People are afraid of perfect honesty because we are afraid of getting hurt. This is shortsighted because, in the end, only perfect love can be the truth.

Honesty, however, is a process—an ongoing process, a thought system, a radically different way of life. Whenever two people begin to practice perfect honesty, at first it can hurt. But the only thing getting hurt is the ego.

The ego—with its faith in guilt, attack, specialness, superiority, and brutal selfishness—hurts like hell when it is exposed because looking at your own nastiness and ugliness is painful. When two people allow the ego to be fully exposed—when they accept it and look at it honestly—what they will ultimately see is something they do not want. Facing the truth is the undoing of ego.

All the things we are afraid to confront, the hidden thoughts and secrets we are slaves to—these are only unreal illusions. In the ultimate reality, everything the ego makes is nothing and, therefore, should not be valued or respected as something.

When two people keep going more deeply into honesty, what is ultimately revealed is perfect truth: which is and can only be unconditional love.

The path to salvation, awakening, enlightenment, unconditional love—whatever you want to call it—is and can only be the path of honesty. Honesty is the undoing of all the errors which block love.