There are countless spiritual texts in the world, some of them profound and meaningful. Why then, do we teach? Why not simply hand the student some books, and say “read these — all you need is here”?
There are times when a book is or passage is just the right thing. Because the teacher’s voice is often one of the student’s strongest influences, another voice, different phrasing, new perspectives, can all add richness to the study. The written word can provide this in great measure.
Likely there is a book that already says what you want to teach, but even if there were a stadium’s worth of books that did so, and more eloquently, there would still be reasons for your presence as a teacher.
One is this: words are not what they represent. Words do not carry meaning, though they can, perhaps, point to meaning. This is part of the teacher’s job: to point to meaning. This requires us to have some sense of where to point to, and where to point from — the student. We must know the student well enough to calibrate our guidance, our pointing. A book cannot calibrate.
Another is this: when you teach, you are teaching what it means to teach. You are showing what a teacher is. Or, if the student and you do not get along, perhaps what a teacher is not. Even the best book about teaching cannot demonstrate teaching.
Your student will have other teachers. Perhaps have children who have teachers. Or they may become teachers. With everything you do, you are showing your students how to understand teachers and teaching.
If you do well, you can help inoculate them against the teacher who manipulates them for gain, and sensitize them to the teacher who can teach them something important. If you do very well, you can show them how to learn from the teacher who does both. This is advanced work, this sort of teaching, but if you can do it, a good thing; the student who restricts themselves to only studying with teachers who are whole and kind is unlikely to have many teachers. Teach them how to learn from imperfect teachers, and you will have given them a great gift.
To the degree that you affect them, your students will measure other teachers with you in mind. If your intent is to give them the ability to learn from other teachers, be sure to show variety in your approach. Show openness, skill, insight, kindness. Also flaw, weakness, and stumbles. Consider the curtain that shields your own best teacher tricks and whether the student might benefit from an occasional peek behind. Understand that consistency may be a limited gift. Teach them with your human presence, the subtle cues of face and body and tone, what a teacher can be, how to learn from one, and perhaps how to learn from many.
It may also be useful to teach them to learn from books.
Hi, i learnt it the hard way by actually going through a lot of different teachers to learn to distinguish good teachers from the bad. Until I found my current teacher, who ask me to let other students be my teacher, and learn from as many students as possible, both the good and the bad. So i really like and agree with you about learning from imperfect teachers. It’s probably the greatest skill that a student can hope to achieve!
p/s: really like your posts and am still going through them.
I like that your teacher has encouraged you to learn from other students. It is a great gift to give a student, to encourage them to learn from other students, from other teachers, from as many people as possible.
As for learning from imperfect teachers — all teachers are imperfect, so this is important. Learning to see (and then accept) the imperfections of our teachers is a critical part of our deep learning.
I am curious: is there anything else that helps you distinguish between good and bad teachers? This is a fascinating subject. Thank you for bringing it up.
[...] greatest gift to a student is to teach them how to understand teachers and teaching. Please read this post from The Guru Handbook for more [...]