2009 Poem ‘Respect for the Knowledge and Experience of My Teachers’ by Walter Lerchner, U.S.A. from the Book ‘Society Enlightened’ Pages 31 and 32

The love in my heart can express itself in many forms
Lately, I was wondering about
the love for my teachers

It is a deep kind of love
Full of gratefulness, full of humility
And full of the sweetest joy, when I can learn

Its expression is
of respect for knowledge and experience
Its expression is
of trust in the goodness of their teachings
Its expression is
in finding a way to apply their teachings to my life

My trust in them is not with blindness
Blindness would disrespect their knowledge

My trust in them is not without knowing of their defects
It’s because their knowledge and experience far
outshine their weaknesses
that my love for them is strong

It’s because of their imperfections
that I have hope to overcome my own

My love for the light in them
makes me want to strengthen the light in me

For that I can become a teacher too