The True Teacher



A TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR:

THE TRUE TEACHER

Integral Education Series, AuroPublications, Second revised edition, 1996

CONTENTS i

PREFACE ii

To improve the quality of the teacher we must go to the fundamentals of education ii

- These fundamentals were well-known to the ancient spiritual masters ii

- The central effort was to evolve the potentialities in the same way as Nature ii

A Good Teacher 1

One must be a saint and a hero to be a good teacher – One must be a great yogi 1

- A teacher – The best way of disciplining himself, which is exceptionally severe 1

- An opportunity to achieve self-control, an understanding of the subject and of others 2

To be a good teacher one has to abolish in oneself all egoism 2

To be worthy of teaching according to the supramental truth – No longer any ego 2

It is not so much the details of organisation as the attitude that must change 2

The school must be an occasion of progress for the teacher as well as for the student 3

- One never applies a method well unless one has discovered it oneself 3

If a teacher wants to be respected, he must be respectable 3

“Personality Traits” of a Successful Teacher 3

Complete self-control – Undisturbed under all circumstances 3

Self-confidence – A sense of the relativity of his importance 3

- The teacher himself must always progress if he wants his students to progress 3

Not any sense of essential superiority, nor preference or attachment 3

Must know that all are equal spiritually 3

The business of parent and teacher is to enable and help the child to educate himself 3

The teacher – To be in tune with the divine Will as much as this is possible for him 4

- Education is a sacerdocy – Unfortunately innumerable people work only to earn money 4

- One makes great progress oneself – Can make others also progress and be respected 5

There will be no more indiscipline in the class 5

The Spiritual Teacher 6

The Teacher of the integral Yoga will lead the disciple through the nature of the disciple 6

- Teaching, example, influence are the three instruments of the Guru 6

The wise Teacher will seek to awaken much more than to instruct 6

The example is more powerful than the instruction – The divine realisation within 6

Influence is more important than example – A Presence pouring the divine consciousness 7

The teacher of the integral Yoga – Not in a humanly vain and self-exalting spirit 7

A True Professor 8

A true professor, must be truly a yogi – The Indian term for teacher is ‘guru’ 8

- Something is needed for the true teacher – The consciousness of a soul 8

That inner intimate consciousness infuses the knowledge into the mind of the pupil 9

If the teacher is to be a yogi, the pupil on his side must be at least an aspirant 9

- A child’s consciousness retains generally something of the pure inner consciousness 9

Teacher and pupil – The two by their intimate interaction grow together 10

Mastery means to know how to deal with certain vibrations 10

- First, you must have mastery over yourself – You can transmit its vibrations to others 10

- To master means, by your simple presence, to replace a bad vibration by the true one 11

Mastery over a movement – To set against the vibration a truer vibration 11

Mastery with regard to curing ignorance – Making understand without saying anything 11

How can you have control over your students unless you have control over yourself? 12

The Task of the Teacher 13

The first task of the teacher is to maintain the class environment well supplied 13

- He has to prepare the work-sheets and the related documentation 13

The second task is to organise and maintain the goodwill of the students 13

- To canalise the interest of the child and supply a constructive outlet to his activity 13

During the first stage (adaptation) – To smoothen and facilitate the adaptation 13

During the second stage (responsibility) – To show the way to responsibility 13

- The teacher must be moderate, discreet and unassuming – Steady, strong and reliable 14

- To support the children’s growth towards responsibility and self-acquired knowledge 14

The third aspect of the teacher’s work is to help the children to find the inner guidance 15

- To induce a psychic opening he should himself always keep in touch with his soul 15

To teach is certainly a very efficient form of sadhana 15

The collaboration among teachers – The practice of true collaboration 16

- A co-ordinated collective action – One of the class teachers should be the First Teacher 16

- What about the freedom of the teacher? Will there not be a great rigidity and fixity 17

The work-sheets prepared by the teacher – The possibility of a greater adaptation 17

- The new class is a collective unit from the point of view of both students and teachers 17

The independence of each is qualified by the interdependence of all 18

The principles and distinctive features of the method should be carefully observed 18

- Those who will join the new classes as teachers will be entirely volunteers 18

- It is truly a new attitude towards the child and education – A pioneering work 18

The Teaching Profession: The Ancient 20

Indian Ideal and the Modern Environment 20

Teachership is not a profession but a mission. This was so in the India of old 20

- The fundamental principles have to be preserved, adapted and given a fresh lease 20

The teacher must develop an individual relation with the student 20

- Means of ensuring that each teacher is related directly to a group of students 20

A successful teacher is also side by side a keen student 22

- He has opportunities to learn which other professional people do not have 22

- The student points out the lacunae, the chinks in the armour of the teacher 22

What about the moral development, the cultural, the physical development? 23

- Mother speaks of four-fold or five-fold education 23

It is in childhood that the sense of aesthesis, beauty develops 23

- This is a side which has been very much neglected 25

- Women have a responsibility to promote this aesthetic sense in the children 25

All experiments in education depend for their success on the right type of teachers 26

- Here, we give a certain amount of freedom to the students 26

After the age of fourteen, the students are given freedom to choose subjects, teachers 26

Free progress is where the teacher does not teach but holds himself in attendance 26

- The responsibility of a teacher is more wide-ranged than normally recognised 27

What is college education going to do if school education is not perfect 27

A school must be built into a place of enjoyment 27

A teacher must be very careful in not hurting a child in any manner 28

A teacher becomes wiser – He has something to give to the whole society 28

- Teachers in the olden days occupied a highly influential position 28

The Teacher as Evolutionary Energy 30

To be a teacher, in its noblest dimensions, reaches out as an energy of evolution 30

There are different types of teachers 30

- There are, of course, those who regard teaching simply as a form of employment 30

- There are others for whom teaching is a life-invitation of uncommon significance 31

- Beyond this are the great-souled teachers of the world – An agent of evolution 31

A diverse and complex society has need for varied approaches to teaching 31

- The stabilising elements of culture need to be transmitted to the majority 31

- The necessity of a balanced and harmonious programme of integral education 31

All aspects of being need proper cultivation – Physical, vital, mental, psychic, spiritual 32

Teaching may be conceived properly as both a science and an art 32

- The science of teaching deals primarily with the exoteric aspects of life and learning 32

- The art of teaching breathes into this the animating life and spirit 32

- The master teacher neglects neither the science nor the art of teaching 32

A new type of consciousness to be born – A great responsibility with those who teach 32

A New Type of Teacher 33

The realisation that man is a conscious power of the supreme creative intention 33

- These teachers help the student in the discovery of his own illimitable powers of being 33

- The teacher and student become explorers in human development and evolution 33

Teaching-Learning 34

Teacher and student grow together towards new realisation and fulfilment in both 34

The personal life of the teacher becomes the primary teaching energy 34

- What a man stands for in his essential being speaks to his students 34

- That man who would be a teacher of others must first put himself on the path 35

- Every human entity exerts a subtle force upon others whom he contacts 36

- The teacher who personifies evolutionary energy – Extending the horizons of his spirit 36

Challenge for Educators 37

The paramount challenge for educators is essentially twofold in nature 37

- On the one hand there needs to be a perfectioning in the act of self-transcendence 37

- Equally there must be facilitated an ever-increasing interaction and purposive harmony 37

We are presently living in the most significant and decisive period of human history 37

- The advance must be one of both inner and outer characteristics 38

- Materially, psychologically and spiritually mankind can and must move forward 38

The Focal Point 38

Today many men and women have already begun to live a supramental, unitary life 38

- These beings are dedicated to participation in the evolutionary world process 38

- The work of these becomes the focal point – Instrument of Divine purpose on earth 39

- Thus it is that a new breed of teachers is appearing – The true teachers of the race 39

The first process is to open the ranges of our inner being and to live from there outward 39

- The individual becomes united with Essential Being and with all things in the universe 39

The Master Teachers who have gone before us provide ample inspiration and direction 40

- Each was a radiant presence empowered as an enduring influence 40

The teacher as evolutionary energy – Truth-Consciousness is revealed 40

- As living examples – Drawn into a creative synthesis with fellowmen everywhere 41

The gradual establishment of a new civilization and a new humanity 41

The True Teacher 42

It is not just the intellect and the moral nature that must be developed and cultivated 42

- True education feeds the soul, until it is well enough developed to come forward 42

The whole nature must be built around the awakened centre, built anew 42

The true teacher is a help and a guide – He understands that nothing really can be taught 42

- Perhaps the first requirement. – An inexhaustible humility, and willingness to learn 43

- A true teacher is one of the greatest servants and benefactors of the race 43

Yogic Principles for the Teacher 44

We can perhaps state the principles which alone open the way to the first liberation 44

- There are twelve principles of the Yoga, like the Mother’s symbol of the divine lotus 44

The practice of the first six leads to the first liberation 44

- Truthfulness, Right-Action, Purity, Remembrance, Gratitude, Humility 44

The practice of the second six would bring about the second liberation 44

- Perseverance, Faith, Aspiration, Devotion, Sincerity, Surrender 44

- This establishes one of the inner Roads to the Truth-Consciousness 45

- These inner Roads are the Four Great Paths of Yoga-Sadhana 45

- Yoga-Sadhana presupposes that one understands the need for transformation 45

1. Truthfulness 46

Truthfulness means, at its highest conception, Truthfulness in all the parts of our being 47

- Truthfulness in the three main parts of the being, i.e., Mental, Vital and Physical 47

2. Right-Action 47

For one entering the Path of Sadhana – For whom and for what purpose do we act? 47

- First – Right-Action is that which leads one to a higher state of consciousness 47

- Second – “right-action” in regard to one’s svadharma and svabhāva, self-law, self-being 48

Right-action ever points the way to a wider and higher fulfilment of our being 49

Right-action depends upon right-attitude, made up of right-thinking and right-feeling 49

3. Purity 49

Purity depends upon the state of the consciousness 49

- In the divine consciousness all is purity, in the ignorance everything is stained 49

One has to initiate an imposed discipline, a yoga of tapasya and purification 50

4. Remembrance 50

As much as one offers oneself to the Divine, in that measure one remembers the Divine 51

- Division of the parts of the being brings about conflict and disharmony 51

- Man must have a central purpose for his thinking and action 51

5. Gratitude 51

Gratitude – One is aware of one’s relationship with God or the Divine Presence 52

- One’s insignificance bows down in worship to That which makes all possible 52

- In Gratitude we remember the Divine, so our work and our action are an offering 52

6. Humility 53

To see oneself in relation to the rest of creation – One’s measure before God 53

- Man learns Humility only through experience – When the true Self asserts itself 54

True Humility, of acknowledgement of defeat, of surrender to a higher Power 54

7. Perseverance 55

Perseverance is to look ever towards New Horizons of consciousness 55

- The subliminal awareness that those who choose the Divine are chosen by the Divine 55

- Perseverance in Yoga naturally implies the experience of Utsaha the zeal 55

8. Faith 55

True faith is the knowledge or experience of the psychic being direct in its relationship 56

- Faith links itself with the divine creativity – An integral force in all your being 56

9. Aspiration 57

Aspiration is a dynamic force – That concentrates on the work to be done 57

- Aspiration is part of an inner development, leading one progressively on to a union 57

10. Devotion 57

The word devotion originally meant to vow away one’s possessions, one’s life 57

- One of the greatest edicts Christ spoke was: “Give all to the poor, come and follow me.” 58

11. Sincerity 58

There really can be no compromise with a word like “sincerity” 59

- Pure, unmixed, unfeigned, unadulterated, free from pretence 59

- Humility and sincerity are the best safeguards in Yoga sadhana 59

12. Surrender 59

Surrender means simply giving of oneself – The supreme secret that man comes to know 60

- But first he has to be before he can give – To organise himself around his central being 60

By following these twelve yogic principles, a teacher becomes a yogi, a true teacher 60

Personality of the Teacher 61

In the U.S.A. a research was made of personal and social characteristics of teachers 61

- In terms of “the true teacher” – Characteristics as are considered desirable in teachers 61

These characteristics relate to the personality of the teacher 63

- Psychologists in the West emphasise the psycho-physical aspect of personality 63

- The integral psychology of Sri Aurobindo has yet to be recognised fully 63

The integral personality is a manifestation of the “Inner being” or the “psychic being” 64

The true teacher has a well-integrated personality and a soul-consciousness 64

The true teacher has to realise the Divine and work as an instrument of the Divine 64

The personality of the teacher cannot be separated from the teaching and the taught 65

- The context of problems faced by the society in which the teacher lives 65

In the integral system of education a true teacher follows the principles of true teaching 66

- (1) That nothing can be taught 66

- (2) The mind has to be consulted in its growth 66

- (3) To work from the near to the far 66

To follow the three principles the true teacher must be a helper and a guide 66

- Only the integral personality conscious of the psychic being can make a true teacher 67

To develop integral personality – A purposeful goal directed towards the Divine 67

To develop integral personality – Purification and unification by a fourfold discipline 67

- The starting-point is the psychic discipline 67

- The psychic discipline is followed by mental, vital and physical discipline 67

Four major aspects of integral personality – Love, Knowledge, Power and Beauty 68

- If these qualities are present in the teacher – An impact on the pupil 68

REFERENCES TO THE ARTICLES REPRODUCED 70

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