By Abhey Singh (IIT Baba)
Ref Original Article: 7. Teacher & Student
The relationship between a teacher and a student seems simple—one knows, the other learns. But what happens when the student understands something the teacher does not? What happens when the teacher, in their act of teaching, realizes they have yet to understand?
Does the student remain a student? Does the teacher remain a teacher? Or do they switch places, dissolve their roles, and become something beyond the definitions of learning and teaching?
This article explores the paradox of learning, the limitations of knowledge, and the space where true understanding begins.
1. When the Student Teaches the Teacher
“The teacher repeated what he/she tells every student. This student understood. The teacher has succeeded, yet it can’t know as the teacher has not understood what it is saying.”
A teacher gives knowledge. A student absorbs it. But if the teacher is only repeating what has been said before, have they truly understood what they teach?
A student, in deeply understanding, can sometimes surpass the teacher—not in memorization, but in realization. The irony is that the teacher may not even recognize this moment because their role does not allow them to see beyond their own assumed authority.
Example:
Imagine a musician teaching a student a song. The teacher knows the notes, the structure, the rhythm. But the student, in a moment of deep connection, sings the song with an emotion the teacher never felt. Who, then, understands the song more?
The student, who felt the music, or the teacher, who knew the structure?
2. Shedding the Roles: The Illusion of Teacher and Student
“It will require both the student and teacher to shed their limited identities and share openly what is known to each other.”
Teaching and learning are not fixed positions; they are roles that exist only in relation to each other. A teacher exists because there is a student. A student exists because there is a teacher. But what happens when both step beyond these roles?
When both are honest in their pursuit, something deeper happens—the experience of learning becomes mutual. The rigid walls between the giver and receiver dissolve. What remains is a pure exchange, free from the need to be more knowledgeable or less knowledgeable.
Example:
In Zen Buddhism, there is a tradition where a student, after years of learning from the master, must challenge the master. If the student wins, the roles dissolve—the student is no longer a student, and the master is no longer a master.
In this, learning is not a hierarchy. It is a flow.
3. Knowledge is Not Owned: It is Borrowed from the Infinite
“What was known by the teacher was not the teacher’s to own. It was the result of everything that is part of that teacher being there—its entire history, every word read, every visual seen, everything that was food, everything that was air.”
No knowledge is truly original. Everything we know is a result of everything we have experienced.
A teacher may claim wisdom, but where did it come from? Books written by others. Conversations overheard. Experiences shaped by the infinite factors of existence. The teacher is merely a conduit—a temporary carrier of knowledge that existed before them and will exist after them.
Example:
A poet writes a masterpiece. But is it truly their creation? Or is it the result of every book they read, every song they heard, every moment that shaped them?
The teacher who realizes this stops trying to “teach” and instead starts learning from where knowledge comes.
4. True Learning is Learning & Unlearning
“When one reaches the state of learning and unlearning, where the thought is not stagnant, what goes up comes down and realizes the zero, when the words written are not written with a definite conclusion, what is said is open for anyone to interpret.”
The mistake of the mind is believing learning is a straight path. It is not. Learning is circular—what is learned must often be unlearned to move forward.
We hold onto knowledge, thinking it makes us wise. But wisdom is knowing when to let go of knowledge, when to start fresh, when to approach something without the weight of assumptions.
Example:
A child learning to draw is free. They do not worry about perspective, proportions, or technique. They simply express. But as they “learn” the rules of drawing, they become restricted. Only when they unlearn and return to a place of freedom can true creativity emerge again.
The same applies to thought.
To truly learn is to let go of what you think you already know.
5. The Danger of Absolute Acceptance: Doubt as a Path to Understanding
“Does that mean the doubt, the question, lies even in this collection of words? Yes! Most definitely.”
If we accept knowledge without questioning it, we are not truly learning—we are following.
Belief, authority, tradition—when accepted without question, they become poison to real learning. Doubt is essential. Not destructive doubt, but the kind of doubt that keeps the mind open, that prevents stagnation.
Example:
A student blindly memorizing a religious text may think they are learning. But a student who questions it, who tries to understand its deeper meaning, who challenges it—they are the one truly learning.
Real learning is not agreement. It is exploration.
6. The Limits of Thought: The Realization That One Cannot Learn Everything
“What has one learned which makes one write this if one is not even sure? That is what is learned—that one can’t learn.”
The final realization of deep learning is that there are limits to what can be known.
Thought, logic, philosophy—all are tools, but none can grasp the infinite. The more one learns the more one realizes how much is unknowable.
This is not a failure. This is freedom.
The freedom to stop chasing absolute truth and instead experience life as it unfolds.
Example:
A scientist who has spent years studying the universe finally realizes—the universe is not something to be solved, but something to be experienced.
This is the highest learning. The acceptance that the mind will never fully comprehend reality.
And that is okay.
7. The Shared Responsibility of Meaning
“These words can be some deep spiritual entertainment, cool thoughts, complex shallow words, or a life-changing moment. It all depends on what is taken by the reader.”
No word, no lesson, no teaching has inherent meaning. Meaning is created between the one who speaks and the one who listens.
The same sentence can mean nothing to one person and everything to another. This is why no teacher is truly a teacher, and no student is truly a student—learning is always mutual.
Example:
A book on philosophy sits on a shelf. One person reads it and finds nothing. Another reads it at a turning point in their life, and it changes everything.
The difference is not in the book. It is in the one who reads.
Conclusion: The Teacher & Student Are One
So, can the student teach the teacher what the teacher has taught the student?
Yes. Because there is no true teacher. There is no true student.
- Knowledge is not owned, it is shared.
- Learning is not a straight line, but a cycle.
- True understanding is knowing that not everything can be understood.
- Meaning is not given, it is created by both speaker and listener.
If you have read this and found meaning, it is not because I have taught you something.
It is because you were ready to learn.
And in that moment, you are no longer a student.
You are simply one with learning itself.
