A famous saying goes like this: “If the mind is not contrived, it is spontaneously blissful;  just as water, when not agitated, is by nature transparent and clear.”

Buddhism teaches us the following: “I often compare the mind in meditation to a jar of muddy water.

The more we leave the water without interfering or stirring it, the more the particles of dirt will sink to the bottom, letting the natural clarity of the water shine through.

The very nature of the mind is such that if you only leave it in its unaltered state, it will find its true nature, which is bliss and clarity.”

My mother, a dedicated Christian woman and accomplished healer, who knew nothing about Buddhism taught me the same thing when I was a child, only she was referencing prayer and not meditation.  She would often say, “Leave yourself alone, Peter, and let your mind be at peace.  Give over your problems to God.  Let God handle it.  Put it in God’s hands.”

Then she would take the lessons of water to the next step.  She would use the lessons of water as an analogy for healing.

She taught me this simple truth: If you have a glass of muddy water, brown and opaque, there are basically two ways of purifying it.  The first one is laborious and time-consuming, but can work.  You get out your tweezers and your magnifying glass, put the glass of water under a strong light and patiently search and pick out the specs of dirt from the water with your tweezers until the water is clear.  This is called psychology or analysis.

The second way is to pour into the muddy glass of water glass after glass of clean, pure water until the water in the original glass is also clean and pure. This is called spiritual healing.

Pour into your mind floodtides of love, truth, clarity, goodness, etc., until “the very nature of the mind… will find its true nature, which is bliss and clarity.”

In both instances it is important to first identify that the water is muddy.  Many of us skip over this all-important first step and consequently go through life never really getting to and fixing our problems, but instead, decide that we are somehow cursed in some fashion and simply have to live with our problems.

We refuse to live with our polluted streams and lakes and oceans and work to clean them up.  Why would we decide to live with our problems and not attack them with the same gusto?  We all see easily the worth of clean, pure water, yet often fail to see the worth of clean, pure character.

I think it’s why most of us are here on this testing ground called Planet Earth – to purify our atmosphere, to purify consciousness.  I think this iteration of my own life is just that.  I’m here to get it together better than ever.  I’m here to purify myself and by doing that, help purify the atmosphere.

Once again I turn to a song to finish up this evening’s thoughts.  This one, an old 40’s classic.

Cool Water

Words and music by Bob Nolan
Revised lyrics by Joni Mitchell

All day I face the barren waste
Without a taste of water
Cool water
Old Dan and I
Our throats slate dry
Our spirits cry out for water
Cool clear water
Keep on movin’ Dan
Some devils had a plan
Buried poison in the sand
Don’t drink it man
It’s in the water
Cool clear water
In my mind I see
A big green tree
And a river flowin’ free
Waitin’ up ahead
For you and me
Cool clear water

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.