Real Students Inspire Original Teachings

Real Students Inspire Original Teachings

Picasso said, “I have painted the same painting before, and it is hanging in a museum.  You can go and see – that was authentic, that was original.  This painting… I was not getting any new ideas, and there was a customer who wanted a painting.  So I simply copied my own painting – but it is a copy.  It does not matter who copies it, whether Picasso copies it or somebody else does, it is a copy.  It is not authentic, it is not original.  I am not involved in it at all, it is not part of my subjectivity.  The first painting is.  They are exactly alike, you cannot find any difference – but I made the difference, and the difference is significant.” – Osho “Sermons in Stones” pg. 63

Finding the inspiration to be creative and authentic cannot be forced.  It must be natural.  If a person is really in love, then he can write poetry with love, but you cannot force poetry of love onto a man who is not in love.  A work of Art comes through inspiration, without inspiration, there cannot be Art.  If there is a student who is truly motivated to learn, then the teacher can feed off this motivation to teach.  If the student does not care to learn, the teacher will not care to teach.  Imagine a student who falls to sleep in class, the teacher will find no purpose in teaching, the student is not even conscious! 

A lot of times, students are not really students.  Students are not really there to learn, they are just there to go through the motions.  They are in college not to learn but to just pass the test, to just get the degree, it is a just a phase that they wish to go through to obtain some public recognition or to let time pass by.  When there is no goal to achieve, when there is no degree to obtain, will the student still be motivated to learn and study? 

Who actually picks up a book to read, unmotivated by obtaining a degree but actually has interest in learning what is within that book?  The teacher feeds off the energy of his students, if the students are truly there to learn, the teacher will be an authentic and original teacher, but if the students are not really students, the teacher will just go through the motions, he will just copy his own work.  Although it is the same teacher, his subjectivity is not involved in that moment. 

But to be an Artist, you do not need to feed off the energy of the student.  An Artist can create and feed off of his own creative energy.  Then it does not matter whether or not the student is truly a student, the Artist is simply expressing himself honestly, completely motivated within, he does not speak, because he is not teaching, he is just completely involved, now the student or non student is just a witness.  The student witnesses a living work of Art, he can either attempt to follow or just sit back and watch the expression of Art taking place before his eyes. 

To be a teacher, you need motivated students, if you have no motivated students, you cannot teach.  To be an Artist, you do not need any students; you just have to be involved yourself as an Artist.  A great Martial Artist is not necessarily a great teacher because to be a great teacher, you need a great student.  If there are no great students, the Martial Artist does not teach, he simply expresses his Art in silence, in meditation.  – Sifu Freddie Lee