Reflections on the Art of Living
Joseph Campbell was a writer, storyteller, and an interpreter of myth. He was a teacher who declined to get his Ph.D. because it would have interfered with his education. His work influenced everything from the Star Wars saga to the lyrics of the Grateful Dead.
His two most famous works are The Hero With a Thousand Faces and the four-volume The Masks of God. In the first work Campbell suggested there is a single pattern of heroic journey and all cultures share this pattern. A lesson from 
Campbell's Masks of God is that the deepest understanding of our own religion may come from learning the stories of other religions.
Many people find Joseph Campbell's writing difficult to enter.
A Joseph Campbell Companion, by Diane Osbon, is a lumpy sort of book. The author groups excerpts from Campbell's works together with things he said in her company or while teaching others. For that reason this book can also be read like a daybook, with the reader meditating on a passage or two each day.
For many, this book will be one of the two easiest places to begin to understand what Campbell was trying to say: all myths and epics are linked.
The other easy place to begin is with the audio version of The Power of Myth. This audiobook is a conversation between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, and it was the basis for a series on public television.
Listening to Joseph Campbell gives a wonderful sense of the man--his warmth, his compassion, and his insight.
From A Joseph Campbell Companion:
--"Joseph taught me to see beyond the symbols to the riches they represent. Those who cannot see beyond the symbols, he remarked, are 'like diners going into a restaurant and eating the menu,' rather than the meal it describes."
--"One great thing about growing old is that nothing is going to lead to anything. Everything is of the moment."
--"The goal of life is to be a vehicle for something higher."
--"When we talk about settling the world's problems, we're barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It's a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives."
--"He teaches that doing what someone else wants us to do is slave morality and a path to disease and disintegration of the spirit and the body."
