The I Ching recommends that one third of the way down our path of development we begin to lead groups in the basic practices for self-empowerment. This is done not only for the benefit of others but also as a step for broadening our field of activity, shifting emphasis on just oneself and developing a vaster perspective in what we are doing.

Having to present the practices we have been doing for sometime, to others, forces us to clarify what is essential from what is not. Questions asked by the students force us to re-examine more deeply problems and situations we may not have encountered by ourselves.

The positive changes experienced by the people we teach will deepen our basic trust in what we are doing and the power of the practice lineage we are part of.

The practitioners who never develop this stage remain in a kind of isolation which makes them potentially vulnerable to self-doubt and distrust in what they are doing. At worst one is continually ‘shopping around’ for something better or just different; this is because we are not truly grounded in what we are doing.