Peter writing here today forPortals. As far back as I can remember, I've had a curiosity about how the world works, looking always for some underlying truths below the surface of my experience.
This is why I'm particularly inspired as we launch a new series of conversations with teachers, inquiring into The Teacher’s Journey After all, in every aspect of life we witness the teacher-student dynamic.
What compels a person to become a teacher? Many have an inner urge to make a journey of discovery, of development, to unlock the mysteries of their life and the universe around them. Still, only a small percentage of those seekers determine that the best way forward for them is to pass on to others what they have learned—a process through which they can test and refine the principles they discover as fundamentals to living a human life.
Is it a profound desire to share what has been found, in the way of “Look what I’ve discovered, isn’t it beautiful?” Or might it arise from the sentiment, “I wish I’d known this when I was setting out,”? Or is it something else?
As part of our Core Inquiries, The Teacher’s Journey will delve into the complex world of spiritual teachers and guides to highlight the individual struggles and achievements, as well as focus on a few of the more ubiquitous and universal challenges and pitfalls of making such a journey.
Aviv Shahar introduces it this way: “What is the teacher's journey? How do you become a teacher? What is the formative and initiatory communion that shapes a teacher? Is there indeed an initial journey away from the world, and then a return journey in service to others and humanity at large?
“What is the process of building a body of work to attract students and possibly cultivate a community? What are the special gifts and traps of teacher-student relationships? What are the dangers and opportunities for both teacher and student, and why did we recently propose in an article the end of the Guru era?”
Aviv’s first guest is Sarah McCrum, an author, educator, energy master, and business owner. Sarah reflects on the many lessons and insights from her years of studying directly with spiritual teachers from several disciplines and communities—the deep healing, revelations, and challenges inherent in the student-teacher relationship.
Sarah says this about herself: “I started my career as a teacher. It's so in my bones to teach that I don't think that was something special. That's just who I am. So I think I was really navigating my own life journey at the time; I was on a path to become somebody special. I had no guru illusions or anything like that at all, I just loved teaching that stuff. It was the most enjoyable thing that I'd ever done in my life. The pure experience of it. And I guess that's a theme through everything. For me, it's about the experience.”
Along the way, Sarah has been confronted by the terror of questioning the “truths” in her spiritual community, and how finding her own voice and path was a necessary struggle. She has witnessed the shift in her teachers from connected source to being dependent on student validation. And, of course, the needs of ego and desire for money can derail the most ardent teachers.
Aviv offers: “Part of what we are tracking and what we are describing in the teacher's journey story is the dependencies that can develop in a teacher-student relationship. Sometimes they are energetic, sometimes they are psychological, and sometimes they are economic and financial.”
Sarah responds: “And I just want to say everything you talked about, I think over the ensuing years, I experienced all of it: the financial, the psychological, the energetic, and the dependencies in both directions, the whole lot.”
The teacher's journey is one of the most important threads in a human life, because every generation learns from the previous. Every journey made, every discovery won, and every understanding gathered can be a win for all when it is shared, when it is propagated, and when it is relayed or transferred to others so that they can find that step in themselves, or they can skip sometimes years of journey, or even decades, to get to an even deeper part in themselves.
Yet everyone involved is, after all, human. They each have their own ego, shadow, and ghosts. They must battle within themselves and overcome challenges that are unique to them. Each teacher’s journey is a unique journey, yet they seem to express universal patterns.
