ontological teachers

I'm thinking about what Jim said about the ontological dimension of learning art. Even to have named it seems to me to be a very interesting way of beginning to hack into this thorny issue. If the thing that's really powering art (or music, for that matter - I can't speak beyond those two) is the ontological stuff, then it occurred to me that it would follow that what people like me need are ontological teachers (as well as technical teachers to learn about technique...). 

Teachers who can push you over the edge of your cliff of being.

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

 

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

 

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

 

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

 

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

 

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

 

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

 

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

 

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

 

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

 

is too small for you.

 

~ David Whyte ~

In which case, I have teachers.

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