To Teach Is To Demonstrate.
There are only two thought systems in this world and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. From your demonstration others learn and so do you.
The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice. You teach. You ARE an example to others. The question is what you will teach, what you will present as an example to others.
You can not give to someone else. You can only give to yourself, and this you learn through teaching.
Teaching is a call to witness to attest to what you believe. Teaching is a method of conversation. It is not done by words alone. Every situation is to you a chance to teach others what you are and what they are to you. The curriculum you set up is therefore determined exclusively by what you think you are, and what you believe the relationship of others is to you.
It is impossible not to use the content of any situation on behalf of what you really teach and therefore really learn. The verbal content of your teaching is irrelevant. It may coincide with what you really teach and it may not. Teaching reinforces what you believe about yourself.
The fundamental purpose of teaching is to diminish self doubt.
This does not mean that the self you are trying to protect and prove real is actually real. Who you think you are is not what you are in truth. Who you think you are is an illusion. What you think the world is are only thoughts that work hard to hold strong to what you would have your self and the world be, regardless of what is true. This is inevitable.
Everyone in this world follows the curriculum of illusion until they change their mind.
Everyone teaches solely to convince himself that he is what he is not. Herein is the purpose of this world. Illusion.
In this hopeless, and closed learning situation, which teaches nothing but despair and death, Truth still stands. It can not be otherwise, as Truth is eternal and true. The truth about reality is light, love, and joy. That is what is true and real. Teachers of light, love, and joy are in this world and can be found. Without teachers of the light, the world of pain and suffering would seem forever real, when in truth it is an illusion. Light, peace, and joy is forever real. Pain and suffering is illusion. Pain and suffering is not needed and it is not required. The end of pain and suffering is possible. It begins with a belief.
Those that believe it is not possible to end pain and suffering will teach to that end. Those that believe it is possible, as well as destined to end pain and suffering teach to that end. What you teach is your choice. Until you realize this, you will always only teach a perpetuation of pain and suffering, for your example will only serve to show pain and suffering. The self-deceiving only teach self-deception. This is what makes hell. Dishonesty to self is hell. Dishonesty to self is dishonesty with others. Dishonesty makes hell.
Dear teacher,
Choose to teach peace, light, and joy. Seek peace in every illusion, and become a teacher of the Light rather than a teacher of illusion.
Teachers of light teach lessons of joy and hope because that is what they are learning. What they teach produces feelings of love, support, and interest. Know them by the quality of how you feel when interacting with them, not by what their words say. The verbal content of teaching is irrelevant. It may coincide with what you really teach, and it may not. The teaching is the enduring example you present to yourself and others. The teaching is what you have become, what you have realized as true. The teaching is a demonstration of how close to the truth your awareness has come.
Teachers of the light are not perfect or they would not be here in this world to learn. Learning is the function of this world. It is the mission of a teacher of light to become perfect and to thus teach perfection over and over, in many, many ways until they have learned it.
Once learned, a teacher of light is seen no more. But their thoughts remain a source of strength and truth forever.
– Introduction to A Manual For Teachers: A Course In Miracles