Inner Birds and Clean Conscience

Neville's Inner Vision

Count the birds not as creatures to fear or avoid, but as pictures of your own shifts of consciousness. The law's catalog of unclean birds is a map of thoughts and feelings that 'fly' across the mind and seem to contaminate your sense of self when you identify with them. Owls and bats speak of hidden fears and darkness; eagles and lapwings touch pride, restlessness, and distraction; the swan and pelican suggest vanity and self-regard dressed in noble plumage. Yet none of these are you, for you are the I AM, the awareness that neither applauds nor condemns but simply witnesses. By assuming the opposite of the perceived pollution—i.e., that you are already pure as you choose to be—you revise the state you occupy and let the inner movement dissolve. The moment you declare, 'I am that I AM,' you convert the list into a reminder that your inner atmosphere is under your rule, not governed by external labels. Purity is a conscious condition, not a ritual verdict.