This is a YouTube video titled "The Role of Teachers in Spiritual Awakening: A New Perspective with Eckhart Tollle" containing a spiritual discussion involving multiple speakers, including Eckhart Tolle. The conversation explores the evolving nature of the teacher-student relationship in spirituality, emphasizing the importance of self-realization and the eventual rise of many informal teachers as individuals awaken. The content was created in February 2024 and focuses on themes of spiritual growth, teacher roles, and awakening.
You see the source of power in that teacher, which it isn't. It's in you. Very good teachers say it's time for you to leave. Now.
I'm thinking about the evolution of spirituality and how over time more people have had access and it's moved from a situation where. Yeah, this is nerve wracking anyways. It's moved from a situation where often esoteric mysticism was not accessible and now it's much more accessible. And I'm curious if you see a point in the future where the student teacher, the guru student relationship will begin to pass in favor of a direct feed where we're able to draw in the wisdom directly ourselves, or maybe through something like Bom Krishnamurti dialoguing, where it's an instinctual process. And my concern is, I think as long as there's a student teacher relationship, we're always looking up to the person who can, rather than looking into ourselves.
Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And this is very true. This is why it's often a wonderful thing for people who have been following a particular teaching or teacher. It's a wonderful thing for the followers when the teacher finally passes away. I have no immediate plans, but often they're distraught when it happens. They feel abandoned because there was such an attachment. There was ego in that too, but they didn't know it. But they feel like a child that suddenly the, the main parent figure is gone. So they're thrown back upon themselves. And some of them remain in that state of disorientation, but others are able to suddenly realize what they didn't realize before. But I hope this is not the case here. It is more likely to happen if they kind of almost worship a guru like figure. But still, there's still quite a few of those around in the world. Then it's much more likely that you see the source of power in that teacher, which it isn't. It's in you. So it's if the teacher, some teachers actually send their disciples away. Very good teachers. So it's time for you to leave now. What? Oh my God. Yes. So you're ready. It's like a little bird. The time comes when the bird has to leave the nest. Don't be like this 30 year old man who refuses to leave to move out of his parents home. So it's to be able, it's not only the teacher, it's also the teaching to be able to use the help that the universe gives you. You know the famous phrase, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. So when you are ready. Whatever corresponds to your state of consciousness, helpful thing comes to you. It could be a book, it could be something, a person you meet, or something like this. So I believe that the guru disciple relationship perhaps eventually will disappear in its traditional form and will be replaced by something more informal. This already is a little bit more informal. There's not that attachment, I hope, to the figure of the. There's not all the confusion between the vehicle through which the teaching comes and the teaching. And I sometimes say I feel like a window frame. And of course the light comes through the window. And so don't confuse the frame, the window frame, with that which transcends all form. When you can sense the presence sitting here, and you might, your mind might interpret it as perhaps coming from me. But when you can sense the presence, where do you sense it? It's in you. You sense it in you. A good teacher always encourages you not to become attached, to go your own way. If you don't need to come back to another retreat, that's great. And if you increasing number of people will begin, I know that many people who are here will become, and some already are teachers in their own right. So that's whether it's formal or informal, whether it's part of a certain practice. They might be therapists already, or they might be working as counselors with people, or they might engage in education or in health care, any different capacities. And gradually they already, by being present, they disseminate the teaching and the words may accompany that. So many of you are growing into the role of teacher, which has its own danger, because again, we've talked about it a few times. The danger is that a conceptual identity arises in your mind of you as a great teacher. And that will be a block. But you can sense the power that is in you, that is different, but that is not superior to anybody. It's very hard to explain, but you need to be careful of any conceptual identity. And then there will be more and more teachers arising, not just a few. And so I believe that's the way we are going. Because that means some humans awaken before others awaken. And those that awaken before others awaken, they become teachers, either formal teachers or informal teachers. In the Course in Miracles, it says anybody who practices in their daily life, the course in miracles is called Teacher of God. You become a teacher of God the moment you start practicing presence, even if you don't speak the words that are out of presence, simply. Simply by being in, for example, in a non reactive mode, in relationship with people. By sensing an outflow of goodwill towards other humans, with decreasing judgment in your mind about others. All this, you become a teacher. You become a teacher of God. So the answer is there will not just be a few isolated famous figures, but more and more. More and more teachers will arise, which are those who awaken before others begin to awaken, and then inevitably, they become teachers.
