TEACHERS VII

There will be times when you will use a spiritual guide. Your attitude will limit your teacher's ability to help you. She can only talk to you about the things you are ready to hear.

You will often be disapointed in her. You have gone in search of a great spiritual master and all you find is a very mundane and very human person. Soon you realize she is no better than you! The person that seems to be ready to ascend to the heights of heaven is not a teacher but an actor who will help you live a spiritual daydream in exchange for a little idolatry. The true teacher will not attempt to encounter you except where you are. she will often appear a little foolish. If underneath your mask you are babbling on, then your teacher will babble. As she walks on your path she will try to point out a few things that will help you slow down a little, but she can onl talk about what interests you.

Have you ever attempted to put a toddler in a stroller? He does not want to sit down; he wants to get over there. How can he get over there by sitting down? How do sitting and moving go together? He knows what is good for him.After a while he may decide that you may have a feasible plan but he does not want to be the one to try it. Could he not just watch the stroller roll on down by itself? Or why do you not get it and show him how it works? Perhaps he watches another little child in a stroller and gets the idea. Now he knows how to do it better than you so he gets in backwards,. You have to take him out and turn him around. And he yells-what does taking him out of the stroller have to do with getting him into the stroller? About this time he decides to become an expert at the right rear wheel.He plays with it and fixes his attention totally upon it. After all, is not this the really important part of the stroller? Then , just aasyou get him in, he decides that it has taken too long, or you do not know what you are doing,or he is not able to do it, or it will not work, so he demands to get out and go back into the house.

Getting a child into a stroller is much simpler than guiding a person on a spiritual path.You look to a teacher to show you how to be fullfilled. Yet the only thing a teacher has to give you is a little advise about not seeking fullfillment , or power, or love, or respect, o anything else.It is as if you had come to a beautifull walled city. If you attempt to write your own ticket and decide what is best for you, all your teacher can do is walk around the outer wall with you. So as long as ou have desires or expectations you make your teacher walk in a circle. Give up your desires and she can quickly tae you inside the wall.

A teacher is only a mirror.She helps you see yourself.She is a medium for the true guide residing within you. The teacher gives your inner guide a voice. And when you and this ever-present guide engage in a flowing conversation your teacher will quietly leave. Then if you want to find your teacher you must look on her path. There the teacher will be walking and talking to the guide within her.