Laura is reading Grace and Grit and we got into a discussion about Ken Wilber’s criticism of Joseph Campbell. Essentially, Campbell defended organized religion on the grounds that all religions use mythology to explain the same universal truth. Wilber argues in Grace and Grit that while that may be true, the vast majority of religious people take their chosen mythology literally, so the damage is done anyway.

I came upon another interesting criticism of Joseph Campbell at Diary of a Daoist Recluse:

Over the summer I read The Masks of God by Joseph Campbell and wrote a post about how much I enjoyed the experience. What I didn’t say there, however, was how unsatisfying I found his concluding remarks. Campbell was a firm believer in the maxim that “the East is East and the West is West, and never the twain shall meet”. At the core of this belief was his thought that the Eastern faiths of Hinduism, Buddhism and Daoism were ultimately life denying.

I’m not well versed in Campbell’s work, but I found this really surprising. Laura and I watched Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth and he seemed to lean more towards the Eastern traditions. Then again, the focus of that lecture series seemed to be to introduce Americans to Hinduism and Buddhism.

Anyway, I really liked the Recluse’s explanation of Taoist practices:

Zhuangzi believed that human beings are at their best when “heaven” lives through them, or, when people “merge with the Dao”. This is not some sort of cosmic daze, but rather when people develop an appropriate form of intuitive spontaneity that allows them to do the right thing in the right way at the right time—without having to think about it. He uses the analogy of a skilled tradesman who has developed the “knack” of his craft and suggests that a sage has a similar “knack” for living.

This has been my understanding of Taoism from the first time I read the Tao Te Ching. It has always seemed extremely “life affirming” so I’m really surprised that Joseph Campbell would disagree. I need to read The Masks of God to figure out what’s going on here.