WHO IS THE TEACHER?

NEVER AS IMPORTANT AS THE PATH.

Welcome to the modern world. The pendulum swings. What does that mean relative to our journeys to understand how to live wisely? It means that in times of shadow and constriction, historically we are corralled into singular belief systems often dictated by those in power. When cultures expand and prosper, afford freedom, the gates open and we are exposed to more ideas and options for interpreting life. In the modern world we can be overwhelmed by information, all the options we have. One could spend several lifetimes studying the ins and outs of all the philosophies and religions of the world.

Instinctively we know that unless this is our career, this type of complication is not going to serve us. And yet, as we walk into philosophies and religions we will find they all miss something, or perhaps they do not miss something as much as they tend to emphasize certain things at the expense of others. The spoiler alert is that every wise woman or man who has walked the earth has accumulated knowledge only to ultimately throw everything out the door and see what comes back. This is because a spiritual journey is something where we begin thinking we are educating our mind when we are really teaching our selves to trust in our soul. Our mind, ultimately driven by fear and survival will always grab for the safe story, or perhaps the comfort of being accepted by others. The soul never settles fully into either of these. When we understand our souls, learn to trust in their wisdom, we can throw everything out we have learned and let our souls tell us what we need to keep. This ends up becoming, if we are wise, a short page of lessons, printed in large type and double spaced, not to mention an all too familiar story of what turns out to be the obvious things we knew all along.

To all of this, any proper school for life, any pursuit of wisdom, is every bit a thing of forging as it is a thing of information. It is constantly putting our selves to the test. Are we listening to our soul in all of this? No one, repeat no one, can courageously embrace any final truth for us. In the end, we are all left with choosing our own story. And this is why every religion splits up into factions, many of them disagreeing with each other in the most profound of ways, because we forge our own realities. As one of my earliest teachers said, up to you. Where do you hang your hat? The game of who is right and who is wrong ends up a never ending head screw no human gets to answer. We are all right and wrong in a way, and all we can do is choose the path we feel drawn to follow.

In these times, we can feel history passing through us. All the beauty and ignorance of our belief systems passing through our inherent tribal nature. The more intense the world gets, the more people want to be right. The more people want to win that battle, whatever it is, that battle that solves everything. It takes an even greater sense of center to foster and protect our wisdom in these times. Not to get too squishy, but love is our savior, because if we fixate on love, then we can let the world do what it does. Yes, the world can do a lot of miserable and unfortunate things. It always has. Love does not conquer all, but what do we choose to follow knowing nothing conquers all? What is our rope? Where do we return to define the drive in our life?

 



ALL WORTHY PATHS ASK OF US SOMETHING.

In this school I ask you to be courageous and kind to your self. We are kind to our self in order to foster the courage to pursue the best of us. The best of us will always be small in the grand order of life. The goal is not to be great, it is to be wise. To pursue wisdom is to embrace our humanness, a great part of that is our way of complicating things just to go back and simplify them, and then we repeat our silliness. So we will get deep here. It may seem overwhelming to some. Make no mistake the teacher is well aware that your wisest self will simplify things when it is ready to wake up and live fully. In the end, we have wisdom, community, energy, love, and repeating the same things over and over. That is the end game of any wise life or practice.

 


 

So what about the teacher? I am just one of many, many people wearing a familiar hat, or pair of shoes. Like any good teacher I am the product of other people’s wisdom and that wisdom is very, very old. Timeless wisdom that is not defined by any culture or place. That is what we want, hopefully. I speak to things from my experiences, from my personal tests and rights of passage. And occasionally I pass on some insights from others like my personal favorite guru who reminds me of the importance of lineage. Lineage is simply a reminder that the best of us is not alone. It is and must be bound to a sort of rope, call it a well. A spiritual well attaches us to what is beyond words and knowledge. It is the love that is the sum of the many, reminding us we are small and whatever is great is only because of our ability to wisely connect and bond to others. To this I do not spend much time tooting my own horn nor claiming to be anything special. I urge everyone to make life their teacher, all of it. To embrace that it is absolutely overwhelming a times being a human being. It is the price we pay for being at the top of the food chain. And that no matter what path we choose, eventually life will send us all through some very common lessons, rites of passage, experiences that bond us, the wealthy and the not so wealthy, men and women, the tall and the short. We all end up walking in familiar circles. Who do we want to walk with and what are those circles? This our work in progress.

The best way to learn about anyone or anything is to spend time with them. Is there any other way? That could be a year, or a day, an hour, or maybe just 5 minutes. We know what we gravitate to and we know when we have gotten what we need from a given thing. We just know. To this point, this is not a practice in which anyone will try to possess you or tell you what your end game must be. We go to school and then it is up to us to decide where we want to go with what we know, or perhaps still need to learn. I am just a cheerleader for your wisest self. And I understand it is long and challenging road, one that takes us through every high and low, every experience we can imagine. Regardless of the path you choose I wish you my three jewels of life, love, strength, and wisdom. We need to get up and polish these jewels everyday and look after them. Breathe relax and let your self become organically. The end game is not freedom, it is an inspired life of never ending work. That is as good as it gets for any of us.

A humble shout out to all the mentors and teachers in my life. To all my allies and perceived enemies for showing me my strengths and weaknesses. To Southeast Asia and all the warm and kind people that set the bar for kindness, strength and resilience. If they should inherit the earth, that would be fair. To Baba Ramji Harihar, his guru and lineage for the reminder of the sacrifice and strength of others that brings true wisdom forward, that spiritual lineages are meant to be gifts, not burdens, and that the most profound wisdom comes from the wise woman, we are just trying to honor that wisdom as best we can.

We will never master life. Life is it's own master. We can only be good listeners.

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