Teaching around forty years now, it has been over twenty years since I left the ashram. I felt so full of knowledge, not just facts but real direct experience Knowledge, that I was compelled to go out and teach full time. I had no idea at the time what a shock I was in for.
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I remember feeling that I would get up on a stage, give a lecture, everyone would be inspired by what I was saying, and that would be that. It did not happen that way at all.
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People had read and studied various teachings. They had become vested in their resultant understanding of spirituality, healing, personal development, the nature of life and existence, etc.
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It is certainly not that the knowledge is nowhere else out there. However, it is not something that can be comprehended easily. Furthermore, many who are teaching do not really comprehend the depth to which the knowledge really goes, nor do they comprehend the degree of distortion they have imposed upon it. In many cases, they have turned spirituality upside down and backwards. I do feel sad when I think of the people who never really ‘got’ what I was offering. It is as if they were right there. It was in their hands and it slipped away–tragic.
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Real communication of sublime knowledge requires not only direct experience of Truth by the teacher but also time, patience and proper attitude of the student. Even among those few that actually do have the knowledge, even fewer have it in their nature to be teachers.
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In the early years of the school, when I tried to explain the distinctions that made all the difference, people were confused. It was as if difficult for them to grasp the distinction between an echo and the real thing. Being vested in the echo only made it more challenging for them. Sometimes they just got angry, feeling like I was unfairly (even arrogantly) criticizing the teachings of others. I was stunned and exasperated by the response. Admittedly, all those years in the ashram cultivated an innocence within me. I guess I had forgotten how hostile and jaded it could be ‘out there.’
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In retrospect, I realize that it took years for me to find ways to communicate my teachings. Of course, that learning is ongoing. It will never end. However, the proof is in the pudding. I am getting the information across much more effectively now. I do wonder though, if my method of teaching has changed much or if the people that are coming around now are from a somewhat different cross section of society.
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I do feel that the US spiritual society itself has changed. I do not see nearly as much superficiality (eye fluttering, hand waving, etc.) in the name of spirituality as I did ten or twenty years ago. Society does change rather quickly. I remember forty years ago, when many people thought drugs were the path to enlightenment. After that came the eye-fluttering era. Now it seems people are looking for something more solid, real world, reflective, and significant.
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Whatever the cause, we have come a long way in the past twenty years. I feel I am getting things across much better now. How much is it a refinement of my method of teaching? How much is a drawing from a group of more ardent and sophisticated students? It is hard to say. What I can say is I am pleased.
I would love to help you answer your question.
It would be great to listen to a classic Michael talk say from the 90s.
When Joseph and Nathaniel first got in the van. 🙂
That would be very cool.
Thanks, michael, it is the most beautiful knowledge I have known. you have been delivered in your teaching with sincerety and honesty. You have given every human being a tool on the earth to use, only if they willing to use it, and will reach the different level of evolution as they can, it is simple, all they need is pursue it.
I can’t imagine being anywhere else…but on this journey with you and Mt Soma. Jai Guru Dev…
Marty, not Mercy…
I think it has been both – It’s been beautiful to watch your lectures morph and refine; still saying the same things but in very different ways. It feels like some rougher edges have worn off and that makes it easier for new folks to hear what you have to say. Then there are those of us who have been around a little while and feel so committed that yo can throw a lot at us. For me, the edges have never scared or upset me. And then the newer students coming in are so many step ahead of where we started, too. You’re attracting a much more mature crowd now. I’m excited to see where we’ll be heading…
It is heart warming to read all these comments. The years do go by, don’t they?
I remember the early years at the school. Personally, I loved that one day we had someone presenting some model, like Winecott, and the next day you were in essence tossing it all out the window. It made sense to me. I learned a couple of points from you, Michael, that are the foundation of the healing work I do for/with others – being in the present moment with the client regardless of when the issue originated and ‘leading while following’. Both of these put emphasis not on me, the healer,not on the method or technique I may use in that moment but on the what is most important – the client themselves. It seems so obvious yet I have come across so few healers who have that base and use it.
Like those other early students, I have seen the school evolve from a structure to facilitate what you wanted to bring forth, to a living entity of the wisdom and teachings that you bring forth.
It is a great blessing.
Just ordered the Wisdom Lectures. I can’t wait to listen to the echoes from 10 years ago… Thanks for making these available. By the way your last article was perfect…