Finding a Mentor

When Neo was learning about the Matrix and the truth of the world, it was Morpheus who helped him in realizing his true purpose. Ultimately it was Neo who went through the struggle and honed his skills, but that initial nudge was what steered him toward becoming The One.

It's possible to build a house by yourself, but having help speeds the process up. In the same sense, life becomes much easier when we have a mentor who can help us walk down the path we desire. We can find our purpose on our own, but when we have someone we look up to it's a sign that we want to be like them and walk down a similar path. I consider it the world's way of saying "hey, you did well to get here. Here's what you could become". Bruce Lee was great, there's no question about it, but it was Ip Man who nurtured his talent and helped him learn how to channel it.

This world is so abundant in amazing people that if we keep searching for inspiration, it will come our way eventually. The internet is an infinite resource for things of all nature, which makes this an amazing time to live in. Even if we don't know the person or can't communicate with them, there are still works from which we can learn from. In my case, my love for music is something that's caused me to learn from the artists that inspire me. There are many ways to do this. I try to sense the feelings put into the songs and use the way they're expressed. I do this as an attempt to understand the artist and what their thought process. This in turn helps me look within myself.

For less abstract means, youtube is a great resource for looking up information on everything from philosophy, politics, and general self-improvement. It used to be that we needed personal exposure to our mentors, but times have changed and we can now learn from the comfort of our own homes. How convenient! Of course, there's always the possibility of coming across con-artists and fakes (people spewing bullshit), so I think it's important to take what information you can use and grow your own way. Nobody is perfect so nobody always knows what's right, so depending on one perspective limits our growth. In other words, don't just have one mentor, I think if we truly want to open our minds, we need to learn to understand many perspectives. Ultimately, it's up to the individual to choose what to believe and how to live.

My time in Japan has shown me how much of an influence a foreigner can have on the perspective of others. The way I think is so different from my students so when I talk about the things I like and why I often find my students pleasantly surprised at an alternate way of looking at something. Many have begun to dream about traveling to other parts of the world because they've started to see how big the world is and they think about the possibilities for what else is out there for them to discover.

Of course, some people don't want to change or aren't interested in seeing things from other points of view and that's okay! We're free to live however the hell we want. I just think that much like having people there who support you can help you through some tough times, having someone to look up to or inspires you can help you reach the next stage if that's what you desire.

When the student is ready, the master will appear. In other words, if we seek to learn from others we will find what we're looking for because we are now ready. It's not that they weren't there before, we just didn't see them because we weren't trying to.

                                                                                                       Peace

"Do not try and bend the spoon, that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth...there is no spoon. Then you will see it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself." - Spoon Boy to Neo"