HERÓI DE MIL FACES 01 - Introdução - Leitura comentada do livro de Joseph Campbell

Good evening everyone! Welcome! I will not say which reading was commented, because I already lost count of how many we did. But we've done some. Some of you have accompanied us here in The Prophet, In Search of Wisdom, etc. Caibal, I don't know what else, we've done a lot. We are trying to diversify a little the age, the focus of the books. We went to ancient oriental with the so-called The King. Now we are going back to the more recent West, to a author from the last century, who is Joseph Campbell. This book, I don't

know in books, Portuguese, the other edition besides this, so I didn't have to make any choice, which made my life a lot easier, because when there are several, I have to go out comparing to choose one. So I don't know another edition of this book in Portuguese, which is not this one, which is from thought. We are going to do, obviously it is not such a small book, we can't do it like we did with The King, which was word for word. The King are 81 aphorisms. Here we have some, let me see exactly how

many. 370 and something pages. So we'll have to do something more synthetic. We will do a lecture per chapter. So today we will have the lecture that deals with the prologue, the beginning of the book. Let me see the index here to be very exact. Today we will see the prologue, and from next week we will enter the chapters of part 1. That is, we will have more books. That is, we will have eight more meetings besides today. I know, it's a lot to read from one week to another, but then those who have lost

a little the rhythm in relation to reading, can follow through YouTube. If I do it slower than that, we will stay here a year, seeing just this book. So I made the option of doing a chapter per meeting. Today then we will work with the prologue. I hope you like it. We at Nova Cropry, one of the things we do, one of the things we study in our philosophy course, is symbolism, the symbolism of different peoples in time and space. As I explained, we believe that understanding symbolism means better understanding one's own life. So we

have worked a lot on this subject, in the sense of making men a little more intuitive. And particularly today's choice, I had a reason to do it, the need to create a symbolic mentality, which I just talked about. Life is entirely pedagogical. The one who understands it, the one who dialogues with it, the one who extracts from it a content. Because if we don't, we float on life. This is banalizing. I always tell you that in Greece, it was considered that there were two ways of living, banalize or sacralize life. Sacralize means to dialogue with

it, establish a vertical relationship. And that's what we're proposing to do here. We go through an element that is particularly dramatic, and I think this book will help us understand and know how to deal with it. It is the pain of the transitory nature of things. Things happen. In general, when a person is my age, I particularly just saw this, my mother died, and my daughter just got married. It's curious, right? Because they are two characters that have been very present in my life for a long time, and suddenly each one follows his destiny. And

it's natural, this is nothing extraordinary, it's natural that a person in my life, in my age range, the parents are already in a very advanced age, concluding their journey. It is natural that the children are getting married. But realize that these levels of life, without anything exceptional or tragic happening, the normal levels of life already bring and take things constantly from the scene of our life. Without us being prepared for it. The transitory nature of beings, of things, of the episodes around us, we do not know very well why things are given to us, and

we create so much bond with them, and suddenly they leave. And you do not know where or why. Today it is very common that there is a poorly worked struggle, that depression comes when you lose a loved one. It is very common that there is an empty nest syndrome when the children leave. Because in a way we get the illusion that they will never go. And they do, in fact. And all this is very painful, because we do not know how to deal with it. We are not prepared, to live the transitory. And life is

all full of transitory. Some time ago I wrote an article, a little chronicle, where I talked about a scene of my daughter's childhood, where she played to pick up seeds that flew through the air. And it was a sunset in the background, she jumping, trying to get those seeds flying through the air. That scene impacted me a lot, because it was of such perfect beauty, and it gave me the feeling, why is beauty not eternal? Where does she go when she hides from us? A scene like this, where did she go? It's like something divine,

because there was nothing left there. The purity of the child, the beauty of the sunset in the background, it was all very perfect. And when that passes, you stay like this, how does it go? Where do things go when they pass? And why does life play to give us things and then take them away? What a cursed thing is this? What is the meaning of all this? Why does she play to create bonds, and then it makes us break? And what is she trying to teach us with this? The transitoryness, I doubt there is anyone

who has not suffered with it. I doubt it, because it is a process that, considering that nothing of reception happened to you, only the natural course of life, you will go through several losses, and some very painful ones. And we are in that perplexity of not knowing why the transitory. Certainly, if we take into account these ancient traditions, life is trying to say something about it. She doesn't just want to hurt us, play with us, hide us, make us think we have things, and soon, suddenly, we don't have anymore. So this is a question that

Campbell answers in a very interesting way. He proposes to dialogue with life, establish an understanding of what she is trying to say with it, so that your consciousness gradually leaves the transitory to the permanent. Find something that is always present in all stages of life, and understand that what is real, is not lost. I've used this phrase with you many times, which is a phrase by Saint Augustine, which says that what is really yours, cannot be taken from you. That is, find what is really mine. Where is this point, this center of stability, that allows

me to be serene in the face of apparent losses in life, realizing that, in fact, what we have, nothing or no one can take away from us. And what was, was merely an illusion. So, to dialogue means to stop fighting with life, and stop having destructive suffering, and to have constructive suffering, which is resolved in a state of serenity and maturity. Maturity. I repeat this word, which is one of the rarest in our current historical moment. You may not agree with me, but reflect a little about it. We suffer from a collective psychological immaturity in

the current world. Or do you think not? Rationaly, there in front, but psychologically, do you think that men in general, are mature? In general, no. Very weakened, very insecure, without a clear sense of life. And this collective immaturity makes us fight with life. So, instead of learning from suffering, suffering becomes soft and destructive. When we suffer, but this is a proof that is understood, is assimilated, we extract its content, when you look back, and this is a good proof of how we are living the sufferings, look back at the sufferings you had, and realize if

they made you grow or not. And when a suffering makes you grow, you generally say, it was not expensive, close to what he gave me, it was well paid, it was a good price. Do you understand? If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be here. Well, then it was valid. But you look back and say, I can't even remember that, it was a trauma, it was not resolved. And when something was not resolved, it only generated pain, but it did not generate consciousness, do you know what happens in general? You will have to go through

it again. It's like a school series, where you took a bomb, as you popularly say. What are you going to do? Repeating. You will have to go through it again. Because there is a learning there, that you did not extract. So something symbolically equivalent, will have to be repeated in your life. So this difference between constructive suffering, which makes us grow, and destructive suffering, which only generates us, only generates traumas. And consequently, it will have to be some detached moment, understood, assimilated. So let's go. Campbell's biography is not the goal of this reading circle, but

there are some data for us to situate. There is a North American who lived in the last century, between 1904 and 1987, of high middle class, and who fell in love one day with the culture of the North American Indians. When he did, he narrates this, because if there is a figure who was tremendously interviewed, biographed, he has an authorized biography, that is, he has a lot of data about Campbell's life, including data by himself. He says that when he visited the Natural History Museum of New York, he realized that this was his vocation. Dedicate

yourself to research cultures, the most diversified, folklore, myths, understand the symbolism of different peoples. And it's funny that he awakens to this vocation, and is very loyal to it for life. His whole life he dedicated himself to it. He went out looking for myths in all corners of the world, and sought not simply to collect them as information, but to extract from them an explanatory synthesis that would apply to all. That is what he calls monomyth. It is very interesting to know his reasoning in this sense. Well, he graduates from the University of Columbia, English

and medieval literature, and then he stays two years in Europe. He has the influence of a lot of thinkers who were emerging, writers, like James Joyce, who speaks a lot. And finally, he returns from Europe, had studied Sanskrit, had learned a lot of languages, had had contact with cultures, and no longer wanted to know about medieval literature. Now he wanted to do oriental literature. And this was not very well accepted by those who coordinated, those educators who coordinated his postgraduate studies. He ended up abandoning academic life. And it's curious because this is a phase, imagine

the discipline he had for a few years as soon as he left the university. He divided his day into four blocks of four hours. He read and one he stopped to rest. Do you know what that means? It's 12 hours of reading a day. He spent five years like that. Making a study program of the things he wanted. He became self-taught and he was brilliant. Campbell spoke a lot of languages. When he was in Europe, he learned to speak fluently German and French, and never stopped speaking for his whole life. Well, he lived in Europe

for only two years. He spoke a series of languages. He studied Sanskrit. He traveled the whole world. That is, he was a figure who had study as a habit and reflection as a habit. So he will have the influence of a series of authors. An influence that you will feel is very strong is that of psychoanalysis. The clinical psychology of Jung, Freudian psychoanalysis. He quotes this a lot. He makes a lot of reference to this. I even make some bridges, sometimes, so that we can go from the psychoanalytic field that he is talking about, to

the philosophical field, which is ours. And understand that there is an equivalent in both worlds. A curiosity is that he also knew Jiddu Krishnamurti, from a trip, where he didn't even know who he was, and he made a contact with Jiddu Krishnamurti, who at the time was, let's say, a master linked to theosophy, linked to the universe. They were a friendship. Anyway, and he followed writers, by literatures, by researchers like Wilhelm Steckel, who was one of the dissidents of the Freudian school. He gets inspired, he collects the thought that may serve him to base what

he intended to defend, what he intended to show. He thought there was a common sense in all the mythologies of humanity, of the past and the present. And, in fact, he thought that even dreams, some dreams, because there is a very big difference within the universe of dreams, some dreams obeyed the same mythical structure. Very similar to Jung's thought in this particular. Quite similar. Well, he had a marriage without children, he dedicated himself, and there is something very interesting, because this... Where is he? Henrik Zimmer has one of the most beautiful books I've ever read

about the history of India. A book that is worth reading one day, called The Philosophies of India. Zimmer, who was a deep knowledge of India, died without writing anything, leaving that pile of paper scattered all over the place. Because he wrote a lot, but he didn't condense it in a book. Who had the role of condensing, editing, and publishing Zimmer's books was Campbell, who liked him very much, they were friends. He takes care of it and it was another contribution. Because to edit Zimmer, you had to know his thinking a lot, his coherence of ideas,

and with that he also learned a lot. Well, and in the end he makes a dream that he always wanted, which was to travel and stay for a while. He stayed a year between India and Japan. Surely this must have been a very fun trip, because he came from there full of ideas. A man who loves myths, goes to India, goes to Japan, is like a child going to Disney. He must have come back from there very inspired. And he did come back. Well, I won't go into much detail about the work. Campbell's work is

extensive. He not only has written works, but there is also a lot of videos, recorded interviews, a very large amount of biographies written about him, authorized and unauthorized. He has a universe of information. As he is a recent writer, he greatly impacted the Western mentality. He even inspires George Lucas in the creation of the Star Wars. He is inspired by Campbell's work. Anyway, he was a thinker with a lot of influence. So there is a lot of his and his biography. A lot of literature written by him and about him. In terms of literature best

known in Brazil, we have the Journey of the Hero, the Hero of a Thousand Faces, which we are going to address. The Mask of God is four large volumes, talking about mythology, divided by sectors, by areas of humanity. It seems to be a very interesting book. I didn't read everything, I only read a few. But it is kind of unreadable for a commentary reading, considering its size. Four volumes. The Mysteries of the Feminine Universe. I still intend to talk about it one day, because it is very interesting. Just so you have an idea, how his

work is more or less homogeneous in terms of interests. He is interested in knowing these archetypes, the archetypes of humanity, the origin of myths, and creating certain models that apply everywhere, in time and space. The fundamental idea of ​​the book we are dealing with, our beloved book, Green and Blue, is the idea of ​​the monomyth. It is what he intends to demonstrate. There is a common trajectory in the history of heroes, whether heroes we call mythical, which are those who existed in human imagination, or in historical heroes. There is a common trajectory. He calls it

monomyth. One single hero, behind all myths, religions, fairy tales and universal folklore. He was ambitious. Very ambitious and generalizing. He will say that there is a trajectory, which is the trajectory of the monomyth, that every hero fulfills, that some stories omit some pieces of this trajectory. Even the fact of omitting is significant and it means something about this tradition. But in general, even if it hides, all the stages are there. And what is the fact that is represented by all these heroic trajectories? It is simply the encounter and sharing of the human path towards one's

own identity. He says, look, everyone is here, loose. Chaos, disorder, lack of a clear meaning. Until everyone falls, that phenomenal chip. I will stop giving this example, because there is no more earring, the boys today do not know what chip is this that falls. It was the example of the monomyth. It was a very outdated example. You help me get a high-tech one, because this one is also outdated. In the past, there were phones that dropped the chip, for those who do not know. Anyway, a fundamental chip fell there, which is, I came here to

be a human being. And I still did nothing about it. Let me start doing it now. Let me find out what nature expects of me, how I realize myself, how I am happy. When this chip falls, the man begins to live the adventure of meeting his identity. Which in general is a search for internal unity, internal cohesion and external unity, the greatest degree of fraternity. He discovers a key that leads to this human condition. And when he discovers this key, he goes back to the world where he came from, to share it. So he always

has this trajectory. To get out of banality, to seek the sacred, to find an identity, a sense of life, and return to share. He will say that this is what it is about. Seek and rescue the sense of human life, seek and rescue the unity. Everyone does this. And see very similar stages. Well, he will use, as I told you, not in all books, the masks of God, from what I could take a look, he uses much more history, anthropology, even philosophy. In this particular work, he will rely a lot on psychoanalysis, on clinical psychology,

analytical psychology, sorry, by Jung. He will base himself on this area, more of the study of the psyche. And he will say that there is a mythical structure that overflows from the collective unconscious, Jungian concept, and that generates in man a perception, as if at some point it would sound in the awakening of each human being, the time to grow. Content that charge him overflows, generates an discomfort, a discomfort, a concern, that charge him to seek a more concrete, more human, more valid sense of life. This he calls the overflowing of the unconscious. Now, then

I would like to make a parallel in one part. Because when we talk about the unconscious, collective unconscious, etc., these Jungian concepts, the tendency we have is to think that the myth is something that overflows from the personal unconscious of each one. Jung, for example, did not intend to say that. He spoke of the collective unconscious of humanity. As if it were some contents that are in some plane of humanity, as if they were some contents that are in some plane of humanity, waiting for each human being to recover them, to take possession of them.

This is very similar, people, to what Plato called the theory of ideas, the world of ideas and the concrete world. It is very similar to that, for those who saw the Caibalion, which Caibalion called the mind of God, that at a certain moment these ideas come down to the mind of man. I just wanted you to understand one thing. What is unconscious for philosophy? Are you doing something today? I don't know. Driving your car. The mood you are in, the mental forms you are in, the way you are right now, is influenced by a lot

of things you are not seeing. Or not? A lot of things. And this is your unconscious. Now, these things you are not seeing, can be in your past, which was assimilated in your childhood, which is what we call personal unconscious. But it can also be in the convergence of Jupiter with Saturn, can't it? They can't be influencing you? This is a cosmic unconscious. It can be, I don't know, in the heat, it is a climatic unconscious. Everything that influences you and that you are not clearly aware of, is your unconscious. So saying that myths come

from the unconscious, does not mean that it comes only from something that is inside the human mind. It comes from a plan that exists in nature that the human being still does not know. That is acting on it, but he still does not know. Plato says it was the world of ideas. I think this idea is quite reasonable. That the whole world would be born first in the mental plane. The ideas of the universe were born before the physical universe. And as beings evolve, they are becoming more and more similar to that idea to which

they should correspond. That is, evolving is corresponding to the model that exists in you in the plane of ideas. The Caibal and the Egyptian said the same thing. It is the mind of God. When the forms fall down here, they are imperfect because of the resistance of matter. And they evolve to be able to coincide with these ideas of the mind. That is, models. The myths would be models of all manifested things that would exist before manifested things would have been born. Before the human being was created, there would be a model of what the

human being is for in nature. And the man manifests and runs after to correspond to this model. That would be evolution. So this idea of ​​archetype, using a more popular word, the archetype would be a model. And every time it evolves, it becomes more and more similar to this model. Imagine the following. The universe, which is a conception of several ancient philosophies, imagine the universe as full of beings in evolution. Today we already know that it is like this, that plants evolve, that animals evolve, that even stones have a process of becoming more complex, their

molecular organization is getting more complex. This is an evolution. We know that there is evolution in all planes. This coincides a lot with what was thought in the past. The universe is full of beings in evolution. Until we get back to unity. It would have left the unit and will return to unity one day. This is Pythagorean. In the middle of the path there is a set of beings, we, humanity, who leave absolute ignorance and one day we will reach absolute wisdom as human beings. The maximum that a human being can achieve. Now, to get

out of ignorance and reach wisdom, you have a lot of steps you have to climb. Of difficulties you will have to face, of inertialities you will have to break, of elements you will have to overcome. Imagine yourself, that in the plan of ideas there is the perfect recipe for you to overcome all these stages. I always give an old example, but it was very marked for me when I learned what was habit. I never forgot. It was my grandmother sewing. I can't give a lecture without talking about my grandmother. It would be incomplete. My grandmother

was a sewing exime. And those molds she was sewing, that left me ... Because she made molds of everything. The molds in silk paper. And I didn't understand how that rake, which had nothing to do with the clothes, would be used. Then she explained to me. When you put cloth, put zipper, put button, that turns into a long pants, turns into a blouse. It doesn't look like it, because it's a model, it's paper. But when you put matter, then it turns. And that thing, when I went to learn myths, it made all sense to me.

The myth is a model of human being. When you put meat, bone, energy, everything in there, it turns into a human being. So the myth is a perfect model of how a human being can get to win all the difficulties he has to overcome, until he reaches the fullness of the human condition. And evolving means overcome these obstacles. And if you throw the hand of the recipe, which is foreseen in the model, in the myth, overcome these difficulties much more easily. So imagine this graph I put there. It's like you had for each of these

moments of evolution, a myth. And the myth of the hero is exactly the citizen who went through all these moments, winning with the least effort and with the greatest success, the difficulties that each of them presents. He learned to climb the stairs in the most perfect way and transmits this knowledge to the future of humanity. Well, of course, that we have the simplest and most common difficulties in life and the most complex. It is said that all of them have myths. Campbell Burry will say something very interesting. The traditional rites of passage that we had,

in fact, within our own society, we still have some, although they have lost their effectiveness. But in simple societies, you feel that they are still very effective. So here I put, which is the example he uses, an indigenous tribe. When the boy will leave from childhood to adolescence, from adolescence to youth, to adulthood, the responsibilities he has to assume in the tribe, all this is marked by a very clear ceremony, a rite of passage, where the boy already knows, he sees himself approaching, he already knows that there he will have to be different. He will

have to die for certain things and be born for others. And this is highly respected by society and it is a moment, let's say, of psychological passage, included within culture, which helps man to overcome certain stages and enter others. And he says of the need for these rites, how important this was, because it generates detachment to a certain level, that is, death for childhood and rebirth in adolescence. Death for adolescence is rebirth in youth, in adulthood. This is one of the beautiful things he puts. Man is so afraid of death because he does not die

a thousand times throughout life. If he died a thousand times throughout his life, he would learn to die and be reborn. He wouldn't be so afraid, because life is full of deaths. Now, if you never die, you will have to face only that one at the end, then it gets tough. If you learn to die for certain experiences and be reborn at another level, death becomes de-dramatized. He will talk about it later, because the best antidote to death, the only one who wins death, is rebirth. I think that's beautiful. If you know how to be

reborn, you have won death. Otherwise, no. So he talks about how these protocols, these social canons of each culture, helped and help. But in our society, this is very empty. They have become mere formalities, that sometimes the person even opens his hand, for example, at a wedding ceremony, I don't know, some kind of ceremony, a baptism ceremony, these ceremonies have become formalities, very empty of meaning, and they do not produce a very significant psychological transition. And people go back, they don't go through the stage. This is the collective immaturity that we live. He says that

we live, this expression I found interesting, inverted emphasis pacts. Instead of the culture inviting you to move forward, turn the page, she invites you to stay behind. He says, how does it exist, for example, failures of marriage, because the husband or the wife, they did not leave their son, the father and the mother. They did not stop being children, to be husbands or wives or parents. They stayed in the previous stage. They are not prepared for a new social role, to embody a new position that society demands of them. They are not prepared for that.

And this is valued in society, it is in fashion. You must have heard of the kangaroo children, because the parents are 60 years old, they are 40 and inside the house. The parents are 70, they are 50 and inside the house. And society thinks it's cheap. Okay, I have nothing against the way of life that each one chose. But you must understand that this generates a bond of mutual dependence, which may not be very sad. Because maybe it was natural for the child to learn to face life alone. Maybe it was natural for the parents

that the child fulfilled his destiny and they were around the starting point. Maybe it was more sad, or for the growth of both parties, that life followed its path. This reverse emphasis value who did not go forward, who was behind. That is, he never stopped being the son. And it was already time for him to be the grandfather. And he didn't stop being the son. And he says that this is complicated. And our culture encourages this emotional paralysis. It does not give specific value to the rites of passage. So the man does not grow. And

it seems that life, and Campbell believes a lot in this, I think it's very beautiful, life has a meaning for these passages that she proposed to us. Each of them has something to teach us. Imagine that you are on a train trip. You get off at the first station, see the culture, experience the cuisine, see the folklore, go back to the train. Learn a lot of things in this city. Get off at the second station, learn a lot of things. If you get off at all stations and learn everything you have to learn, at the

end of the trip you are a wise man. But when a person is very immature, she only gets off at the first station, the others she doesn't want. When she gets to the end of the trip, she is still a child. She only has childhood experience. It seems that life created all these stations, because each of them has something you have to pick up, to get to the end of the trip and set your puzzle, which is your own identity. And if you don't get off at any of these stations, it means something, some piece

of your puzzle, will be missing at the end. Life is not chaos, it is cosmos. Life is entirely pedagogical, and it has something to tell you, with everything it offers you to be lived. So, to be stuck in a certain age group, which is our culture, when it doesn't catch you in childhood, it catches you in adolescence, and when it doesn't catch you in adolescence, it catches you in youth. From there, no one leaves anymore, because only youth has value. Then you spend your whole life trying to force youth to not end anymore, or to

return, or it's not like that. Only youth has value. So everything beyond that is already monotonous. This is when the child is not encouraged to reach youth faster than normal, because only youth has value. So we fight against life, and as a consequence, we learn what it has to teach us. There are a lot of pieces missing in our puzzle, when we make a life synthesis. There are a lot of parts missing. Well, the Monomyth will include these phases, which is separation. Separation means getting out of banality. Living totally alienated, automatic pilot, living. There comes

a time when there is an impact, a test. I separate myself from that world in which I lived. He will say something beautiful about it, a thing called crisis. Later on I will repeat this information, but let me anticipate, because I found it wonderful. He said that every time you enter a crisis, there is a tendency for us to blame ourselves and say I'm here because I made nonsense. Sometimes it's true. But sometimes you are in this crisis for merit and not for demerit. You did everything you had to do, in the previous stages, now

go ahead, life is asking you to go ahead. That is, thanks to everything you did, you came to the moment of throwing everything out and start over at another level. It's like the boy, which is very common today, who leaves elementary school, enters high school and enters crisis. High school is that madness for the vestibular. But why did he get to high school? Because he is being punished? No, because he did everything right. Everything in elementary school. Passed. So not always the crisis is because you are being punished. The crisis is because the time has

come in the awakening of life for you to close this stage and move on to another. So sometimes the crisis is a very positive symptom, moments of growth. So he will say that a monomyth goes through these phases. Separation, initiation, return and sharing. Think of all stories of heroes, both historical and symbolic, that you know. In general, there is this trajectory. Separation from the banal life, from everyday life. Proofs, repetitive proofs until he understands. Overcoming the proofs from the moment he understands what they mean and defeats the element against which he is fighting. That is

the initiation, that is, another level of consciousness. Return and sharing of what he learned. Relation between myths and dreams. He will say that at first they have a common element, which is a symbolic representation of what your psyche is. Of what your psyche is asking of you. But in the case of dreams, we sometimes mix a lot of personal elements and this becomes unrecognizable. In the case of the myth, this is clearer. But in general, they are elements that have a call from your psyche to grow. A call from your soul, so that you turn

the page. A thirst for growth. A need for expansion. Both in the dream and in the myth. But the myth is less distorted by personal elements. He will say that all human culture, which was indeed culture, that is, cults, that cultivated the human being or made him grow, was a flourishing in society of myths that had not flourished until then. That is, the myths, when they were born in the world, they elaborate human culture. The true culture, which is the one that encourages us to grow. Because when the cultural elements that surround us do not

encourage us to grow, it would not actually deserve the name of culture. Because it does not cultivate. Maybe it is pulling us down. Down and not up. Then he will give some examples that are very interesting. For example, King Minos. Cretan. Minos, for those who know the story, won a white bull from Poseidon. As a consecration that he was the legitimate king of Crete. I will not go into details, his fight with his brothers and so on. But this white bull was for him to sacrifice in honor to the god Poseidon. That for this he

would become a true leader. That is, the idea of ​​sacrificing. Sacrificing the white bull was the sacrifice of your own personal self. It is said that every king, every leader, is a man who has to sacrifice the personal. For the collective, for being a reference. And since he did not make this sacrifice, it means that he was arrogant, he was selfish. He wanted the merits for himself. He wanted to work for his personality. And that makes him become a tyrant. Which will generate all the drama of the generation of the Minotaur. Because this bull, the

queen falls in love with him. He generates with him a monster, which is the Minotaur. And that whole story that you know. He says that every time a man has power and exerts this power in an selfish way, he becomes a tyrant. Even if he is not a king in his personal life. When you have power and use it selfishly, you become a tyrant. At least you tyrannize yourself and the people around you. And this tyrant invokes the presence of a hero. To come and rescue. The hero is exactly the antipode of the tyrant. It

is that man who consciously accepted to subordinate universal laws. To do what is fair, noble and good. That the fair, noble and good come to the world through him. That his causes are no longer personal. Be universal, be human. He will say that Arnold Toynbee, who was a historian. I didn't even know that Toynbee spoke of myths. The camp came and said that to me. That Toynbee said that the hero is nothing more than a tyrant. Transfigured, reborn. Sometimes it's not two people, it's just one. I had already seen this in the King Arthur myth.

That when the Uther Pendragon dies. Through the spell of transmutation. He becomes Arthur. It's the same being. Arthur purified through the sword of will. Excalibur, I'm not going to tell this story now. But this story of the spell of transmutation. It means a character who is reborn. Purified. He says that when you are a tyrant. You are invoking a hero. That sometimes it is within you. I don't know if you understand. One thing is the king of Crete. Another thing is you, who is the king of your life. But if you are a bad king.

It's a tyrant. You are invoking the hero to come within you. To depose you. To take you from power. And put a new level of consciousness. That does not rule life for personal purposes. But that is able to subordinate consciously. Universal laws. Every time a tyrant arises. The prophecy of the hero arises. He will come. At any time. This is both in the individual and in the collective. Victory over the personal and conquest of the human. That is, the temporal man becomes an eternal man. Universal. The tyrant becomes the hero. The temporal man becomes the

eternal man. Who no longer works only for his selfish survival. Works to generate some real transformation in the world. And in itself. Remember that phrase from Cicero. That I will do a million times for you. Make sure you are the sum factor in the lives of the people who participate. That is, you left here a little bigger. And the people who lived with you a little bigger. You made a difference. A real difference. Because the rest is all shadow. The real difference is. I grew up and helped people grow. In the face of death. Only

that will remain. Do you know what you will think? What is in the face of death? In the face of death we think. I used my life to grow as a human being. And allowed people who lived with me to grow. And this is the only positive wealth. That no one can take away from you. That can be taken away at this moment. Tell if, I don't know if this story is real. That Alexandre Magno, before he died. There is a great possibility of being folklore. But let's go there. He asked that his coffin was

carried with his hands out. Because he was practically the king of the world. And he wanted everyone to see. That he went to the tomb with empty hands. That nothing he had conquered. Could be taken to the tomb. Folklore or not, the story is interesting. And he says. What takes man out of this maze of life. Where he gets lost in irrelevant and personal things. It's the Ariadne thread. What is this Ariadne thread? That took Teseu out of the maze. It is a thread woven by all the heroes. That already happened in history. That they

stuck themselves in the maze and left. That is, the trail is left by all the heroes of history. That is, has there ever been a man who overcame selfishness? Has there ever been a man who overcame any kind of separatism? Has there ever been a man who has been, in fact, useful to humanity as a whole? If he existed, he is a thread. And you can follow this trail. To get out of the maze. For those who have already read a wonderful oriental book. Which is Bhagavad Gita. When I finish the Bhagavad Gita. There is

a passage. I think it's very beautiful. It says, Always feel defeated, defeated. Without strength in the face of human drama. That you look to the horizon and there you will see Arjuna. The prince among men. Victory over his enemies. I think this passage is very interesting. There was a man who won. He's there on the horizon. It was Arjuna. He won. So give it to me. One won? I can too. This is the value of the hero to humanity. One won. I can too. This is the thread of Ariadne. That leads me to get out

of the maze. Who left? How did he leave? And who was it that left the maze? It is good to take a look at history. And realize who actually left the maze. What were the men who were not massacred. By attachment to passing things. Who were not massacred. By the anguish of being attached to things. That they are always losing every day. They lose their appearance in the mirror. They lose their status. They lose their recognition. Sometimes they lose superficial friendships. They lose a lot of things. What a horrible thing is that? It seems that

since the moment they turned our ampoule, we have only been losing. The sand has only been falling. The sand does not rise, it only falls. The law of gravity of the sand in our life is horrible. The sand does not rise, it only falls. So if we do not learn anything with life, it seems that life is a waiting compass to lose more and more each time. So see who did not live like this. Who came to the end of life having, in fact, gained a lot. For himself and for humanity. Some of these men,

we are talking about them here today, it is a sign that we learn from them. That is, they were victorious. This is the thread of the life of the heroes who came out of the maze. It is a precious inheritance for humanity. Plato already talked about it. The importance of the hero. Vital for society. It recovers the belief of man in himself. See how beautiful this phrase is. A phrase worthy of a closet door. I already told you that I did this for a long time. I recommend it. Colored cardboard, those very ugly, very colorful.

Pencil. Write the cardboard. While you do not decorate, you do not take it out. You are living in that horrible room full of cardboard. You force yourself to decorate. Otherwise, do not take that thing out of there. It was effective. I decorated a lot. A lot of cardboard has already passed through my closet. See how beautiful this is. Only birth can overcome death. Isn't it beautiful? It seems paradoxical, but it is absolutely right. For example, as I told you, the crises. The crisis. In a crisis, something dies and something is born in place. This is

a sign that I lived well in this crisis. But I keep refusing to detach myself from what I want to die. It seems that I will die together. Sometimes people are in crisis and feel the feeling that they are dying. Or sometimes they want to die. Or sometimes they even kill themselves, which is a sadness. Isn't that so? In fact, there is something dying. I want to die. It depends on what you call yourself. A part of you, I think, is going to die anyway. And it's good to die. But another part is there, gestating,

wanting to be born. This is sad. And this is living with death daily. Death doesn't scare you anymore. I live with it every day. I know how it is. I know how death's operandi mode works. Curse breaks from the shell of virtue itself. That's what I was saying before. That is, you are not in crisis because you did everything wrong. Sometimes you are in crisis because you did everything right. Curse comes from the shell of virtue itself. You did everything right and ended this stage. Now it's another. What did I do to deserve this? You

did a lot of good things, that's why this is happening. If you hadn't done it, you were repeating. Living everything again. Because you did everything right, it's time to close this experience and move on to another. Realize that this is very interesting when you are in crisis, thinking that way. What if I hadn't done everything wrong? What if I'm experiencing a crisis exactly because I did everything right and now it's time to turn the page? It's interesting to think like that. He will make a statement that I find very interesting. Sometimes we consider that comedy,

which plays a lot of irony, sarcasm, that the myth, which is sometimes very enigmatic, symbolic, the fairy tale that always ends with a kiss and they were happy forever, are less realistic than tragedy. Because life is heavy metal. It has to be that one who gives a lot of trouble, has to cry, has to be desperate, has to blind his own eyes, kill his father. Life is heavy. So tragedy is more realistic. He said, look, this is inesperienced. And he's right. There was a wise man in the past who did not consider comedy more initiatic

and deeper than tragedy. Comedy, the myth and even the fairy tale are more initiatic and deeper than tragedy. He will explain why. Because tragedy is perplexity in the face of loss. And comedy, the myth, the fairy tale, is the understanding and the reconciliation. It is you realizing that all that has a greater meaning, that in fact you did not lose anything because nothing was yours, and that simply your conscience was invited to go up a higher level. So tragedy reflects perplexity, comedy, understanding, assimilation of the moral of history. So stop being tragic, it becomes interesting,

it makes sense. And he will say, tragedy ends in death and fragmentation. That is, loss of what we love. It's always fragmentation. They took a piece of me. What was it? The daughter got married. They took a piece of me. What was it? The mother died. No. The fairy tale always shows this, a possibility of reconciliation, of harmony, of happiness forever. Well, I found my mother's essence more. I found the way to love more. Because when you love a child and he leaves, you realize that you are not the owner of anything. You are a

place of enrichment of the gifts of life. Things come to your hand, you give everything you have and let them follow your course. And everything in life is like that. So this experience taught me. So there is no loss, there is reconciliation, a harmonization. I understand the meaning of all this. So when you see the Snow White kiss there, by the way, here between us, people, moment of revolt, moment of tragedy. There is something that kills me and people come to say that I tell fairy tales, fantasy, you should not tell children. Or even worse,

today there is still a fashion to say that Snow White, is politically incorrect, because the prince kissed a woman sleeping, and this is a disrespect to the feminine. This for a philosopher is to kill. I just don't die because I'm not living a tragedy. What is to kill is. Because this is highly symbolic. Did you see any similarity between these two scenes? Snow White being kissed by the prince and Adam's finger touching God's finger, it's the same thing. The prince is representing in this duality the spirit, who kisses the matter. Kisses the matter and awakens

from the horizontality. It joins. It's the same thing as God and Adam. It's the moment you find inside you the prince, God's finger, the divine essence, and it takes you out of horizontality, it verticalizes you, it awakens you. In other words, the fairy tale is showing at the end, that the human soul, white and pure, of snow, became more aware of its essence, of its being. That Adam stood up to touch God's finger, that is, he vertigo. That Adam stood up to touch God's finger, that is, he vertigo. In other words, he became human. So

it's the same thing. Soon they will say that God and Adam, Adam's creation was politically incorrect because Adam was sleeping, and God came over to disturb him. We lived a time of the literal. This produces such ridiculous things that you can't believe. I've noticed this every day. I leave the fairy tales aside, because it's a bullshit. It's impossible to take it seriously. This means that, to the last sentence, What does it mean a society that does not understand anything symbolic? If you don't understand anything symbolic, why can I deduce this from it, as a boring

philosopher, which corresponds to me to be? I have no symbolic vision of life, they must be suffering the slaps. Because life without symbolism is a business without legs or head. Or don't you think? Without legs or head, they are all the time giving and taking things from us. What a boring thing! What a more sadistic God! Why does he give us things if soon after, in the next curve, he will take them away? Life without symbolism is hell. We have to be running away from it with palliatives, with aliens, with vices, so we can distract

ourselves and not see the tragedy we are in. And that, summarizes the life panel when it is superficial. So if there is no symbolism, the thing is ugly. See how interesting this example he puts. The man who has an awakened consciousness, who is increasingly adhering to what is the essence, is permanent in him, he is not a symbol. He is indifferent to the passenger as the boiling water to the bubbles, or the cosmos to the disappearance of galaxies. That is, the changes that happen momentarily in life, you know they came and will pass. But you

know they can't steal from you what you are. You know they came, they didn't come in vain, it's for you to give a demonstration of who you are, for you to give your best, but you know their destiny is to come and pass. But they will not take with you your essence. What you are cannot be taken away. So he says that a certain indifference, indifference not in a pejorative sense, but in a positive sense, not to be destroyed by the transitory, is that of the wise man. He knows that the transitory is part of

the game of appearances, but that he can't really lose anything. The more he evolves, the more fraternal he becomes, the more the essence of all beings is with him. It is not physical death that will take a being from him. It is not physical death that will take away someone whose essence he has brought near to his heart. Do you remember? I do not resist, I'm sorry. But I think there is no lecture where I do not talk about Carl G. Brandt talking to Mary Haskell, because this thing is irresistible. He talks about almost everything

in those blessed letters that he makes, the love of his life, which is Mary Haskell. There is a passage that I love, that he comes and says, look Mary, I am a very stubborn man. There are two things that I have to say. I think he will never convince me. First, that I do not have an immortal soul. Second, that my soul can be separated from yours. This was such a deep experience for the two of them, that Mary was the closest creature to Gibran that she had. When she goes to her funeral, the person

is shocked because she was smiling. No one knew who she was, because the relationship between the two was very intimate. And the person says, my wife is laughing at the funeral. Who is she? And no one should be suffering more than her, but she was sure that she could not lose him. That nothing or no one could take Gibran from her. She reached a level of unity, that the appearances, Gibran's body, her body was a bubble. She knew what was deep. That it could not be broken, that it could not be separated. Each time a

man conquers more of his essence, the appearances weigh less. No one saw Mary, who was the one who had the most reason to cry, shed a tear in her eyes. And she was in the death of Gibran. Growing up is preparing to see what it is. I think that's very beautiful. Growing up is preparing to see the reality of the universe. The reality is, there is something permanent. And when we have our feet on what is permanent, the ground does not shake, we are not unstable, we do not suffer so much. There are no more

tragedies for those who have a firm ground where their feet lie. And the firm ground where we lay our feet is wisdom. The essence of life, which cannot be lost. He puts these two passages, which I find very beautiful, I'm just cutting them out. The Metamorphoses of Ovid, the Roman poet. Everything is changing, nothing dies. The spirit wanders, sometimes here, sometimes there. And occupies the container that pleases him. For what existed is no longer, and what did not exist began to be. And so the whole cycle of movements restarts. Do you realize? The spirit occupying

different containers, but does not cry when the container breaks. You know that other containers will come, but the content is not lost. Bhagavad Gita. Only the bodies where the eternal, imperishable, incomprehensible self dwells. Only the bodies. The incomprehensible self does not. And when you are aware of this incomprehensible self, when it becomes understandable, you no longer complain so much about the containers. The fire does not cease to exist, when the candles end to melt. The fire will inhabit another candle, another place. The fire is permanent, it is eternal. And there is that which is aware

of the fire in us. And that takes us out of instability. It says that all life ... Imagine a road that has 500 arrows pointing there, another goes there, another from there, goes there, down there, goes there, a thousand arrows pointing there, and we go there. He says that all the events of your life are arrows, are signals pointing you there. What is finding the permanent. But you don't read this sign board. You think it's cute, this one, I'm going there, it must be pointing there. We don't know how to read the sign of life.

And then we suffer. Suffering means you took the wrong way. When it is destructive suffering. You took the wrong way. Learn to read the sign of the road. It helps. And the sign of the road was made to take you to your destiny. And there is a destiny for humanity. He will say that the historical hero, he sometimes has a difficulty. Because people say, look, this business of hero that you are talking about, it only works for mythical heroes, imaginary heroes, not for historical heroes. We had to overcome an external obstacle. Julius Caesar had to

overcome the Gallic Wars. Joan of Arc had to fight the English, remember? With something concrete. He says, look, you're just seeing the shell. Because when a hero climbs on a horse and goes to fight, the fundamental victory, the fundamental victory he had to have, he already had within himself. Victory is not what is happening outside, it's what happened inside. Outside is only the consequence. Remember that from the Dalma Pada. More than what a thousand men win in battle, is the one who wins himself. The hero who went to battle has already won himself. The fundamental

has already been done, the rest is the consequence. Krishna turns to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita and says, fight because I have already won over you. Internally he had already given his fight, he had already come to see Krishna, which was the essence, his sacred self. Now it was just to move, it was done. It was done. Material was just a consequence, he had already understood the myth. He had already dressed the idea, the Aket. Forces are found and revitalized within themselves to operate the transfiguration of the world, redeemed by love and knowledge. Imagine what

that is. He says there are a lot of golden seeds inside you. Everything you've done so far, is because you activated a golden seed like that. But you can't just keep one. Because for you to be a complete human being, you have seven seeds that have to bloom. A very symbolic name. One has to bloom, it's fine, it's cute, it gives flowers. But when these flowers wilt, they need another to be born. You have to go back there and redeem something that was forgotten. And make it bloom. This will make you go through another stage

of growth. At a certain moment, the capacity of this second seed has exhausted. You have to go back there and this will generate a crisis. Get the third seed, make it bloom. Do you realize that this is generating a senoid like this? It's up there, but it's going to live a crisis. Why? You've only developed up to the fifth seed. There are two there that are still waiting. There are elements that you need to go there, go back, bring out and live. So that you become a complete being. So you generate these micro crises in

the middle of the way. Both individually and collectively. While we don't develop the fullness of our being, while there are seeds there, waiting, there will be a crisis. And it may be, as we have already said, that the crisis has happened because you have finished developing the fourth seed. And it's on Thursday. This would be something to be celebrated, but we regret it because we don't like crises. It's not pleasant, but sometimes it's a symptom of growth. Realize that sometimes within society, certain tests, we have to think about the future. We don't think that the

child is doing a PhD because he is being punished for life. He is doing a PhD because he finished high school and passed. He is suffering, but it is a sign that he has walked so far. If we understood that human pedagogy is an imitation of life pedagogy, we would understand that the tests come at the moment we have completed the previous stage. This is natural. He will talk about the Buddha's life in a way that I had never seen anyone talk about. I think it's very beautiful. He talks about Buddha, tells the whole story,

to show that Buddha and other historical heroes perfectly embodied the monomyth. He even convinced me of that. I had never stopped to think about it. That is, that process of leaving the everyday life in Capilavasto, facing your tests, suffering, suffering, suffering, reaching enlightenment and then returning to humanity to share what he had discovered. Then he compares it with all the people, in all the places. Moses' return, with the Taboas of the Law, Prometheus returning with fire, Aeneas returning with the Lares and the Penates to found the precursor of Rome. Everyone who was a precursor of

something in history did that. He left his daily life, fought and we thought he was going to lose. But he won, he was victorious, and returns to bring this contribution that allows all humanity to jump one step up. Thanks to his victory. So the creation of Rome was a civilizatory leap. Each of these heroes allowed a civilizatory leap for humanity. Because he returned to share the fruits of his victory over himself. I found it very beautiful when Buddha arrives at his enlightenment, that he puts himself in the place he calls the immovable point. Does anyone

know the story of Buddha's life? When he arrives at enlightenment, he sits under the Bodh Gaya tree, starts meditating and then comes the demon Mara. Throwing all kinds of temptations on him, he's not even there. An army marching against him, when they drop the arrows, they turn into petals of flowers falling on him. And he's there. He no longer believes in appearances. Then comes a certain moment when the demon Mara questions his right to be there, sitting on the immovable point, the center of the universe. Then he does a mudra with his hand and touches

the earth. He invokes the earth as a witness that he has the right to be there. That the earth opposes him. That he has the right to be in the immovable point, in the center. The earth opposes him and he defeats the demon Mara. And he arrives at enlightenment. And he comes back and spends a long time preaching to the world. This idea that he puts of the immovable point, is one of the oldest myths of humanity. It is the symbolism of the center. The center is that sacred point around which all our lives should

be organized. It is the magic of the circumference that Hermitism spoke of. The most perfect form of the universe is the circumference. Because there is a hidden center, which is your essence, your divine self, that all the points of your life would have to be far from it. So a being who has the spherical consciousness, all points equally attended by the center, is a wise man. It is no wonder that Plato said that the most evolved form was the spherical form. All equally attended by the center. Do you realize that when a city is founded,

the first thing it does is put a crucifix there, pray the mass, and the city grows around that sacred center. The sacralization of space. Intuitively we know that in the center, in the center of the universe, in the center of man, there is a divine essence that justifies everything. We need to find that center. Hermetic tradition said that we go spinning, making a spiral, passing through the points of experience, and funneling until we take that center. This is the process of evolution. It's like a Christmas tree. Up there, put the five-point star. The victory of

the fifth element over the four. What tradition calls quaternary or personality. The victory of the immortal over the mortal. This idea is interesting. Take the center. Buddha sits in the center. The immovable point of the universe. His own center. And he calls the Earth to testify in his favor. That is, the Earth shows that all his trajectory was to conquer this center and now he is worthy. He owns himself. And all the factors of his life revolve around him. These days I was watching. Everyone watches. Don't say you don't watch, because I know you watch

hidden, which are those thousands of TED conferences. You don't watch? I watch, from time to time, one or another. I was watching a conference of a Brazilian businessman called Ricardo Senler, I don't know if anyone has watched it, it's very interesting. He has a whole revolutionary education project, a school called Lumiar. He says the following. Look, I put the boy, instead of studying mathematics, I put the boy to ride a bike. I want to see him ride a bike without knowing how much pi is. He discovers that, he knows how much pi is because he

wants to ride a bike. I thought that was a great idea. He really does that, this method within his system, quite revolutionary and educational. I was thinking, to build a bicycle wheel, he will not only find out how much pi is in mathematics, but he will also find out the value of the center in philosophy. You can draw other conclusions from this. Because he will find out that without a center there is no wheel. And that it is from this central axis that everything emanates. So instead of doing a reflection on mathematics, you can do

a philosophical reflection too. And by riding a bicycle you also teach philosophy. Just pull the reasoning a little bit to the symbolic. You also teach philosophy. Because it's in everything. And I don't understand how people say that philosophy is not practical. It is in everything. It is in the why of everything. If you find philosophy, just look for the why of any fact of your life. You will realize what philosophy is for. Well, continuing. He will say that there is a unity of the human spirit in aspirations, powers, superimposed vicissitudes and found wisdom. This is

the trajectory of the monomyth. Everyone will go through it. It is not a matter of wanting or not wanting. It is what nature foresees for us as human beings. We have all these possibilities, a common trajectory. And the hero goes ahead to show us where he is going. There is a treated trajectory, stuck in the plane of ideas, traced, which is the word I wanted, I found. Traced in the plane of ideas. There is still a hero who goes ahead to show you the way. And that would be the teaching of the myth. The hero

is the son of the king. A divine redemptive image that is found in us and that hopes to be recognized and transformed into life. Give light to our human conscience. It is very common that in these myths the hero is a prince, is the son of a king. And we are in fact children of our divine essence, which should reign over our lives. And by recognizing this paternity, we find our ascendancy, we find our name, our internal name, the family we belong to. Find this essence that brought us to the world. We came to the

world as the son of our essence to be able to reflect it in the concrete world. So we are children of kings. The divine self in us, all of us. And by recognizing this paternity, you know those things that even soap operas do from time to time? There is always a character who does not know who his father is, and he discovers in the middle of the way. This is a legacy of a mythical fragment. The reunion of the father is the reunion of the essence that brought you to the world. From the axis of

your wheel, from your center. It is the symbolism of the center that lives in every human being. Look how beautiful this is that he puts in the book. The apocryphal gospel of Eve. I am you, and you are me. And wherever you may be, there I will be. I am everywhere. And whenever you wish, you will find me. And when you find me, you will find yourselves. This is God talking to a human being. Did you understand that? Whenever you want, you can find me anywhere. Because it is to see God in everything. And if

you find the divine, you find yourself. Because you found what originally generated your idea in the world. Your essence, your true identity. If we consider that the center exists in everything, the idea that in everything there is something divine, an essence, the center is everywhere and nowhere. The center is called the immovable point, ubiquitous, omnipresent. Everything has its center. There is the divine in everything. Through which the energies of eternity break in the temporal. The essence is the center, it generates a shadow in the manifested world, which is the body. And the body evolves to

recognize its father. Its essence, where it came from and where it will return. Remember the dynamic eternity of Helena Blavatsky. It may be that there is life in the universe in all directions. I don't know what language she speaks, I don't know what form she has, but I know what she's saying. All lives in the universe are calling beings back to the father's house. This is the message that echoes in all four corners of the universe. Find yourself, find the king. Return to unity. And that makes a lot of sense. I believe that all the

languages ​​of the universe must be saying the same thing. He will say that the sacred places that exist everywhere, where the temples were built, you realize that there are things that are curious in history. Troy, for example. How many Troys have been discovered, one on top of the other? For God's sake, the citizen destroyed Troy, because when they went to build Troy elsewhere, didn't you find that strange? It had to be there. Another Troy. Then they set fire to it, they blew it up. They set fire to it. It came to Helena 1, Helena 2,

Helena 3. They set everything on fire. There must have been a lot of Helena and similar things in history. It was destroyed in the same place. Why? Because that was a sacred place, it couldn't be anywhere. It's like a acupuncture point on the body of the earth. It couldn't be anywhere. He says that places become sacred because someone sacredized these places, breaking the barrier of time and finding eternity. Sacred places are places where a human being broke the barrier of time and found eternity. It's like he had opened a communication channel of the energies of

heaven with earth. And if you want to find these energies, it's a good place for you to align with them. Because there was precedent. There was precedent. Today I was walking down the street, I found it funny, you see it all the time. We have this almost intuitively, which are distortions of these original ideas. I went to a store that had a sports lottery, a sign saying this. Someone won the Mega Sena here in 2015. Everyone making that face. I had to throw it there. Because someone already won there, so that point is special. Do

you realize that we have irrational habits? But who knows, behind that there is no myth. These points of sacredness are points where eternity has already communicated with time. Someone reached eternity there. So that becomes an energy center. The citizen cannot build the city elsewhere. It has to be there, even if it is one on top of the other. Well, that's it. That's it. Today we stay here until ... Wow, we spent a lot of our time. I remind you that we are seeing one chapter per week. So next week, chapter 1 of the first part.

All right? Thank you, guys! Bye!