September 3, 1995

(Carla channeling)

Q’uo

We are those of the principle of Q’uo, and we greet you in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. May we say how happy we are to speak to this group this day. It has been some time since we have spoken with you and your presence delights us. We thank you for the privilege of being a part of this circle. We bear greetings also from those of Hatonn and those of Oxal, for they wish, as well as we, to thank each who has asked us to meditate with them in the period during which there were no formal meetings held. This also is a great privilege for us and we count it as a substantial part of that service which we have come here to offer you.

This day you ask us whether teaching has any value other than that of working upon the self. You will notice here the paradox that is endless. How can one serve another since all that one does to serve another serves the self? This paradox is only apparent. It is not authentic or genuine, yet it is to be noted that paradox seems an essential and necessary part of any spiritual question or line of questioning. And when one runs head on into a paradox, an enigma, a riddle, one has a kind of sign that, yes, this is spiritual work. There is nothing more baffling or more complete than the mystery that is the Creator.

The difficulty with teaching among your peoples is that difficulty which one finds in the use of words. Were teachers silent, were there no concepts traded from one to another, yet still the teacher would teach and that teaching slowly absorbed would be that which hewed closer to truth. We point this out because it is apart from the main thrust of what we wish to say. However, it is a problem that weighs heavily upon both teacher and student, this relationship both have to the words they speak and the words they hear.

We would turn to the main thrust of this query with the statement that we are here as a kind of obvious symbol of our own opinion that teaching is possible and that one is doing more than teaching the self. Wise is the teacher who waits for the student to ask to indicate interest in a subject, a concept or a train of thought, for what the teacher essentially is for the student is a kind of catalyst that bears a weight, a heaviness, a bottom which balances and makes stable for that student the point of delivery for the catalyst given. All are teaching each other. Sometimes intentionally. Often unintentionally. But when the entity teaching is not self-perceived as a teacher the teaching that comes to the other is interpreted for the most part by the other as having no weight. It is not a kind of teaching that attracts because it is completely random, each person responding to the other and each teaching each.

When the student perceives that an entity is a teacher, when the student then gives weight and respect to and for that teacher’s opinions, then there has been made a stable connection. The student becomes ready to open. The teacher, likewise, becomes ready to share, and that which is offered is offered in a stable and careful manner. This is the advantage of intending to teach. The disadvantage of intending to teach is that there are expectations upon the part of the teacher and upon the part of the student and these expectations, while benign for the most part, sometimes block the student or the teacher from paying attention or being completely aware of all that is transpiring and all that is being communicated. Directions can be missed by teacher and by student.

Perhaps we would say that the ideal between teacher and student is a union wherein each shares what each has brought and the other listens in a way that does not distort and together there is the plaiting of one strand of thought with another and another and another in a rope or string of new connections and new facets to the subject that both are focused upon. This is the kind of teaching which gives both new strength and a new awareness and a continuing desire for more.

At the same time we need to look at the fact that is so well known to this instrument and to each of you and that is that there is only one self. There is only one Creator and insofar as the deepest levels of truth that we know may go, the basic truth is that all centers of consciousness alike work upon the self, for what is not the self?

Let us turn back now to the teacher for a moment. Let us gaze at this structure, this place or position and the ramifications of it. What does the teacher teach? Within third density it is popularly and generally perceived that the teacher teaches a subject. “What do you teach?” is the response to discovering that an entity is a teacher. However, students are well aware, whether teachers are or not, that a great deal, sometimes a majority, of what a teacher brings to teaching is not on the subject that is being taught, for teachers teach first of all by who they are and how they allow entities to come within their gates of acceptance. Those whose teachings affect students most are those who allow the students to learn the teacher [as a being] as well as the teaching, for each is a teacher in that each presents a certain complex of vibrations to the world. And those fundamental vibrations are as clearly perceived by a student as are the words spoken. So that the teacher who has truly been called to be a teacher has a store of being that it is willing to share. This beingness, this way of living and of presenting the self is a catalyst to the student on a deeper level, shall we say, than the actual subject matter which has been discussed.

And this is each entity’s gift to give to the world, this way of living that allows the world to see into the self. This is a way of each teaching each that is unparalleled in its ability to transform and rejuvenate those who receive such unspoken instructions.

Within third density talking, communicating, expressing the self and even the arguing, the disputes, the dynamics of difference are the meat and drink of those who wish to learn and those who wish to seek the truth. We encourage each to know within the self that the way of being, the way of living, is a great offering, we feel, the greatest offering and the first job, shall we say, of those who wish to serve. Everything springs from your beingness, so the first career of any seeker is that career of one who seeks to live devotionally throughout a lifetime. In terms of students and teachers this dedication to a life of devotion and faith makes one the eternal student and the eternal teacher. Again, the paradox.

In the end there is not a great deal of activity that does not teach and certainly that which is worthwhile, that which is worthy of being taught has many, many witnesses and needs many, many more. The condition of mortality is one which encourages some illusions more than others. One illusion that being within incarnation does create well is that sense of beginning and ending which is exemplified by each birth and each death of a being that comes into incarnation and then leaves it again. In this context it is easy to question the value of teachers that are teaching that which will not put bread upon the table, give the worker the job, or present to the society one who is capable of fulfilling the mundane requirements of one position or another. Yet that kind of teaching which looks to a life well lived rather than a job well done is the teaching that will open for the student the greater amount of life and give the teacher’s eyes to the student on a deeper level.

Before we leave this instrument we would like to say again how pleased we are that this group continues and seeks new life, new learning, new catalyst for contemplation. We feel that truth is new every day and that there is always the way that has not been found that waits for the one who wishes to sing a new song. Truth is never exhausted and teachers shall never be unemployed.

This student and teacher reminds us that we need to be aware of time and so we would transfer to the one known as Jim at this time, feeling that we have made a beginning on this interesting question. We thank this instrument and leave it in love and in light. We are those of Q’uo.

(Jim channeling)

I am Q’uo, and greet each again in love and in light through this instrument. Again, may we say that we are full of gratitude to be able to utilize each of these instruments this day and would ask those gathered about if there might be any further queries at this time?

Carla

There was something that you were offering me that I didn’t quite get at one point and it had to do with the students teaching and the teachers learning. If you can comment on this I would appreciate it.

Q’uo

I am Q’uo, and we are aware of your query but are not quite certain as to the portion which you did not understand so we shall attempt to speak thusly.

The student, when considering instructions of the teacher, takes that which is the self which it is at its heart with it upon a journey that the teacher offers by presenting the concepts and considerations which are just beyond the student’s current level of understanding and integration within its [inaudible]. As the student walks with the teacher on this mutual journey of teaching and learning the teacher becomes aware of the student’s response according to its own observation of the student’s feedback and the intuition that develops in any relationship that involves energy exchange. Thus, the teacher is being taught how to teach as the student learns what is given. The teacher finds new areas [inaudible] so that there is no possibility of teaching without learning or learning without teaching for those engaged in this process of changing the self. All change is learning. All learning is change.

Is there a further query, my sister?

Carla

No, I think I hear what you are saying…

[Rest of recording is inaudible.]