Teachers, however great, can never give their knowledge to their pupils; the pupils must create their own knowledge.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
The work of mystical teachers is not to teach, but to tune, to tune their pupils so that they may become the instruments of God. For the mystical teachers are not the players of the instrument; they are the tuners. When they have tuned them, they give them into the hands of the Player whose instruments they are to play. The duty of the mystical teachers is their service as tuners.
The task of the Sufi teacher is not to force a belief on the mureeds, but to train them so that they may become illuminated enough to receive revelations themselves.
Truth by its very nature cannot be uttered, cannot be given. One cannot give that which cannot be put into speech. So the teacher gives a method for finding the truth, for unfolding it, for unlocking that which seems to be in one’s heart. … It is clearly impossible for anyone to impart their knowledge to another person; they can only show them how to unfold their own knowledge to themselves. Everybody possesses their own realm, but they have to find it.
There is only one teacher, and that teacher is God. No human can teach another human. All one can do for another is to give them one’s own experience in order to help them to be successful. For instance if a person happens to know a road, they can tell another person that it is the road which leads to the place they wish to find. The work of the spiritual teacher is like the work of Cupid. The work of Cupid is to bring two souls together. And so is the work of the spiritual teacher: to bring together the soul and God.
But what is taught to those who seek after truth? Nothing is taught. They are only shown how they should learn from God. For no person can ever teach spirituality. It is God alone who teaches it. And how is it learned? When these ears which are open outwardly are closed to the outside world and focused upon the heart within, then instead of hearing all that comes from the outer life one begins to hear the words within. Thus if one were to define what meditation is, that also is an attitude: the right attitude towards God. The attitude should first be to seek God within. And, after seeking God within, then to see God outside.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VI – The Alchemy of Happiness: Chapter 8 – The Secret of Life )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
Knowledge and life are not separate. This is the meaning of the Ilm of the Sufis which is not like the knowledge of the world. Naming is not knowledge, hearing is not knowledge, and reading is not knowledge. Experience is knowledge. Life brings knowledge, and the removal of self enables one to find knowledge in everything.
All the teacher can do is to make the pupil realize this, but the knowledge of the pupil is that of the pupil’s own realization. That is why it is difficult for the average person to study with understanding the lives and precepts of the great teachers of humanity.