Let’s not confuse being specific with being precise. They are not the same. Being precise is a function of the Clear Essence, the Clear diamond. Being specific is a function of the Point. The Point is the most specific essential presence there is. When you experience the Point, you are a singularity, as specific as one can be. There is no more specific experience of Essence than the Point—a one-pointed, singular, concentrated sense of identity and presence. It is the most specific way one can experience oneself. That’s why we say that it is simplicity itself. It has no parts—it’s one thing, very simple, very specific. And because it is the most specific quality, it aids us in being able to be specific about anything. Precision, however, is a matter of exactness, of distinguishing one thing from another.

The clarity we are discussing is a specific element in the process of understanding. This clarity is indistinguishable from objectivity. And objectivity and clarity are the qualities of the Clear diamond of the Diamond Guidance. Both qualities are important and specific to the Guidance, and the Clear diamond brings them into the operation of the Guidance. Or you can say that the operation of the Diamond Guidance is an objective operation of clarity in the process of inquiring into the truth. In its operation, in its guidance, it clarifies our situation. It penetrates or cuts through our positions, beliefs, and ignorance. Cutting through means understanding or getting clear. We are able to discriminate in a very definite and precise way. And if there is any process that is central to inquiry, it is the process of clarification. I am relating this clarity to our true nature because our true nature, with all of its essential aspects, is the presence of luminosity. What is Essence? Condensed light. The very nature of all aspects is this sense of luminosity, this sense of clarity, the sense of lack of obscuration. Yet, even though all the essential aspects are free of obscuration, each has a particular quality besides its inherent common luminosity. The Clear diamond is free of obscuration, just as all the other aspects are, but its essential, dominant quality is clarity—a sense of freshness, translucence, and lucidity.

The drive toward precision and clarity is the action of the Clear diamond. Experience becomes perfectly clear when the Clear diamond manifests and cuts through the clouds of obscuration with the sword of precision. The sharp edges of the diamond function by cutting through the dullness and vagueness of our obscured experience. The diamond has very sharp facets. When these facets touch our experience, they make us see it in a very clear, precise, sharp way. So the sharp edge of the diamond scepter is the clear, precise and specific perception or understanding. This precision can go quite deep, with increasing subtlety. In some sense, the subtlety itself becomes a matter of greater precision. The more precise our experience, the more it becomes subtle. Perception becomes finer, more subtle, more delicate. Hence we see that inquiry proceeds by our being curious and questioning, and the questioning is guided by becoming more precise. This increases the clarity, the objectivity, the sharpness, the subtlety, the refinement, until we arrive home, at the Absolute, the farthest reaches of reality. That’s why one of the descriptions of absolute truth is that it’s the razor edge that cuts at each point of space. It’s hard to imagine something that is sharp at every single infinitesimal point, where precision becomes a searing sharpness. Imagine the refinement when that sharpness is present at each and every point—such a refinement is absolute. Then there is nothing to be found. It is complete, one hundred percent transparency. If there is even an atom left, it means that point hasn’t been cut. It means that we haven’t been absolutely precise in our exploration.

We have seen that the clearer we are about where we’re coming from and what’s going on, the more we see the objective truth. This gives rise to the question: How do we become clear? Or, what is the process of clarification? To understand this, we need to explore the contribution of the Clear diamond in a more specific way. The Clear diamond contributes the capacities of objectivity and clarity, but its most specific and characteristic property is the sharpness of its facets, which contributes the faculty of precision. More accurately, the objectivity and clarity of the diamond are inseparable from its precision and sharpness, which imbue perception and experience with precise discrimination and knowledge. In other words, the process of clarification in the operation of Diamond Guidance occurs through our basic knowledge becoming exact, specific, precise, and sharp. Inquiry moves our experience not only toward objectivity and clarity, but also toward precise, specific, and sharp discriminations. When we have become specific and precise about a matter, we have arrived at objective understanding. We eliminate unclarity and obscuration by becoming precise. Precision means a specific, exact, sharp delineation. This sharp delineation needs to be not only in the thinking mind, but primarily in direct experience.