Product Details

• Actors: Joseph Campbell
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Acacia
• DVD Release Date: February 6, 2007
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000K7UEN6
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,524 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Sukhavati is like an extra-credit master class for anyone who was captivated by Bill Moyers' landmark series Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. Produced, directed, and edited by Maxine Harris with the support of the Joseph Campbell Foundation (as part of a "Collected Works" series of DVDs), this simple, 78-minute program combines soothing imagery and music from around the world with relevant excerpts from some of Campbell's seminal lectures on mythology. The title refers to Campbell's "place of bliss," or his life's calling: To fully grasp and teach mythology as a common trait of humanity--a way of interpreting life experience and philosophy through universal narratives that transcend ethnic and cultural differences. Specifically, these Campbell excerpts emphasize "Sukhavati" as a voluntary shifting of perspective that allows "joyful participation in the sorrows of the world." As Campbell observes, with illustrative examples taken from various mythologies from around the world, "we are in a free fall into the future," and our anxieties about the unknown can be eliminated if we embrace uncertainty and "transform hell into a paradise." This acceptance of life's miseries is enhanced through Campbell's peerless ability to comparatively interpret mythologies related to cycles of life, death, and rebirth. While Campbell himself is shown only briefly in lecture clips, his words serve as voice-over narration to Harris's well-chosen images. The combination is awkward at times (it's not easy to follow Campbell's lecture when you're being lulled into a state of new-age relaxation), but the program succeeds in presenting the essence of Campbell's philosophical worldview. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description
"We're in a free fall into future. We don't know where we're going. Things are changing so fast. And always when you’re going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. But all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act. It’s a very interesting shift of perspective . . . Joyfully participate in the sorrows of the world and everything changes." —Joseph Campbell

Through archival excerpts from his finest filmed lectures interwoven with exquisite images and evocative music from around the world, renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell takes us on a journey of transcendence and illumination, a trip through the mythological symbols and sagas left by our ancient forebears. What is revealed en route is "mankind’s one great story," the grand drama played out by all cultures on all continents since time immemorial. This saga "projected" on the screen of the universe is the mythic adventure that became Campbell’s "Sukhavati," what he passionately embraced as his life’s work, his place of bliss.

Created by Maxine Harris and Sheldon Rocklin, with the enthusiastic support of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, this hypnotic and mesmerizing film is a deeply personal, almost spiritual, portrait of Campbell, told in his own words, in his twilight years, at the summit of his career and the apex of his intellectual powers. Through it, this great American thinker is still "joyfully participating in the sorrows of the world."

As seen on public television.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Myths are public dreams - Dreams are private myths, March 7, 2007

By	bernie "xyzzy" (Arlington, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

We learn or see what we already know. But sometimes it is hard to articulate; Joseph Campbell can. It becomes black and white, time and eternal.

The eastern religions and ancient realigns share the path of enlightenment. However it is up to us to make the journey. Only the western religion is at odds with nature by making symbols facts.

The message is reiterated in several ways so we have opportunity to realize that we need forgotten symbols and can regain them through our dreams.

He leaves us with the question as to will we ever be able to become one with nature once more?

Hinduism gives us the best presentation or mythology to fit our time.

This is just a simplistic review of a presentation that has so much depth that no review can do it justice.
Joseph Campbell - The Hero's Journey

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Campbell views are the real truth of our time!, November 24, 2007

By	Heather Walton (Chico, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Joseph Campbell was an amazing man full of insight and understanding of the religions of the world and how they all are the same metaphorically, and they all share common themes since the dawn of time. I will share some of his perceptions and thoughts from this DVD.
There is a wealth of information here that will inspire anyone to a spiritual life and the wonders of the great mysteries of life and God as Campbell sees him. Joseph Campbell was an enlightened man full of the wonder and joy of life. Just watching him I feel a deep sense of connection to God and the mysteries of the universal cosmic truths.

Myths and dreams are transformations of consciousness and are the way to a deep rich life of mystery; transforming thought. The Ego is the dragon holding you in and keeping you small. Following your bliss by doing what brings you vitality within yourself saves the world. The Buddha says that Nirvana is a psychological state of mind that is not compelled by desire, fear or social commitments or acting out of our own center. We are all seeking an experience of being alive; we are not seeking meaning of life since there is none really. It's the inner value we seek and it is not in what we do. The ultimate mystery of being transcends thought and cannot be understood. God is transcendent and God is within our world, others and us. Eternity is here and now. This is it and we must get it from within ourselves not out there and not after we die! We cannot concretize that symbols as fact. Jesus did not ascend up but within us. All the symbols are metaphors and are not fact. We are all manifestations of Buddha consciousness. Jesus is within us all just as are heaven, and Hell and all the Gods. Inward we are the source. All religions are true for their time. Open up to the mysteries of life of all things, and make a choice to stay in your life and realize the truth and depth of your experience of your own being through consciousness and bliss. Experience it here and now.

Do not judge. Open-up and love thy enemy. These, Campbell says, are Jesus' greatest teachings.

We need to shift the perception to joyful participation in the sorrows of life and everything changes. Find the immoveable center within yourself and we can survive anything and float down the stream of life. To save the world we must save ourselves. The influence of a vital person vitalizes the world. The world is a wasteland and we cannot save the world by shifting it around. Bring it to life by being alive yourself.

Choose to affirm life. Life is great say yes to it. It is a childish way of thinking to say no to life with all its pain. We all participate in evil. No matter what we do it's evil to somebody. If all the universe is Divine how can we say no to anything in the world? Brutality, stupidity, thoughtless ness and suffering; we must say yes. Affirm the world and life. We are not to judge anything. This is the greatest teaching of Jesus. Affirm both good and evil. Do not withdrawal from the world when you realize how horrible it is, but see the horror as the foreground of a wonder. Come back and participate in it.

To be spiritual we need a deep sense of mystery of the dimension of the universe that is not available to the senses. Divinity is the realization of wonder that is much larger then the human dimension. Divinity is just what we think. God is a metaphor of what is guiding you and comes from within. The transcendent mystery is where we come from and we do not have to identify it. I am the vehicle radiant of the spirit, as we all are. The virgin birth is the symbol of the birth of the heart to the awakening of the spiritual life in accord with another or a principle. To not be driven by the lower centers of lust, greed, power and wanting but to be driven from the compassion of the heart to open-up to the realization that God is within the other and us; a whole new life comes.

The ultimate mystery is finding God within you. That God is within us just as he is within the earth and all of nature and everything. God is everywhere. This is the real truth- He is not up in the sky separate from us, but within us and around us supporting us always, and we just need to become awake to this fact. I can see why the goal is to die before we die. To die to our animal and material nature and become reborn to the spiritual nature, which is our true nature.

And he often mentions how we are to live our lives in accord with nature and to worship nature just as most of the world does. Western Christian thought sees nature as fallen and our religion is one of exile that nature is fallen and evil. This is ridiculous Campbell says because what else do we have to worship then nature? All other religions but Christianity, teach to live in accord with nature and the God's are much more elemental of the earth. We come from the earth and are a part of the Earth not separate from it.

Here is a quote from Chief Seattle that Campbell dictates and lives by:
"Will you teach your children what we teach our children, that the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. Earth does not belong to man; Man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. What he does to the web he does to himself. One thing we know, our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of man? When the view of the ripe hills is blocked by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone. Where will the eagle be? Gone. What is it to say goodbye to the swift pony and the hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival."

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sukhavati, October 6, 2007

By	Abel R. Gomez (San Bruno, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Mythologist Joseph Campbell is perhaps best known for his PBS series, The Power of Myth, a television program aimed at reawakening mythic consciousness in everyday life. In "Sukhavati", the Joseph Campbell foundation combines some of Campbell's best work along with mythic imagery and music from around the world into a short but concise 78 minute introduction to the world of global mythology.

"Sukhavati" spans a number of spiritual traditions, most notably Hindu and Buddhist as well as the mythology of the Great Goddess, the ancient Greeks, indigenous peoples, and the Holy Grail to convey myth as a central component of spiritual experience. Though not specifically Witchcraft or neo-Paganism, Campbell covers elements central to contemporary Pagan theology, specifically in his analysis of the Mother Goddess, "She is time, space, causality...she is the giver of life and she is the giver of nourishment...the whole universe, the sphere of the universe is the womb of the Goddess and the deities and all the names and all the forms are within her bounds."

Perhaps one downfall of this DVD is that those unfamiliar with mythic concepts may find the film too abstract or nebulous. Still, "Sukhavati" is a heartfelt and intelligent exploration of the function of myth in spirituality and how it is applicable to one's life; to understand the power of mythic consciousness and find one's own sukhavati, or "place of bliss". As Campbell teaches, "We're in a free fall into future... And always when you're going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along. But all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act... Joyfully participate in the sorrows of the world and everything changes."

5 out of 5 magick wands!