PART ONE: The Adventure of the Hero

Chapter I: Departure

* 1. The Call to Adventure

The adventure begins with the hero receiving a call to action, such as a threat to the peace of the community, or the hero simply falls into or blunders into it. The call is often announced to the hero by another character who acts as a “herald”. The herald, often represented as dark or terrifying and judged evil by the world, may call the character to adventure simply by the crisis of his appearance.

* 2. Refusal of the Call

In some stories, the hero initially refuses the call to adventure. When this happens, the hero may suffer somehow, and may eventually choose to answer, or may continue to decline the call.

* 3. Supernatural Aid

After the hero has accepted the call, he encounters a protective figure (often elderly) who provides special tools and advice for the adventure ahead, such as an amulet or a weapon.

* 4. The Crossing of the First Threshold

The hero must cross the threshold between the world he is familiar with and that which he is not. Often this involves facing a “threshold guardian”, an entity that works to keep all within the protective confines of the world but must be encountered in order to enter the new zone of experience.

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Chapter II: Initiation

* 6. The Ultimate Boon

The hero is now ready to obtain that which he has set out, an item or new awareness that, once he returns, will benefit the society that he has left.

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Chapter III: Return

* 1. Refusal of the Return

Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.

* 4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold

The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real.

* 5. Master of the Two Worlds

Because of the boon or due to his experience, the hero may now perceive both the divine and human worlds.

* 6. Freedom to Live

The hero bestows the boon to his fellow man.

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— Wikipedia, on The Hero with a Thousand Faces

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2009.05.11 Monday

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中道，簡單而言是不苦不樂（不追求痛苦、不追求快樂）的修行方法。

中道的最初靈感，是佛陀在長期苦行苦修後卻覺得一無所獲，而在近河的地方打坐時，聽到河船上的人唱?：「琴弦太鬆、太緊都無法彈出悅耳的聲音。」佛陀以此進行推思，凡夫俗子追求慾望、快樂，死後將墜入地獄，而苦行僧的森林苦行雖可在死後生為天人，得到比人世間更好的快樂，但福報用盡也依然要離開天界，再次輪迴，因此認為不該在苦樂中計較，以不追求痛苦、不追求快樂的方式修行，才有可能擺脫生老病死與六道輪迴。

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— 維基百科

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2009.05.06 Wednesday