Sensitivity and sentimentality
March 19th 2014
In order to live and confront all conditions in life, it is important to strengthen one’s character. Otherwise, what can be done about people who are unable to bear the slightest difficulty, the slightest obstacle? This nervous sensitivity, which is fed by their lower nature, makes life very difficult, which is why many have come to the conclusion that in order to be happy it is better to remain insensitive.
Actually, you should make the distinction between true sensitivity and the weak sensitivity that could more correctly be called susceptibility or sentimentality. True sensitivity is a faculty that enables us to rise very high and so gain access to the beauty of regions of ever greater luminosity and subtlety. Sentimentality, though, is an expression of the lower nature, where people think the world revolves around them and find they are never shown enough consideration; they feel frustrated and wounded at the slightest thing and become aggressive. Those who have grasped this distinction understand they have much work to do to control their lower nature: this is the only way to allow their true sensitivity to blossom.