Tao Te Ching

Today I opened up the Tao Te Ching to a random page and these two lines jumped at me:

Teaching without words and work without doing

Are understood by very few.

Lao Tzu. My brother. Ever since I admitted in digital print that I'm trying to talk less and teach more, I’ve been paying really close attention. I’m not doing as good a job of it as I’d thought. Man. I talk a lot!

  

And when I look out at my small group of students – never more than four at a time – I see that I only hold the attention of one. By my third word, the others have checked out, and the only reason the one is paying attention is I’ve got him locked in a gaze made of iron and he doesn’t dare look away. The lucky ones have drifted off into their own important and engaging thoughts.

I’ve lost them on the third word. I’ve said this before – teaching is like playing Whack-a-Mole at the Fairgrounds. Like herding cats. For most of my life, I related to Charlie Brown (well, okay, I’m regrettably most like Lucy). Now I’ve apparently devolved into the unseen, garbled Big Person going wanh-WANH wanh-WANH wanh-WANH. 

Teach me, Lao Tzu. How does one teach without words? Tomorrow, I’ll try again. I sense it will take a lot of practice.