Thoughts while watching two very different teachers
When I found this video of a conversation between Gabor Maté and Adyashanti on YouTube the other day, I just had to take time to watch/listen. These two men are so very different, and yet they are both important teachers to me. The idea of having them in a room together broke my brain a little bit.
If you aren’t familiar with them, I recommend just looking at the screenshot above to get a glimpse into their respective natures. On the left, Maté is just a little more casual, his position hunched and slightly awkward as he turns to ask his question. Adya, on the other hand (if I may be so bold as to call him Adya), has the posture of a longtime meditator. Poised, composed, with a straight spine even in an armchair.
Gabor Maté’s work on trauma and addiction was foundational for me on my healing path. I love that he puts so much of himself into his books and talks: he wears his own messiness on his sleeve. I appreciate his curiosity, his skepticism, and his willingness to share his own stumbling blocks in his personal healing. It feels to me like he would understand the complicated parts of being human, and that he profoundly understands the twisted ways that trauma can make us grow. I don’t know that I’d want a personality like his in my life day to day, but as a guide and a thinker, he’s been immensely helpful to me.
Adyashanti’s books and talks have been recommended to me a number of times, and I’ve explored a little bit of his work. But I never quite resonated with him as a teacher. Have you ever gone to see a therapist or a mentor, and their perspective is so much more transcendent, more Awake, that it doesn’t feel like they could comprehend the suffering you are in? (I hope it’s not just me.) For example, there’s a famous story about the Dalai Lama being asked by his students how to heal self-loathing, and he just…didn’t understand the concept. It didn’t make sense to him at all. That’s great and all, to know that there is a way of being that is so far beyond self-loathing that the concept itself doesn’t make sense. But if I’m personally wrestling with the issue of self-loathing, I’d much rather sit across from someone who has grappled with it in themselves, who knows the path and can help guide me through it. Sometimes spiritual teachers can come from a place of such detachment that it does not encourage vulnerability.
Perhaps it was because Maté was the interviewer, and he therefore set the framework for the conversation, but I feel like I connected with Adyashanti much more deeply through this talk. His teachings didn’t seem so as cold or as clinical as they’ve come across to me in the past. Thanks to this I’ll probably pick up his books again, or try listening to more of his talks.
It was really valuable to me to have these two, very different, seekers share the same stage. It gave me a lot of insight into how we need both kinds of teachers: those who can connect with our human-ness, as well as those who can embody something much more ineffable, more divine. If we lean too far into the mind and the human experience, we run the risk of being entirely materialistic and short-sighted. If we lean too far toward some great, Awake or Divine perspective, we bypass the reality of our bodies and our humanity, and we lose some empathy for the challenges that each of us face.
