0.5 board certified

There is a story that goes about this man who wanted to learn horse riding. This man wanted to find the best teacher for teaching him how to ride and after asking about him, he found out that there was a master of riding far away who lived alone. He sought him out and asked the master to make him the best rider in the world. The master refused to teach him because of his old age. At the request of our curious young man, though, he agreed to ride a horse for him once. The man wanted to see what was so special about the master's style of riding. The master rode the horse to a sand dune and rode back to where the man was standing. The man was surprised and remarked that even he could ride a horse like that. There was nothing special in the way he rode. What made him a master? The master tiredly asked him to look at the hoof prints in the sand and took his leave from the man. The man son taking a closer look found out that instead of hoof prints in the sand, there were circles. The master had rode away and back in such a way that the two sets of hoof prints made a circle.

This story talks about what a master is and how a true master is not willing to take on a pupil, until and unless the pupil is sharp enough to recognize a master. When the student is ready the teacher shall appear! Through the eyes of the pupil can a novice master learn himself. Rumi took three or four different companions. After Shams they were younger and lacked the fire he had shared with Shams Tabrez. The novice master had recognized himself and had "graduated" or become board certified.

This story also puts to question the two different styles of teaching. Lewis Hyde would like to describe true training as a gift that is imparted from a teacher to a student. It incurs a debt that only re gifting will settle. Compared to that the process of board certification does feel very capitalistic exchange. Pay money show you are worth it to an institutional standard. It removes the personal level of training that and makes it in to a machine.

Truly lucky is a person that can find a master to guide his way. Rumi says something to the effect that a moment in the company of Friends is worth years of solitude.

Another point that the story highlights is the true quest of excellence in anything is a journey with no sign posts at the end which tell one that he or she is there. It is only after the gift is passed on can a person realize through the eyes of the student about his compass bearings in the uncertain wilderness of solitary expeditions for excellence.

Only a teacher can fail someone. No one else.