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?

Hope

The Christian scriptures record a story of the prophet Jesus that provides an interesting insight of hope, in the book of Mark, chapter 4, paragraphs 16 & 17.

¹⁷And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

¹⁸The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

¹⁹To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

As one of his first public discourses, Jesus offers a beautiful synopsis of the mystical world view by quoting Isaiah, that there is hope. He speaks to those that are poor, brokenhearted, captive, blind, or bruised and tells them there is hope. It doesn't hurt to compare the original writing in Isaiah, the first 3 verses of chapter 61.

Many people of ancient societies saw the world more symbolically than we do today, and sometimes we believe that our way of seeing the world is more modern, mature, and better. We see this need to attach meaning to everything - as primitive and childish. Much of the mystical world view requires a certain willingness to set aside our own prejudices, at least for a time.

So while he spoke of the poor, the blind, and the brokenhearted, I believe that many would have understood him to speak more of those who felt this way emotionally. To those who felt they have an empty life (poor), or who feel disillusioned or that life holds many unmet expectations (brokenhearted), or who feel trapped (captive), or even can't see another way to live life (blind), or to those who just simple feel beaten down and hopeless -- to all of these Jesus speaks the mystic's message, there is another way to see the world. That life has hope.

I believe Jesus chose Isaiah for a reason. To me, when I read Isaiah, I see a particular message repeated over and over again, almost like Bach takes a musical motif and repeats it in endless ways - forwards, backwards, stretched out, shortened, in contrast to itself, and many other variations. Here is the message of Isaiah, as I understand it:

1. To those who feel beaten and downtrodden by life
2. You feel pain because of how you see the world
3. But there is hope
4. There is another way to see
5. Through at-one-ment [a.k.a truth, a.k.a G-d, a.k.a the mystical world view, a.k.a. enlightenment, a.k.a. nirvana, a.k.a many other terms]

I enjoy reading the symbols of the ancient stories, and surprisingly they often correlate with modern dream dictionaries. So, I will end this post with a quick side tour of a few symbols as I have come to understand them (and often as expressed in many dream dictionaries - especially Jungian interpretations).

• Mountains - often mean obstacles and challenges (can also mean goals or achievements)
  
• Valleys - usually denote depression, as in the valley of despair, or of the shadow of death
• Road - represents finding ones way. when you are lost and find a road, you know that it leads somewhere
• God - Truth, Unity, Oneness, Aleph, the Beginning
• One - God, Unity, Truth, Aleph (the Hebrew letter A), the mystic's way of seeing the world
  
• Wilderness - A state of being barren, a barren soul, unnourished
• Garden - A bountiful and full soul. A soul that has found peace, contentment.
• Crookedness - represents confusion, many voices, insecurity
• Rough Places - a period of difficulty, hardship, tough times (like tough economic times)
  

Christian's often quote the following verses as a prophecy of John the Baptist, whose voice was "crying in the wilderness." If you read it using the symbols above, it takes on a whole new meaning, one of hope and solace for those who live, "in the wilderness."

From Isaiah, chapter 40, verses 3 and 4

3 - The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God

4 - Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

For some of you, as you read these two verses, perhaps a new way of seeing these verses jumped out at you. At the risk of simplifying too much, I will repeat the elements within the verses with my own interpretation.

• The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness [to those who are in pain - in THEIR OWN wilderness]
• prepare ye the way of the LORD [there is hope. get ready for hope]
• make straight in the desert a highway for our God [you will find truth, or truth will find you]
• Every valley shall be exalted [your sorrows will be lessened]
• and every mountain and hill shall be made low [your obstacles will be removed]
• and the crooked shall be made straight [you will find the way in the midst of chaos and multiple voices]
• and the rough places made plain [and the hard times will be over]

I see these verses as part of Isaiah's broader message of hope. And maybe you're in a place to hear that message. If you life is one of struggle, if people around you just "don't get it", if there is often pain everywhere you go... perhaps you can at least hear this much of the message from Isaiah and Jesus, that there is Hope.