In our daily lives--within our small worlds from which we look out presently--we seem to come into contact with people who either cause us to suffer, or who do not show us the proper amount of respect. To put it bluntly, living in that small world of ours is not fun. In fact, it can be downright painful! Fortunately there does exists a world that is not just my small world, in which there is no division between myself and the people I see with my physical eyes.
People behave cruelly to each other because of the amount of pain they are in. The way we can know this truth is that in "our" world, we share that pain. But I can never know about our world as long as I stay in my little world.
Most of the time when people ask you if you believe in something--or a question such as "What do you think?--the question is actually a subtle attack meant to immediately put you on the defensive, making you feel that if you do not answer appropriately, you will be punished. And what usually reacts within us to such a question is the exact same punishing nature. When you are able to meet that person who challenges you with an awareness of "our world," you will know that you have been challenged by a person who is in pain, and you will know that you cannot return the pain in kind.
We must not be against other people. And there's only one way to not be against people, and that is to find in this life what you should be authentically for. When you are for real life, you are for being present to the life that is being given to you, no matter what it is that is being given in the moment.
There are no secrets in real life. The only reason that people can keep secrets from you is that you have yet to understand yourself. When you understand what is happening in your own heart and mind, you also understand--compassionately and without judgment--what moves every other human being to act as they do. When you understand yourself, you can never be moved to act against a person who appears to have acted against you.
