“You get a totally different civilization,
a totally different way
of living according to Your Myth
as to whether Nature is Fallen
or whether Nature is itself a
Manifestation of Divinity,
and The Spirit being The Revelation of
The Divinity That’s
Inherent in Nature.”
— Joseph Campbell
"I once heard a wonderful lecture by Daisetz Suzuki,
you remember, this wonderful old
Zen philosopher, who was over here.
He was in his 90s.
He started to lecture in Switzerland
that I heard in Ascona.
He stood up with his hands on his side, and he said,
“God against Man —
Man against God —
Man against Nature —
Nature against Man —
Nature against God —
God against Nature —
Very funny religion.....”
Now, in the other mythologies,
One puts Oneself
in accord with The World.
If The World is a mixture
of Good and Evil,
you do not put yourself
in accord with it.
You Identify
with The Good
and You Fight
against The Evil.
And this is a religious system
which belongs to The Near East,
following Zarathustra’s Time.
It’s in the Biblical Tradition,
all the way, in Christianity
and in Islam as well.
This business of
not being with Nature,
and we speak with sort of derogation of
“The Nature Religions.”
You see, with that
Fall in The Garden,
Nature was regarded as corrupt.
There’s a Myth for you that
Corrupts The Whole World for Us.
And every Spontaneous Act is Sinful,
Because Nature is Corrupt
and
Has to be Corrected,
Must not be yielded-to.
You get
A Totally Different Civilisation,
a totally different way of living
according to your myth as to whether
Nature is Fallen or whether Nature is itself
A manifestation of divinity,
and The spirit being the revelation of the divinity that’s inherent in nature.
