Tag: student teacher

Setting the Record Straight

Joseph Dewey

Setting the Record Straight

In any type of spiritual work you run into critics. This is a case where a reader seemed to have a chip on his shoulder. Instead of giving an accurate criticism he seemed to project illusionary attitudes and beliefs I do not have and criticize them. Hopefully my answers help readers receive a clear idea of my thinking.

After reading my mission story a reader says this: I enjoyed being the senior companion and delighted in taking responsibility, but unlike what JJ seemed to communicate, I did not take glory in “being in charge of the work”. The one in change of the work was always the Lord, and we merely sought direction at his hand.

JJ: I hope no one else got this extremely distorted idea of how I think. If I projected the idea that I was taking “glory” in being in charge I would like to hear feedback on this.

I wanted to be in charge because I saw how to get the job done that wasn’t being done. I never seek to be in charge just to be in charge or for the sake of my own glory. If someone else can do a job well then I am happy to let them go and do not seek to replace them. The only areas where I seek to be in charge are those where I believe the job is not being adequately served in the present or if no one is doing useful work in an area of my interest.

By your reasoning here Jesus was seeking glory to himself because he sought to lead the apostles because no one else was qualified or available.

Would you think a Spanish teacher is seeking glory because he seeks to be in charge of his own class because he can speak and teach Spanish better than the students?

Personal glory has absolutely nothing to do with someone will a skill seeking to use it if the ego is placed aside.

Then he quotes me as saying this: “For instance, I am writing this account from memory as I did not keep a journal.”

Reader: That is pretty amazing, but I do get the impression that part of these stories, while interesting, is fictional.

JJ: The whole story is true and no part of it is made up. Some of the dialog may not be exact but it all accurately represents what happened. If I present any fiction, I will state it as such if it is not obvious.

Reader: I am with you to this point, but I am sensing the impression from this and your other writings that you believe are the only person who has ever thought about intelligence, and the only one capable of writing a book about it.

JJ: Wow, what have you been smoking today? I know a lot of people have written and thought about intelligence and never claimed a corner on the market. I do think I could present a unique perspective, but so do thousands of other people who write books on various subjects. That is why they write books. No one wants to clone material from others when they write.

Reader: There is a hell of a lot of stuff in this life that we are supposed to learn and discover. Wouldn’t it be a lot more fun if we were all free to learn and explore and experiment, and then share this information with each other without some thinking that they are entitled to do all the learning and experimenting, and others thinking that the best they have to hope for is experiencing life second-hand?

JJ: So you think that others here are not “free to learn and explore and experiment, and then share…”

You seem to be pretty free to do this just as you are now doing. Where do you get such an idea???

Then you think some (namely me) are entitled to do all the learning, experimenting and sharing.

I think you need to examine your belief system to see why you would come up with such an accusation. There may be an aspect of yourself you are not seeing.

You seem to be trying to say that I should just step aside as a teacher and turn the Keys into a free-for-all forum like most of the other sites.

If I want to learn Spanish, for example, the last thing I want to do is get together with a group that doesn’t know any more than me and learn as a group. I want to get a teacher who really knows the subject and can actually pronounce the words correctly. I can learn much faster from one expert than from a thousand amateurs in an encounter group.

There are certain things I know and I throw them out here and people can accept or reject them. I’m not participating in this group for group therapy.

Now this does not mean that the Spanish teacher cannot learn something from his students, but that is not why he is teaching the class and neither are the students there to teach the teacher. Neither are the wise teachers or the wise students interested in learning Spanish together without a workable agenda.

Then he gives this clipped quote from my mission story: “Now I was in charge …”

Reader: I took this attitude for a couple of weeks with my first junior, but he soon put me in my place. It was after that that I learn how to work cooperatively.

JJ: Quoting me out of context does make it sound like I may have been ego driven. Let us quote me in context then I will comment:

‘Now I was in charge we set out the best way possible to establish a good pool of people to teach.”

The point of the statement is this. Before I was in charge I was led by an Elder who had very little interest in the actual work of prospecting. He wanted to spend all possible time visiting with members and flirting with the girls.

The point I was making was that now that I was in charge we could get back to the nitty gritty work. The statement had nothing to do with the attitude of: “Oh, boy!! Now I am in charge I can boss someone around and do not have to listen to them.”

None of my juniors had to put me in place or felt the need for it and I gave them all the latitude and input possible. I think they all have fond memories of working with me, even my atheist companion.

Reader: Speaking for myself, I don’t have much of a problem for what your mind (not your brain) turns out, but you seem to project the attitude that you are better, more “capable”, more in tune, more intelligent, more perceptive, and have more significant insights and experiences than anybody else around you. You have elected yourself to be their teacher, when they are not necessarily looking for a teacher, but to just be a friend and a co-worker.

JJ: Actually, I did not elect myself as the teacher in this group. Rick Audette started this forum and asked me to come on it and teach. I didn’t really want to at the time but he persisted and I finally acquiesced. At first I thought I would only post now and then but the members wanted everything I could give them and more so I decided to take the job.

This is a class and not designed as a free for all. All are welcome but if any come here wanting a group encounter session then they will just become frustrated as you seem to be.

There are plenty of forums out there where there is no specific teacher that is available for this need.

I make no claims of being more capable or enlighten than anyone else. The only claim I make is that I have teachings available and if they are helpful then participants should stay. If not then maybe some other forum would fill their needs better.

Reader: In your posts about the Book of Revelation, and the Name of Christ, you mentioned the idea of a person standing on the higher ground, and lifting others up to where you are, BUT only when the other person ASKED for help.

I know that “the way” is strait and narrow, but not so narrow that we can only walk down it single file, with you in the lead. How about trying to walk it side by side?

JJ: Because that is not the way it works. The method of the Christ principle works like a great chain. The one person on higher ground pulls others up to where he is.

Let us say we are climbing a mountain together and I am a level higher. What makes more sense? For me to go down to where you are and reclimb together or for me to just reach forth my hand and pull you up?

Reaching down and pulling you up is much more efficient.

Whenever a teacher knows something that the student does not and he shares that knowledge it is like reaching forth his hand and pulling the guy up. Except it isn’t always single file. Sometimes a teacher can pull up hundreds, thousands or more.

This moving forward together and teaching each other sounds good, but when you really want to learn and move ahead with any speed you find someone who knows what he is talking about that is capable of actually seeing and understanding things you do not see and understand.

There are things I see and understand and I am willing to share most of these things and do not desire to relearn them in a group endeavor. Anyone who has pertinent information to share that is on topic is free to share for group benefit.

On the other hand, there are many things I do not know. For these things I seek out an expert who will lift me to higher ground.

In fact, that is what I plan on doing after I finish this post – that is I am taking an online course from an expert and will seek to be taken to higher ground myself. I have no desire to learn this course by sharing with a bunch of beginners that know no more than I do.

To read my “Mission Story” that generated this conversation go to this link:

Anybody can become angry – that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy. – Aristotle

July 7, 2010

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The Teacher-Student Relationship

Joseph Dewey
This entry is part 07 of 98 in the series Principles

Principle Seven

The Teacher-Student Relationship

This concept has two extremes associated with it, and to really understand it completely you will need the second lost key of the Buddha which was revealed Book Three, but what I give here will be a big help to those who  register this key internally.

The one extreme is the idea that goes something like this:  “Me teacher — You student. You do, think and act exactly as I command if you want to learn or be anything.” The other extreme:  “There are no teachers and no students for we are all teachers, and we are all students. One person is not above another and everyone’s words have equal value.” Even though people in these two camps see each other as an agent of evil and opposite to themselves, the concept espoused by each has the same effect.

And what is that?

That effect is to turn the student into a non-thinking animal, or “beast,” as it is called in the Book of Revelations.

The Illusion Of Extreme Number One

There are many problems associated with Extreme One.

  1. No earthly teacher is flawless. Therefore, if you are limited to learning exactly according to the mindset of the teacher you will also inherit his flaws.
  1. This black-and-white method of teaching only allows for the dissemination of facts and not principles. It takes a thousand facts to create the understanding of one principle, but one principle can reveal an infinite number of facts. Therefore an enlightened teacher will stimulate understanding of principles.

For instance, the Keys of Knowledge are centered around principles and cannot be revealed as mere facts, or they will not be comprehended.

We will talk more about principles and facts in future books and posts.

  1. This method takes away freedom of thought. Instead of stimulating the student’s own intuition by directing him toward his own soul, the teacher steals his thought process from him by demanding that he accept everything without question.

An example of an extreme failure of a student from this mindset is the religious fanatic who will kill himself and others with a bomb tied to his back so he can secure a place in heaven. Another example would be the Jim Jones group who committed mass suicide. Still another — the group that goes to the mountain top to be raptured (because their teacher set a certain date) only to discover that Jesus seemed to have changed his mind because they were just not good enough.

These are extreme examples, but all who follow the black and white teacher of the first extreme have their progress tied up to some degree in actions of a similar degree of ridiculousness.

The Illusion Of Extreme Number Two

This is the “feel-good” extreme, the seemingly safe extreme, the “we-are-not-judging-each-other” extreme. How could this extreme be bad if the intent is to establish equality?

Remember another extreme that tried to establish equality? It was and is called Communism. The ideal of equality sought in Communism has nothing wrong with it, but because it diffused individual thought and soul contact it turned into a great evil.

The truth overlooked in Extreme Number Two is this:   In the reality we are presently in, there are teachers and there are students. Even though there is an equality on the soul level we are very diverse on the physical, emotional and mental levels.

To understand this we must first define what a student and teacher is. The student and teacher are a symbol of the two basic energies of the universe which are represented as positive-negative; yin-yang; male-female; light-dark; hot-cold, and finally giving-receiving. These two energies or items are called the dualities. Wherever there is form there exists positive-negative, giving and receiving.

Thus, in any relationship of two people one will be polarized as the teacher (giver) and the other as the student (the receiver).

Objection:

In most relationships you are sometimes the teacher or giver, and other times the student and receiver. It seems egotistical to think of yourself as always the teacher.

Answer:

All of us have within us the giving and receiving (positive-negative) principles, but we are talking about polarization here. If you are polarized as a male, this means you have more male energies within you than female. It does not mean that you do not have female energies available.

In a relationship, you both give and receive, but the giving and receiving is NEVER equal in this world. If you are giving more than receiving, then by default you become the teacher in the relationship. Because this statement is true and truth must be recognized to escape from this veil of illusion, then this student-teacher relationship must be recognized before true equality can even be dreamed of.

Let us take the relationship I have with Rick. Overall I am polarized as his teacher, but the true teacher will always be open to receiving from the student when the opportunity permits. Rick gave me that opportunity by presenting the idea of a mailing list. Now if I saw that this was a bad idea I would have remained in the teaching position and taught him why it was a bad idea, but because I could find no reason to object I became obligated to become the student for a time and let him carry the ball and let him teach me. As long as the direction he was going registers well with my soul I am obligated as a disciple of truth to follow.

The highest of the Masters who have overcome physical death would see themselves polarized as a teacher in a relationship with any of us, yet they still recognize that we can do certain things better than they can. For example, most of us in the human kingdom understand that we are of much higher intelligence overall than any animal. No animal, for instance, would have any concept about building an automobile or spacecraft as man has done. But on the other hand, a human can never build a beaver damn as well as a beaver. Beavers already have the knowledge to build them better and faster than we can.

The relationship of the God Kingdom to man corresponds to the human kingdom and the animal. The attention of the Masters is set on many lofty ideas that man does not even comprehend, yet there are many things in the human world that man is more capable of performing well than is the Highest of Masters.

This is the main reason we do not see more of them, as the more directly they become involved by doing for us what we can do for ourselves, the more things get screwed up.

The powers that be learned this painful lesson during Atlantis. During part of this period the Masters associated much more freely with humans and gave them much knowledge that they were not yet ready to handle. The result was that the entire civilization was destroyed and we had to start again from scratch.

The Masters learned their lesson and this time have committed themselves to only helping us when we cannot help ourselves. They do assist behind the scenes but only work through our personal desires and free will.

The goal at present is to move certain groups in the human kingdom towards alignment with the kingdom of God so heaven and earth can be brought together. This will result in a truly beneficial interplay between the two kingdoms that will assist rather than destroy humanity.

Now getting back to the Teacher-Student principle, I will say this. It is extremely important that this concept be recognized because without it we will be polarized on one of the above extremes; the only way we will advance toward the soul in that case is through tremendous pain. Discovering where your right place is in a relationship creates a detour around the pain and toward the greater light.

In the true student-teacher relationship authority is only recognized because it is earned.

Let’s say you want to learn Spanish and two teachers surface who say they can teach you. They both seem equally convincing, but the truth is that one of them knows the language well and the other one does not. If you accept either as an authority just because he or someone else tells you to, then you have a 50-50 chance of getting a bad teacher. What do you do? You test the teacher. Have him actually speak some Spanish. Give him several paragraphs from English and see if he can translate and then check out the translation for correctness. Finally, you will establish in your mind that one of them can truly teach you.

Once you have tested your teacher then you do not have to check up on him in every little detail; but when you have learned the basics and want to go to advanced Spanish, you do need to check again to see if he has anything more to teach you or if you need to move on to another teacher.

This point is dangerous ground for the student, for sometimes his false ego will convince him that he knows Spanish as well or better than the teacher when in reality he may not. In this case the student often goes off to teach before he has learned all the lessons.

To be a good student takes as much wisdom as it does to be a good teacher.

If a man or woman comes forth and presents or is presented as a spiritual teacher, you must not accept him or her (we’ll say “him” for simplicity) just because a claim is made. You must test him.

How do you test him? Listen to his words and test them with your soul. If your soul says no then drop him immediately. If your soul says nothing then test some more until you receive an inner response. When you finally do receive an inner response does this mean you should now accept the teacher?

Maybe yes, maybe no — because there is a true soul contact and a false one. There are many people who are sincere seekers who have never in their life received a true soul contact and therefore mistake a high emotional feeling for soul. This can be very deceptive and can produce the type of person who may have from a harmless delusion to one who will destroy others for his master. If you are not sure you have ever received soul contact it means you have not, because when you do, you recognize it and know what has happened. It is like coming home.

On the other hand, not all who are sure they have received soul contact have received it. Some feel a high emotional energy and are sure they have touched the aura of God Himself, yet are completely deceived.

Only those who have received true soul contact can know a thing for sure and can recognize a true teacher from a false one. The only way to know if another has achieved soul contact is to achieve it yourself. One person who has received this contact can recognize another who has received it.

Question:

If only a small number have soul contact and you’re not positive if you have, are you doomed to be deceived?

Answer:

No you are not. Soul contact is available to all who with pure intent seek after it. You do not even have to be highly evolved to feel it. But if you are not sure if you have received it, yet then here are some guidelines to keep you on the right course.

  1. Keep your intentions pure and seek the service of the whole above the service to the ego.
  1. Seek with sincerity to know more and to go higher.
  1. Let common sense rule above lower emotional feeling. If your teacher says that Aliens are coming to pick you up on a certain date and then they don’t arrive, that ought to tell you something. No matter what excuses he makes he was wrong and now all his teachings should be suspect. Maybe you should be teaching him.
  1. When any degree of soul contact is reached and you receive direction from the soul, keep following that instruction until more is given. If you do not, you may be cut off for a long period and wind up in an illusionary path. Always follow the highest you can perceive.
  1. Remember the words of the Master: “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be who enter, but wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to death and many there be who go therein.” The teachers of the wide gate are legion and are easy to find. The teachers who lead to the life of the soul are few, but fortunately can be verified by the soul. As one who claims to present true spiritual principles, I invite you to check with your souls about me, for the only authority I will ever use will be the same authority that I am subject to. If the One Holy Spirit of Truth speaks through me and you together, we will be as one mind.

“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”
— Horace Mann (1796 – 1859)

 

Go to Principle Eight

Copyright by J J Dewey

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