ciclópea obra dividida en 4 volúmenes titulada "Las Máscaras de Dios" donde el autor busca realizar un trabajo titánico de mitología comparada de la humanidad completa desde sus albores hasta la Edad Moderna, desarrollando aún más su tesis de la unidad biológica y espiritual de la raza humana.

En este segundo volumen, Campbell expande su estudio de mitología comparada, centrándose en las mitologías mesopotámicas, egipcias, indias, chinas y japonesas, ilustrándonos la historia de religiones como el hinduismo, el budismo, el confucionismo, el taoísmo y el sintoísmo. Aparece la idea de un solo mito básico del final y el comienzo de un eón que en su forma mítica primaria, produjo los ritos de Osiris y Tammuz; más tarde, en los míticos helenísticos literarios, las leyendas de Dafne, Mirra, etc. y en las crónicas pseudohistóricas chinas y bíblicas, las leyendas de Noé, Lot - y a 8.000 kilómetros de distancia - Yu el Grande. Resulta interesantísimo además como enlaza la apertura de la antigua ruta de la seda hacia el año 100 A.E.C. que vendría a unir la Bactria Helenística, con la India budista, la Partia zoroástrica y a partir de entonces el flujo de ideas entre los cuatro dominios de la antigua Europa, el Levante, la India y Extremo Oriente no dejó de aumentar y condujo al desarrollo por todo el continente euroasiático de un vocabulario mítico común, aplicado en cada dominio a un estilo de pensamiento particular.

Tal vez el mejor capítulo de este volumen sea el dedicado a la India budista, al surgimiento de esta doctrina a partir del hinduismo antiguo (o Edad de Hierro India); las doctrinas del jainismo y la búsqueda espiritual en una época de importantes cambios socio-culturales; así como su expansión hacia el este y el particular (y casi que épico) proceso de sincretismo en China y Japón.

Puede que Joseph Campbell no haya logrado el nivel de conocimiento y erudición que alcanzó su colega Mircea Eliade; sin embargo hay en Campbell una manera - casi poética - de exponer sus estudios y tesis. Tal vez se deba a esta maravillosa historia de su vida: En 1929, Joseph Cambell regresaba en barco a Norteamérica, procedente de Europa. Durante el viaje, conoció al filósofo y escritor espiritual indio Jiddu Krishnamurti, con quien sostuvo largas jornadas de discusión filosófica y religiosa. Tan pronto desembarcó en Nueva York, abandonó la práctica del catolicismo y abrazó una aproximación laica al hinduismo y el budismo, lo que se vería coronado en 1956 en una peregrinación de un año a la India y Japón. "Las Máscaras de Dios" aparece entonces como un escrito surgido de su mística experiencia en oriente y he allí donde toda prosa de un peregrino, merece ser recordada!

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

آخر سر هم کامل نخونده بردم پسش دادم کتاب رو زیادی تمدید کرده بودم.
ولی اساطیر رو با جزییات داشت و خوب بود.
فقط من خیلی پراکنده خوندم و مشکل اصلیم با کتاب وزنش بود.
تعداد صفحاتش هم پونصد ششصد تا بود ها، زیاد نبود؛ ولی خیلی زیادی به نسبت سایزش سنگین بود؛ حتا به نسبت کتاب های قدیمی هم که کاغذا سنگین بود.
برا همین نمیتونستم زیاد با خودم حملش کنم و راحت بخونمش.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

In graduate school, when I asked my beloved mentor, Freudian/Lacanian David Wagenknecht about Carl Jung, his response was, "I dunno: a little too Joseph Campbell for me." There is no better or smarter human on earth than David and so I didn't read either Jung (who I worship) or Campbell (who I now really, really love) for many years. I think the wait was just fine for me (sorry Dave) but I know I will be reading at least Campbell's Masks of God for the rest of my life (and perhaps also his Skeleton's Key to Finnegans Wake at least twice more). Campbell is NOT a mere popularizer of Jung (more like a popularizer of Thomass Mann if you had choose) and not the hokey Ur-mythologist I was expecting -- but a a rigorous academic and scholar, an inspiring thinker, a terrific organizer, and a fabulous bibliographer. Admittedly, in my middle-age, I find something very comforting about these books (which in fact make no truth-claims whatsoever regarding supernatural matrices) but am not entirely sure why. I love these four books.

[Mert · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 Stars (%78/100)

This is the second book in the series called The Masks of God by Joseph Campbell, aka the God of Mythology himself. Whenever you hear the word mythology, Campbell's name is always mentioned. Campbell is extremely important in the field of myths. I've used him as a source for hundreds of times. It is no wonder that this series is also very good.

As it can be understood from the title, this book mainly deals with Asian myths and legends. I am especially interested in Japanese mythology, so this book was great for me. I borrowed it from my university library and finished it within a day. It is very fun to read but also very informative. Great source for research but also great to just spend some time and relax.

[David Melbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with the first volume, Primitive Mythology, this is probably at least my second time reading this book. Over the years of reading Campbell's works, I am gradually absorbing and comprehending more and more of his train of thought. This is truly a remarkable set of books. On to Occidental Mythology! --From A Reader's Journal, by d r melbie.

[sologdin · Rating 3 out of 5]

in addition to the usual anthropological stuff, specific focus on religion of india and china in the earliest knowable moments.

[Ciolacu Giuliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

O bună introducere în tainele și misterele Orientului.

De la sumerieni, mesopotamieni, până la civiliația „târzie” a Chinei și Japoniei, cu un mare accent pe religiile intermediare din India, Campbell sumarizează foarte frumos traseul ideilor care stau la baza religiilor orientale, arătând cum multe teme religioase se aseamănă între ele (ca urmare a fie războaielor - vezi cazul impactului invaziei lui Alexandru cel Mare în Persia, fie a contactului direct - călugari budiști sau cărturari pricepuți în tainele acestei filozofii).

Cel mai frapant aspect la acest volum este modul în care, deși o religie venită din afară (fie prin asuprire ori de bună voie) este absorbită în interiorul unei culturi, aceasta nu este pe deplin integrată, ci, îi sunt adăugate elemente specifice culturii unde urmează să fie „aplicată”. Cazurile budismului din China și Japonia sunt cele mai relevante, dar și în India avem nenumărate cazuri de transformări, printre care cea mai importantă transformare survenind ca urmare a invaziei asirienilor.
Un alt punct demn de remarcat este cel care face referie la crizele acute prin care trec civilizațiile în anumite etape ale dezvoltării lor - războaiele, calamitățile, tensiunile sociale, și multe altele contribuie covărșitor la noua atitudine religioasă care va lua naștere (egal că facem referire la alterarea sistemului religios care există deja sau la adoptarea unei alte religiii din afară).

În cele din urmă, mă declar mulțumit de această achiziție.
Urmează sa trec rapid și prin volumul 1.

[Geo Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fricking incredible breakdown. I'm loving this series!

Quotes I Liked:

# Oriental Mythology

## Part Two THE MYTHOLOGIES OF INDIA

### Chapter 5 BUDDHIST INDIA

#### V. The Middle Way

By what principle of delusion, then, has it come to pass that so many beings — though without a self — are to such a degree self-concerned that they suppose their own and others’ sufferings to constitute a cosmic problem, saying “Life is something that should not have been”?
20-07-2026 13:40

───

#### VI. Nirvāṇa

As the Reverend Hpe Aung, a distinguished master of the Burmese order, recently described the main stages of insight of the Hīnayāna Buddhist yogi passage, they are as follows:

The insight that all is impermanent, sorrowful, and without a self
The insight regarding the beginning and ending of things
The insight regarding the destruction of things
The insight that the world is dreadful
The insight that such a dreadful world is full of emptiness and vanity
The insight that such a world should be loathed
The insight that the world should be forsaken
The insight that liberation should be realized
The insight that equilibrium should be observed in spite of the vicissitudes of life
The insight that adaptation has to be made for the realization of nirvāṇa.
“Buddhists are optimistic,” he wrote, “because, though the world is full of sufferings, yet, to a Buddhist, there is a way out of it.”
20-07-2026 14:12

───

#### IX. The Way of Vision

Dr. Marie-Thérèse de Mallmann, the author of this important study, has shown that the names Amitabha and Amitayus correspond to the usual characterizations of the Persian creator-god Ahura Mazda, as the lord both of light and of unending time; furthermore, that throughout the broad domain of Persian religious influence (which, as we know, reached with the Roman army into Gaul and Britain), divine triads matching that of Amitabha seated between his two great standing Bodhisattvas appear at many sites.
22-07-2026 20:22

───

Guatama said: Those desiring to be born there, first should be filial, compassionate, and observant of the ten negative precepts, which are as follows: 1. not to kill, 2. not to steal, 3. not to lie, 4. not to be unchaste, 5. not to drink intoxicants.not to drink intoxicants.[Note 77a] These are the five that all must observe, following which are five additional, for monks: 6. not to eat at forbidden times, 7. not to dance, sing, or attend theatrical or other spectacles, 8. not to use scents, garlands, or other ornaments, 9. not to use high or broad beds, 10. not to accept money.
22-07-2026 20:28

This is interesting. Why are all religions so up against the idea of consuming intoxicants? It often becomes an outright disqualifier to their version of the good guy's paradise.



───

Secondly, said the Buddha, those desiring to enter this realm should take refuge in the Buddha, the law, and the order, fulfill all ceremonial observances, and give their whole attention to the attainment of enlightenment, deeply believing in the doctrine of the twelvefold causal chain, studying and reciting the sutras, and leading others to follow the same course.
22-07-2026 20:30

What exactly is the need for people to do all of this to attain some random ass state of non-beingness, when there is so much fun to be had in life? This whole wanting to dissolve into nothingness is blasphemy against the forces that created us., that's for sure.

───

Next, she would form the perception of pure water, holding this image firmly fixed; and when the water had been perceived, the meditating mind was to envision ice, shining and transparent, after which lapis lazuli. The earth, then, was to be seen as lapis lazuli, transparent and radiant, both within and without, supported from beneath by a golden banner with seven jewels, reaching to the eight corners of the earth, each corner of the earth consisting of a hundred jewels, each jewel of a thousand rays, and every ray of eighty-four thousand colors, which, being reflected from the lapis lazuli ground, would look like a thousand million suns. Stretching over that ground were to be seen golden ropes, intertwined crosswise, the whole divided by strings of seven jewels, every jewel emitting rays of five hundred colors, resembling flowers, or like the moon and stars. And these rays should form a tower of ten million stories built of jewels, every side of which should be furnished with a hundred million flowery banners and numberless musical instruments, all emitting the sounds signifying “suffering,” “non-existence,” “impermanence,” and “no self.” That would be the perception of water: the Second Meditation.
22-07-2026 20:30

What kind of a trip is this?

───

The next meditation was to be of the jewel trees of that Buddha Realm: seven roes of them, each 800 yojanas high, all bearing flowers and leaves of seven jewels. And from the first jewel of each, which is of lapis lazuli, there issues a golden ray; from the second, of crystal, a saffron ray; next, of agate, a diamond ray, etc. Corals, amber, and all other gems follow as ornaments. Moreover, seven nets of pearls are to be visualized, spreading over each tree, and between each set of such nets and its neighbors five hundred million palaces built of excellent flowers, like the palace of the god Brahma. Heavenly children live in those palaces, and every child has a garland of five hundred million precious gems, the rays of which illuminate a hundred yojanas, as if a hundred million suns and moons were united. “It is difficult,” said even the Buddha, “to explain them all in detail.”[Note 79]
22-07-2026 20:32

They're all obsessed with these materialistic items like jewels and rubies. Gee, for something that's supposed to be so much more exotic in its theory of reality, it still performs quite poorly. At least make it sound esoteric, no?

───

However, since the goal of the present work is not nirvāṇa but a cross-cultural view of the imagery by which peoples of the world have, in time and space, sought to represent their intuitions of that term beyond terms which in the West we personify as God and in the Orient is depersonified either as Being or as Non-Being, I am going to ask the gracious reader wishing to continue with the Buddha to let me say to him, respectfully, in the words of the Antagonist (who was himself — as we now know — a Buddha thing): “O thou Blessed One, thou wilt now kindly pass on to nirvāṇa.” For we are going to pause here, a while, to classify. We have come to a point in our study where the whole field is breaking, like a Buddha Realm, into five hundred million varicolored rays, and it certainly is difficult to explain them all in detail.
22-07-2026 20:33

───

#### X. The World Regained — as Dream

Moreover, of the two Great Bodhisattvas, each of whom is eight hundred thousand niyutas of yojanas high, let it be seen that in the halo of Avalokiteśvara five hundred Buddhas blaze forth, each attended by as many Bodhisattvas, surrounding each of which are numberless gods, while in the front of his tiara sits the figure of a Buddha twenty-five yojanas high.
22-07-2026 21:21

So do these Boddhisattvas have day jobs or any stuff like that? Any personality, anything at all? A Buddha must have been born very rarely right? And they must have been widely acclaimed during their time, or followed, or respected. It must be difficult going back to being part of the herd.

───

### Chapter 6 THE INDIAN GOLDEN AGE

#### I. The Heritage of Rome

In the year 399 a.d., Fa-hsien, the first of a notable series of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, left the sumptuous capital Ch’ang-an, at the head of the Old Silk Road from China to Rome, to brave the waste lands of Lop Nor. He reached Taxila in the Punjab six years later, passed into India itself, and for another six years traversed the land from west to east, consulting and debating with the learned, visiting holy sites, and observing with delight the virtue of the people and beauty of the Buddhist shrines.
22-07-2026 21:24

Fuck, someone reading this in the 1800s must have been astounded at the timescale, proclaiming their era as the greatest because they can now reach Punjab in months, I guess, via ships, but yeah.

He had no idea a couple of centuries later, we fly to these places.

───

One of the glories of this age was the Hindu poet Kālidāsa, whose delicious play, Śakuntala, drew from Goethe the lines:
22-07-2026 21:28

drew from Goethe the lines:

Very interesting choice of words. You don't hear language like that anywhere these days.

───

#### II. The Mythic Past

Now it is a principle of the dharma of all husbands that they must have intercourse with their wives immediately following the menstrual period, because — according to the infallible truth of Vedic revelation — this is the auspicious time for the begetting of a child.
22-07-2026 21:35

───

through which he moves were as fair as the gardens of the genii of the earth. He was put in mind of his marital dharma, and, overcome by desire, sat him down beneath a beautifully blossoming, heavily scented tree, where, when his mind had dissolved to madness, he was overcome by a crisis; following which he mused that his seed should not be lost and, gathering it up in a large leaf, he called to a hawk soaring above: “O my friend, do thou bear this to my wife, who is in her season.”
22-07-2026 21:37

───

“Truth,” was her name, but she was known as Fishy Smell.
22-07-2026 21:40

───

## Part III THE MYTHOLOGIES OF THE FAR EAST

### Chapter 7 CHINESE MYTHOLOGY

#### III. The Chinese Feudal Age: c. 1500–500 b.c.

“If a country is strong and does not make war,” we read, “there will be villainy within and the Six Maggots, which are, to wit: rites and music, poetry and history; the cultivation of goodness, filial piety and respect for elders; sincerity and truth; purity and integrity; kindness and morality; detraction of warfare and shame at taking part in it. In a country that has these twelve things, the ruler will not be able to make people farm and fight, with the result that he will become impoverished and his territory diminished.”[Note 73]

“Therefore I would have people told that if they want gain, it is only by plowing that they can get it; if they fear harm, it will only be by fighting that they can escape it. Then everyone within the borders of the land would know that he could get no happiness without first applying himself to plowing and warfare. The country might be small, but the grain produced would be much; the inhabitants might be few, but their military power would be great. A country that devoted itself to these two ends would not have to wait long before it established hegemony or even complete mastery over all other States.”[Note 74]

“A country where the virtuous govern the wicked will suffer from disorder, so that it will be dismembered; but a country where the wicked govern the virtuous will be orderly, so that it will become strong….”

And as for such trivia as honor: “If things are done that the enemy would be ashamed to do, there is an advantage.
24-07-2026 11:21

───

#### IV. The Age of the Great Classics: c. 500 b.c.–500 a.d.

“You misjudge me,” Chuang Tzu replied. “When she died, I was in despair, as any man well might be. But soon, pondering on what had happened, I told myself that in death no strange new fate befalls us. In the beginning we lack not life only, but form; not form only, but spirit. We are blent in the one great featureless, undistinguishable mass. Then a time came when the mass evolved spirit, spirit evolved form, form evolved life. And now life in its turn has evolved death. For not nature only but man’s being has its seasons, its sequence of spring and autumn, summer and winter. If someone is tired and has gone to lie down, we do not pursue him with shouting and bawling. She whom I have lost has lain down to sleep for a while in the Great Inner Room. To break in upon her rest with the noise of lamentation would but show that I knew nothing of nature’s Sovereign Law.”[Note 124]

“This attitude toward death,” writes Mr. Waley of this scene, “exemplified again and again in Chuang Tzu, is but part of a general attitude toward the universal laws of nature, which is one not merely of resignation nor even of acquiescence, but a lyrical, almost ecstatic acceptance, which has inspired some of the most moving passages in Taoist literature.
24-07-2026 11:39

───

### Chapter 8 JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

#### IV. The Ways of the Buddha

And in the nexus of warcraft: “Perfection in the art of swordsmanship is reached,” wrote Eugen Herrigel in his Zen in the Art of Archery, “when the heart is troubled by no more thought of I and You, of the opponent and his sword, of one’s own sword and how to wield it — no more thought even of life and death. ‘All is emptiness: your own self, the flashing sword, and the arms that wield it. Even the thought of emptiness is no longer there.’ From this absolute emptiness, states Takuan, ‘comes the most wondrous unfoldment of doing.’”[Note 43]
25-07-2026 11:17

───

To a certain degree, any great athlete or performer will recognize this last as, what we term, being “in form.” Zen, it might be said, is the art of being “in form” in everything, all the time. There is no blocking: all perfectly flows. And Buddhahood is in this, in so far as no intrusive egoity is in play. Egoity is in play only in the neophyte, the amateur, the dub; in the perfectly trained professional it does not exist. And so, in Zen we find, so to say, the Buddhahood of competence in art. In the art of the samurai, it was applied to warcraft. In the later periods and other spheres of life in Japan, its principles were applied to all or any of the arts: in monasteries, to the art of meditation; in the tea room, to the art of serving tea; comparably in painting, calligraphy, etc., to the act “in form.”
25-07-2026 11:17

───

### Chapter 9 TIBET: THE BUDDHA AND THE NEW HAPPINESS

A monk named Turukhu-Sungrab asked the Chinese to desist and his arm was cut off above the elbow. He was told that God would give him back his arm. The Chinese told them there was no such thing as religion, the practice of which was a waste of one’s own life and of one’s time. Because of religion people did not work.
25-07-2026 11:51

───

It was during this period in Europe that Joe was first exposed to those modernist masters—notably, the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee, James Joyce and Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung—whose art and insights would greatly influence his own work. These encounters would eventually lead him to theorize that all myths are the creative products of the human psyche, that artists are a culture's mythmakers, and that mythologies are creative manifestations of humankind's universal need to explain psychological, social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.
29-07-2026 20:23

───

Then, late in 1931, after exploring and rejecting the possibility of a doctoral program or teaching job at Columbia, he decided, like countless young men before and since, to "hit the road," to undertake a cross-country journey in which he hoped to experience "the soul of America" and, in the process, perhaps discover the purpose of his life.
29-07-2026 20:23

───

I begin to think that I have a genius for working like an ox over totally irrelevant subjects.…I am filled with an excruciating sense of never having gotten anywhere—but when I sit down and try to discover where it is I want to get, I'm at a loss.…The thought of growing into a professor gives me the creeps. A lifetime to be spent trying to kid myself and my pupils into believing that the thing that we are looking for is in books! I don't know where it is—but I feel just now pretty sure that it isn't in books. — It isn't in travel. — It isn't in California. — It isn't in New York.…Where is it? And what is it, after all?
29-07-2026 20:23

───

This gets back again to Krishna's dictum: “ The best way to help mankind is through the perfection of yourself.”
29-07-2026 20:23

───

In his later years, Joe was fond of recalling on how Schopenhauer, in his essay On the Apparent Intention in the Fate of the Individual, wrote of the curious feeling one can have, of there being an author somewhere writing the novel of our lives, in such a way that through events that seem to us to be chance happenings there is actually a plot unfolding of which we have no knowledge.

Looking back over Joe's life, one cannot help but feel that it proves the truth Schopenhauer's observation.
29-07-2026 20:25

───

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A difficult book to read...as an Occidental, trying to appreciate and understand the Oriental mind is a real challenge. It is also difficult for them to understand us. The last 5-6 pages , where the Communists try to mock and destroy the Tibetan Buddhists, gives one pause for thought.

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pre-Read: After a week of scattered reading of Jung’s MDR, Aion and Red Book, I decided to plunge into this one on the back of a year and a half of obsessive book-reading that has left me feeling counterproductively empty about the enterprise of knowledge as being somehow pedestrian, self-congratulatory and derivative. Better late than never though to come to the realization that of the 200 odd books of this period, I can count on one hand the works of truly and profoundly visionary genius, and that this year might’ve been stratospheric had I read only 10 books all of which had the sort of staggering insight these handful have had. Fingers crossed then on this JC adventure whose call was once refused and now accepted trepidatiously on some vague distant promise of transformation and apotheosis.

Bailed at 70%. TBC when mind and heart are more still.

Notes
East/West
Bible’s fall is historical/geographical from a garden of Eden, so the return will also be historical and geographical. Hindu fall is psychological, maya, delusion, so the return will also be psychological, yoga.
Tao, like Dharma, is the Way, a path, the way the universe works. Yin-Yang: 1 circle, then 2 half-circles within it that gives the curved line which is half-circumference length. Ad infinitum. 1, 2, then 10,000 things of creation.
Yogi seeks stillness, nir (no)-vana (wind) so surface of pond becomes free of ripples. Far-East is fine with movement, wants to participate in the rhythm of the Dao. Samadhi, with eyes closed, or Satori, with eyes open like in a dance.
Cities Of God
Near East’s bull-god and cow-goddess makes its way to Zeus/Europa/Io, Pasiphae/Poseidon’s Bull etc. Temples organized with generative power of female/nature as central (female organ). Bull not only sired milk-yielding cows, but also ploughed the land.
Mount of earth, symbolic of goddess, cognate with stupa, omphalos, mountains like Olympos, Meru.
4500-2500BC - The new arts and ideas from Sumerian temple spread to Egypt, Indus, China, Americas, but only the ideas, not the religious experience that had given rise to them. Osiris-Isis (and then Adonis/Dionysus) all variants on common near East theme of dead-resurrected god-king.
King not warlord but instrument of eternal moral norm, maat, truth/right order, and king is only earthly force/revelation. Dynasty I (2850BC), pharaoh is Great God who worships nobody. Dynasty V (2350BC) he is Good God who worships Ra.
Memphis Priests of Ptah, in understanding the creator, also understand creativity itself, saying the God ‘saw’ thought in the heart, the way things must be, and then the tongue made them real through commandments.
Older Heliopolis Priests had Atum, who created through act of masturbation. Or spat. Atum had twins Shu/Tefnut who then had Nut/Geb who in turn had Isis/Osiris and Seth/Nephthys. Thus 9 gods were collected into a genealogy Ennead Of Heliopolis.
Ptah created in image of Atum. Horus is heart of Ptah. Thot, ancient moon-god of Hermopolis, brought in as scribe of Heliopolis. Tongue of Ptah. Immanent transcendent Ptah, 2000 years before India
Ptah/Apis Bul: Shiva/Nandi. Consort is Sekhmet (powerful one) lion goddess / Sakti (power) with lion.
Lunar bull replaced by Solar lion. Moon is lord of growth, waters, womb, but Sun is lord of light, intellect, pure reason, eternal laws that never change.
Cities Of Men
Underlying myth of divine death cut up, divided, parts buried to then turn into new creation, because reproduction without death and death without reproduction are both bad. Link between death and sex. Survival is killing and eating.
Sumerian tablets 10 mythic kings reigned 432,000 years. Warriors of Valhalla 800 each through 540 doors = 432,000 of Gotterdammerung. Precession of Equinox, goes through 360 degs (full circle of Zodiac) in 432 (base 60) years.
Western tragedy/hybris: seek immortality and fail. Daedalus. Tree of life, cross. Catastrophe is just the final-turn, but tragic mood is so dominant in West that it’s come to mean tragic turn. Eastern: seek and ye shall find. Buddha. Eastern hero is not tragic, but undying unborn, reincarnated greatness.
Indian Myth
Paleolithic: Hand-axes, pebble tools of 2 types Soan (NW) and Acheulian (South) from 500,000 BC. Vedas in 1000BC means 499,000 years of unrecorded consciousness.
Upper paleolithic Europe 30k to 10k BC developed true blades, but not India. But equatorial regions have more perishable materials that we won’t find evidence for, like leather/fiber/wood. Temperate have more durable materials, stone/metal/pottery, to us today it seems like a natural law of cultural evolution.
2500-1500BC Indus Valley. Sargon of Akkad had ships from ports as far as Meluha, could be Indus (copper/ivory/wood). Genetics of proto-Australoid, Australian aborigines might be through Ceylon/Melanesia from S.India. Indus valley figurines have S.Indian features. Baluchistan was called Gedrosia - land of dark folk. Dravidian languages still have kin in East Baluchistan/Sind of Brahui
2nd race in Indus was mediterranean that now dominant in Arabia, figurines of these (like priest in robes, leaving right-shoulder bare like Sumerian priests, current day Buddhist) seem to be higher social class. Luxurious quarters as well as quarters comparable to modern slums in same city. Eastern natives paleolithic were not threats but maybe brought in as labor. Ancient caste system.
Goddess worship dominant in India, with associated practices like human sacrifice that survived in India legally until 1835. Aryans came and abhorred the phallic cults of goddess worship. Not so much patriarchy as dominance over nature/creation/cults
Khongs of Bihar/Orissa have a sacrificial-caste: Meriahs, raised to be sacrificed to Earth goddess. (funfact: invoked story of Avatar to appeal to James Cameron to stop Vedanta mining company from raping their bauxite mountain)
Indus seals have a meditating yogi with erect phallus (Shiva) as well as yogis shielded by Cobra (Vishnu).
Greatest god of Rgved is Varuna, from vr (envelope, cover). Indra also slays greatest demon, Vritra, same root.
No sign of Hinduism in the Vedas. No reincarnation, rebirth, yoga, moksha, vegetarianism, case, nonviolence. So Aryans were assimilated into Indus complex (Dravidians). Varuna became Vishnu. Rta became Dharma. Maya. In Mahabharat, Vritra becomes a Brahmin, who from Brahma gets power of Maya. Indra is punished, though, for this Brahminicide. His powers come not from Soma but Yoga (from Indus). Final victory not by Vishnu but Shiva. Even Vritra’s power from Yoga for 60k years.
Vedas were not composed but divinely heard (Sruti), like Homeric epics of pre-bicameral breakdown age?
4 classes of brahmins for ashvamedha: Hotri (invoker: Rgved. beautiful-tongued), Adhvaryu (sacrificer: Yajurved. beautiful-handed). Udgatri (chanter. Samaved). King’s house priest.
The power of a rite came from the precision of its analogy with cosmic order. Imitative Magic. Horse tied to post (sun) at altar (earth), strewn with grass plants), wood (trees), sprinkled water (waters) and enclosed sticks (4 quarters). Whore-son (power of pure sex) clubs 4-eyed dog to death (misfortune) and warns all of harming the horse. Queen made to mate with dead horse, hieros gamos, Queen of Athens with cattle Dionysus. Varuna as stallion. Trojan Horse is Ashwamedha?
Vedic masculine gods mixing with Indus Valley ideas: Hemavati who shows Indra, Vayu, Agni of the Brahman. Proto-Shiva who is Rudra. Rud-Howl. Father of the Maruts. Vish(to be active)nu measures out earth, sky and heaven in 3 steps. Slowly, Vedic Gods became eligibly seen as manifestations of Indus Brahman.
Savitr not as sun-god or stimulator of life, but the idea of that which can stimulate, a force. Su- to excite/impel.
Lord Soma as food and matter. Agni as fire of energy, digests food in stomach, decomposes corpse into ether, constantly transforming matter.
Jain myth unprecedented, seeks to blot out universe and destroy will to live.
Greeks didn’t have a word for space/infinity. Cosmos was the harmony of observable and visible objects, built out. Indian boundlessness contrasts, dilation of laws of physics that even numbers become imprecise. Cosmology here begins with space, infinity,
Jains first stop karmic influx through reduction of involvement in world, and then literally burn away the karma through heat (tapas), so monad rises to higher plane, weightless, without wind (nir-vana)
Buddhist India
Dante’s cold-hell has no Christian precedent. But present in Zoroaster/Jain/Buddhist.
Mesopotamian axial cosmic mountain, ziggurat with 4 quarters.
Not a single piece of writing since from Indus to coming of Alexander. Greek record is first ever mention of yoga in India. Macedonian generals interaction with the naked philosophers of Taxila.
5 components of Indian mythic complex:
lunar Indus valley submission to destiny (maat/me), cosmic order, astrology.
Leonine Vedic age, devas vs asuras. First with devas then with panentheist Brahman. Return of principle of cosmic order, dharma, rta, maat. Brahmins knowledge of this order becomes root of power.
Yoga: shamanic use of breath, meditation, dance, music. Inner heat.
Great Reversal: loathing for existence. Neti neti. Jains, Sankhya. Knowledge of Purusha. Then Buddhist erasure of Purusha, void.
Double-negative. Return to world.
Buddha to Gupta 500BC to 500AD, age of great classics. Aeschylus to Boethius. Darius to Justinian. Confucius to Boddhidharma. Classical Horizon of Americas.
4 tides of Westen influence: Achaemenid, Alexander, Roman sea-trade along western coast, and then pagan refugees after Christianization of Roman Empire.

[Abner Rosenweig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm an admirer of Campbell's work. I've enjoyed many of his books including The Power of Myth, Myths to Live By, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, and The Inner Reaches of Outer Space. I wasn't impressed by Oriental Mythology.

I was hoping this book would provide a clear overview of the ideas in Oriental Mythology, while placing the myths of the orient in an overall context of world mythology. It seems this is what Campbell sets out to do in the introductory chapter The Four Great Domains. Yet, as the book goes on, it becomes bogged down in meticulous retellings of myth such that the book loses the forest for the trees.

For example, Campbell retells the entire story of the Buddha's life and enlightenment. I think anyone reading this book will already have at least a general familiarity with the story of the Buddha. To retell it in thorough detail is to lose focus. We don't need the original stories retold, we need the ideas and meaning of Buddhism and how they compare and contrast with other mythologies around the world.

The inclusion of a multitude of examples is done lovingly, but Campbell's affinity for his subject blinds him to utility of the book for the reader. The book is long-winded in its inclusion of myths, but doesn't include enough discussion of the implications of its examples.

As much as I was disappointed by this volume, I still have the highest respect for Campbell and will probably go on to read the other three books in the Masks of God series. I just hope they're better than this one.

[John]

I feel bruised and bewildered after every volume of the Masks of God, yet I keep coming back for more punishment. An overview of the mythologies of the "East", inclusive of Egypt, which surprised me. The evolutions of Buddhism as it moved from India northeastward through China and finally to Japan was the most interesting part of the book for me. The work ends somewhat incongruously with a detailed description of Chinese Communist atrocities against the Tibetans, especially the Buddhist practitioners among them, and relates this to a depiction of the Tibetan Book of the Dead and it's imaginings of hell. One of the earlier impressions I had of Campbell, that he favored Eastern religions over Western, was overturned by reading this book. Throughout he holds up the Western hero's journey, with its emphasis on autonomy and worldly engagement as preferable to Eastern detachment. Perhaps the final volume on Creative Mythology will present some answers and a summative statement on the relative merits of each mythological system.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great follow-up to the first book. I was a little bit surprised to find that the greater portion of the book was spent on India (which he obviously adores) while a lesser portion was spent on Japan and a tinsy weensy little amount of the book was dedicated to China. I felt like the Chinese section really outlined his utter distaste for Chinese culture and showed that he felt like the culture was mostly stolen from other places in the world, most certainly Taoist belief, which seemed to be written as some watered down and mutated version of Indian thought. He didn't seem to have a taste for the Moists either. Anyway, I love this guy, but felt like he didn't really delve into Chinese culture very much and that was what I was sort of expecting. What I learned about India and Polynesia was awesome though, and lots of human sacrifice to keep it rolling - just scary enough to be interesting.

[Julie]

this book (probably series) is not meant to be a quick read. within Joseph Campbell's pages are mazes of information, quotes and citations of dialogues, anthropological studies, you name it. there is more information about ancient India, China and Japan in this book than you can imagine and I was certainly shown that I don't know as much as I thought I knew about China, especially India. Campbell's book definitely went infinitely beyond any classes I had in religion or Oriental studies. the narration, however, is surprisingly light-hearted and even humorous at times.

I picked this volume up on recommendation of my friend (who is a religion major) and thought it would be a quick read, but I was definitely wrong. I will admit I skipped a few sections just because I didn't find them relevant to what I wanted to learn, hence I am not rating this book yet and will probably return to Oriental Mythology at a later time.