*****************************
“Nirvana is right here, in the midst of the turmoil of life. It is the state you find when you are no longer driven to live by compelling desires, fears, and social commitments, when you have found your center of freedom and can act by choice out of that. Voluntary action out of this center is the action of the bodhisattvas — joyful participation in the sorrows of the world. You are not grabbed, because you have released yourself from the grabbers of fear, lust, and duties.”
― The Power of Myth
*****************************
I think about these words from the late mythologist Joseph Campbell quite a lot. It’s one of those bits that I keep close at hand, ready to pull out whenever I find myself feeling the onset of fears or anxieties about things that I cannot control. Or when I begin to desire things that I don’t need at all. Or whenever I feel pressured to do things purely out of some social obligation.
His words remind me that true freedom lies in finding your own path. Fear, desire and obligation are their own paths and once you begin down those paths, you are further away from your own path of freedom, further from being, as Campbell put it, a joyful participant in the sorrows of the world.
Campbell’s words make it seem so simple yet, as we all know, those other paths are difficult to avoid. We are reactive creatures and often move to follow our first impulse in most situations. Learning to calm our impulses, to still our fears and desires, is the first step down a path of own making.
The painting above, Night Nirvana, a 30″ by 40″ canvas, is from my upcoming West End Gallery show and I attached these words to this piece immediately after it was finished. There’s a great stillness in it and a quiet reassuring voice in it, one that tells me that I control my reactions, that I should follow the path I make for myself. It is a path built on voluntary action, not reaction or fear. A path made with conscious choices, not obligations nor the decisions of others.
The message I take from this painting is simple: Your path is your path alone and there is great peace in knowing that. It is enough for each of us.
I am going to think on that for a while…
Redtree Times 
Sometimes, we get too many inputs from our external environment that distracted us from the paths we’re, supposed to be on, and we’d, strayed because of it, and it takes us forever, to get back on the right tracks, the track we’re, supposed to walk in our separate lives…
Very true. Many people never make it back to their own paths.
I spent the last hour starting a reading of NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION, and it has essentially the same messaging. Have you read it? I’m hoping it gives me some insight into how to disconnect that urge to try to keep everyone around me happy, to my own detriment.
No, I am not familiar with that, Rebecca. But I looked it up after reading your comment and it certainly sounds like it has great value. After watching so many videos of confrontations over the last several weeks, I think anything that improves our communication skills is valuable. So much conflict arises from not being able to readily speak with others. Or to listen and respond properly. Maybe interpersonal communication should be part of our curriculum. along with civics?