The meaning is very clear; it is the meaning of all religious practice. The individual, through prolonged psychological disciplines, gives up completely all attachment to his personal limitations, idiosyncrasies, hopes and fears, no longer resists the self-annihilation that is prerequisite to rebirth in the realization of truth, and so becomes ripe, at last, for the great atonement.
The Hero with a Thousand FacesHis personal ambitions being totally dissolved, he no longer tries to live but willingly relaxes to whatever may come to pass in him; he becomes, that is to say, an anonymity. The Law lives in him with his unreserved consent.
The Hero with a Thousand FacesMany are the figures, particularly in the soil and mythological contexts of the orient, who represent his ultimate state of anonymous presence.
The Hero with a Thousand FacesSometimes a fool, sometimes a sage, sometimes possessed of regal splendor; sometimes wandering, sometimes as motionless as a python, sometimes wearing a benignant expression; sometimes honored, sometimes insulted, sometimes unknown—thus lives the man of realization, ever happy with supreme bliss. Jus as an actor is always a man, whether he puts on the costume of his role or lays it aside, so is the perfect knower of the Imperishable always the Imperishable, and nothing else. - Shankaracharya
The Hero with a Thousand FacesOr do ye think that ye shall enter the garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed away before you?
The Hero with a Thousand FacesThe gods only laugh when men pray to them for wealth. - Japanese proverb
The Hero with a Thousand FacesAll things are in process, rising and returning. Plants come to blossom, but only to return to the root. Returning to the root is like seeking tranquility. Seeking tranquility is like moving toward destiny. To move toward destiny is like eternity. To know eternity is enlightenment, and not to recognize eternity brings disorder and evil.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces