Looking Back, the Source Was Always Clear
The original ground is clear from the start; there is nothing to manufacture or repair.
Believing I am only all right after adding more, have I forgotten the clarity that was there from the start?
📝Reflection
This verse from the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment brings a strange relief. We always feel something is lacking in ourselves and believe we will become all right only after filling more, fixing more — and so we cannot rest. But this teaching says the reverse: the original ground was clear from the start. What looks like muddy water is only stirred-up silt for a moment; the water itself has not turned foul. When the silt settles, the original clarity reappears. This is not a call to stop trying. It is to set down the premise that "I am fundamentally a lacking being." "Nothing to repair" is no excuse for laziness; it is rest from the fatigue of endlessly doubting oneself.
🌱Apply It Today
When the thought "I am lacking" tires you today, recall once: "what is murky now is only stirred silt; the water itself is clear." Wait a moment for the silt to settle.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
