Who Is My Teacher?

Who Is My Teacher?

From a friend

When I first joined the School, I was afraid to meet “The Teacher” because I knew he would be able to see right through me. I wanted to work on myself first—"clean up my act,” so to speak. Through the next 18 months my fellow students in a remote center away from the center of the School were my teachers. Only a couple of years ahead of me, they had learned a lot and passed it on to me as needed; I tried to work with what they shared—also sometimes I had no clue what to do with the information, but often later its use became apparent.

One of the things they did was to offer me “photographs” of my sleep, or my mechanicality. They helped me to see things in myself that were obscured from my view. In fact, throughout the many years to follow my fellow students have always been a source of learning for me either by example, or by words, or simply helping “educate my essence,” which means learning to value things properly and to appreciate and work with fine impressions such as great art or flower arranging.

Eventually I met The Teacher who interacts and teaches with his students through meetings and large dinners, but also tries to have small personal moments with each student from which much is gained. Every moment around him is a lesson in kindness, love, and most of all in being present to what is before you. Also, I came to see that for him, everything is his teacher—from an ant on the ground to the great Absolute (God). And he conveys to us that everything is our teacher also.

Buddha said, "If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change." Now I look for the miraculous in what every day brings me, in what each moment has to offer. All creation is my teacher.

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Jahangir Holding a Globe & Key (Detail) 1618