To get by in life, someone has to teach you what to do. Whether it is managing your money, finding a marriage partner, buying groceries, getting along in society, or any of the miriad skills involved in daily life, we had to learn it somewhere.

Some teachers are more skilled than others. Some are more honest than others. The important thing is to find a pure, honest teacher of the highest level possible. This person should do her best to tutor you and impart her skills to you. Along the way, she will draw from her own experience to explain the reasons to do and not do certain things. For example is someone was teaching you how to select bananas, they would give you the general rule, "select bananas that are starting to turn yellow or are light yellow. Avoid the ones with dark spots, because they will spoil within 1 or 2 days." Then she would go on and explain an important exception to this rule, "If you are baking banana bread today, select the fruit with dark spots, because it has the sweetest taste."

Your teacher learned this probably from her own experience and from her teachers. This is how it works with real knowledge, we pass on those bits of wisdom that have worked for us.

Spiritual knowledge follows the same pattern. One learns from a more advanced person, practices the skills, and discovers those practices that work for himself.

In more than 12 years of intense spiritual study, primarily with two teachers, this writer has learned the importance of following instructions. Opening one's spiritual side requires the same learning process as any other skill. The teacher presents a subject, we hear it as best as we can (usually through a veil of preconceived notions), and try to do it as explained.

One of the greatest problems I have seen is when the veils of one's preconceptions block too much of the message of the teacher. We hear the teacher's words, perhaps ever write them down, but when it comes to actually doing what was said, we change it. Our expectations block the real message. The teacher may say, "do this every day. It only takes 5 minutes." In practice we say to ourselves "I did it yesterday. Why do it again today? It's not bringing me any results anyway!" Hmm, you aren't getting results? Maybe you should try following the exact instructions given by your teacher. Go back to your notes. Read the teacher's exact language. Make your intent to follow her instrucitons word for word. Start over. Keep a beginner's mind. One can always learn and it never hurts to start at the beginning.

One of the greatest gifts a teacher can give the student his honesty. A good teacher will be real with you, and will not feed you ego so that you keep giving them money. A true teacher will tell you that you need a few more months of practice before you try out for a professional band, and will do anything he can to help you get there. A false teacher will mislead you with a false sense of accomplishment, so that you will like them and keep coming for lessons. True teachers will even go as far as to tell you that you should study with someone else, if a more appropriate teacher comes along.