He is stuck between the cranny of two great walls that together block out the sun. For brief moments the rays of its light meet his face and, for a second or two, nothing else matters but the contentment in being then and there. He forgets his body and remembers his Self amidst the glory of something greater than all he knows. The moment does not linger; it fleets away. He does not live amidst open valleys or high mountains where the sun shines generously. He is but between two walls, as a captive of narrow sight.

These orbs of light we call eyes will never cease to play tricks on us. They inure each man to look ever outward, to other things and other people, where events are like objects which absorb our uttermost attention. Men look away from themselves and onto the behaviours of others. In such a fashion it is only possible to meet others at the level of their skin, the surface of what they are. Their actions, not their intentions, is what is forever perceived. The layers of the psychology behind that particular name are denied to us by the nature of such an approach. For two actions that at first sight appear to be the same, one infused with intent and the other without regard for one, will differ greatly by their impact.

Nature has us look away, for a man himself must find his own reasons to look inside. The depth of his own experience will decide upon the arising of this inner desire. Will he wish or choose to make the effort to do what nature, of its own accord, does not require of him? It is optional from Her point of view, yet it may come to be essential and indispensable to the man himself. It is in this regard, from this point of view, that we may realize that self-development is a wholly unnatural process from the level of humanity. To develop, in its full meaning, is to swim up-river, against the momentum and against the tide. It is to struggle against the grain, to feel the friction and by such efforts fortify that inner will so that it becomes a central axis from which you yourself, but not your name, revolves henceforth.

To look inside requires no eyes, yet to do so will instill a higher quality to our outward sight. For the depth of what we see in ourselves will always determine the depth of what we see in the outer world. This is the law by which development, psychological and physiological, is governed. It is a fact of folly to believe that one can intelligently navigate through this world with full sensibilities without journeying inward at the same time. And in relation to this, the flagship function that is enabled to venture towards such a task, such a feat, is the one which is hardened by years of inaction in this direction. The heart, the equivalent of the sun in relation to the solar system of our bodies, is the vehicle by which an inner understanding is derived.

This central function, the manufacturer of emotions and feelings, lights up and radiates our inner experience in the same way we observe the sun lighting and influencing all the planets, their moons and the myriad of celestial phenomenon which traffic to and fro. To whatever degree our heart is both clean and open, we will have a greater sensitivity into the inner worlds of other men, awakening potential capacities such as compassion and empathy. Instead of this and by the habit of outer judgment, we are fraught with the unfortunate trifles of understanding nothing and blaming everything. This negative loop, where the chicken and the egg of judgment creating a hardened heart and a hardened heart creating judgments, is the dire straights from which escape may prove one day to be rendered wholly impossible.