By Jo Mooy
Every soul is on its own path, and each path has its own characteristics and qualities.
I call the isolation of the 2020-2021 “The Great Pause.” As of this writing, it’s lasted 20 months. For some, it’s been unpleasant. For me, it created a break from the routine I’d been following nonstop for the past 15 years. It gave me a long-overdue rest that I didn’t know I needed nor would have taken. It’s been immensely beneficial because I took the time during the 20-month sabbatical to examine where I’ve been, what I’ve done and, more importantly, where I’m going next.
I’ve written many articles about the spiritual journey that one takes in life. It’s been called The Path, a Quest, or The Way, and it’s often described as a long solitary trek towards an end goal. It’s an endless quest that can take thousands of years according to some esoteric traditions. It can be direct or it can meander around and detour into unplanned places. It’s expected to lead to some form of an “enlightened” endpoint.
I discovered that may or may not be true because, while on the path, it doesn’t reveal its “truth” or the direction to take without doing some serious work. That “work” brought me to a different understanding of what the journey is and facilitated the simple unfolding that occurs without any prodding. Sometimes it comes from unusual sources. During my second summer in The Pause, I met a Mandalorian and a foundling named Baby Yoda. The Mandalorian speaks of “The Way” much as grownup Yoda spoke of “The Force.” The Way is a type of Zen path where a code governs the behaviors of the Mandalorians. It’s a spiritual code held within a cultural path of honor that connects warriors or seekers.
On the heels of the Mandalorian path of honor, I discovered the Platform Sutra. I’d never heard of it before. Its author is Huineng, called the Sixth Patriarch of Chan (638-713 BCE.) He wrote, “We are what we think, having become what we thought.” When I read those words I wondered if Abdullah, (who taught my spiritual teacher Neville Goddard) may have actually influenced the Sixth Patriarch. Abdullah was descended from a 6,000-year-old Asian mystical lineage whose teachings were similar.
Three paths that influenced my spiritual education were converging without any proactive effort on my part. Was this how the spiritual journey unfolds? You’re walking along living your life, doing your thing, and something spontaneously drops out of the blue causing you to look up and meander in a new direction. When the Mandalorian “Way” dropped in, it stirred a memory that merged with Neville Goddard’s teachings and the tenets of the Platform Sutra. Those “codes of living” were rooted in the teachings of Lao Tsu’s Tao Te Ching, which coincidentally, was also written in the 6th Century BCE. All three of those spiritual disciplines came about in answer to devastating regional wars and terrible discord on the land. Each path offered rules on how to live in goodness and integrity during those severe chaotic times.
The teachings are still relevant centuries later, as Covid’s arrival created its own discord across the world. Emotional and behavioral wars between usually well-meaning and rational individuals erupted constantly. In 20 months, the emotional and physical toll it provoked was soul-crushing. Yet, each person, following their unique Path, (whether they were aware of the Path or not) had to navigate the psychic boulders tossed up by the chaotic and cultural explosions, and somehow forge ahead with virtues like patience, tolerance and compassion. Many days it was a near insurmountable task that shattered the delicate social fabric holding us together.
The spiritual disciplines that each person experiences on their journey always deliver tools to help steer through the endless debris fields ahead. In a never-ending teaching mantra, spiritual disciplines affirm the virtues of meditation (or silent, quiet contemplation) and controlled breathing. The Sixth Patriarch said, “Meditation is the essence of wisdom, and wisdom is the function of meditation.” Practiced daily, it can restore harmony to the chaos. Wisdom and insights come forth when the mind is still. The Platform Sutra suggests just sitting. Add nothing to it—just sit and breathe evenly. In that space, (done for about 30 minutes) the discord lessens or disappears, and a sense of ease will return.
Walking The Way is not a technique. It’s a way of living and being. Becoming aware of it forever changes the individual. The Way opens “the code” of who you are. Every soul is on its own path. Each path has its own characteristics and qualities. What we might call a “negative path” has harsh challenges for the person walking it. But only courageous souls choose that path. What we call “good paths” are easy in comparison, for they carry lesser psychic wounds at end of life. Every path is going in the same direction. It seems like there are many paths but there’s only one path spiraling forward like an elongated slinky. Each soul, regardless of the positive or negative qualities expressed on its journey, is always a lighted pearl on the coils of the slinky.
There’s much more meaning to it than this intellectual understanding. Studying or trying to grasp the essence of The Way is a lifelong pursuit. Yet, in one moment of stillness, it can blossom. I’m only a novice with a rudimentary understanding. But every so often, while falling asleep at night, or in the silence of a no-thought meditation, I get a glimpse of the grandeur of the journeys each soul has chosen to walk and I see clearly how each one illuminates the next one. And, I see the magnificence of each soul that has chosen to do this during times of extreme disorder, like the one we’re currently experiencing. When those infrequent glimpses occur, the chaos dissolves, inspiration returns, hope is restored, and I’m good for another 50,000 miles along The Way.
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.