A Mirror for Awakening
A Mirror for Awakening
This post is from our friend Lindsey V. of the New York Center.
When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready... The teacher will disappear. ― Chinese Tradition
If you are fortunate enough to find a true spiritual friend—a teacher—what becomes of this precious relationship depends as much on your willingness to be a true student as on the teacher's wisdom. We often overlook this side of the relationship. To be a student requires openness, the humility to accept instruction, the willingness to trust what has been personally verified, and the patience to live with uncertainty and ambiguity. In the spiritual realm, proof is different from the certainty sought by the four lower centers. These qualities develop gradually; it is enough to sincerely begin where we are.
How will you look for it, Socrates, when you do not know at all what it is? — Plato, Meno
We cannot see our own sleep while we are asleep. We need someone who has traveled farther along the path, someone who can recognize both our mechanical habits and our hidden possibilities—someone who serves as both mirror and guide, someone who truly sees us. And we must also want to be seen.
A genuine teacher does not merely transmit ideas but works on being. The intellect is necessary, but transformation comes through lived experience. One of the ways my teacher works with students is by hosting teaching dinners. They are held in beautiful settings where we dress with care, share excellent food, and follow some practical exercises. One such exercise is that no one eats while another person is speaking.
I have always had a fondness for desserts. At one memorable dinner, several years into my work with my teacher and after traveling a great distance to attend, an extraordinary dessert was placed before me. My attention was immediately drawn to it even though the teacher was speaking. And he continued speaking. I kept waiting for him to finish so I could enjoy the dessert. Minutes passed. Irritation quietly arose, and still he continued teaching. Then came an uncomfortable realization: I wanted the dessert more than I wanted to receive his teaching.
To see the strength of my instinctive center, even while sitting in the teacher's presence, was deeply humbling. It revealed an identification I never would have discovered through theory alone. My teacher never criticized me or pointed out my sleep. The situation itself became the lesson. In that moment, my imaginary picture of my own level of being received a healthy blow.
There is a lovely story of Lord Krishna enchanting the milkmaids with his flute. Later one milkmaid told her friend, "I danced with Krishna last night." Her friend replied, "So did I." So it was with every milkmaid; each believed she alone had danced with Krishna. I feel this with my own teacher who meets every student individually, offering precisely—and uncompromisingly—what that person most needs for awakening. It is not a competition but a dance among friends. Rather than seeing only our mechanicality, the teacher sees our highest possibility. We need only be present enough to receive it.
Treat a person as they are, they will remain so. Treat a person the way that person can be and is capable of being and that person will become as he or she can be and should be. ― Goethe
Near the end of his life, a dying student was asked whether he wished to see his teacher one last time. He answered simply, "With the Teacher there is no distance." The outer teacher serves as a bridge until the real teacher—our higher centers—can begin to instruct us directly.
Working with a teacher has taught me that awakening is less about acquiring new knowledge than about becoming available to a different quality of seeing and being that comes through increased presence. To the extent that I can be present, that is the extent to which I can receive.
If one does not love one's students, how can one teach them, and if they do not love the teacher, how can they hear? ― The Teacher
Krishna's Dance of Delight (Rasa Lila), India, Rajasthan, circa 1675-1700
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