Clarity

1. Clarity is Your Natural State, Obscured by Misunderstanding

Clarity is your mind’s natural state.

Innate clarity. Just as water clears when mud settles, your mind naturally returns to clarity when you allow your thoughts to settle. This clarity is a universal resource, essential for effective leadership, high performance, and a fulfilling life. It's not something you need to strive for, but rather something you already possess.

The hidden hamster wheel. The primary obstacle to clarity is the "hidden hamster wheel," the mistaken belief that external circumstances dictate your core states like happiness, security, and peace. This superstition leads you to chase external achievements, relationships, or possessions, always seeking a "there" that is better than "here."

Breaking free. To escape this trap, recognize that your feelings are not caused by circumstances, but by your own thinking. By understanding the inside-out nature of reality, you can begin to dismantle the superstitious thinking that keeps you from clarity and embrace the innate well-being that is always available to you.

2. Insight, Not Information, Unlocks True Understanding

We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.

Reading for insight. Traditional learning focuses on acquiring information, fitting new data into existing cognitive structures. However, true understanding comes from insight, allowing yourself to be impacted by new ideas and allowing an intuitive knowing to emerge from within. This is like looking at a magic-eye picture, where the 3D image appears only when you relax and look "through" the surface.

The power of insight. Insightful understanding is transformative, leading to lasting changes in behavior and perspective. It's like downloading an app that immediately starts working, providing motivation, context-sensitivity, and sustainable results.

Intellectual vs. insightful. Intellectual understanding is like reading an instruction manual, while insightful understanding is like having an app installed. One requires effort to implement, while the other works automatically. By reading for insight, you can tap into your innate capacity for clarity and experience profound shifts in your life.

3. Experience is Created from Within, Not Imposed from Without

Thought creates the world then says ‘I didn’t do it’.

Mind-made reality. Your experience of the world is not a direct reflection of external reality, but a mind-made representation created from within your consciousness. This includes everything you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. Your mind is constantly generating a model of "what must be out there" based on sensory data.

The pixels of perception. This mind-made reality is constructed from what the author calls "THOUGHT," the perceptual equivalent of pixels. Every experience, memory, and imagination is made of THOUGHT. This power of THOUGHT is so flexible that people can use it to create any perceptual reality.

The outside-in illusion. The biggest obstacle to clarity is the illusion that your feelings come from something other than your thinking. This "mental magic trick" leads you to believe that external circumstances dictate your core states, when in reality, 100% of your experience is mind-made.

4. Principles, Not Circumstances, Govern Your Reality

Misdirection is the art of initiating a train of thought in the mind of the spectator.

Inside-out vs. outside-in. Your experience of life is created from the inside-out, but it often appears as though it's created from the outside-in. This is because your thinking always looks real to you. This illusion leads to two common mistakes: attributing your fulfilling experiences to external circumstances and attributing your unpleasant feelings to external circumstances.

The principles of experience. Our experience is generated from three fundamental principles:

• THOUGHT: The capacity to generate a perceptual reality.
• CONSCIOUSNESS: The capacity to experience your thinking.
• MIND: The intelligent energy that shows up in all aspects of the natural world.

Clarity through principles. Superstitious thinking, arising from the outside-in misunderstanding, is the only thing that ever keeps you from clarity. By understanding the principles behind your experience, you can see through this misunderstanding and reconnect with your natural state of clarity.

5. The Psychological Immune System Restores Mental Well-being

You’re feeling your thinking, not what you’re thinking about…

The psychological immune system. Just as your body has a physical immune system to protect you from illness, you also have a psychological immune system to restore your mind to clarity and well-being. This system is constantly working to guide you back to your natural state of clarity, regardless of your circumstances.

Feelings as signals. Your feelings are the visible face of your invisible thinking. They act as "rumble strips" to alert you when you're drifting off track into superstitious thinking. When you recognize that you're feeling your thinking, you activate your psychological immune system's self-correcting process.

Overriding the system. The natural self-correcting system can be overridden by conditioning. People who are resilient intuitively know their thinking is an illusion, while those who fall apart are convinced their thinking is real. By understanding the nature of THOUGHT, you can begin to "see through" this conditioning and reconnect with your psychological immune system.

6. Superstitious Thinking is the Root of Stress and Unfulfillment

You’re always living in the feeling of your thinking.

The source of stress. The true source of stress is the mistaken belief that you're feeling something other than THOUGHT taking form in the moment. This belief puts you at the mercy of external circumstances, leading to a congested, speedy mind, insecurity, and isolation.

The illusion of control. When you believe your feelings are caused by external factors, you try to control and manage those factors to protect your well-being. This creates a "to-do list" of management tactics that only reinforces the outside-in misunderstanding.

The solution to stress. The solution to stress is insightful understanding of the inside-out nature of life. When you see that 100% of your feeling is coming from THOUGHT in the moment, feelings of stress start diminishing and clarity starts emerging.

7. Authenticity Arises from Recognizing Your True, Formless Identity

Matter flows from place to place and momentarily comes together to be you. Whatever you are, therefore, you are not the stuff of which you are made.

Beyond the self-image. You are not your job, your bank balance, or the shoes you wear. You are not your body, your accomplishments, or your history. You are not even your ideas about yourself. Your self-image is just a THOUGHT-generated map, not who you really are.

The formless energy. Who you really are is what's creating your experience; the intelligent, formless energy behind life; the principles of innate thinking: THOUGHT, CONSCIOUSNESS, and MIND. This true identity is constant, while your body, self-image, and feelings are always changing.

You are what you seek. You already are what you've been searching for until now. There's nothing to search for – you've already got it; you already are it. There's nowhere to get to – you're already here.

8. Wisdom, Not Intellect, Guides You to Your Best Life

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Beyond the senses. While your five senses are essential for navigating the material world, they are not sufficient for navigating life. You also have a built-in guidance system called wisdom, an expression of MIND that comes from before the world of form.

The super sat-nav. Wisdom is like a constantly updated "super sat-nav" system for your life, guiding you back home to who you really are. It's helping you find your way back home to who you really are, so you can have a richer, deeper, more fulfilling experience of life.

Trusting your wisdom. Wisdom is already guiding you, moment to moment. It's the source of insight, common sense, and intuition. By becoming more attuned to your wisdom, you can make better decisions, solve problems more easily, and live a more authentic life.

9. Living a Life You Love Means Releasing Toxic Goals

All great things are done for their own sake.

Toxic goals. Toxic goals diminish your quality of life from the moment you set them. They reinforce the outside-in misunderstanding and encourage you to exchange a rich experience of the present moment for an idealized future concept.

Authentic desires. Authentic desires are an expression of your innate clarity, wisdom, and well-being. They are things you want for their own sake, for no other reason than wanting them. There's no sense of angst or lack with authentic desires; no sense of striving or "I'll be happy when..."

Following your wisdom. By releasing toxic goals and following your authentic desires, you can create a life that is fulfilling, productive, and healthy. You'll find yourself living from a deeper understanding of innate thinking, with the circumstances of your life moving into alignment with your true self.

10. Capitalizing on Chaos Requires Clarity of Mind

We are at that very point in time when a 400-year-old age is dying and another is struggling to be born – a shifting of culture, science, society and institutions enormously greater than the world has ever experienced.

The wave-shift. The world is undergoing a massive transformation, shifting from the Industrial Revolution to the Information Revolution. This shift is characterized by increasing speed, complexity, and uncertainty.

The leadership delusion. The traditional approach to leadership focuses on acquiring skills and techniques. However, the true source of leadership resides in clarity of mind and clarity of understanding.

Clarity in chaos. In a world of chaos, complexity, and uncertainty, clarity is the key to solving the big issues that face us and creating a sustainable future. By understanding the principles of innate thinking, you can develop the clarity, resilience, and wisdom you need to thrive in this rapidly changing world.

Last updated: April 28, 2025