Faith in practice - You cannot not teach

Principle 2

You cannot not teach

We are teaching all the time by our example, by the way we live our lives. We either teach the way of the ego or the way of the Spirit. 

The way of the ego is based on the two principles of “give to get” and “one or the other.” The way of the ego believes life as a zero sum game. We both can’t win. What I take you lose and what you take I lose.

The way of the Spirit is Oneness which is born out of unconditional love. We become aware that we are all in this thing called Life together and either we all win or we all lose. What happens to you happens to me. When I give to you, I receive. When you give to me, you receive as well.

Our behavior teaches others what we believe. Do we believe in the way of the ego or the way of the Spirit? Everything we do teaches others what you believe you are and what you believe they are to you.

Questions for action - Who and what do you believe you are and others are to you? Do you see life as a competition or a sharing?

We learn what we teach.

Today we are beginning a new column in UU A Way Of Life called "Faith in practice." It will deal with how we enact our faith in our lives on a moment to moment basis. It's motto is "Nurture the spirit doing good."

The column will describe various principles of practice that fascilitate the nurturing of spirit. Please comment.

Principle 1

We learn what we teach.

The first principle to understand when putting one's faith into practice is to realize that we learn what we teach. More directly, to teach is to learn. The teacher and the learner are the same person.'

Some people call this "karma." What we give, we get. The cynical statement, "Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it," is a sign of this first principle that we learn what we teach.

Question for action - What do you want to learn? If you know what you want to learn how can you best teach it? Unitarian Universalists believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Do you teach this? How? What have you learned?