What is a Living Teaching?

What is a living teaching?

A living teaching is ancient knowledge and practices that are passed on from person to person. Its modern face adapts to the times, and the foundational principles of transformation carry on without being watered down.

Absolute values find their way into the hearts and minds of people.

Looking at the history of religion, one can see how things have become distorted and how rituals exist with no substance behind them. Things have become hypocritical and lost and have been for a very long time. One is hard pressed to find vibrant deep esoteric teachings in the religions of today unless they are looking for it.

The living teachings to which I refer stem from the practices of mystics found within a religion. They are the ones guarding the precious jewels of the teaching, handing it down for those who can hear it in order to preserve its sanctity while externally the religion crumbles in collective egoism.

Jesus warned his disciples of casting pearls before swine. A higher esoteric teaching falls on many deaf ears, is misunderstood by most and then passed along in a form that feeds egoism under the guise of religion.

We have to be able to distinguish between wiseacring and the dynamism of something that opens our hearts. Our discernment is key. Going through the motions with no substance behind the practices renders nothing. It only diminishes the teaching and its practices and we get nowhere thinking that we are!

For example, I have attended many Gurdjieff movement classes aimed at integrating functional centers that actually created the complete opposite effect. They were taught like a class in our current classrooms…something that has kept our centers from optimally functioning. Learning by rote, by imitation, by repeating something over and over without requiring people to truly pay attention is not how the movements were meant to be taught. This is how they have lost their potency.

I am sure the original teachings of yoga did not look the way yoga is being taught in the present day. In current times, there is little room for inner discovery or evolution because of the high level of micro-management going on in the class. There is very little silence to allow for self-correction which comes from an affirming force within ourselves. That affirming force is what transforms our energy. We are too ready to have someone else do our work for us. It is also very hard to develop attention and stillness of mind when someone is constantly describing what your thoughts should or could be doing.

Sound bowls come directly to my mind as well. Just because you can buy a set of bowls and ring them does not mean that you are healing. In fact, without education and a personal practice of one’s own, it can be downright dangerous. Learning the proper use of binaural beats, sound vibration, and harmony goes a long way. Development of higher centers within us is everything.

A living teaching is animated.

A guide who holds a living dharma is connected to a teaching outside of time; something which can be accessed from a certain level of freedom. That guide animates the teaching so it is more accessible to others. We must all practice on our own and reach something. We each have a level of devotion toward the divine impulse and a capacity to make efforts toward non-duality if we so desire. We don’t need someone else, but there is a magical occurrence when one opens to higher influences present in their midst. It’s like a magnifier.

A living teaching is recognized.

A living teaching is passed along from teacher to student in mutual respect and recognition of what it is. The dynamism of its practices are working within the hearts and minds of those who are receiving it. The teacher is able to hold an open portal to this divine impulse. If a guide does not have this access, it can become quite theoretical and intellectual; ideas spewed forth with no true understanding of the inner workings. No one really “receives” that kind of teaching. It goes into their conceptual mind and that is all.

A living teaching requires trust.

In order for this touchpoint to come alive once it is recognized, there must be trust. Devotion toward another human being is pure projection and weakens one’s own connection with the divine. It blocks the development of our will. When we hand over our own discriminant power to someone else, we fall prey to a destructive phenomenon and humans have fallen prey to that for eons. 

Trust is another story. Trust is the vehicle for a teaching to come alive. The connection of trust repatterns what has been lost in us. We repair abandonment issues, feelings of self-loathing, a multitude of insecurities, and we learn about a different kind of love.  In relationships, we learn each time we trust another person, even if we get burned in the end. A spiritual guide who is not looking to be adored like a guru, quietly points in a direction and if someone can see, trusts by asking and seeking, and then decides for themselves to go in that direction. No conditionality is at play.

A living teaching, no matter which path, stays alive when Being and conscience is developed in us. We are supported. We have the chance to reach freedom. We access love. We see who we are. We live in authenticity. We maintain gratitude. We accept. We know there is something in the mix that is extraordinary… and alive!