“My teachers used to be mostly dead people,” this phrase seemed to shock the psychotherapy group. Seeing their reaction, I corrected myself: “I meant writers, philosophers, and scientists who are long gone. In my youth, I did not meet anyone among those around me who could be an authority for me. Maybe I wasn’t lucky then, or maybe it’s easier to trust the motivations of people who have gone into oblivion. After all, they certainly don’t want anything from you anymore. Their thoughts, like birdsong, are freely available - take it or leave it. Besides, time is the best at filtering out all sorts of rubbish. If a book hasn’t decayed over dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of years, and it continues to be valuable, it means the author managed to express the meta-meaning.
I think differently now. No, I still appreciate the catch that the chrono-nets have pulled out of the ocean of history. But I have also learned to take knowledge from people living today. Of course, I have to make allowances for their interest, which is not always obvious, and sometimes not even to themselves. I was also surprised to discover that treasures of knowledge do not need to be searched deep underground and extracted with risk. It turns out that they are scattered literally everywhere, just looking like vulgar stones.
What’s more, the role of a wise teacher can be played not by a human, but by an animal, such as my dog. My guess is that an inanimate object can potentially convey insight as well. In fact, any phenomenon is capable of being a source of insight. The only thing it requires is my willingness and ability to take what the environment generously generates without stopping.
Yours sincerely,
-Alexander
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