Tenrikyo-Ofudesaki - Whatever Kind of Water It May Be -
First
let's look at the metaphors and what they are meant to indicate:
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Water - The human mind.
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Springwater - Original consciousness. The mind of a thee year old child. The condition of the human mind prior to the rising up of the self-centered imagination.
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Pond in the High Mountains - An abstraction of Original Consciousness as a self-centered imagination attached to or superimposed on an abstraction of God's body; what we commonly call "our mind" and "our body".
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High Mountains - The appearance of a human body which is an abstraction of God's body which is the universe or all that exists.
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Mud - Accumulations of self-centered imagined truths that are obscuring and depressing the original consciousness and not delivering the intended high spirited joy of life that the self-centered imagination is intended to and is capable of delivering.
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Go into the water - God is already present at the origin of everything however the abstraction that is the self-centered imagination is unaware of that and so this "go into" refers to whatever way or ways that can be employed to get the attention of the self-centered imagination and coax its voluntary return and repair while leaving its rather marvelous capacity for free play intact.
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Clear water - The mind in which the self-centered imagination is completely settled without any thoughts appearing within it. This state of mind is necessary to reveal the true origin of the self-centered imagination. Once known and understood the self-centered imagination is expected to go back up into the "pond in the high mountains" and be able to experience the free and unlimited workings of the original consciousness as the world of joyous play.
The point that I would like to make here concerns "whatever kind of water it may be". In the early years of our species the original consciousness taught various systems of morals and ethics that over time accumulated various expectations of judgments and punishments either in this or some other life. This current teaching is not an extension, or a new addition, nor is it in most cases a denial of those already existing common truths of the world. Instead, by this teaching we are made aware of the fact that the manufacturer, or creator if you like, of the human self-centered imagination takes responsibility for being the origin and support of all of the kinds of self-centered imaginations as they rise up in all times and places; regardless of whatever kind of mind (self-centered imagination) that they may be. The original parental consciousness does so indiscriminately without forcing, judging or punishing them and instead is only looking for ways to call all those self-centered imaginations back to their origin (place of manufacture, "Jiba") for a free upgrade that will allow them to joyously experience the world from the point of view of the exposed foundation of their original consciousness and the free and unlimited workings that flow from it.
high mountains, yet at its spout, it is mixed with mud.
When you calm your mind step by step and ponder,
it will change into clear water.
I shall go into the water in the high mountains and make it clear,
whatever kind of water it may be.