Product Details

• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 5
• Studio: Wellspring Media
• VHS Release Date: March 21, 2000
• Run Time: 280 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1583500545
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #317,040 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Joseph Campbell's exhilarating story-telling and masterful teachings continue in this second volume on the One Great Story of our human adventure. The remarkably successful The Power of Myth, introduced Joseph Campbell and his extraordinary ideas to millions. Now, journey with this remarkable man as he takes you through The Shaping of The Eastern Tradition and examines spirituality through the mythic images of Hinduism and Buddhism.

2.1 - The Inward Path - Campbell introduces us to the core ideas at the heart of the Eastern traditions and explores what Aldous Huxley called the Perennial Philosophy and how it is realize in Hinduism and Buddhism. He traces the development of the idea of spiritual emancipation from the early Indus Valley civilizations through the Vedic literature to the Upanishads. Campbell identifies the point of departure between the Eastern and Western traditions. Finally, Campbell explains the concept of Nirvana and sets the stage for the arrival of the Buddha.
2.2 - The Enlightened One - Campbell uses stories of the Buddha's life and enlightenment to reflect the essence of the Buddhist religion. He explains the difference between the two principal types of Buddhism - Theravada (Hinayana) and Mahayana. Campbell also probes the differences between Eastern and Western religion by focusing on Buddhism as a religion of "identification with" the divine rather than on of "relationship to" it. He also compares Buddhism with Taoism and Confucianism and explores an ancient collision of East and West.
2.3 - Our Eternal Selves - Our Eternal Selves introduces us to the systems of yoga that grew out of the mainstream of India spiritually. Campbell demonstrates how the Eastern way of perceiving consciousness is radically different from how it is perceived in the West. He demonstrates how yoga acts as a mediation to bring the practitioner to ever-higher stages of consciousness, to unite one's personal consciousness with the eternal, undifferentiated consciousness of the divine.
2.4 - The Way to Illumination - Perhaps the most sophisticated form of yoga, Kundalini Yoga, concentrates on the seven chakras or symbolic centers of our psychic energy. Campbell explains the full chakra system of Kundalini Yoga and makes comparison with modern Western psychology and Christian concepts. Explore how this system teaches rituals and mediation practices so unit the spiritual power in the human being with the spiritual force of the universe.
2.5 - The Experience of God - Campbell demonstrates how Tibetan Buddhists turn the ritual experience of death into a spiritual exercise. Trace with him the stages of the Tibetan Book of the Dead in which the Llama prepares a dying man and his family for the final moments of life. This passage, in fact, is a journey downward through the chakras, the centers of energy of Kundalini Yoga. Campbell reveals how the Eastern tradition reaches its most sophisticated expression in the art, philosophy and mysticism in the Buddhism of Tibet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars superb overview on eastern religions and their implications, September 16, 1999

By 

Manfred van Doorn (Haarlem, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mythos II: The Inward Path, The Enlightened One, Our Eternal Selves, The Way to Illumination, The Experience of God [VHS] (VHS Tape)

An inpiring journey through eastern perennial philosophy by the man who could turn out to be the most important thinker of the twentiest century. In the last year of his live Campbell gave one more lecture tour so that it could be filmed and reproduced. This one series of five is obviously his favourite subject. Inspiring, informative and amusing...

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Indepth Lecture of Eastern Myth by Joseph Campbell, March 21, 2004

By 

Adam Bernstein "sixtiesuniverse" (Northwest, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Joseph Campbell - Mythos, Vol. 2: The Shaping of the Eastern Tradition (5 Video Box Set) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a 5 video set of Joseph Campbell lectures hosted by Susan Sarandon, that looks at the mythology of Hinduism, Buddhism, Kundalini Yoga, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Campbell shows that all these mythological images and stories are useful as long as they are recognized as images and not the reality. When one confuses the eternal and transcendent with the physical and ego-self enlightenment cannot be attained. And he refers often to Christian mythology and shows how similar it is to that of the East. The difference is Hindus don't believe there was an actual egg that broke open and 9 elephants came out (which is part of the mythology). They know it's symbolic; problem is many if not most Christians can't see their own mythology and take it literally.
He covers many profound spiritual ideas including death, the sutras, and the shakras. And the shakra at the top of the head is nirvana, when we realize we are one with the universe in the cosmic consciousness of the eternal present. So these myths are great to point the way. They are NOT what the way points to.
For as Lao Tzu says, those who speak (of what the way points to) do not know; those who know do not speak.