A Third Anniversary

Today marks the third anniversary of my initial post. In previous years, I have used this date to note popular articles, discuss my own favorites, and to generally reflect. I usually say enough and more, so this year I instead decided to ask a regular reader and teacher if she might want to comment. She did. I am touched and humbled by her reply, which I include here in its entirety.

For three years I have been reading and learning from the Guru’s Handbook. At the beginning I was captivated by the succinct wisdom expressed in the bite-sized posts. As time passed, the subject matter deepened and the posts lengthened, but remained thought-provoking as ever.

As one who still considers herself more student than teacher, I sometimes felt like I was peeking in on territory which was not really mine to explore. And yet, there was a way in which, from the very start, the author made it clear that teaching is not so easy to pin down into definable classrooms.

There are too many things to list that I have gleaned from the last three years of blog posts and interactions with the author, but I feel compelled to speak of a few.

First of all, Asher Bey has created a space that feels very safe to explore the parameters of deep teaching, in a way that opens doors, rather than keeps people out. In large part I credit this to the fearless way in which the author shed ego power trips to reveal the sometimes painful lessons learned through mistakes. A student’s trust is built upon a teacher’s willingness to be vulnerable. When teachers dare to share this, it is a huge gift.

Secondly, I would say there is a high degree of integrity in the Guru’s Handbook, based on Asher’s ongoing encouragement to bring the responsibility back to us as teachers. Another of my teachers likes to say “If you learn anything here, it’s your own fault”, which is one way of empowering his students to own their lessons. Another face of that coin, and one which is articulated over and over in the Guru’s Handbook, is that we must continue to take responsibility for the student’s learning, by ongoing vigilance in noticing our own flaws and biases, and strive to not let them harm the learning process.

Thirdly, the inclusion of “offered practices” is a lovely invitation to test the theory being espoused. Finding a way to make ideas real is a challenge for teachers of many disciplines. Change happens in small steps over time, for teachers as well as students. These exercises are opportunities to try small changes in our teaching practices.

For these and numerous other reasons my thanks and congratulations to the Guru’s Handbook for three years of quality blogging. It’s much appreciated.

I am grateful to you, my readers, for your presence in my life and work.