Hello, everyone!
I hope you’re having a lovely afternoon so far. It’s absolutely gorgeous here in Western North Carolina. Ah, summertime!!!!! There’s nothing better.
I’d like to share something with you that I’ve been looking at in my own life and practice. It has to do with the word ‘teacher’. As you may have heard me say, I don’t use that word in reference to myself. It feels distasteful to me. And yet, over this past year, as I’ve been interacting more and more with practitioners in my local area, and as I’ve taken on the facilitation of two established local groups, other people have been attaching that word to me. And so I’ve felt the need to look into the word and see if it still feels so that it does not apply to me…
One of the reasons why the word has a bitter taste in my mouth is that it seems like just about everybody wants to be a spiritual teacher. Not only that, but there are great many folks who call themselves teachers who have little or no training, very little experience, and, I project, precious little capacity to live from center. I just don’t want to appear like one of the throng who are out there attempting to increase their status by presenting themselves as spiritual gurus, and who appear to crave the attention and the sometimes adulation that comes with that. I don’t want to have anything to do with this.
Another reason is that it seems to me to be a bit audacious to call oneself by that term. It’s kind of like the presumption that would be involved if someone went around telling everybody that they are good looking. I say ‘would be involved’ because just about nobody ever does that. It’s understood, I think, that such a thing would make a person vulnerable to ridicule. If I were to go around saying, ‘Look at how sexy I am!’, and if no one else agreed with me (which is exactly what would happen in my case, alas 
), then I would have made myself into a spectacle. It’s kind of like that. When I hear other people call themselves ‘teacher’ or say they are going somewhere to ‘teach’, even those whose spiritual understanding I admire and respect, I cringe. Much better, I think, to call oneself ‘student’ or, at most, ‘facilitator’, as I do, and leave it up to other people to determine if they are learning anything.
The word ‘facilitator’ feels just right. In the groups that I conduct, and even in the one-on-one work I do, I feel that my role is to facilitate a process through which other people come to their own wisdom and understanding. As I often say at the beginning of group discussions when new are people present, we are all students of awareness, and when we share what we have become aware of over time then we help others to become aware. We are all teaching each other, in other words. I much prefer that model to one in which there is one teacher dispensing the teachings, and everyone else just receives.
At the same time, there is an awkward fact that must be acknowledged, which is that I do in fact teach people things. If I were purely in a facilitator role I would never add anything to the conversation; I would only reflect, draw people out, and clarify. Anyone who has been in a group I’m leading will know that I do a lot more than just that. I still feel like I’m facilitating, though, even when I’m offering a perspective that comes out of my own experience. It’s an aspect of my role within the group to offer what I see, much in the same way that everyone else does, and also in a way that’s a slight bit different. I don’t need to be above anyone, though, or different from anyone. I don’t need to be looked up to; I don’t need to remain unquestioned; I don’t need to be right. A lot of people who call themselves ‘teacher’ cannot honestly say this, I project, to their discredit. All I want is to participate in a process of awakening, and with others if possible. While they do their work, while you do your work of waking up and ending suffering, I do mine, and we all journey down the spiritual path, and in a certain sense independently, as best we can. We all play our roles in the process, in other words, and it’s the process that is responsible, not the person who is leading or has organized the group. We are all students of awareness, students of Life, including me.
There’s a small window into my world in case it is of interest to you. Be well, friends, and have a lovely evening!
In peace,
David