Many Kinds of Teachers: Developing Sovereignty, Discernment & Self-Trust
Teachers and allies of discernment and sovereignty come in many shapes and forms. Thinking back on a long life, with its accompanying evolutionary journey of developing discernment, sovereignty and self-trust, here’s a random and very partial list of mine, in no particular order.
Many of these folks showed up in my teens, 20s and 30s, when I needed them to help me grow my capacity for self-trust, sovereignty and inner freedom. Bowing with gratitude to these teachers. They have helped me build a life that’s true to my soul, joyful, filled with love, meaning, delight and kindness. May my experiences with them remind you of what’s truly yours.
The (white, male, American) Buddhist teacher who told me I had moved up in the world by marrying a white man
The (male, Indian) astrologer who told me my destiny was to become a book-keeper, or maybe an accountant, so I should quit teaching about soul and spirit and submit to the fate written in my stars
The ex-mother-in-law who told me (before she’d met either of my sisters) that I was neither as clever as one of my sisters nor as beautiful as the other, so really, what was I good for?
The friend who got very quiet when I spoke of what I wanted to create, and then said: So is this going to fall out of the sky?
The students and clients who told me I had saved their lives, or their businesses, or their marriages, or their sanity, or __________
The child who told me he preferred his father because “he’s my friend, and you’re just my mom.”
The teachers who told me I day-dreamed too much, or was interested in too many different things, and needed to get serious about ________ (whatever they then believed was serious business)
The friends and lovers who told me I was too intense, too serious, too frivolous, too truthful, too soulful, too trusting, not trusting enough, too uninterested in the things of this world, too something that I should be less of, and not enough of what I should be more of
The ones who told me I needed their ideology, their belief system, their religion, their training, their lineage, their stamp of approval, in order to make it — with wildly varying definitions of what making it might mean
The ones who insisted I should have stayed. The ones who insisted I should have gone. The ones who insisted on the perfection of their own timing
The ones who said: You can’t. The ones who said: You must not. The ones who said, What were you thinking? The ones who said, I can’t believe you did that. The ones who said: Why don’t you? The ones who said: Why are you?
To all of these, I bow with gratitude, and a frisson of unholy glee. Thank you. :-)
Trust is built through experience.
How about you?
What experiences have helped you develop trust in yourself, trust in your own discernment, trust in the power of your own vision and truth? Who helped you grow into your sovereignty and freedom?
#Discernment #Sovereignty #SelfTrust #Freedom #RuleYourWorld
