Looking puzzled, Janet announced, "I must be missing something here—what do you mean by infinity?"
I felt absolutely electrified as I explained to Janet, "When I was in India I had heard a few religious leaders and mystics say, There is no beginning and no end to life,' but I never really understood what they meant. Just now I had a deeper appreciation of what the mystics in India were really saying. Just think about it, Janet. If everything is One Divine Cell, there couldn't possibly be a beginning or end to the same energy."
Peter shook his head, looked first at Janet then at me. "Eric, what you just said about infinity can't be proven one way or the other—it's strictly your personal opinion. It's common knowledge that the scientific field has been trying to prove whether or not there even is such a thing as infinity."
Ignoring Peter's comments, I told Andy that what he had just said had blown my mind. "This is unbelievable. It's so simple! You know, Andy, up until just now I always thought Infinity started in the present, instead of realizing that there couldn't possibly be a beginning to Infinity, could there? I can't believe I didn't see it before now."
Andy, smiling an enormous smile, made no reply.
Looking over at Janet, I could see she was struggling to comprehend the basis for my excitement. She shook her head and muttered, "I'm sorry Eric, but I just don't get it."
It became obvious to me as Janet continued her struggle to understand that I couldn't begin to explain my own insight. I realized that even as I spoke, the flash of understanding I had felt was fast disappearing from my head—into oblivion. But whatever I had experienced left me with the most incredible feeling of elation and wonder as I continued thinking about Infinity.
I indicated that I wanted Andy to continue the discussion of his theory that everything was the same energy—and of that energy's relationship to infinity.
Pointing to his head, Andy said, "Only in our little minds does the separation exist." Then, with another huge smile, he whispered, "I'm sure you must have heard the saying, 'We are what we seek?"
"Many times," I replied.
"Well that's another clue to the knowledge you seek, a clue to help you realize that there is no separation between what you seek and what you are. Remember, Eric,
The form and the formless together are Infinity in motion."
With these words, Andy flashed another enormous smile, stood up and thanked us for an interesting conversation. He then walked away, leaving us to contemplate his philosophical ideas regarding everything being one and my own realization that he had been talking about Infinity.
We sat for some time, turning Andy's last words over in our heads. Then, at Janet's suggestion, we walked to the village in search of a cup of coffee. The conversation quickly drifted toward a discussion of the gardener's obviously fervent belief in the importance and validity of the three principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought. On the way back to the hotel, Tom spotted the gardener sitting on one of a pair of gnarled, bentwood benches and immediately headed toward him. Andy greeted us with his usual smile. "Good afternoon! How are you doctors enjoying yourselves?"
"Very well, thanks," Janet replied. "We've had a wonderful day so far. We certainly enjoyed our conversation with you today. I know I found it very interesting."
Tom, on the other hand, couldn't resist challenging Andy. He declared that he couldn't accept the validity of the three principles. "In fact," he fumed, "should we give them any credence at all? If there was any validity to what you're proposing, if your theory regarding the principles you talk about were true, there would have been intensive studies done by now. Why haven't there been any field trials in psychology that investigate this?"
"I haven't the slightest idea, Tom," Andy replied. "Perhaps there have been and you just aren't aware of it. How should I know? I'm just a gardener."
Peter said, "I still don't quite see how these three so-called powers fit into the picture of mental health, or why you think we should place such importance on them."
Andy invited us to join him, then paused long enough to pour himself a cup of tea from an insulated bottle he produced from his lunch kit. Finally he said, "Peter, it's been my experience in life that the quality of my mental well-being is determined by how I use these three precious gifts."
Peter's inquisitive mind still couldn't stop formulating questions. "Why do you place so much emphasis on Thought?"
Andy's reply to Peters question surprised us alclass="underline"
"Thought is the spiritual catalyst that springs
Mind into action and produces form."
"Thought is the master key," he continued. "It can keep you a prisoner of your past or it can set you free."
Tom, being an atheist, naturally resented any of Andy's answers that alluded to the spiritual or to a soul, so he asked, "What's the 'soul' got to do with mental health?"
An expression of shock crossed Andy's face. Then he explained to Tom that, as far as he was concerned, the soul and the psyche were one and the same. "Just two different names for the same thing," he asserted.
"I've never heard that connection before," Tom snapped. "I don't see what the so-called soul has to do with psychology."
Before Andy could reply, Peter said he still remembered at least part of the Oxford Dictionary's definition of psychology. "I believe it was something like, 'Psychology: The science of nature, functions, and phenomena of the human mind (formerly also the soul).'"
I had to confess that, like Tom, I thought the concept of a soul had more to do with religion or philosophy than with psychology.
"Me, too," remarked Janet. "As a matter of fact, I never heard anyone discuss a link between soul and mind in all the years I attended school."
Andy further surprised us when he said, "All I can tell you is that when the lot of you stopped your investigation into the connection between Mind and Soul, you threw away one of the most important clues to your investigation into the mysteries of mental health."
"What you have to try to realize," he continued, "is that such knowledge is found only when human thoughts transcend the intellect, reaching a realm beyond, deep in the soul, where the end of the rainbow and the divine pot of gold truly exist. This is how you will find elusive wisdom, not by delving into the past."
His words were said in such an authoritative voice that we couldn't protest. Not even Peter, with his fierce intellectual inquisitiveness, could ask any more questions.
Chapter 12
Acquiring Wisdom
For a while I sat deep in thought. I snapped out of my reverie to hear Andy saying, "I can't imagine why you people don't look for plain, old-fashioned common sense. Seek the logic of the psyche, or the Psycho-Logical." The gardener grinned impishly at his own play on words.
I had the distinct feeling that Andy was baiting someone to challenge him—and that someone wasn't going to be me! It was Peter who bit, of course. He made it very clear to Andy that there were many in this world who would resent the idea that there was a difference between their intellect and wisdom.
"Perhaps there are," Andy replied. "But I'm afraid that's not my problem. We just have different opinions about life. Believe me, Peter, if I have ever upset anyone with my statements, I apologize. I can assure you it is unintentional and I'm certainly not putting down the intellect. As a matter of fact, I wish I had as much intelligence as you doctors have."
Peter, proud of his intellect, asked Andy once again, "What then, in your opinion, is the difference between what you call wisdom and the intellect?"