A teacher’s students are an essential aspect of their practice - Illusory Advice

 

Apprentice: What does it mean that the role of being a teacher is itself a practice?

Teachers: You cannot just suddenly decide one day that you are going to be a Dharma teacher. Enacting the role of teacher is a practice. Teachers are teachers by virtue of their students’ commitment and devotion to them. The role is dependent on the students around the teacher. Also remember that teachers are also students of their teachers. To learn from a Dharma teacher students need to have an attitude of openness and respect. If students view teachers as Mr or Mrs Ordinary, then their teachers are no one special for the student and they are unlikely to be able to receive inspiration from them.

Commitment and responsibility in the relationship between teacher and student is not one sided – there has to be commitment and responsibility on both sides. It is a living, interactive, creative force. When it is energised by inspiration and devotion everything becomes possible. The greatest way to test your understanding is to have to explain it to someone else. A teacher’s students are an essential aspect of their practice, in the same way that the teacher is an essential aspect of practice for the committed student.

page 56, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books Worldwide, 2016, ISBN: 978-1-898185-37-6