Teachers.....................

 

     Everyone loves to teach, but rarely do any of us take unsought advice well, and even more rarely are we truly teachable.  Being teachable means being open to learn.  In order to learn, one must listen, and we learn to listen only if we know the most important thing—that we do not know everything, that we do not have "all the answers." . . .

In the long history of spirituality, those recognized as somehow spiritually "great" have consistently been called "Teacher"—they help others to learn, to become teachable.  Spiritual teachers (who are never "experts") do three things:  First and foremost, they listen.  Second, they ask questions.  Third, they tell stories.  Each practice reflects the acceptance of not having all the answers, and each teaches the essential truth of spirituality's open-endedness.

-Kurtz and Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning