The truth is the same, no matter we realize the truth from which type of yoga practice or meditation techniques. It doesn’t matter if it was realized by some beings in many thousands years ago, or if it is realized by some beings in this very moment. It’s the same egolessness, wisdom and compassion in all beings.
There is a slight difference, when we haven’t realize the truth yet, but we teach yoga according to the truth or the teachings that we have heard from attending some yoga teachers training courses or yoga classes, or from yoga books that we have read, or when we teach yoga from what we have realized through our own effort from our own practice.
When we realized the truth by ourselves, it is the same as the truth as the other beings had realized. There’s no separateness nor contradiction when we realized our true nature as it is, nameless and formless, beginningless and endless, birthless and deathless, attributeless and non-separateness. Unless we thought we had realized the truth, but we haven’t really realize the truth yet.
If we really had realized the truth as it is, and realized wisdom and compassion, all kinds of fear and worry disappears. Restlessness and dissatisfaction disappears. Anger and hatred disappears. Craving and aversion disappears. All doubts and afflictions disappears. All these impurities doesn’t exist in the presence of wisdom and compassion. They can only manifest themselves when wisdom and compassion is absent. And so, if we are still not free from all these impurities yet, then know that we still need to keep practice until we are completely free from all these impurities, or realize wisdom and compassion.
Some might can memorize most of the teachings from hearing, reading, learning and studying, and some may not have good memory towards what he or she had heard or read, learned or studied, but when come to practical experiences in everyday life condition and situation, whether our mind is free from attachment and will stay calm, uninfluenced and undetermined by the qualities of names and forms, be free from craving and aversion, anger and hatred, fear and worry, that will be a complete different story that is nothing to do with how much we know in our mind.
As knowing the truth of things and knowing many things is a different story.
One is knowing the truth and share with other beings, and the other one is borrowing the teachings and share with other beings. Even though there’s a difference, but it is still sharing a great wisdom (whether realized or borrowed) with many other beings. And sometimes the teacher has not realized the truth yet, but the students might realize the truth through their own practice according to the teachings they learn from the teacher.
But that’s the greatest part of it.
It is not about the teacher has to realize the truth before the students, nor the teacher gets any priority or superiority than the students. All are equal beings, all are the students of Dharma or Dhamma, striving to eliminate the ego and ignorance. The teacher will realize his or her own ego during the action of teaching. The students will realize their ego during the action of learning. One compliments one another, and is helping each other to eliminate the ego, without intention nor expectation.
The teacher who is not free yet, doesn’t need to feel low confident nor feel bad, as this is nothing wrong at all, as long as the teacher knows that he or she is not perfect yet, and is humble to learn and be sincere in his or her own practice while sharing with other beings to walk the path of liberation together.
But, if the teacher is not free yet, but with the ego thinks himself or herself is knowing more than the students without being aware of his or her own pride and arrogance, and expect the students to ‘behave’ in certain ways, and to ‘response’ to his or her teaching accordingly, then there’ll be some problems might arise.
But again, it is all a learning process for both the students and the teacher. The students actually will learn a lots from practicing under a teacher who is not perfect yet, and learn about action and reaction of the mind, likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements coming from the ego. They will learn and realize about non-attachment, non-judgment, non-expectation, egolessness and compassion, through his or her own observation towards his or her own mind reactions towards the teacher’s imperfection.
The teacher’s realization has nothing to do with the student’s realization. Same as the student’s realization is nothing to do with the teacher’s realization. Everyone is responsible for their own realization. A liberated teacher doesn’t guarantee all his or her students will be liberated. A teacher who is not free yet, won’t stop the students from attaining liberation.
In the beginning, Buddha had many different teachers, and some of them might not completely free yet then, but that didn’t stop Buddha from realizing the truth. As everyone and everything is our teacher. It is not limited in a liberated being in human form. And the greatest teacher above all, is our own Self.
Buddha was liberated, but he never intended and couldn’t make other beings to be liberated. He was peaceful and was free from suffering, but he couldn’t make other beings peaceful, nor could he make other beings suffering to disappear.
That’s why there is no good or bad teachers, nor good or bad students. Everyone is here to help each other to evolve, to transform, to be free from our own egoism and ignorance.
My Daily Yoga Practice 