I NNER L IGHT M INISTRIES NEWSLETTER VOLUME 11 NUMBER 4
DECEMBER, 2000
DO WE NEED WHY TEACHERS? by Jim Gordon, President of ILM
I
was looking through my baby book recently and found a section called “First Words.” As I read some of the first words and statements I had made, I came across this entry by my mother: “Why do we need teachers? Age 37 months.” After I had finished looking at my baby book and had put it away, I found this question running through my mind, over and over. I began to wonder what my mom had told me in response. I had no idea as to what her response was, but there was something inside me that wanted to hear an answer to the question. So I went inside in meditation and began to answer the question for myself. I envisioned myself as the little boy in the baby book photos, and saw the little boy ask the question, “Why do we need teachers?” Sitting there in meditation, I began to feel a great sense of responsibility come over me, and I knew that it was important that I answer the question with careful thought and attention. I felt I did not want to just say something to ‘quiet the child’. Then I found myself move into a place of not knowing what to answer. What is a good answer? What is the right answer? I found myself moving into a place of not wanting to say anything in response because I felt that I did not know the ‘right’ answer. I remained in this mental space for some time, looking at what was happening inside me as I searched for the right answer. Suddenly, I realized that this is sometimes what I do in my daily life. When I am confronted with something in my life, a question, a situation, or a problem, I find myself looking for the right answer, the true response to what is present, and I find myself waiting and waiting and waiting for
that right answer. I may see a dozen different solutions and I may hear from others good insights to the situation, and still I do nothing until I find or hear the ‘right’ answer. I looked over my life, and I began to see situations where I had waited and waited for the right answer, and in waiting I did nothing because I did not want to do anything but the ‘right’ thing, have the ‘right’ solution. I saw where opportunities had come and gone in my life because I did not move on them — I was waiting for, you guessed it, the right answer. Still in meditation, I found myself going into self-judgment for having handled my life in this way, and so I began to forgive myself for how I had handled these situations. And in the process of the forgiveness I remembered what one of my teachers had once told me was the answer, the ‘right’ answer, to all questions. “Follow the loving. Let the action of following the loving be the answer and you will be doing the right answer, the right action. From this place of loving action you then can make choices and changes as needed.” Okay, I got it. Loving action, not fearful inaction, is always the answer. So, back to the original question, Why do we need teachers? The answer came: “Teachers give us the tools with which to find the answers in life and to be able to be open, receptive, and to be willing to take action, to change and grow. Teachers help us to trust in ourselves and others, to listen and evaluate ideas and situations, and to continually move forward by trial and error to the solution that best works for us in the moment. A teacher helps us to see that life is the teacher and experience is the learning.” In other words, teachers help us to keep taking loving action.