Enlightenment, Myth, & Sway
Wednesday Wisdoms for April 9, 2025
Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.
This month we’re exploring the theme of Story.
Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom, our 3x3 Newsletter where I distill worldly advice for better living with 3 quotes, 3 observations, and 3 questions.
Enlightenment
🤨 Quote
“To know others is wisdom;
To know yourself is enlightenment
To master others requires force;
To master yourself requires true strength.”
Lao-tzu
Source: Tao-te Ching
Observation 🧐
Everyday we learn something new of the world. It’s from this that we begin to understand how the world operates.
But built within all of these ins-and-outs of the world is story.
We tell stories about how we want our career to go, or what we want our marriage to look like, or the type of person we aspire to be.
But these are surface level. We must experience these stories, and then see how they shape us. Nothing happens in isolation, instead, every experience impacts us and the stories we tell, both about the world and ourselves.
What we want to do is find the stories we’re in without realizing it—the ones invisible to us.
These stories drive our actions, desires, and thoughts.
These stories are deeper and reveal who we truly are.
That hidden voice, the narrator of these stories, we must find them for in that reveal is the path to enlightenment. From there we can begin to understand how these stories shape us.
🤔 Question
Think about one of the last moments you learned something new about yourself. What was that feeling like?
Myth
🤨 Quote
“Myth is not the same as history; myths are not inspiring stories of people who lived notable lives.”
Joseph Campbell
Source: Pathways to Bliss
Observation 🧐
Myth is often conflated with history. We treat myths as reality rather than what they are—stories—and we turn history into myths.
But myth’s original purpose was to create something larger than a simple story—it was to help individuals transcend their normal existence and aspire for something greater.
As Joseph Campbell wrote, “what the myth does is to provide a field in which you can locate yourself.”
The myth helps us explore the depths of our inner self. It helps us determine what we can be. It helps ground ourselves in morals, in virtues, in relationships.
Myth helps create symbols for what exists in the real world so we can discover it in our inner world.
Think about the symbol of the mandala Campbell says.
“The symbols are laid out around the circle, and you are to locate yourself in the center. A labyrinth, of course, is a scrambled mandala, in which you don't know where you are. That's the way the world is for people who don't have a mythology. It's a labyrinth. They are battling their way through as if no one had ever been there before.”
If life is a labyrinth then myth is the path that directs us out of it.
🤔 Question
What was the last myth you read or heard that helped open you up to a new realization?
Beneath the paywall this week we explore the wisdom of Jonathan Gottschall. Click below to support and get access.