“There you are,” called Andy as we left the building and entered the old Victorian rose gardens. Andy and Emily led us to a bench with a view of the distant ocean where we could sit down to rest our weary feet. The abundance and variety of roses was breathtaking, and tired though she was, Janet couldn’t resist taking a few more photos to share at home.
“Well, did you enjoy seeing how the other half lives?” Andy asked.
Full of enthusiasm, Janet replied, “I’ll tell you something. I wouldn’t mind having that Axminster carpet that was in the music room in my apartment back home. Of course, I might have to cut it down just a little, and even then it would fill the whole place, but what an exquisite piece of workmanship. And how about that clock; I believe the guide said it was fourteen feet high! But I guess that that might be a little cramped with our eight foot ceilings,” she added.
“The whole place makes you feel as though you’re walking through a movie,” I declared. “Those carved heraldic beasts would fit into a Vincent Price movie with no problem. They and the guys in the portraits just didn’t seem too happy. Maybe they didn’t know about the Three Principles,” I smiled.
“And speaking of the Three Principles, Andy, what you’ve said about Mind totally entrances me. Throughout the past year I’ve often tried to understand your paradoxical statements, wondering how it was possible for both the Universal Mind and our personal mind to be the same. Isn’t that a contradiction?” I waited for his reply.
The gardener thought for a moment before responding, then replied, “If I were you Eric, I’d forget all about Big Mind and little mind and just call it Mind and I’m sure you will find it more beneficial and less confusing. After all, there is only one Mind.”
Janet smiled at his answer although she still looked somewhat perplexed. Glancing over at her, the gardener’s eyes creased in a smile as he said,
“Let not your human mind separate you
from the Universal Mind,
For they are one Mind caught up in a Divine Illusion."
Janet shifted in her seat and told the gardener that she still didn’t quite understand what he was trying to tell us. “Could you define what Universal Mind is, in some other way?”
Andy glanced up at the wisteria vines encircling the leaded windows in the wall behind us. There was a faint humming from the roses all around us as the bees enjoyed their work. I felt I was sitting in the perfect English garden with the most unusual people. Finally he softly replied,
“Universal Mind is the seat of all consciousness.
Universal Mind is the consciousness of all things, whether inform or formless.
Universal Mind is the intelligence of all things, whether inform or formless.
Universal Mind holds the secret to all psychological functioning”
Then he looked into Janet’s eyes and said, “Universal Mind is one of the greatest secrets known to humanity and the moment anyone starts to explain what it is, it becomes a metaphorical mystery.”
Astounded, I told Andy, “I’ve never, ever, heard Mind described that way.”
Janet and I looked at each other and suddenly couldn’t help bursting into laughter at Andy’s remarkable answer. Both the gardener and Emily sat with the most endearing smiles, ready to join the two of us in a good joke. When we finally managed to calm down, Janet, in her customary good-humored manner, told the gardener he really was “shorting her circuits” with some of his extraordinary answers.
With an intense look on his face, Andy reached over and held Janet’s hand, and in a gentle, loving voice said, “I think you’re trying too hard to figure it out, Luv.” He then reminded us that this was one of those things that the intellect could never figure out in a million years, and asked us not to take it personally. “It’s not that you’re not clever,” he assured us. “If you were a thousand-fold more intelligent than you are at the present moment, you still wouldn’t be able to figure it out.”
Rubbing her head, Janet chuckled at the gardener’s words. “Andy, I’d forgotten how you talk, and I don’t mean your accent either. It’s your paradoxical way of expressing your philosophy.”
Andy laughed and rejoined that he thought it was the way she was listening that was causing the paradox.
Janet grinned sheepishly. “Boy, I sure asked for that one!”
Taking the heat off her, I raised the question, “If such knowledge can’t be intellectually understood, why did the wise ever even try to explain it?”
“Because,” Andy responded, “The words of the wise are metaphorical clues that can guide us to a higher level of consciousness, which in turn bring some wisdom, that is, of course, if we can see or hear beyond their words. If you truly hear beyond their words, beyond their metaphors, you will realize that the answers did not come from them, but from deep within your own innate wisdom.
“As you are well aware, some people call such an experience an insight, or some may call it a revelation, or an awakening of something from within.
“Remember Janet,
“To look outside for the answers you seek is to dream.
To look within is to awaken the wisdom that lies within.”
Janet was listening intently, and she suddenly asked Andy, “Why do you think the intellect is unable to comprehend such knowledge? Yet,” she added, “you say it can be understood from an insight or a revelation. What I’d like to know is, what is the difference between one and the other?”
“Janet,” Andy murmured gently, “I’ve already explained it to you, but you failed to hear what was said. How could anyone possibly explain such a formless phenomenon? All I can tell you is, when you intellectually understand, you have obtained information from this outside world of form. On the other hand, when you have a true insight, you have tapped into your own innate wisdom, something that you had not previously realized, or let’s say that you had temporarily forgotten.”
I couldn’t get it together. What seemed a confusing theory to me, the gardener was calmly propounding as simple fact. “Do you honestly believe that deep inside everyone’s consciousness there lies an innate wisdom?”
“Yes, I do Eric. This is where all true knowledge exists. As therapists, you could call it a gateway to your psyche, or if you’re more comfortable with another word, you could say your soul.
“Your soul and psyche are the same. Again, only the words differ. This is why many throughout time have told us to look inside for the answer we sought. Some mystics asked us to look within. All were expressing the same guidance with different words.
“I say look within because the vastness of this physical earth and sky with all its solar systems is minuscule compared to what lies within every living soul walking the face of this earth.”
Janet and I looked at each other in wonder. What could the gardener possibly mean? I shook my head. “Andy, that’s quite a statement.”
Andy appeared to think for a minute before saying, “Intellectually finding something new in this world can be a wonderful experience and very fulfilling. Our intelligence is one of the most priceless things on this earth and we couldn’t live without it.
“However, a true insight is not of this world. One could say:
“With our intellect, we discover