Teachings, as any story, are questions. They are pointers and guides for own exploration. They are medicines aimed at specific knots.
And they are also supplements. They are supplements to each other.
I may have a main teacher, and follow one particular teaching as a main guideline for practice. And anything else that comes my way can be helpful pointers as well. I can explore when and how they each are useful.
Some may invite what I am to notice itself. Others may invite the soul level – in some of its many aspects – into the foreground. Some may invite in healing and maturing at a human level.
Some may be quite useful as they are. Others may need some tweaking here and there, especially if they are not quite aligned with the larger picture of what we are.
But all in all, they are all supplements to each other. Each can function as a helpful guide in certain situations, and in exploring certain facets of who and what I am. The only question is how and when. And whatever temporary answers I find are questions, as any other story. A temporary guideline in itself.
So here too, even as I may be familiar with any number of maps and theories, and trust and follow the teachings of my main teacher, it all still comes back to don’t know. The open spaciousness of don’t know.
The main question in all of this is the usual one.
What happens when I take teachings as supplements? For me, I find a freedom in exploring each of them. A receptivity to when and how each one may be helpful. A welcoming of all of them.
And what happens if I don’t? If I see teachings as more solid than that, and as right or wrong? I go into drama right away. A struggle in finding genuine teachers and teachings. A sense of being right or wrong. Identification stories. A sense of in groups and out groups. A sense of teachings as solid and real. A sense of having to protect a particular story and identity. Defend it. Prop it up. A sense of separation. Of an I with an Other.
Taking teachings as supplements is a practical approach. One that invites in receptivity and curiosity. Even if I follow one particular teacher and teaching, there is a sense of spaciousness here. And if I explore further, a sense of curiosity.
As with so much else here, it can seem simple and maybe naive. But it is also a practical approach that allows for following a particular teaching, and to do so with a sense of receptivity and curiosity.
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Especially today, there is no one-stop shopping for teachings, and no need for it. No one teacher or teaching needs to or can cover it all.
They all address different levels and facets and do it with their own flavor.
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Initial outline…
- teachings as questions, pointers and guides, medicines
- teachings as supplements
- different levels (human, soul, bm)
- different facets
- practical
- if look for one stop shopping, may get frustrated and/or narrow
- supplement approach, benefit from many angles, find what is appropriate here now