Sources #6: Eastern Thought

This is where Joe and I really "click."

Campbell "went East," as I have, and found there some of the purest soundings of the themes of world mythology.

Here are some notes from a chronology of his life:

• 1924-26 ...On an ocean voyage to Europe he befriends Jiddu Krishnamurti, who introduces him to Oriental philosophy.
• 1927-28 He transfers to the University of Munich to study Sanskrit literature and Indo-European philology...
• 1941 He meets Indologist Heinrich Zimmer...
• 1942 He works with Swami Nikhilananda on the translation and editing of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and the Upanishads for the next three years.
• 1943 Zimmer suddenly dies of pneumonia and his widow asks Campbell to edit Zimmer's posthumous writings, to which he devotes twelve years. 1946: Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization; 1948: The King and the Corpse; 1951: Philosophies of India, 1955: The Art of Indian Asia.
• 1954 On sabbatical leave, he travels in India, Ceylon, Thailand, Burma, Hong Kong, and Japan.

The journals of this last item have been published as Baksheesh and Brahman and Sake and Satori.

Also from the 1950s, Campbell lectured on cross-cultural matters at the Foreign Service Institute for the U.S. State Department, being an early expert on Asia and other cultures. 

Next time: Jung and Psychology