Pointing To The Moon

De Mello on Beyond Words

The great Thomas Aquinas, toward the end of his life, wouldn't write and wouldn't talk; he had seen.
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It's as if you had never tasted a green mango and you ask me, "What does it taste like?" I'd say to you, "Sour," but in giving you a word, I've put you off the track. Try to understand that. Most people aren't very wise; they seize upon the word - upon the words of scripture, for example - and they get it all wrong. "Sour," I say, and you ask, "Sour like vinegar, sour like a lemon?" No, not sour like a lemon, but sour like a mango. "But I never tasted one," you say. Too bad! But you go ahead and write a doctoral thesis on it. You wouldn't have if you had tasted it.
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A great German philosopher and theologian wrote a whole book specificaly on the silence of St. Thomas. He simply went silent. Wouldn't talk. In the prologue of his Summa Theologica, which was the summary of all his theology, he says, "About God, we cannot say what He is but rather what He is not."
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We think we know, that is our tragedy; so we never discover.

- Awareness, by Anthony De Mello

De Mello on Pointing to the Moon

“He would talk about theology as pointing a finger at the moon, and we come to mistake the finger
for the moon,” [a philosopher at Fordham University who has written about de Mello, Jesuit Fr. Norris] Clarke said. - http://www.geocities.com/~spiritwalk/demello.htm#intox

The Fragrance of the Rose (Words)

The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-tzu’s dictum:

Those who know do not say;
Those who say do not know.

When the master entered,
They asked him what the words meant.
Said the master, "Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?"

All of them indicated that they knew.

Then he said, "put it into words."

All of them were silent.

- from Anthony De Mello, One Minute Wisdom

Joseph Campbell on Metaphor

My friend Heinrich Zimmer of years ago used to say, "The best things can't be told," because they transcend thought. "The second best are misunderstood," because those are the thoughts that are supposed to refer to that which can't be thought about, and one gets stuck in the thoughts. "The third best are what we talk about." And myth is that field of reference, metaphors referring to what is absolutely transcendent. -- Joseph Campbell (From CharityFocus.org Quote A Day email newsletter)

Pico Iyer on Pointing to the Moon

“Words are the way we complicate the simple. The deepest aspects of life are about wordlessness – something you can’t articulate.”- Pico Iyer (via Vagabonding.net)