A Joyful Practice

First Friday Night Special #68 — Invitation for “The Journey Continues…” Continuing with Excerpts (the “missing” invitation) June 5, 2026

Happy Pride! Many, many blessings to everyone and especially to anyone observing the Afterfeast of Pentecost.

This “missing” (expanded) invitation for the “First Friday Night Special” on June 5^th, includes related excerpt. You can request an audio recording of this Yin Yoga practice (with a little movement and pranayama) via a comment below or (for a slightly faster reply) you can email myra    (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.

In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es).

Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.

Check out the “Class Schedules” calendar for upcoming classes.

“Ironically, to Campbell the end of the hero’s journey is not the aggrandizement of the hero. ‘It is,’ he said in one of his lectures, ‘not to identify oneself with any of the figures or powers experienced. The Indian yogi, striving for release, identifies himself with the Light and never returns. But no one with a will to the service of others would permit himself such an escape. The ultimate aim of the quest must be neither release nor ecstasy for oneself, but the wisdom and the power to serve others.’ One of the many distinctions between the celebrity and the hero, he said, is that one lives only for self while the other acts to redeem society.

Joseph Campbell affirmed life as adventure.”

— quoted from the “Introduction” to The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (edited by Betty Sue Flowers)

If you were to pause a moment and share the story of your life, there would be fine points and details that would make your story very different from mine and my story very different from someone else’s story. However, there would be common elements. There would be stages, encounters, challenges that are a part of every life, every story…and every journey.

“GEORGE LUCAS: What happens is that no matter how you do it, when you sit down to write something all other influences you’ve had in your life come into play. The things that you like, the things that you’ve seen, the things — the observations you’ve made. That’s ultimately what you work with when you’re writing. And you — you are influenced by the things that you like. Designs that you like, characters you like, moments that you remember, that you were moved by. It’s — it’s like trying to compose a — a symphony in a way.”

— George Lucas responding to a question Bill Moyers asked about the creative process, quoted from the transcript of “The Mythology of Star Wars, with George Lucas”

Bill Moyers, who was born today in 1943, spent a good portion of his life exploring and reporting on life and the way we live life — especially here in the United States. He did this, in part, through conversations with poets like Robert Bly, Lucille Clifton, Rita Dove, Adrienne Rich, and Gary Snyder; as well as with politicians like John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson; visionaries like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Jane Goodall; filmmakers like George Lucas; and writers like Joseph Campbell. In fact, two of his most famous conversations occurred, eleven years apart, on Skywalker Ranch and centered around the “the power of myth” and idea of “the hero with a thousand faces”.

“[Joseph Campbell] agreed that the ‘guiding idea’ of his work was to find ‘the commonality of themes in world myths, pointing to a constant requirement in the human psyche for a centering in terms of deep principles.’

‘You’re talking about a search for the meaning of life?’ I asked.

‘No, no, no,’ he said. ‘For the experience of being alive.’”

— quoted from the “Introduction” to The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (edited by Betty Sue Flowers)

Death is part of being alive — and, so, Bill Moyers wrote and talked about death. In the book and the series, Healing and the Mind, he explored the ways in which we experience grief, loss, and the fear of loss, as well as how there is sometimes a disconnect between what we are taught and what we experience. He also discussed the ways in which how we cope can lead to more suffering or great healing.

“When my brother died in 1966, my father began a grieving process that lasted almost twenty-five years. For all that time he suffered from chronic, debilitating headaches. I took him to some of the country’s major medical facilities, but no one could cure him of his pain. At one point during that ongoing search for a help, a doctor tried to teach him that his headaches were somehow related to his grief. But my father persisted in treating his pain exclusively as a medical problem, and the headaches continued to torment him.”

— quoted from the “Introduction” of Healing and the Mind by Bill Moyers (Editor, Betty Sue Flowers; Executive Editor, David Grubin; Art Research, Elizabeth Meryman-Brunner)

Click on the excerpt title below for the 2023 post related to Bill Moyers and discussions about life and death.

The Last Appointment (a “long lost” Saturday post)

“I never met anyone who could better tell a story. Listening to him talk of primal societies, I was transported to the wide plains under the great dome of the open sky, or to the forest dense, beneath a canopy of trees, and I began to understand how the voices of the gods spoke from the wind and thunder, and the spirit of God flowed in every mountain stream, and the whole earth bloomed as a sacred place — the realm of mythic imagination. And I asked: Now that we moderns have stripped the earth of its mystery — have made, in Saul Bellow’s description, ‘a housecleaning of belief’ — how are our imaginations to be nourished? By Hollywood and made-for-TV movies?

Campbell was no pessimist. He believed there is a ‘point of wisdom beyond the conflicts of illusion and truth by which lives can be put back together again.’”

— quoted from the “Introduction” to The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (edited by Betty Sue Flowers)

Click on the excerpt title below for the 2024 post which highlights the monomyth/Hero’s Journey (and includes some elements from the previous post).

FTWMI: The Journey Continues… (with an excerpt)

“[Joseph Campbell] was, of course, criticized for dwelling on the psychological interpretation of myth, for seeming to confine the contemporary role of myth to either an ideological or a therapeutic function. I am not competent to enter that debate, and leave it for others to wage. He never seemed bothered by the controversy. He just kept on teaching, opening others to a new way of seeing. It was, above all, the authentic life he lived that instructs us. When he said that myths are clues to our deepest spiritual potential, able to lead us to delight, illumination, and even rapture, he spoke as one who had been to the places he was inviting others to visit.

What did draw me to him?

Wisdom, yes; he was very wise.

And learning; he did indeed ‘know the vast sweep of our panoramic past as few men have ever known it.’

But there was more. A story’s the way to tell it. He was a man with a thousand stories. This was one of his favorites. In Japan for an international conference on religion, Campbell overheard another American delegate, a social philosopher from New York, say to a Shinto priest, ‘We’ve been now to a good many ceremonies and have seen quite a few of your shrines. But I don’t get your ideology. I don’t get your theology.’ The Japanese [delegate] paused as though in deep thought and then slowly shook his head. ‘I think we don’t have ideology,’ he said. “We don’t have theology. We dance.’

And so did Joseph Campbell — to the music of the spheres.”

— quoted from the “Introduction” to The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (edited by Betty Sue Flowers)

This Yin Yoga (with a little movement and a little pranayama) is accessible and open to all.

(NOTE: There will be a little bit of quiet space in this practice.)

Friday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “06052026 The Journey Continues”]

NOTE: You can select Track #1-#4 for this practice. Track #2 (the Jason Stephenson track) is different on each platform. I will probably remix this playlist, but the primary tracks will remain the same.

Prop wise, this is a kitchen sink practice and I will suggest having a chair, sofa, coffee table or bolster (as well as a blanket) for this practice. You can practice without props or you  can use “studio” and/or “householder” props. Example of “Studio” props: 1 – 2 blankets, 2 – 3 blocks, a bolster, a strap, and an eye pillow. Example of “Householder” props: 1 – 2 blankets or bath towels, 2 – 3 books (similar in size), 2 standard pillows (or 1 body pillow), a belt/tie/sash, and a face towel.

You may also want extra layers (as your body may cool down during this practice).

If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.

White Flag is an app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.

If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).

You’re Invited to Bend… & To Take The Deepest Breath You’ve Taken — On Retreat!

September 25 — 27, 2026

### LIVE YOUR STORY! TELL YOUR STORY! DANCE! ###