Point

The being level · 12 of 24

Acting good, or being good

Ask the uncomfortable question, and answer it honestly.

Growing up, or having a good image

There is one question in Campbell's material that does more work than any other, and it is not comfortable. Are you really committed to growing up, or are you committed to having a good image?

It follows directly from intent being the thing that counts. There is a large difference, the theory pages say, between acting good and being good — good deeds done for selfish reasons are not an expression of love but of ego. The behaviour can be identical. The result is not.

This is where the whole framework becomes usable rather than interesting. Anyone can adopt the vocabulary. Anyone can be seen to meditate, to be calm, to say the right things about fear and ego. All of that is available to the intellect, and none of it is the thing.

His test for whether understanding has actually arrived is behavioural. Big truth, once understood and assimilated, always modifies your intent, and invariably leads to personal change. If nothing about how you act has altered, what you have is an intellectual result — which he does not count.

So sit with the question today, and try not to answer it too quickly. A fast answer is usually the image talking.

Campbell's own words

Campbell, Buddha at the Gas Pump interview; My Big TOE theory pages(opens in a new tab)

Before you start

  • Lighten up. Do not be intense or serious about this.
  • Sit somewhere comfortable and quiet where you will not be disturbed. A chair is fine. He does not specify anything beyond that.
  • Close your eyes.
  • Pick a time when you are not already churning. First thing on waking or last thing before sleep tend to work; straight after a big meal, or while you are angry about something, tend not to.
How long

Campbell’s own instruction is twenty minutes, twice a day. The shorter lengths early on are ours, not his — starting at twenty is how most people stop after a week.

The two buttons during a sit

Campbell’s mantra is not a fixed thing you repeat for twenty minutes. Its size is a dial, and you move it during the sit against how much thinking is going on. His instruction is symmetrical: if intruding thoughts constantly stream into your awareness, give the mantra a more active form; as thoughts disappear and do not return, decrease the complexity.

Busier
Your mind keeps wandering off. Give it more to hold, so there is less room for anything else. At the busiest: fill your mind with the longer chant: ah-lum-bar-dee-dum · ah-lum-baa-dee-dum. no need to make an actual sound. let it be busy.
Simpler
Nothing much is intruding any more. Let it thin out — there is no point crowding a mind that has already gone quiet.

Keep going down and you reach the end of it: If the sound slips away and no thoughts come in behind it, let it go. Drift in the quiet blankness of your consciousness. That is the whole aim — the mantra is scaffolding, and you take scaffolding down when the building stands up. Arrow keys work too, if you have a keyboard to hand.

Keep this tab open. The screen stays awake and dims itself, so the phone can lie face down. On iPhone, locking the screen or switching apps stops the sound — a browser limitation rather than a setting.