Teachers and Students

Sometime in late 2024 I had the idea to offer “meditation coaching.” I had observed that a lot of my Twitter mutuals were interested in seated meditation, and I though maybe I could encourage beginners by offering them some tips on posture and meeting with them a few times to get them going.

I did meet with a number of people this way. Some were beginners. I mostly said the same things to them, which I have now recorded in some videos, which you can watch on YouTube, here.

Other people who came to meet with me on video chat were not beginners. Many of them were very experienced. They already had their own, often quite complicated, practices.

These people seemed to like talking to me because I did not discourage them, and I was not shocked by their practices, which often involved drugs or sex or trancework or occultism. The people who came to talk to me were all very interesting and delightful, and I learned a lot from them. I personally am in favor of simply sitting down on a cushion every day for a bit. But I’ve done lots of experimenting too, and I cannot say whether it helped me or harmed me, or by what kind of ruler one would measure this.

Anyway, the whole time I was doing this something felt wrong about it

For some people, though, a different kind of relationship is more appropriate -- an ongoing relationship of knowing and being known.

There is still an exchange involved in becoming a student. The student offers the teacher presence and total honesty; the teacher offers the student unconditional acceptance.

The two participants, as I often like to say, are like the two poles of a battery. Both are necessary to the flow of energy, and it is this flow that defines the relationship.

Through this relationship, teachers encounter real live buddhas. No one has ever met a buddha, except teachers encountering their students in authentic intimacy.

And through this relationship, students get access to experiences of insight. These insights are not created by the teacher, but catalyzed by the relationship; and they are not under the teacher’s control. If the teacher is doing their job, the student’s insights are surprising to both parties.

If you are interested in becoming my student, just ask. Traditionally, you have to ask three times. It involves a commitment to meeting regularly, online or in person, between once per week and once per quarter — and a vow to be as honest as possible and strive to remain fully present during meetings. Studenthood is by donation only.

In my personal experience, once you become someone’s student, you never cease. Some of my teachers have died, others have stopped teaching; I disagree with them and see now how foolish they were; but I am still and will forever be their student.