Umm, I don’t know..
In the current Advanced Training, Viveka, that I am leading now, a wonderful young teacher asked me, “have you ever been asked a question that you couldn’t answer?”
I tried, unsuccessfully, to hide my giggling, and replied, “too many times to count!”
Not only is it essential to be honest to ourselves about what we don’t know – and hopefully be inspired to dig in and find out – but how wonderful for our students to see us in our comfort in not-knowing, honesty and humility.
Our discussion that day was on creating the conditions for learning, a fascinating and essential topic for both teachers and students alike. In my view, one of the most important requirements is to be comfortable in that zone of not knowing, and to create an atmosphere in our classes of not needing to have the answers. We can call this quality inquiry, openness, exploratory, or, how about adventure?
How wondrous is it to live with an attitude of adventurousness? However subtle: can Trikonasana be an adventure? An inhalation?
I’ll say, absolutely! Many of you have heard me say, “The opposite of aging is adventurousness.” And I’m sticking to it.
