This is a reprint to Sam's follow-up response to my original post New Study-Our personalities may be set as early as 1st grade. There is some editing of the original post.

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Master of Two Worlds
While watching the above video I was brought back to the subject within the 'Monomyth' of'

Master of the Two Worlds'. In the two films feature {Star Wars and The Matrix} the observable object is more or less a physical conquering of the two masters {of course those of us who look at such diaries with an eye to the underlying source it is the metaphorical applications that come through, the symbolic actions of all the characters}. But in the real world it is a psychological quest within.

'For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual".

Evaluating my most recent life experiences I can see how this part of the 'Return' applies. Until December of last year I had lived in a more rural area sequestered from much of the 'traffic' found in the usual social rush. And I was also still making my livelihood working parttime, making enough to live on so I could spend more time with my 'bliss', working with dreams and my Myths-Dreams-Symbols website. Last December that all changed when I moved to my son's home as he moved to Orlando {he wanted to keep his house for a better sales market}. At the same time I returned to managing the family business {fence construction} in the Nashville area while he started up the business in Orlando {Gifford Fence Orlando}. This put a lot of new responsibilities on my plate and took away the much of the nourishment of my bliss. I had to adjust. I had already made such adjustments over the past several years and I saw this one as another step in my return. And I feel that I have done so much in the way Campbell prescribed. Here is a summary of becoming the 'Master' of my two worlds.



The two worlds are more or less psychological. But they are also the real world. Traveling the path of the hero before the necessary ' Return' I was enjoying the learning experience of my journey while casting away those burdens found with the needs of society. Yet all along I knew it was a part of the journey, the needed steps so my psyche could understand the whole of the quest. This latest adjustment, and I believe there are many such adjustments in each level of the Monomyth, I began to realize what some of the 'boones' were, those insights gained while sequestered away from the outer social world. They were primarily spiritual. Not a religious wakening but a 'relearned' process of living within the laws of spiritual nature {relearned because I had already lived by many of those same concepts over the previous 15 years}. The basic laws include 'what goes around comes around, do all you can do and don't worry about the rest, etc. The spiritual laws include those same edits but with a better realization to live life in WWJD and/or WWBD. By doing this the social world surrenders its hold on the hero. What would Jesus do in any given situation? What is the Buddhist way in disarming the social dragon of its power to control? The answer is the social dragon is something I must encounter, endure and conquer, but on my terms and not by the social dictates that prevail in our cultures today. Whereas corporations and individuals see any method to profits as a logical and 'right' way to any means, I use the ethical standards of Jesus {Jesus as a metaphor for my own resurrected soul}. When doing business I am affecting another person's life and the ethic and spiritual thing to do is to make sure those experiences are completely positive. Give more than is required so that what I do give is more than promised, and done with the other person in mind. Is that not how Jesus would do it? Is that not the Buddha's approach to the spiritual {Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration}?



The results, the boones that have come about due to follow this spiritual path? Twofold.

The first is the 'family business' is having a bountiful year. Sales are way up and consistent. Not only in the mid-state area around Nashville where I have done business since 1978, but also with the upstart business in Orlando {my son Jerry is a protege of sorts, using the same ethic standards as I do, although he has yet to consciously voluntarily take the hero journey}. Most of our business is from referrals, repeat business, word of mouth {we no longer use the expensive Yellow Pages to advertise}. I attribute this to the spiritual plane of living life. It is not a magical thing, it is walking the walk, doing what is right, ethical, spiritual. I believe nature has its own set of laws governing good and bad. These good results are a direct result of good intentions, right action and effort, mindful what I do affects another person.



The second is the feeling I get within knowing I have done what is right. I don't do these things to gain good favor. I do them because I want to. It makes me feel good about myself, reinforces my positive self and adds to the personification I wish to make of myself in the final years I am on this earth. Helping the other, sacrificing so the other benefits, that is the path the hero follows. To be a hero must not be an ego thing. It must come from the soul, the heart of caring about the other.



Before I took up my new responsibilities with the business I had conquered much of those psychological restraints that had control over the first 42 years of my life. I had discovered what was my , my working with dreams, eluminating that 'other self' inthe form of Myths-Dreams-Symbols, I had made these the center of my life. I had eliminated those unneeded and undesirable emotional constraints that are the controlling factors in most people's lives. I had become the "Master' of that inner world.

Half way there.



After I had taken my new position in life, returned to face the world of the social dragon {it is a mental thing, putting my energies into managing the business, a full time job that requires staying on top of things} I began to try and fit in as much as possible my 'bliss'. At first it was very hard, and the time factor still is. I was afraid I would lose my abilities with the dream. But it was just the opposite.

Although the mental strain is very tough day in and day out, and too much of it is put toward those social requirements, I am beginning to find a balance that let's me do both. I do realize the social duty of managing the business will take time away from my bliss, I have accepted that as a reality. But I do have a plan to retire early at age 62 so I can put all my energies into my dream work. That is two years in the future and I have my eye on that promise I have made to myself. By doing that, making that promise, yet realizing I have to live within society, {doing so on my terms} I feel I am on my way to being the 'Master' of both worlds. Just as with the dream where Jung tells us there is always more than one meaning, master the two worlds is not just conquering one aspect but all that come forth at each level of the journey. Mastering duality. Mastering the physical and the psychological. Mastering the inner world of bliss and the outer world of social duty.

No one said it would be easy, this hero journey. But as Campbell states in such wonderful terms;



"Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have one before us, the labyrinth is fully known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world."



Jerry