The Clear Waters of Inner Wisdom

The Clear Waters of Inner Wisdom

“The water is clearer than the air and the air is the air that angels breathe.” − Mark Twain

Twain made this remark after seeing Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, between California and Nevada. This high mountain freshwater lake is so beautiful because it contains some of the clearest water on the planet, even today. If you lower something into its waters, you can still see it at a depth of seventy feet (if not deeper). That water clarity is remarkably free of turbidity (a term for particles in water) and is as rare as the state of higher consciousness. When something is clear, we know it through and through! When it is "turbid," we cannot see through it.

I remember my very first visit to Lake Tahoe, and it was not disappointing. Not only did the lake sparkle with clarity, but my awe and joy in its sight raised my internal state of clarity. Yes, I am what I eat, or in this instance, what I drank up with my appreciative eyes.

The mind has a light of its own, and by it illumines what it recreates. − Margaret Fuller

In contrast, the expression that something is “as clear as mud” describes an utterly vague and hazy condition. My ordinary state of sleep is hazy and vague and could indeed be as clear as mud. Higher states of consciousness, on the other hand, possess infinitely greater clarity.

What does it feel like when my state is not clear, when I lack clarity? This lower state of consciousness clouds my perceptions, mind, and heart. Imagination, identification, and the expression of negative emotions cause my inner world to be turbid and confused. When I become identified, such as when watching the news, being angered by other drivers on the road, or receiving spam emails, I can observe that my internal state is full of falseness and “turbidity.” By working against my mechanicalities and habits and by trying to remember myself, true inner clarity is possible. I can see clearly if I choose to do so.

A man who looks in front of himself does not stumble and fall. − Instructions of Onch, Egyptian Texts

Working on myself requires a clean and clear mind and a sincere and unblemished heart. To outsmart or to see through the lower self, it is necessary to accept what is before me without judgment while letting the mechanical fall away. If there are particles in my turbid internal state, let them settle out to the bottom, and then illumine the world with light and clarity. I have seen that the lower self in its usual state can be un-muddled through the clarity of higher consciousness.

When it is growing cloudy inside, remember yourself. When in a higher state, look and behold with clarity. Truth and clarity go hand in hand. I am clear waters; I am Lake Tahoe.

Only when illumining Light shines, everything else shines. – Upanishads

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Boulders, Lake Tahoe (2023)