John Steinbeck
This is a famous character description of Slim in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. In these simple words, Steinbeck describes the characteristics of an enlightened man, someone with a wisdom that goes beyond thought. Slim is slow moving, mindful, gentle, and soft spoken without ego or a need to prove himself. The use of "not of thought" and "beyond thought" indicate a connection to That which Is beyond the physical world as we know it. This is the type of person we are all destined to be...once we stop identifying ourselves and life with what is going on in our heads. Life is beyond thought. Once we can get beyond the veil of thought we will experience it more fully.
Reality is beyond speech and thought. Only that which can be expressed in words is being said. But what cannot be put into language is indeed That which Is.
AnandamayiMa
AnandamayiMa was an early 20th century Bengali sage and spiritual leader who led by example. Like Slim, she spoke little but when she did her words and the wisdom she offered her thousands of devotees were beyond thought. Her mission, according to those who wrote about her, was simply to make everyone aware of the One that resides in all things. That which Is..no matter how we perceive It or worship It... resides in all things and can not be described or understood with mere thoughts or words.
And according to Tolle's words below...once we learn that our identification with thought and the body is not what we are and accept that force that flows through us and all things as the Essence of all Life...we are on the path to freedom. We begin to truly experience the beauty, love, creativity, joy and inner peace that are expressions of That which Is.
The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the "thinker". The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter-beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace-arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.
Eckhart Tolle
All is well.
Resources
- Bhaiji (1975). Sad Vani: A Collection of the Teaching of Sri Anandamayi Ma. translated by Swami Atmananda. Shree Shree Anandamayee Charitable Society.
- Fitzgerald, Joseph; Alexander Lipski (2007). The Essential Sri Anandamayi Ma: Life and Teaching of a 20th Century Indian Saint. World Wisdom. ISBN 978-1-933316-41-3.
- Steinbeck, J. (1993) Of Mice and Men. Penguin
- (first published in 1937)
- Tolle, Eckhart. (2004) The Power of Now. New World Library
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