“True teaching is true learning.
True learning is undoing what you have taught yourself.
Undoing then is demonstrating that this has been understood.
This cannot be ‘learned’.”
Desert Spirit
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The Teacher And The Student
Anne Marie Cotter
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You tell me that she said to you that we are each alive and growing in God’s garden. No one grows at the expense of another. We are each one life, extending life, extending our essence.
Today I see myself as a morning glory. My bell-like blossoms remain closed, untouched by the sunshine. I wander in and among the other flowers, trailing along the soil. If I attempt to climb upward, I will need a plant that can support me. I need one that I cannot collapse or choke to our mutual demise.
Today I see you as a rose bush. Your blossoms are beautiful, open and fragrant. You offer your beautiful blooms their own support as you have a strong, sturdy stem. They are the most fragrant flowers in the garden.
I attempt to climb using you for support. You are strong enough to hold me. You have grown high enough that you will afford me my taste of sunshine if I can climb also.
You do not seem to mind my climbing up and around you. You do not even seem to notice or concern yourself with this. I am not taking anything from you that you are not offering. You lose nothing by my presence.
My stem does not look sturdy and tough. It looks delicate and weak. I do not even realize its strength until one attempts to pry me loose and untangle me.
The stem of this rosebush does not allow me to grow willy-nilly in twists and turns as I have been doing. If I am to get around all these sharp thorns I must grow in just one direction, upward. I do not like the thorns. In fact, I wonder why I chose this bush for support?
The thorns cause me pain which makes me move slowly, attentively forward and upward. My pattern of climbing is reconsidered each time I am pricked by another thorn. I must become aware of how I am extending myself, my life force, my power.
I will climb upward to feel the sun and open up to trumpet the glory of the morning, the day, the light. I will catch the rain in my pitcher-petals and help to give the rosebush a drink.
Now when the bush grows upward, I will too. The bush will have to extend itself in order to support my growth. I am glad to be here. I am pleased that I did not turn away.
