Cleansed Yet Questioning: Inner Purity

Neville's Inner Vision

Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. The reader is invited to shift from the sense that cleansing is a deed done to a distant self. In the consciousness view, the I AM is the only reality; acts of cleansing are images within consciousness, not separate acts performed on a base self. The so-called vanity arises when you believe you are the doer of purity rather than its receiver. When I acknowledge that imagination creates reality, I realize the heart's cleansing occurs where I dwell—in the I AM. The 'innocency' of hands is the alignment of motive with the one Life, not a ritual. Therefore, the apparent contradiction dissolves: acts of cleanliness flow from the awareness of who I am. The verse ceases to condemn and becomes a reminder that real purification is a shift of consciousness—returning to the sense of I AM, where every appearing act is an expression of inner wholeness.