[ExI] Reconceptualizing the hero myth

[citta437 at aol.com]

Gary:"I'd like to quote Zindell:
> 'Without end,' Hanuman said. The pain of self-overcoming is just the
> beginning. Then, for our kind, if we're strong enough, if our souls
> are great and deep ? then comes the real pain. What's real pain, you
> ask? The power to choose what we will. Having to choose. This 
terrible
> freedom. These infinite possibilities. The taste for the infinite
> spoiled by the possibility of evolutionary failure. Real pain is
> knowing that you're going to die, all the while knowing that you 
don't
> have to die.'   'But, Hanu, everything dies,' Danlo said softly. He
> turned to face the scarred, old shih tree, and he pressed his 
forehead
> against it. When he looked up, he felt the zig-zag mark where the
> tree's icy bark had cut into his skin.  Hanuman shook his head and
> continued, 'But why die at all, Danlo? Mightn't there be a new phase
> of evolution? A new kind of being? Can't you understand? I'm trying 
to
> delineate an emergent quality of the brain. New synapses. New
> connections. A constellation of qualities and abilities, of new 
levels
> of existence. Consciousness heightened and exalted in itself,
> purified. This pure consciousness that we really are. That we 
struggle
> to be. For our kind, there's always the burning to be more. The
> eternal longing. And this is why true human beings feel more pain.
> Because we are more, but it's never quite enough ? never. And we are
> aware of this neverness inside our souls. And aware of being aware.
> There is a feedback. Can you understand what this is like? Pain is
> magnified, infinitely. Each moment of time. Reality becomes almost 
too
> real. It blazes. All the universe afire with the possibilities of
> light, and madness, too. Real pain is the burning that never stops,
> the frenzy, the lightning.' "
_____________

Hi, thanks for the above quote which expressed discontent of the human 
condition prone to illness, poverty and death.

The factors that contribute to mental health are within reach of 
everyone yet sensient beings are numberless and a Boddhisattva vows to 
save them all from suffering delusions by learning and doing what is 
unattainable.  Hanuman said that "real pain is knowing that you're 
going to die and all the while knowing that you don't have to die."

Perhaps a Boddhisattva is a reconceptualized hero?

Terry