Unsplash/Katherine Hanlon
By Jo Mooy
When seekers cross the bridge from looking outside themselves to inside for answers, their whole belief paradigm shifts.
The questions are usually sincere and genuine. Some begin cautiously, meandering around the subject they want to ask about. Others jump right to the topic. All of them seek spiritual guidance in some manner. Of the hundreds and hundreds of questions asked, each can be put into one of these two categories: Out There questions or In Here questions. Forty-plus years on the spiritual path doesn’t necessarily qualify me as an expert. But I do respond to the questions based on those many years of study, the rigid disciplines I endured, and the practices drilled into me.
In the 1970s I went to a psychic fair in New Jersey. The endless Out There questions I kept asking the numerology reader, Reverend Nancy Pisano, made her stop and take me to the door of her tent. She pointed down the way to another tent about 30 yards away and said, “Go over there!” Over there was where I found my first spiritual teacher, Gloria Cruz. She was a Rosicrucian master who taught me meditations and esoteric practices that would influence the path I walked for the next seven years. When I was ready to leave her tutelage she told me, “When you’re 60 the real teaching work you’re destined to do will begin.”
Over 40-plus years of study each teacher was like a domino falling in a line. As the path got steeper, the next one inevitably showed up. Each was able to direct my progress forward. Sometimes an intersection took me on a meandering detour but eventually I was always returned to the original path. I learned that boulders and potholes on the road can cause flat tires, interrupting any journey.
While waiting for one of my flat tires to be fixed, I began looking In Here instead of Out There. The Out There questions were no longer as important as they had been. That’s when a radically different set of teachers came along. They taught me meditation techniques and very deep esoteric practices. One day, they were all gone. No more teachers appeared. On that day I heard my Rosicrucian teacher’s voice in my head saying, “When you’re 60 the real teaching work you’re destined to do will begin.” It was my turn to answer the questions of others.
Some teachers believe that not answering a question is the answer. I believe every sincere question is a sacred trust that deserves an answer. No question is better than another, or more advanced than the next one. Rather, the type of questions asked often indicates where the person is on their spiritual journey. In almost every case I’d asked the same ones of my teachers. The Out There questions start with what books to read, or what classes to attend. Some ask if they should pursue psychic readings for themselves. Others ask about taking up metaphysical disciplines like numerology or astrology. A few ask about healing. The questions about UFOs or Aliens were important to answer because I could include my personal experiences on those topics. But more exciting was realizing that the questioner was on the brink of discovering alternate realities that would catapult them into deeper ways of looking at the world around them.
They were standing on the bridge from Out There to In Here.
Once they cross that bridge the whole belief paradigm shifts. The awareness of that seeker who questions is so much wider, but now it’s more inwardly directed. They’re able to comprehend a greater reality of consciousness and their questions reflect that. The old questions about books, studying, attending classes, or doing, take a back seat. Now, they ask about understanding their individual roles as fractals in the larger whole. Some go much deeper, asking how to experience a connection with cosmic consciousness. These questions are at the heart of being “In Here” and require the greatest care in answering them—especially because each experience is so unique to that traveler.
The greater shift occurs when a question is asked, and before an answer can be given, the individual says, never mind, I know the answer to that. Then they stop asking questions. When this happens that individual is ready to pick up the baton and answer the questions of others. You see, by integrating all the studies, all the teachings, all the practices, and all the different meditations learned from so many teachers, each of us is simply tilling the roadway till we become teachers ourselves. When the path is smoothed for others who are coming along behind, there’s a certainty that it will be made easier for them and they will speed along faster than you did. That certainty is bestowed because a long line of teachers asked many of the same “In Here” questions. All they asked of us was to carry it forward.
Jo Mooy has studied with many spiritual traditions over the past 40 years. The wide diversity of this training allows her to develop spiritual seminars and retreats that explore inspirational concepts, give purpose and guidance to students, and present esoteric teachings in an understandable manner. Along with Patricia Cockerill, she has guided the Women’s Meditation Circle since January 2006 where it has been honored for five years in a row as the “Favorite Meditation” group in Sarasota, FL, by Natural Awakenings Magazine. Teaching and using Sound as a retreat healing practice, Jo was certified as a Sound Healer through Jonathan Goldman’s Sound Healing Association. She writes and publishes a monthly internationally distributed e-newsletter called Spiritual Connections and is a staff writer for Spirit of Maat magazine in Sedona. For more information go to http://www.starsoundings.com or email jomooy@gmail.com.