In Search of Clarity

CLARITY is like a diamond. The cleaner, the more rare, more precious and more sought-after.

Like how cut, colour and carat affect value, clarity’s cousins are focus and concentration, confidence, congruence and alignment. Clarity lends success to purpose and intention. The wise know well how a lack of clarity can cripple. Morpheous: Welcome, Neo. I imagine right now you’re feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole? I can see it in your eyes — you have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he expects to wake up. Do you believe in fate, Neo? Neo: No, because I don’t like to think that I’m not in control of my life.


Morpheous: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you can feel it. You’ve felt it in your entire life. You know there’s something wrong with the world; you don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind.


Do you know what I’m talking about? Do you want to know what it is? The Matrix is everywhere. It’s the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.


In the movie The Matrix, Lawrence Fishburne plays Morpheous. He challenges Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, by asking him what he understands by “truth”, and how much of what he knows is actually real. The movie illustrates wonderfully how our perceptions weave a convoluted web that when not analysed, classified, deduced and clarified, can often confuse, complicate, distort truth and immobilise our progress. Best with a clear head, we analyse, decide, know and trust. By our senses we see, hear, feel, touch, taste and intuit. By our mind, body and emotions we experience, understand and learn. Yet science proves that whatever we consider real is only vibration. “Things out there” (including you and I) are just sub-atomic particles vibrating, producing electromagnetic energy at various frequencies. These vibrations cause electrical and chemical activity in our brain. And miraculously we become aware. Then “in here”, we know. In the absence of vibration, there’s no experience. See what happens when we get clear? It can be life-changing, even transformational. Then again, reality is different at various levels of awareness. Just think how over-generalising and pre-supposing, omitting, personalising, and black-or-white thinking could colour and distort truth. We do this all the time, and there are thousands more perceptual filters that hypnotise us into oblivion! In the theatre of our mind, all make up our own movie about life by the meaning we give to whatever is happening and by the way we code and categorise what’s going on in our world. Be careful how you navigate through life — the map is not the territory! So how do you get clear? Start by wanting to know for sure who you are. What do you want? Do you feel people “get” you? The meaning of your communication is the response you get! People say ignorance is bliss, but whose enjoyment are you satisfying by your ignorance? As we get clear about who we are and what we can do, we self-actualise. Our self (consciousness) grows. As we engage our potential, we improve our expertise. We improve our ability to recognise critical distinctions others fail to see. If you don’t see it, it isn’t there for you. The wise learn to look, so we see more and more each time. Bliss belongs to the conscious! You get in the way of truth when you freeze everything in time — space. When you over-identify with facets of self, you become a prisoner to your roles, titles and labels.


Truth is, we’re all in the process of being and becoming, transforming and actualising. I have a body, but I am not my body. I can feel emotion, but I am not my emotion. I have an intellect, but I am not that intellect. My behaviour is only an expression of myself. My thoughts and feelings are impermanent projections of myself. What would remain after I discard my mind, body and emotions? The essence of my self, my consciousness is the only “thing” which gives “me” a sense of permanence. After all, without consciousness there would be no life.


“Know that one thing; by knowing which, everything else is known,” teaches the Vedanta. No need to be a poet or a preacher. To your self, be true.


True strength comes from within Q: Please explain what the higher self is. At present, my life is so messed up — my husband just lost his job, I suspect our only son is addicted to something, and suddenly I’m the sole wage earner in the family. I fear I’m going to break down. Is the higher self the stronger self? A: You mentioned the higher self. Then you must have some suspicion, even if remote, that the spirit exists at some level. That somewhere, something greater than our imagination, is possible. That higher self refers to that part of us that has access to that realm beyond our imagination. Some call it God, others call it soul, conscience or life force. We all have it.

Let me invite you to step back from your life as you know it. Close your eyes and imagine yourself on a balcony looking down at all that’s happening to you. Remove yourself emotionally from what you see. Just observe. Now imagine a third position, from a much higher place, that isn’t fixed in earthly space. Imagine this place among the stars, so beautiful that you gape in awe. Now you appear like a spec in the distance. Check your feelings.


Your higher self is in touch with the real you — the one that belongs to all of creation. It stands guarantee to your immense potential. Just like the cosmos, it offers infinite possibilities. Take a snapshot of that image and keep it in your heart. Now go and feel that — really breathe the feeling in.


Now what were you saying about lack of strength? Just look within and trust. You will overcome. There are no mistakes — everything is on purpose.


Act on your thoughts Q: You knock the Law of Attraction. Didn’t you say our thoughts are powerful? What other strategy can you offer if I want to get the things I want? I’ve read about creative visualisation. I suppose you disagree with that, too? A: Somebody is actually paying attention to what I say. Thank you for the compliment! The Law of Attraction falls short on one score. It says our thoughts manifest — that’s exactly right. Then we must act on our thoughts. Act consistently and repeatedly. Act in ways that leave ego out of the equation. Then the universe, in all its bounty, will conspire with your intention to bring you what you want.


A few guidelines on how to get your ego out of the way: 1. Live independent of the good or bad opinion of others. In simple language, lose your addiction to approval, praise and compliments; refuse to personalise criticism. 2. Just go do your best.


3. Focus on the process and detach from the outcome.


4. Release the need for power over others.


5. Practise gratitude. Gratitude is especially successful because when we experience gratitude, ego cannot dominate. Now the process: Ask for what you desire. Affirm with compelling reasons (first get ego out of the way). Commit that you will do everything within your power to have what you want. Don’t quit. Banish all thoughts of failure. Keep refreshing your vision of what you wish for. Continue to fuel your dream with passion.