I don't have anything to teach you
You are your own best teacher
So, you have to be your own teacher, and your own disciple, and there is no teacher outside, no saviour, no master. You yourself have to change, and therefore, you have to learn to observe, to know yourself. - Jiddu Krishnamurti
One of the challenges of being a “spiritual teacher” and the author of a book is the assumption that I must be some sort of enlightened being, full of wisdom ready to impart to you.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I have nothing to “teach” you. I am not here to fill your already overstuffed head with more “knowledge.” I am not here to discipline you, prod you, lead you or judge you. That’s not my job, and frankly, it’s way above my pay grade. If you want a guru, you need to look elsewhere.
What I CAN do is help you discover what you already know…or have the capacity to discover for yourself. As J. Krishnamurti has so accurately said, “You are your own guru.”
And the way I do that is by sharing my own experience with you, bringing in bits of wisdom from others far wiser than I, and doing my best to “point towards the moon” that you can see with your own eyes, feel with your own heart, know deep in your own bones. That’s the only truly meaningful spiritual knowledge you will ever have: your own experience.
It’s what I am trying to do with my book, TEN WORDS: AN INTERSPIRITUAL GUIDE TO BECOMING BETTER PEOPLE IN A BETTER WORLD. The beauty of the ten words is that there is really nothing I can teach you about them. Sure, I can give you a little background on them, tell you why I think they’re useful, and suggest some ways you might think about them or embody them yourself, but the real journey is yours. What do these words mean to you? How do they show up in your life? And what can you do to embody and enact them to become better people in a better world?
I can’t tell you any of that.
But I can tell you this: if you sincerely explore these ten words, pay attention to how they show up in your life, and get curious about how you can cultivate their teachings for yourself, you will discover your own path toward becoming a better person in a better world.
And that’s what Radical Spirituality is all about. Finding what is true for YOU. What is Sacred to YOU. What YOU can do to live from your spiritual center every day, and how YOU can become the person you want to be in better world. I want you to think for yourself and discover your own wisdom, and that’s radical.
I am here to support you and encourage you. To walk alongside you and share your experience with you. To celebrate with you and to cry with you, and to remind you that you already know what you need to know, and can do what you need to do.
If you’re ready to become your own teacher, join me in a 10-week exploration of TEN WORDS, starting October 9 on Zoom. Each week, we will gather to share and discuss from our own experience what each of these words means to you, how they show up in your life, and how you can embody and enact them to become better people in a better world.
There’s no grading, no judgment, no guru sitting on a dais with flowing robes to tell you what to think, who to be or how to live. Just me, holding the door open, pointing you towards your own becoming…towards the only teacher you really need.