Posted: July 3, 2024   •   Posted in: Discussions, Faith

Inside out – ‘All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells are within you’

Setting the scene

On 24th May I led a discussion at Beccles Quakers, based on a Joseph Campbell quote:

‘All the gods, all the heavens, all the hells are within you.’ 

Campbell was an American writer who died in 1987, he was a professor of literature who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. This quote is from a PBS series titled “The Power of Myth”, broadcast the year after Campbell’s death.

For context I read out a couple of other Joseph Campbell quotes, including this one, from a 2009 anthology:

‘Make your god transparent to the transcendent, and it doesn’t matter what his name is.’

Reflections

I concluded that Campbell wasn’t denying the existence of something transcendent, rather he was challenging our assumptions about it.

I reflected on the way we interpret our spiritual experiences, and the assumptions we make about them. I observed that many of us were brought up in a religious tradition, so there is a pre-existing framework for the beliefs we put around spiritual experience.

I suggested that often we find what we expect to find, and observed that some religious practices are designed to point us in a particular direction, to make particular discoveries.

Coming back to Campbell’s quote, I explored the idea of God being within us. Quakers talk about “that of God in everyone”, suggesting that God can be found within, and this is also the case with my Advaita practice.

I noted however that Campbell was talking about all the gods, not just the monotheistic Christian God – Hindu gods, Greek gods, Norse gods, Roman gods, all of them.

What do others say of heavens and hells within us?

As for all the heavens and hells being within us, I shared the following comment, taken from an online discussion about Campbell’s quote:

‘We either approach the world with love, acceptance and peace, and create the heavens in our lives, and the lives of others that we touch, 

or we yield to the bile, the hate, the revenge, the anger within us, to create the hells in our lives, and the lives of others we touch.’

I observed that some Buddhists have a similar view, heaven and hell being states of mind, not places you go.

Our discussion

An interesting and wide-ranging discussion ensued.

There was some discussion about heaven and hell as states of mind, and the connection with morality.

One Friend spoke about overcoming the constraints of a strict religious upbringing, another spoke about being inspired by Buddhist teachings on self-awareness and compassion. One Friend spoke about the importance of trusting intuition and gut instinct, another spoke about the reassuring constancy of an inner connection with God, a stable presence beneath the change.

Not everyone was comfortable with the name “God”, or even about giving the transcendent a name. One Friend spoke about connecting with the idea of Goddess, another equated God with love. Several Friends spoke about the importance of connection with other people.

There was then a more general discussion about the challenges of older age, dealing with continual change, and responding in creative ways.

I enjoyed the discussion very much.

Martin Coyle