Articles
Personal Growth: Purpose
Is Everyone You Meet Your Teacher?
Or are you just a good student?
By Mary Lee LaBay, Ph.D.
There is a popular saying that every person you meet is a teacher for you. Can that be true? What is the implication of that statement? Awareness Engineering combines contemporary healing techniques, quantum reality concepts, ancient disciplines and philosophy to help individuals uncover these answers.
Here is a perspective on this topic that you may want to consider.
A teacher is a conscious being who has more information than you do on the particular topic, and has a prescribed agenda of how best to alter your perceptions in that regard for your own best interests.
When we state that everyone is a teacher, the result is the devaluation of the position of teacher to equal anyone with a strong opinion, or worse—just anyone shuffling through life that crosses your path.
This devaluation also occurs when we claim that everyone is a healer.
A healer is a person who consciously directs energy, thoughts, skills, and other tools and techniques for the purpose of facilitating wellness and relieving negative conditions.
We must realize that by “leveling the playing field” we are not simply honoring everyone equally, somehow making ourselves feel good by making everyone else feel good regardless of their effort or intent. In reality, it is an injustice that only harms and devalues the deserving.
The role of teacher is a person who has knowledge, and a plan of delivery. They have the student’s best interests at stake and are willing to risk a great deal for the betterment of the student’s progress. Often they are viewed as the “bad guy”, as they are required to push the student over the proverbial cliff, causing them to soar beyond their self-made limitations, with the intention that the student will exercise their wings.
The healer has a different role. They administer to the student, who is possibly splattered on the canyon floor because they resisted using the full power of their wings. The healer patches the student back together, repairing them for their next adventure.
And then there is the pastor, the shepherd. Their role is to encourage, support and convince the student to continue. They urge the student to return to the cliff’s edge with the teacher, bolstering them to maintain the vision of the ultimate goal of mastering the lessons.
And then the teacher pushes them over the cliff once again. And the cycle continues, on and on.
When we state that everyone we meet is our teacher, it is a twist in the reality of the relationship. Everyone we meet certainly can provide opportunities for us to practice what we are learning. They are the tests, not the teachers.
When we learn from someone who is not our teacher, it is simply demonstrating that we are, in fact, a good and diligent student. From my perspective, this is the reality that you experience when you learn from the various individuals that you encounter along your life's journey. When you find the lesson in the encounter, when you can discover what is valuable to be learned in the situation, you are demonstrating the strength of your ability to be a great student of life.
Rather than saying that everyone we meet is our teacher, perhaps the saying should be "Everyone I meet tests my ability to be a good student."
So, instead of naming everyone as your teacher, consider saving that distinction for the one you have selected to serve in that role, and who understands the seriousness and responsibility of that position. And then remember to honor yourself as a promising student when you find unlimited ways to learn from all your experiences.
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