Esoteric vs. Exoteric

I put down my 'secret' 5 in the previous post. Obviously they're not really secret; I just shared them on the internet. But they were ideas that were previously only shared with my personal students; so they were secret except for this select group.

This idea of 'secret' or esoteric teaching has always intrigued me. We're taught generosity, and to share the teaching with anyone and everyone who sincerely asks. Then we're told that we can only share after they have shown a 'true' desire to learn. This means first they need to ask (even beg) three times, and the criteria grow from there. I guess meeting all these criteria go to prove their 'sincerity'?

In our tradition there are both exoteric and esoteric teachings. For instance we orginally teach GoDai 5 elements:
1) A - Atama - Thought or Consciousness - Head
2) Ka - Kaze - Wind - Corresponding to the Mouth and Throat
3) Hi - Hi - Fire - Corresponding to the Heart
4) Mi - Mizu - Water - Corresponding to the Stomach
5) Chi - Chi - Earth - Which is the whole lower half of the body to the center of the earth.

Each of these has a color, a shape, a deity, and more sounds, and other corresponding relationships that get a bit complicated to spell out in text as they interweave.

But in the esoteric (Mikkyo) portion we are taught RokuDai or 6 elements. It's not that one is true and the other is not, they are both true.

I think these teachings are not really exoteric and esoteric, but just that we teach according to what the other person is ready to hear...to lead them to the experience that they need. Since this can take time, and most people don't stick around long enough to hear the rest...maybe they think they know everything already, or maybe they realize their looking for something or someone else, or maybe they just move away...but by the time you get to the esoteric portion there's only a few people left listening, so it seems like a secret just for the small group. But really the Truth belongs to everyone...and everyone knows it.