The Grail Quest is Your Quest

William Morris, Vision of the Holy Grail, 1890
www.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 Initiation of Warriors- The American Veterans of WWII

Saving Private Ryan with Enya singing May It Be

This video is a tribute to all those who have given their lives for the American Way of Life. This is a strange combination of beauty with Enya's voice and the violence of war. I'd like to think the Beauty reflects the grace and love that is beyond our understanding and that one day humanity shall realize it without having to wage war.

"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." — Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces)



The ultimate initiate is a warrior. We know the great ones by heart, Odysseus, Luke Skywalker, or Jonah. All of them left the familar scene and went out into danger. They left what is known to explore the unknown. Most of the warriors of the military have entered their courageous path out of a sense of duty. An obligation that they feel is required of them to uphold, so as to fight for the values of their community. There is a generation of American men who seem to have such rare gifts that they are able to sit with the legends that proceed them. They are the generation of men who fought in World War II.
There is one man in particular who comes to my mind. My grandfather is a WWII Veteran and he was only a baker but was blown off a ship in the South Pacific just the same. This is his story.

"The Battle of Leyte Gulf, also called the "Battles for Leyte Gulf", and formerly known as the "Second Battle of the Philippine Sea", is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and also one of the largest naval battles in history.[1](Wikipedia)

In the Navy, Napoleon became Joe Falany and he was on the USS Suwannee CVE 27. On the morning of October 25th, 1944 the battle stations bell rang. They were right in the middle of the Leyte Gulf ready to do their duty.
Joe Falany was just a baker. He kept all the officers and everyone else fed sweets. So this is not a big glorious heroic stereotype. Most underestimate the little jobs of the military during the war. It is more exciting to hear about the great battles and warriors who stood up to fear and won. My grandfather’s position was that of quiet offering of his service in the best way he knew how. A good medicine man provides some spiritual counsel in the form of food. The Navy was a harsh reality. The USS Suwannee was a floating city of men. Who feeds the men? Who supplies men with something resembling home when they have been away from their mother’s or wife’s kitchen for three years. Who will remind them that they are humans gathering together to a feast to celebrate life? It is the cook and baker that use their medicine when they make food for the soldiers everyday. It is the little things that matter when you are traveling around the world on a boat. Our navy didn’t even have the luxury of Italian or Greek food made by beautiful European women like the army did in Europe. Joe Falany was who put a little of his special medicine into the things that he made, and thus the ship and most of the crew survived including himself after two kamikaze aircraft dove into the ship.

So on Oct 25th, 1944 the battle bell rang and all men had to report to their battle stations. The kamikaze hit the USS Suwannee and my grandfather was blown off, and was floating semi-conscious in the SouthSea. His flesh was on fire. Since he was in the salt water it must have helped with his burnt skin. He unconsciously put his arm around a medical can that was sealed and thus stayed afloat. He floated out there for who knows how long. A CVE boat came looking for him eventually. They found him and wrapped him up like a mummy. They hung all the burned survivors on a medical ship, upside down because their flesh smelled so bad. If the burned victims didn't twitch their heads or move their bodies they would throw them over the side. The Japanese hit the medical ship too. So my grandfather was burned and hanging upside down and the ship were on fire too. They finally transferred him to another ship that was going to the burn unit on New Guinea.

In New Guinea my grandfather was treated for his physical problems but that did not help his memory. He could not remember anything of the explosion or who he was. He was officially missing in action. My great grandmother was notified. My soon to be grandmother was writing my grandfather faithfully and he returned her letters before the explosion. They were courting each other through letters. So my grandmother also knew he was MIA. The priest would come daily and ask my grandfather if he remembered anything and he didn't for two weeks or so. Then one day the priest came and did not ask my grandfather directly if he remembered anything. Then everything came flooding back. He wrote my grandmother first and when they received the letter in Boston, my great-grandmother called my other great-grandmother about his location and condition.

The Boon was his story, his survival, and is amazine attitude and grace about the whole ordeal. Did a mysterious tranformation happen as this great man was blown from the ship and was barely alive waiting for rescue. My belief was that some people are meant for heroic destinies- they are simply made for the job. The can handle the trauma and are able to return and bring with them the grace that got them through such horror.

Not one bitter word was uttered by Napoleon “Sudy” Falany about the war. He always told the story with grace and ease. Sometimes when speaking of the kamikaze, he would say “those damn Japanese” and that was it. He moved to California as many of his generation did after the war. He moved to central California and started his own small fence business. He raised four children and his only daughter is my mother.

I was a small little child when my grandfather, Papa Joe, became like a second father to me. He waited for me at airports to take me fishing. We rode horses, went on secret trails to hidden lakes. He waited for me on boats in Central America so that we could live on a Caye near a barrier reef. At eight years old I was snorkeling in the Blue Hole in Central America. He stole me away like Peter Pan stole Wendy, sprinkled me with Tinker-Bell dust and we went flying to Never Never Land every summer of my childhood. I did not know on a conscious level what this did to me. Just like when you take medication that fights an infection, you don’t see it work, but you feel the difference as you heal. Spending so much time near my grandfather as a young child, was like being in a sweat lodge singing the ancient songs of my ancestors. It helped me know what to be aware of in this life. He reminded me what had value without telling me directly, but showing me what life could be. This was medicine so unknown by most. It was the medicine of high adventure.

There was no righteousness behind my grandfather; he had no wisdom in the form of words, except for simple words that all people could understand. “You only pass this way once” He was all about action, and the most adventurous, hard-working-smiling-constantly-building-things-kind of man. He built fishing camps out in the Gulf of Mexico that still stand. He built a log cabin in Stanley, Idaho. He built a long dock out from a Half Moon Key in Belize. Sudy Falany was not a sit- on- the- sidelines kind of man. His sense of adventure never paled, it held such a wide amount of love that it transformed my idea of what life is and or should be. A true hero never stops exploring and or following his bliss- it is a risk, but if you find the confidence the energy that resides in going out into the unknown and saying yes to all you can then the doors will open. I have been the presence of such grace and walked through a door two with a hero in front of me. He is my grandfather and is a man who walked with a light heart through this life. The boon of this man spins out so wide it is like a net of gems- so that one gem reflects the other out into the eternal.