William Morris, Vision of the Holy Grail, 1890www.mcgoodwin.net/pages/otherbooks/we_parzival.html
"The Grail Hero- particularly in the person of Parzival, the "Great Fool" is the forthright, simple, uncorrupted, noble son of nature, without guile, strong in the purity of the yearning of his heart..... in the end, as in the case of Parzival, the guide within will be his own noble heart alone, and the guide without, the image of beauty, the radiance of divinity, that wakes in his heart amor: the deepest, inmost seed of his nature, consubstantial with the process of the All, "thus come." And in this life-creative adventure the criterion of achievement will be... the courage to let go the past, with its truths, its goals, its dogmas of "meaning" and its gifts: to die to the world and come to birth from within." Joseph Campbell
The Holy Grail represents the human pursuing their highest spiritual attainment. This is a very western story. The Holy Grail is only the end boon, but it is the journey to this place and or state that finally the grail will reveal itself. It will not be clear to the hero until the hero attains the right state of mind and soul. The Grail is not a factual or physical thing, but a representation of the ultimate spiritual attainment. It would be similar to Nirvana in the East.
The spiritual quest is one where the individual's talent is important. This is opposite of the Eastern view of spiritual enlightenment. In the East the Buddha or guru all follow the same type of path to attain Nirvana, and to extinguishing the ego completely is the goal. There is a problem with this in the west since from the minute we are born our ego is promoted- shaped by our wants, talents and desires. In the East the ego is only there for a small measure because your path is so set out for you. You must marry, get a career, raise children. They do not push you to develop your talents like we do in the west. So when the western person goes to an Eastern guru we really have a hard time going into that space were we must get rid of the giant ego that has been at the center of our life since we can remember. Many would say this is bad but it is not it is only a different approach. What is the bad thing is misunderstanding our western mythology, which is mostly the story of Christ. He is our Buddha, but he is so above us and so chosen as in factual incarnation of god's only son we have become lost. The Christ story is so literal that we can not understand it on a metaphorical level that speaks to our inner yearning. Since the church as stated he is "The Son of God" and there is no other then his journey is not one we can pursue. This story must be approached differently and can be a guide if you get a different interpretation.
The Grail or Twelfth century stories are another approach to the spiritual quest of the western man. The nature is similar to the Buddha's issues of overcoming attachment to this and that, which distracts you from your spiritual nature. Compassion is the key also to your approach to your inner wisdom. The Grail quest begins with each night entering the forest on his own and where there is no path ever trodden upon. This is how western man must approach his spiritual quest. We are unique and it is up to us to find that talent and the thing that speaks to us, that erases the ego eventually and leads us to our center and where bliss takes over. Now your never going to get rid of that Giant Ego but you will know how to go to your center, or the creative place so that bliss and joy flows through you and you can deal with the sorrowful life that will greet you at every turn. We can not get rid of the sorrow because time means things decay and eventually die. So what shall we do in the in between? The struggle or initiation is seeking your path, the path that is uniquely yours. What tool do we use on this quest? Compassion with ourselves and others will be the first centering component, then courage and persistence. It will not be easy. The reason it will not be easy is because we have so many people saying " you should and you shan't" so you must throw off what society says you must do. If you are traveling down the path that your father or mother laid out for you, you are on the wrong path. This is hard because their is a whole lot of society, especially media, spinning a picture of what you should do. To ignore the TV alone is a heroic accomplishment in itself. To not focus on money every single minute of the day is another heroic accomplishment. And you are on your way.
"In the grail legends, the land of people doing what they think they ought to do or have to do is the wasteland. What is the wasteland to you? I know damned well what the wasteland would be to me: the academic approach to my material; or a marriage to someone who had no thoughts or feelings for me or my work. Living with such a person would be the wasteland." Joseph Campbell.
The initiation- the task is to become individuated. Jung says this about an individuated person. " ... to live as a released individual, one has to know how and when to put on and to put off the masks of one's various life roles.... The aim of individuation requires that one should find and then learn to live out of one's own center, in control of one's for and against. And this cannot be achieved by enacting and responding to any general masquerade of fixed roles."
It is a constant quest toward your evolvement here on Earth. It is not a two week course or a 12 step program. If you think of the discipline a knight had to go through and all of his attributes; honor, courage, courtesy, compassion, loyalty and more, these give you tools to travel along the path. The journey becomes one of inner seeking and believing deeply that you are worthy of such a journey. The compassion must be applied to yourself and for many this will be the most difficult task. To believe one hundred percent that you deserve to have joy, pursue your dream and live in bliss daily. So get your Parzival shoes on and enter the darkest spot of the forest where the vines are so think there is no way to get through, yet you pull your sword out and cut through because you know deep in your heart you will find the Holy Grail. You were made for this quest.
The Holy Grail represents the human pursuing their highest spiritual attainment. This is a very western story. The Holy Grail is only the end boon, but it is the journey to this place and or state that finally the grail will reveal itself. It will not be clear to the hero until the hero attains the right state of mind and soul. The Grail is not a factual or physical thing, but a representation of the ultimate spiritual attainment. It would be similar to Nirvana in the East.
The spiritual quest is one where the individual's talent is important. This is opposite of the Eastern view of spiritual enlightenment. In the East the Buddha or guru all follow the same type of path to attain Nirvana, and to extinguishing the ego completely is the goal. There is a problem with this in the west since from the minute we are born our ego is promoted- shaped by our wants, talents and desires. In the East the ego is only there for a small measure because your path is so set out for you. You must marry, get a career, raise children. They do not push you to develop your talents like we do in the west. So when the western person goes to an Eastern guru we really have a hard time going into that space were we must get rid of the giant ego that has been at the center of our life since we can remember. Many would say this is bad but it is not it is only a different approach. What is the bad thing is misunderstanding our western mythology, which is mostly the story of Christ. He is our Buddha, but he is so above us and so chosen as in factual incarnation of god's only son we have become lost. The Christ story is so literal that we can not understand it on a metaphorical level that speaks to our inner yearning. Since the church as stated he is "The Son of God" and there is no other then his journey is not one we can pursue. This story must be approached differently and can be a guide if you get a different interpretation.
The Grail or Twelfth century stories are another approach to the spiritual quest of the western man. The nature is similar to the Buddha's issues of overcoming attachment to this and that, which distracts you from your spiritual nature. Compassion is the key also to your approach to your inner wisdom. The Grail quest begins with each night entering the forest on his own and where there is no path ever trodden upon. This is how western man must approach his spiritual quest. We are unique and it is up to us to find that talent and the thing that speaks to us, that erases the ego eventually and leads us to our center and where bliss takes over. Now your never going to get rid of that Giant Ego but you will know how to go to your center, or the creative place so that bliss and joy flows through you and you can deal with the sorrowful life that will greet you at every turn. We can not get rid of the sorrow because time means things decay and eventually die. So what shall we do in the in between? The struggle or initiation is seeking your path, the path that is uniquely yours. What tool do we use on this quest? Compassion with ourselves and others will be the first centering component, then courage and persistence. It will not be easy. The reason it will not be easy is because we have so many people saying " you should and you shan't" so you must throw off what society says you must do. If you are traveling down the path that your father or mother laid out for you, you are on the wrong path. This is hard because their is a whole lot of society, especially media, spinning a picture of what you should do. To ignore the TV alone is a heroic accomplishment in itself. To not focus on money every single minute of the day is another heroic accomplishment. And you are on your way.
"In the grail legends, the land of people doing what they think they ought to do or have to do is the wasteland. What is the wasteland to you? I know damned well what the wasteland would be to me: the academic approach to my material; or a marriage to someone who had no thoughts or feelings for me or my work. Living with such a person would be the wasteland." Joseph Campbell.
The initiation- the task is to become individuated. Jung says this about an individuated person. " ... to live as a released individual, one has to know how and when to put on and to put off the masks of one's various life roles.... The aim of individuation requires that one should find and then learn to live out of one's own center, in control of one's for and against. And this cannot be achieved by enacting and responding to any general masquerade of fixed roles."
It is a constant quest toward your evolvement here on Earth. It is not a two week course or a 12 step program. If you think of the discipline a knight had to go through and all of his attributes; honor, courage, courtesy, compassion, loyalty and more, these give you tools to travel along the path. The journey becomes one of inner seeking and believing deeply that you are worthy of such a journey. The compassion must be applied to yourself and for many this will be the most difficult task. To believe one hundred percent that you deserve to have joy, pursue your dream and live in bliss daily. So get your Parzival shoes on and enter the darkest spot of the forest where the vines are so think there is no way to get through, yet you pull your sword out and cut through because you know deep in your heart you will find the Holy Grail. You were made for this quest.
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