Teachers

A good teacher should create independence. This applies to martial arts teachers, meditation teachers, yoga teachers etc. A good teacher will give you the tools and know how to build on your own. They will not hide knowledge from you. They will strive to make you better than they ever were. Some teachers are in the business of creating dependence. It might be for financial reasons, it might be to prove how much they know, to make them feel important or to assert their authority. They might hide behind the authority of lineage to make up for their own shortcomings. If someone parrots tradition, lineage or their teachers you should question them, no matter how ancient and venerable that tradition might be. Are they speaking from experience? No one has a copyright on truth. And no one else can give that truth to you. Some teachers talk a good game and can be very convincing. But talk is talk, no matter how seductive it might be. A good teacher can show you a path, if that path is still there and you can see it. Don't be content to listen to his/her stories about where this path leads, but get off your ass and check it out for yourself. It might not be what you expected.