For me, learning and teaching are two sides of the same coin. As a teacher, I am probably learning more than by attending a class – even if teaching takes more time and headspace than attending classes.

For me personally, a pivotal moment was when my wife and I moved to rural Ontario. Without teachers in Aikido and Argentine Tango, the two of us started practicing by ourselves and with groups of friends. I de-facto took the role of an unqualified teacher, because it was the only option to continue our practice that we valued so much. The results were astounding when visiting my old teacher after three years. I not only improved much faster than the other students who stayed with him, but I deepened my intuitive understanding of fundamental principles, which revealed themselves to me through the teaching process. At the same time, when my students mingled elsewhere, they clearly were compatible with mainstream teachings and also improved well. This experience demonstrated to me that learning and teaching can really be the same, especially in situations where we want to learn about the fundamental principles in complex arts and systems. By taking the attitude of beginner’s mind, and always asking ourselves about the underlying why’s and how’s, we may not study with the same sophistication as offered by a polished guru. But certainly our understanding can improve just as fast, and maybe even at a deeper level.