A good teacher.

The path toward being a good teacher.
(How Matters Might Be Considered)

A good teacher is characterized by the fact that he does not make others smaller in order to elevate himself. He carries respect for others as well as for himself in his heart.

May he strengthen in the beings he encounters the ability to separate between their ideas and their perception. This by continually questioning and testing himself - and by allowing himself to be tested. In all questions and answers, he strives to be honest, borne by the desire to contribute meaningfully to the growth of all beings. If he is criticized or denigrated in his efforts, he uses the rebuke to examine his own point of view.

A good teacher does not object to the paths that a soul has chosen - if the respective being follows this path in mindfulness and awareness. He only intervenes - suggesting, advising - when a being acts out of carelessness. And this also only then if he is asked for it by this being. He always has - especially when reprimanding - the growth of the person seeking advice in mind.

A good teacher can be measured by his nature, his actions, and the words he speaks. When he rebukes, he rebukes gently - never harshly out of his own desire, but only when the situation calls for it. He meets apparent intransigence with mildness and always pays respect to the view of others. A good teacher tries to make himself aware that it is always easier to put one more word on top than to take back something once said.

A good teacher does not say that he alone teaches the only way to truth. He offers his listeners the fundamental possibility to question everything he says in order to find their own truth. His word is not law. He only offers his interpretation of reality and never claims that things are so - and only so. He strives to be aware that he too is only a spark of light in the universal rainbow.

A good teacher always finds it a little strange that he is asked for advice. Nevertheless, he tries to answer to the best of his present knowledge. He sees the validity of given universal principles and allows nevertheless their individual interpretation and their personally different experiencing. He registers praise and blame as the effect of his being, his actions and his words - regardless of his respective underlying intention.

A good teacher never sees himself as "finished", because this would deprive the cosmos of the possibility of growth. He asks (inwardly) for forgiveness, if he - carried by his effort to want to help - falls into selfishness. And a good teacher knows that there is a time to laugh and a time to be serious. A good teacher is kind even when he is serious.

All beings are teachers. All our experience is for our instruction.

The greatest master is not the one who has the most students, but the one who allows the most to become masters. Search for and identify yourself.