The ancient seers often compared the human mind to a lake. When agitated, its muddy waters obscure the depths below. But when still and clear, the lake reveals what lies beneath. The Upanishads use this image to convey a timeless truth: in inner stillness, the Self is revealed.
In this metaphor, the muddy water represents the restless mind, clouded by desires and distractions. The lakebed symbolizes the true Self, pure, undisturbed consciousness. The message is clear: when the mind grows quiet, the deeper truth becomes visible.
Yet something curious and deeply significant happens when the water becomes still. We not only begin to see the bottom of the lake, but we also see reflections of the sky, the moon, the sun, and even our own face.
Do these reflections distract from the truth, or do they carry meaning of their own?
When the mind becomes quiet, it does not fall into emptiness. Instead, it begins to reflect a more expansive reality. These subtle impressions are not like the noisy, fragmented thoughts of daily life. They are refined glimpses, intuitions, moments of insight, and reflections of something vaster than the individual self. They do not arise from ego but from a place of deep inner clarity.
In many traditions, such experiences are seen as important milestones along the spiritual path. Yogic philosophy calls them sattvic vrittis, pure, balanced thought-waves that move in harmony with truth. In the Tantric view, they are not distractions to be rejected, but expressions of consciousness itself, energies to be understood and integrated.
Just as the reflections of the sun and moon on the surface of the lake hint at the vast sky above, these refined inner experiences point toward the infinite. They are not the final truth, but they are not without purpose. They gently guide the seeker inward, preparing the ground for deeper realization.
Yet even the most beautiful reflection is not the source. Gradually, we come to see that the reflected sky, sun, and moon are not the essence of who we are. The true Self is not what appears in the mirror. It is the awareness in which the mirror itself appears. The quiet mind becomes a mirror, but what we truly are is the light by which all things are seen.
Philosophers distinguish between phenomena, what appears, and the noumenon, that which truly is. Reflections are phenomena. The changeless witness behind them is the noumenon. In Vedantic terms, the Self is not what is seen, but that which sees.
The journey, then, is not about rejecting reflections, but about not mistaking them for the real. One moves from seeing the reflection, to sensing and being guided by the light behind it, until one realizes oneness with that very light.
In the stillness of such inner clarity, the seeker no longer seeks reflections, but rests in the light that makes all seeing possible. Stillness does not reveal emptiness but the Self. It is a direct and experiential knowing beyond words, which is the silent, radiant essence of Brahman.
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