When you come to Self awareness by your own unique path it is difficult to communicate your perceptions with others who arrive from a lifetime of vicarious information. When all you have is the words you have heard or read, then those are what you base your beliefs on. The limitation of this approach is that the original author or experiencer may be hundreds of times and centuries removed from the conversation.  It is likely their perceptions have been so watered down by the time they reach the belief system of today’s follower, an experiential person can hardly hold a meaningful dialogue with the believer.

I knew from nearly the beginning of my calling that I was going to be a teacher. It was in my nature, and I seemed to have an inherent gift of putting Self awareness in a practical language that most anyone new or seasoned to the path could easily comprehend. What I was also aware of from the early stages of my service work is that from person to person my approach, and even my teachings themselves differed greatly. It was only over time that I realised that I was not sharing or imparting my awareness, but that of the student.

This became apparent to me when I would teach something that I know was not my own present understanding on a topic. At first I would attempt to give them my awareness, but after numerous instances of the student simply not getting it I knew my approach had to change. In the early days it was important for me to impress upon the student my advanced wisdom of the information because I was new to teaching and not very sure of myself. It did not take long to recognise that this approach was about me and not about the person I was trying to serve.

I became aware that if I were to step aside and focus on the student, my awareness would contract to match theirs. This took a while to master without attachment, because my behavior would also change to that level of awareness. This was very uncomfortable for me because I found myself back in unwanted familiar territory from my past unconscious life. Over time though I knew the pure mastery of this approach. What better language than the student’s to use if you want them to hear and see you? It was a small price to pay, having to suffer their level of Self awareness in order to effectively move them quickly past that level.

It did take a few years to get comfortable with my appearance to others that might witness my teaching someone else. To the casual viewer over time my awareness would seem to be all over the place as from person to person I shared varying levels of teachings. The unaware witness may believe these teachings were my own awareness, and not understand it was the student’s awareness I was sharing.

I have no desire to come across mysterious to people. There is no benefit for me to string a student along unnecessarily for months or years. The quickest, most affective pace that the student can handle was always my approach. My goal was never to bring the person to the end of the path – I doubt there is one in fact – but only up to that point where they were able to teach themselves. I will not shy away from the word ‘teacher’ even though in spiritual circles it has become vogue to dismiss anyone claiming to be one. The work I do is not about conceptual Self awareness, but about being the Self.

~ DC Vision