I work as a teacher of transformation.
And yet, at the same time... I know...
Transformation can't be taught.
And in the way we usually learn,
transformation can't be learned.
I can teach you the alphabet.
I can't teach you transformation.
It ain't something that can be taught.
But then again, transformation is
something that can be taught *about*...
I can teach you about it , and you can
learn about it. Which definitely helps.
And transformation can be facilitated...
It can be made easier... (which is just what
I have learned to do & love to do for people).
In Zen, they say that teaching transformation
is like pointing at the moon...The teacher can't
hand you the moon... s/he can only point at it.
But if you become enamored with the finger,
"Oh my, what a very lovely finger!", the point is
missed entirely. The whole point of the pointing
is to get you to do your own looking...eventually,
your own seeing, of the glorious light of the moon.
No amount of intellectual learning,
no amassing of ideas, or books, or beliefs,
will ever be enough...enough to effect the evolution...
No amount of reading the menu will satisfy your hunger.
But even though you can't get good at riding a bicycle
by listening to many learned lectures on the subject,
good instruction, and facilitation, and support, and
assisted practice, and encouraging company, and
guidance are invaluably helpful in the matter...
Very few people learn to ride a bike all by themselves.
I remember with great warmth and gratitude how my
dad would run along beside my bike, holding my
seat, until I got steady on my own. (This is the
kind of guidance & support I try to provide.)
But that metaphor's still not quite right...
for as I wrote recently, 21st century transformation is,
more than ever before, a team sport. Trying to elegantly
and skillfully score a soccer goal, or play a symphony, all
by yourself wouldn't be difficult... It would be ridiculous...
a total contradiction in terms. Just so with evolution.
And so... to bring it full circle...
True transformation can't be taught.
Nor can it be learned from a book.
Transformation must be done.
It must be practiced, integrated, embodied...
So although I do teach ideas & skills to people,
I think the biggest service I can provide is bringing
folks together... to practice with one another... and
to guide them in that practice... like holding their
bicycle seat... until they get steady...
What's really needed is a community of practice,
coming together to learn, experientially, through
open-hearted engagement with one another...
I am deeply committed to co-creating
just this kind of community...
And I sincerely hope you will join me in this.