There is no better way to learn than to be a teacher

[The therapist who conducts the Soma group, said she had allowed a couple of participants to conduct a few sessions in the group, and it turned into an encounter group she couldn’t deal with, so she had walked out.
Osho checked her energy.]

There is nothing to be worried about. From just the very beginning, never allow anybody to take over the group, howsoever experienced. Never allow anybody to do that. They have to be participants and the participant has to remain a participant. If you allow that, there will be chaos. Now you are suffering because of the chaos. Now you see that nothing is happening and nothing is going to happen that way because now the direction is lost.

If somebody is trying to force his own way on the group, tell him to leave, because he has to be there as a participant. If he wants to lead a group he has to come and see me. But this is not the way. Once things have gone out of your hands it is difficult to control them again and frustration will come. You will start feeling that you are not the leader of the group and they will be on their own. Sometimes things can be good on their own and I’m still thinking about a group where there would be no leader, just the participants, so whatsoever they want to do, they do. That will have its own flow and it may give many things to people, but that is only possible when they have done all the groups.

You should not move from your schedule in any way and you should not allow anybody to replace you, because if you do, the group will be lost. It will turn into Encounter, it will turn into Arica, it will turn into anything.

You know what has to be done. You have the whole direction. You have the schedule, the planning in your mind of how things have to develop. So tell [the participants] that they have to be participants and if you feel that the time is wasted, then extend the group for three days. 

And don’t bring in your problems while you are leading the group. That is one of the things that the leader has to understand. When you are functioning as a leader, forget all about your personal problems. It is just as when an electrician is working; he forgets all his problems. Here he is just an electrician. A plumber is working in the bathroom; he forgets all his problems. He does not bring them here, because we have called him as a plumber.

There in the group you are the leader. You need not bring your problems with you. That is a great discipline for you. That is what the leader is going to be benefited by. You put your problems aside and here you function as an expert who knows something about the human mind. And you can help people – not that you pretend that you have gone beyond your problems, but you know something. 

That know-how you can impart, that’s all.

When somebody comes as a plumber, you don’t bother about whether he has problems or not. That is his business. He is not saying that he has no problems and that is why he has come to do the plumbing. He has problems, but he knows something about plumbing that has nothing to do with his problems.

A doctor has his own problems, a psychiatrist has his own problems. He himself may need another psychiatrist to be psychoanalysed and treated by, but when he comes to the patient he brings his expertise. And this distinction has to be maintained. 

You are not enlightened, that’s true. Nobody is trying to say that you are, nor do you need to pretend to be. But when you are leading a group, your personal problems, your anguish, your anxieties, are by the side. You function there as the expert. This is going to help you because when you function as an expert and you put your personal life aside, you function in a totally different way. You see your own problems then in a more objective, realistic sense because they are far away, put aside, and you are dealing with others’ problems. You can see that they are your problems also. 

Anything that happens to any human being is happening to you also, more or less. If somebody has a problem with anger, somebody with greed, some with love, someone with sex, you have all those problems, but there you are functioning as an expert. Watching their problems, helping people to come out of them and seeing that they really do and that they are growing, you become confident that you can help others, so why not yourself? – then the same can be done to you too. You can have a more objective outlook about your own problems – as if they belong to somebody else – and you can work them out. That is the benefit the leader is going to gain out of the groups.

He can gain even more than any participant. Helping others, he will grow into this insight. Seeing others’ problems he will be able to see his problems in a different light. Seeing people coming out of their problems, his confidence will grow. He will feel more rooted, more grounded and he will see, ’Yes, I can help others, why not me? I can pull myself out in the same way.’ 

I have been watching that again and again you relapse into it again. Again and again you bring in your problems and then you become confused. In a way it is very sincere... I love it. One should be sincere, but in a way it is not going to help you or others. It is good to remind oneself again and again that your own problems are there and they have to be solved; that you are not here just to help others, because unless your problems are solved, what is the point of being there?

But this is the way I am trying to help you. This is a device for you to be a leader. It is one of the hardest devices – to give you a certain responsibility for which you don’t feel capable. But I will help you to become capable. And when you start feeling capable of solving others’ problems, you will suddenly have a new energy available that can be applied to you too. Then it is only a question of direction.

This is my understanding – that if you really want to learn something, start teaching people. There is no better way to learn than to be a teacher

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose

Osho