Yes life is a teacher, but if we are serious about the Truth there will also come times ... when we must seek out a flesh-and-bones teacher
In some spiritual circles it is common to hear the phrase, “Life is my teacher”.
Of course, life is our teacher. There is no moment in life, no place in life, no person in life, that does not offer us a sacred teaching.
A sore knee. A loving heart. The screeching of birds. My partner’s stubbornness. The old woman down the road who always forgets to put in her hearing aids. The man in the supermarket who stares unashamedly at my breasts. Desperate grief. A rainy day. A child’s joyous laughter. The voices from the past that leave me feeling ruined in their wake. The echoes of a complicated family history.
It is all Divinity. If we resist it, if we fight it, if we grab hold and refuse to let go … then what do we have to learn? What is it that still pushes our buttons? Where, in our inner world, do we still contract and harden? Where do we still claim a separate stance?
And yet, there are those among us who have gone before. And they will know where the pitfalls lie, they will know when we want to tell ourselves a fairy story, they will know when our motivation is less than honest or when we want to puff ourselves up with our specialness, they will see what we can’t yet see, they will know the questions we did not think to ask, they will help to move us forward when we are stuck … and they will ask that not only do we realize the Truth, they will ask that we be committed to the Truth in every moment … not just when the going is good, or when we choose to, or when it suits us …
Yes life is a teacher, but if we are serious about the Truth there will also come times ... when we must seek out a flesh-and-bones teacher and with complete openness, honesty and vulnerability, put all of our cards out on the table in front of us. Anything less can all too easily become a game.
(Quoted from my book, "Suffering, Spirituality and the Inner Journey Home")