THE TEACHER

THE TEACHER

Because my experience is limited to the Teacher in the school in which I am a member, I can only offer forty-three years of being a student in the School, and my relationship with him. For some students when they enter the School, they experience an almost immediate close working relationship with the Teacher. For myself, this took about ten years.

As described in a previous post, one method the Teacher employs is mirroring the state of the student. He will mirror the student’s lower self, so that the student will learn about and become familiar with his or her own lower self, and the denying forces of the lower self in relation to higher centers. The Teacher also mirrors the student’s Higher Self, so that the student recognizes his or her own divine soul. The Teacher once commented that his role does not include giving extra friction to students because simply being in the School, students would attract the necessary friction for creation of permanent tendency to evolve. In this context, his aim, as he described it, is to be an island of love, conscious love.

For example, one weakness (one that I have observed in myself) is wanting to be noticed by the Teacher. When we see each other, he acknowledges me with a smile or a glance and moves on. Sometimes even less. When I see him give other students more of his personal energy, it is an opportunity for me to observe which part of the lower self wants more from him, and the envy it is subject to in these circumstances. There are also times when he makes a point of complimenting me on a particular effort or area of inner-work that I’ve struggled with. The observation that accompanies our interactions is, his attentiveness is elicited when I am present. Not much escapes his divided attention.

It seems no accident that Jesus, one of the greatest teachers that occurred, is recorded as saying “I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father [Higher Centers] I have made known unto you.” Because the Teacher is the prime source for the transmission of conscious influence it behooves students to position themselves into a state of reception. By doing so the Teacher becomes more of a friend or comrade with whom we stand shoulder-to-shoulder as it were, as he shares how to foment consciousness into the same permanent state of being that he himself resides in.

There is a natural respect and appreciation for his role and how he shares his conscious love. One time, I attended a dinner event with the Teacher. He was sharing his impressions of his trip to Egypt. At one point he stopped, leaned into the table and shared an observation of higher centers with us. In that moment, it seemed that we were a group of youngsters with an older sibling who was sharing with us where to find the hidden candies.

The Teacher is also responsible for directing not only the work of individual students, but also how the organization is structured so that the School supports conscious evolution in its members. He feels the pulse of the School and offers suggestions, exercises and tasks either to the School as a whole or to individual students. Some examples are he has given us exercises to refrain from gesticulation, to not take the first bite of food, to keep our feet flat on the floor while dining or attending a meeting, all with the aim of interrupting mechanical momentums as well as using these interruptions as catapults into the third state.

Sometimes the belief arises that he has more important matters to attend than my little world. But the detail from Fra Angelo’s Last Judgement showing the angel embracing a monk, portrays a more accurate relationship. The angel is lovingly supporting the monk more than the monk is able to embrace the angel. The angel has a compassionate countenance directed at the monk while the monk, although happy, is not quite reciprocating, rather as if he does not quite grasp the continual conscious support he enjoys.

In the Muslim tradition, there are ninety-nine names for Allah. Likewise, in the School, he is the Teacher, Best Friend, Loving Father, Stalwart Companion, and Midwife, delivering us into the same conscious life that he inhabits.

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The Last Judgement, detail. Fra Angelico (c. 1425–1431)

Museo di San Marco, Florence, Italy