The Long and Winding Road

In the last post I spoke of a way of seeing the world, one that seems common among most mystical traditions, but is new and often different from how most of us see the world. Another common thing I read in most mystical literature speaks to the Journey.

Simply put, the mystics suggest that the mystical journey is part of what brings one to the new way of seeing the world, to the place of peace.

So I want to present two ideas in this post.

1. I want to explore the idea of the journey
2. I want to make it more accessible to other apprentice mystics

We have a deep subconscious recognition of the journey. Most of us hear stories of a journey and often recognize it as a metaphor for our soul, or consciousness, or for at least something worth reaching for. Thousands of stories exist about journey's; all the way from the yellow dog (Disney), to Alice in Wonderland, to the Argonauts and their search for the golden fleece. Jesus made many journey's beginning with one in the desert. Noah made a journey, but then, so did Buddah, Mohammed, and many others. Many religions celebrate the passage of people from one place (state of mind?) to another. The journey often represents the journey of awareness or of awakening.

In the Bible the tribes of Israel were freed from Egypt (which often represents a state of captivity or of being asleep, unaware), and travelling for 40 years to get to the promised land. This is the metaphor of the mystical journey. We are all asleep, unaware early in our life. for some of us, something happens to bring us to awareness. we wake up. We discover there is a journey to be had. We don't know what it is, we just know that it is different than anything we have ever attempted before. and it is our journey. People may say to go this way or go that way... but something deeper, inside of us takes us the direction we need to go for ourselves.

And those who have realized there is a journey often identify with the idea, even to the point of taking on a name, or at least a title. Pioneer, Pathfinder, Trekker, Seeker, Searcher, Explorer, Journeyman, hunter, wanderer, pilgram, tracker, and many, many more names.

So again, while the mystics often talk about "the journey" (Tao is often translated into English as meaning "The Way"); just like learning to "see" the world in a new way, we are often left with the idea that the journey is long and arduous (40 years in the desert??? no thanks!). Symbollically our own personal trip to Mecca... But I'd like to suggest my own experiences with the journey that differ from this idea.

The journey can be fast. In a flash, in a moment you can suddenly have an insight and your way of seeing the world changes. More importantly, even if the journey takes a long time, just having the feeling that your on such a journey changes your perspective. The journey itself can bring a great deal of peace in and of itself. Finally, like some of my previous posts,

Finally, I'd like to suggest that the mystical literature often speaks of the journey as this magical, mysterious sort of thing - big, hard to get to; but my own experiences suggest that once you begin to wake up, you find your feet planted on a path, and off you go. It's more like the journey finds you, and if you don't resist too much, you'll find it simply becomes part of you, and not so mysterious or big or hard to understand. it is your OWN path. and that's what makes it powerful, unique, mysterious, beautiful, and full of wonder. Or is that Wander?