Joseph Campbell died in 1987.
In 1955 he made a trip to Asia which transformed his life.
His lectures about his journey were collected in book form published with its first printing in June of 2003.
In the Editor’s Foreword to that book we find these words:
“Campbell) was astonished with a mode of thought–evident in Calcutta, Kyoto, Bengal, and Bangkok–that was fundamentally different from the Western mode in which Campbell himself had been raised. It was a mind-set that assumed an altogether different connection between the individual and the transcendent. Instead of the relationship of creature to Creator, Campbell found cultures that defined the self as being identical with the eternal–which Hindus called Brahman.

Campbell found this approach remarkably refreshing. Talking about how Japanese culture lacked the concept of the Fall of man, Campbell said, “I’ve told my friends to save their money on psychotherapy and visit Japan.”
The other major revelation that struck Campbell during this trip was the absolute lack of education in comparative mythology and religion that afflicted most Americans. Throughout the trip he was embarrassed to observe fellow countrymen–even among the scholars and diplomats he traveled with–who were either woefully ill informed about or utterly indifferent to the cultures they encounterd (And led Campbell to write an overview of comparative myth).

From this I take this: The assumption of Eastern religion from the start has been that we are God as waves are the ocean. There was no Fall, hence no need of an Atonement, and no place for repentance, remorse, obedience and faith. We are as God is and simply live to be who we are.

This frame of mind changes everything. Now, aligning ourselves with the Tao is “of course” the way things are to be done, because that is who we are, who we are born to be, one with Tao all our life long.

Pleasing God is no longer the way to get what we want and avoid what we do not want. We do not live to please God. We live to be godly by being who we are. One with the Tao from birth to death. May it be so!