refusal of the return

    On the third stage of the heroes journey that we are now learning, the first phase is the refusal of the return. This occurs when the hero completes his quest, but does not want to return home. Instead he/she wants to stay in the new world that is a result of his/her journey. Another case may be that the hero will not think back on the journey and understand what he/she has learned.

An example of the refusal of the return from our reading that our group thoroughly discussed was Siddhartha. Siddhartha’s journey was similar to the Buddhas, in that they were both trying to achieve nirvana. Once nirvana is attained the heroes refuse to return to an un-enlightened state of being. They also refuse to go back and teach others their path that they took to enlightenment.

In my life I have also experienced the ‘refusal of the return’ many times. The last time I experienced it was on winter break when I went on a cruise with my family. The cruise went all over the Carribeans/Mexico and was very fun and relaxing. I ‘refused to return’ in that I did not want the vacation to end and have to go home.

fear

fear is an important part of te hero’s journey

fear must be kept out of the hero

and into his enemys

once the fear enters

like a virus it goes through the body

and is hard to get rid of

conquering this is all a part

of the hero’s journey

a hero’s knowlege

    I think it is very important to share knowledge. The knowledge that I have that I could share with the world is eighteen years of experience in this world. I contain knowledge about living in the suburbs growing up just outside of Pittsburgh. I have 12 years of elementary, middle, and high school knowledge. In addition, I have one and a half semesters of knowledge of studying at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

I do both share and do not share my knowledge. I do not share my knowledge when someone does not want to hear it. I also do not share my knowledge if I think it will not help the particular person who may be requesting knowledge.

I do share my knowledge when someone requests it or I think it will benefit someone. Knowledge is something that I think should always be shared these cases. For example, look at the internet. The internet was founded on knowledge and allows us to spread knowledge instantly all across the world. Without the internet we would in no way be as advanced as we are today, especially in technology.

apotheosis poem 2

entering a new world

full of new responsibilities

the hero is completely changed

as he/she accepts the new challenges

that he/she will soon face

as a hero entirely different from

the beginning of his/her journey

apotheosis poem 1

stuck were i grew up

wanting to grow up and go to college

feeling like siddhartha wanting to become a shamana

the hero’s time will come when

he/she passes the threshold

and enters a new world

apotheosis

In my life I have experienced many apotheoses. One achieves an apotheosis when they experience a realization about purpose of live and self. This, in effect, expands the hero’s consciousness. After this achievement, the hero views the world as a completely different place.

The one major recent apotheosis I had was becoming an adult. For four years I went to high school at Upper St. Clair High School in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. For those four years I was supposed to feel older being in high school, but didn’t. I was not able to drive until my junior year, and did not have a car until my senior year. Even if I did have a car, there was not a lot to do in the suburbs and I still felt like a kid living with his parents.

The worst was at school though, we had the same things we had in middle school. ‘Home room’ to check-in in the morning, which was ten minutes of wasted time. I also had mandatory classes with harsh penalties if you skipped, and other simple responsibilities that were never given to the students that were supposed to be the oldest students in the school district.

This all changed though when I came to IUP. I am now an adult living and working on my own how I had wanted it. In this world I go to my classes, eat, and handle all of my responsibilities on my own. Here there is no ‘detention’ or punishment outside of the law. Here I am my own person and have all of the responsibilities I wanted when I was in high school back home.

the father archetype

the all knowing father

one who probably went through

a journey just like the hero

his job is to give aid, knowledge, and experience

where the hero has none

the father plays a key role in

guiding the hero through

the road of trials on his journey

samsara

    Samsara to me is the path we follow to complete our journey. During our journey we create identities and learn from each of them. A samsara is each new identity or world one enters on his/her journey. On this journey one must go through several samsaras creating, destroying, then creating again another samsara. This pattern continues until the hero reaches his/her goal and no more samsaras are necessary.

Siddhartha is a perfect example of a samsara-er. In his journey he is constantly creating and destroying his different identities/worlds. At first he is a Brahman, rich, nobel, and very respected. He then left this life for that of a Shaman, people that own no material possessions and often fast for weeks on end since they have no food. He observed the world as it was, miserable full of greedy evil people. After talking with the Buddah he saw the world as full of life and joy. He then later experienced a world of love with Kamahla as well as becoming a man of property with Kamaswami. After he realized he was becoming an evil greedy merchant he escaped this life and joined the ferryman ferrying people across the river.

In my life I have also experienced many samsaras. The example Marlen allowed me to realize in class was perfect. I went to elemetary school at Baker Elementary. I went to middle school at Ft. Couch. Then I went to high school at Upper St. Clair. Lastly I enrolled to college at Indiana University. Each one of these experiences were different samsaras that I had to surpass by ending one world/level of education then moving on to the next. Like Siddhartha’s samsaras mine will also end when I have reached the level of education necessary to start a new journey of working for a living.

failure

the hero’s journey starts off good

then he/she is faces with several challanges

not prepared the hero panics

on the road of trials the hero does not move forward

until the hero can over come

he/she must deal with failure

success

on the road of trials

the hero faces many challanges

depending on the character

it may be strength

it may be endurance

it may be intelligence

that leads the hero

to success on his journey