“Is my teacher a real or fake teacher?
How can I tell?”
If a teacher tells you how high they are, that they are enlightened, they are a conscious being, they are a man number 6, etc. beware! They know how to manipulate others for their own purposes who are genuinely seeking the mysteries of hidden life. This is a shout-out: they do not know any more than you do. They may know more words, that is all.
A real teacher knows many words of the work, but
they will know them from experiences. They will have lived
the words, not just read them. The words are wonderful and very interesting. But they are only known or truly understood if they have been lived or experienced.
We read all kinds of interesting and wonderful ideas but if I have not personally experienced them they will only be interesting ideas without weight or gravitas. This depth of knowledge Gurdjieff brought the keys to, is what a real teacher teaches. Definitions and categorizations do not accomplish this. A real teacher must lead his students to the source of knowledge.
It is like if I had been living on the moon all my life and had never seen a real flower. Someone could describe a flower, even draw a picture of one for me, but would I know a flower? Would I have smelled a fresh rose, or seen the sun shining through the glowing tulip petals? Of course not. It is the same whether I read the words or actually experience the words.
This is the same with teachers. Most teachers can only use words to describe something they have never known. They may not know they have nothing to teach. Our egos are deceptive and wish to maintain their life and primacy at all costs.
A real teacher is very different. A real teacher knows himself, and what he is and what he is not. This teacher knows his students, and what their needs are because he or she has been there. They started from scratch, like everybody so they know the route to the higher.
For me, unless I have some data to compare, I cannot distinguish the real from the false. A real teacher attracts that available data so it is accessible to the students. It is up to the students whether their ego and vanity are too strong and block them from receiving it. But if one begins to experience or live the words, then, one begins to recognize a real teacher from a false teacher.
One begins to collect the data to know the truth from the false.
“Real teachers teach through their “being”. They need no “words” to impart that. They are like permanent magnets who teach through the magnetic center. Coming in contact with one who has such a magnetism renders the students temporarily magnetic, although that wears off unless the student engages in constant “work on themselves. What they have is not “information”, nor “knowledge” although they may have that too, but through their very being.” — Richard Lloyd —
False teachers teach through their ego, vanity and personalities. They may not know that they know nothing or they may just enjoy dominating innocent people for their own needs. Real teachers are scattered among all of the phony teachers and it is possible to come across one. Not just through the Fourth Way but also other disciplines. There is real hope in the world that is possible to find.
