“The kingdom of heaven is within you,”

Campbell: This is a crucial problem today. Every mythology—and by mythology I include religions—every religion has grown up within a certain social order. And today these social orders have come into collision with each other. All you have to do is look at what’s going on in the Near East now, and it’s a horror. There are the three major monotheistic religions of the world, creating havoc. I’ve been in Beirut; it was once a glorious, beautiful, darling little city, and now it’s just hell, because each of these units of religion thinks it has all the values on its side, and it doesn’t know how to open up and recognize those are human beings also....

... the main thing for people today are these religions of contemplation and meditation—recognizing within you the powers that are those of the gods. You know, all the gods are simply projections of human potentialities. They’re not out there. They’re in here. That word, “The kingdom of heaven is within you,” is a good word. And who’s in heaven? God is. So where is he? Look in here. You have two kinds of religion—that which is addressed outward like that, and that which is turned inward, here.

THINKING ALLOWED
Conversations On The Leading Edge
Of Knowledge and Discovery
With Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove

Understanding Mythology
with Joseph Campbell
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