If we cannot see the truth in ourself we cannot see it in others, we are in a state which has veils covering our ability to see. Arrogance is one of those veils, a state blocking our ability to see the pure heart in another person. Not only does arrogance block our ability to see that others have melted in purity, but it also blocks our ability to see that the possibility exists. Until our own heart melts we will not understand this melting process in others.
Enlightened teachers see through the veils which keep us from seeing our true self, they see through and beyond them. They see what is available in us that we do not see, they see it because they are in that pure melted state, they know what it is like and how it happens. When we melt we are softened, the veils are parted, then we can see the possibility in ourself and in others. In this state we see beyond the apparent, we see through the obvious to what lies beyond. This make a difference in the way we respond to the world.
The master who sits in a room filled with people sees the light in everyone. Can we? If we cannot, why not? We cannot if our heart is not melting, if it is not, we do not see the light in others. Once we begin to melt, when we are with other people, even in a public place, we can look around and know what is going on. We can see it and feel it, we can feel their pain, their discomfort, their difficulty, but we can also feel the joy and see the light that comes from them.
When this happens our interaction with the world and its people changes, we no longer interact with the outer shell they have created for themselves because we understand the shell, the transparency of the shell. We also understand why people find it necessary to create a shell and why they hold onto it. If we develop a relationship with them, if we have that vision and that capacity, we can help them break the shell. This is what an enlightened being does, he lets the shell break as a place of trust, love and confidence is created, a place where that external roughness and hostility melt away allowing what is beneath to come out. Once this happens to us it is our responsibility to understand how it happens, then how to create the circumstances in which it can happen for others.
This is the miracle of the relationship between master and disciple, the master remolds the disciple. This happens because the teacher can see what is wrong, he is a doctor operating on the outer crust which keeps us from ourself. Slowly, he cuts through the crust so that we can handle it, it does not harm us. The teacher deals with the disciples according to their capacity, their ability to make progress, an ability which has something to do with their level of maturity. The immature cannot move forward quickly, they are delayed, stuck, as if they have not yet learned to read and write.
Maturity is that simple, the immature are not literate, not literate in the world of the heart, not literate in the world of love which they do not understand. They do not know how to read the book, how to experience it, they do not know how to open it within themselves. They are incapable of that, reacting in an inappropriate way to love or anything else. Their lack of maturity separates them, and here is something which really defines immaturity, the separation of the self from the rest of humanity. Separation is the most immature state; when people in that state gather to form their separate, immature groups they proclaim correctness in their immaturity, correctness in their separateness, insisting that their version of separation is the only appropriate way to exist in the world.
Understand the danger of this separateness, this inability to know other hearts, the danger to our soul if we are closed to love, closed off from the rest of humanity. Unless we understand this we cannot be in a space which lets us look at someone else, see through the veils and recognize who that person really is. When the person knows he has been seen truly, he might begin to weep. Things which have been locked inside cause the weeping, part of it regret for the past, most of it the joy he has discovered.
There are many good people in the world, many who do not know how good they are. It is important to help them know, help them understand the possibility of true human existence, help them understand what happens when the external crust is broken through so that we deal with the heart, we deal with compassion for each other. We can help them understand the treasure we have when we are involved in each other’s lives in a peaceful, loving way.
May we all understand how to look at other people, how see them appropriately, break through their outer crust so that they will find their own splendor. God created us in splendor, but now that splendor is hidden. It was not meant to be hidden, it was meant to be revealed, meant to reign over the world instead of the separations which rule today.
