It is not the teacher before you that manifests what you perceive as an awakening...**
A Spiritual Teacher IS….
It is not the teacher before you that manifests what you perceive as an awakening, but the awakening within you that manifests what you perceive as a teacher.**
For most of my years, I sought my idea of a spiritual teacher to provide me with the truth. I sought that rarefied being, flawless and wise who could give me the connection to the Absolute that I imagined I was living uncomfortably without. In the end, much to my dismay, I repeatedly found my appointees inadequate. Over and over I concluded that I had not found the right person, but I have come to realize that it was the “right perception” I was lacking.
Not that my efforts were in vain—I am thankful for them. Obsessively staring into a mirror, trying to focus on the horizon, can induce profound results. The horizon perceived is not “out there.”
The fool who persists in his folly will become wise. — William Blake
It was my criteria for a teacher that was flawed, not any of the individuals I tried to project the title onto. I came to the realization that in subtle mysteries like wisdom and spirit, the student/teacher relationship is not linear or well-defined, but more amorphous in nature. One moment I was comfortable in the compliant role of student and then I was scared to death to realize that the roles had reversed…I then returned to ‘student’, and the roles reversed yet again.
In truth, we are all teacher and student—involved in a multifaceted process, perfectly balanced as every one of us being teacher to and student of every other, simultaneously. To consider oneself as more one aspect of the process than the other is an illusion, and limits our collective experience.**
Many of my best teachers—those who have given me lessons that have remained significant in my belief system—are people I no longer allow to have an active part in my life. There are two distinct reasons for this:
1 One does not have to be wise to instill wisdom, virtuous to promote virtue.
2 Once you complete the lesson, you do not continue to go back to that teacher’s classroom. There is undoubtedly more the teacher could teach you, but it is a matter of diminishing return—the final lesson of the student is to move on, rather than hold on. Not to do so is to fail the teaching, the teacher, and yourself.
I do not discount those remarkable individuals that have obtained conscious levels of awareness of their connection to the Absolute that I do not consistently maintain at this time. They do indeed exist; I can feel the uniqueness of them whenever I encounter such a person—even those who do not, themselves, know of the power of their connection.
Even with such a person who is universally acknowledged as a teacher, my perspective is that instruction is offered most often because it is what ‘students’ expect and demand. Like getting someone about to panic to focus on your moving finger—Their teaching is often a hypnotic induction to calm, allowing the student to return to a natural state of his or her own knowledge & wisdom.
It is not the mystic’s perspective that changes our reality, but experiencing their reality that changes our perspective.**
The real change comes about within us from spending time in a higher vibrational field. This can come about in many ways, including being directly in the presence of a true teacher or indirectly in the rhythm of their teaching (as a mantra may introduce peacefulness in meditation). They have seen the ‘face’ of the Absolute, they remember it, and the memory of that experience radiates from them—within or without word.
One way or another, a true teacher holds open a sacred, safe place for the student to explore and lay claim to their own truth. A true teacher reawakens one to the resonance of Spirit so that the student can–on their own–find their way home to the Absolute, to their true Self.
A teacher, or at least a skilled teacher, is perceptive enough to comprehend the information most needed by the student, intelligent enough to purposely construct the means of the instruction, adept enough to elicit the learning without being intrusive on the student’s experience, and wise enough to realize he or she was led in the process by the spirit of the student.**
A true teacher does not give so much of self or knowledge, but reintroduces the student to themselves, to their truest nature.**
