“The teacher who speaks in silence removes doubts; the one who knows the Self needs no words.”
— Adi Shankara[apocryphal] Dakshinamurti Stotra tradition, attributed to Shankara in devotional collections; authorship not secure
Commentary
This image of the silent teacher draws on the figure of Dakshinamurti, the form of Shiva who teaches by silence under a banyan tree, a motif celebrated in the hymn traditionally ascribed to Shankara. The silent teaching suggests that the highest knowledge exceeds verbal articulation, so that instruction becomes a transmission of recognition rather than of information. Eliot Deutsch notes that Advaita's emphasis on direct knowledge of the Self lends plausibility to the idea that the highest truth is communicated without words. Sengaku Mayeda's study of Shankara's pedagogy in the Upadesasahasri shows the tension between the verbal teaching of the commentaries and the ideal of silent realisation. Richard King observes that the Dakshinamurti figure was adopted by several Vedantic schools, and that its appearance in Shankara's name reflects the wide diffusion of his tradition. Paul Hacker cautions that the devotional hymns attributed to Shankara are of uncertain date. The image expresses a theme of the tradition, and its attribution to Shankara rests on the devotional corpus.
Commentary
This image of the silent teacher draws on the figure of Dakshinamurti, the form of Shiva who teaches by silence under a banyan tree, a motif celebrated in the hymn traditionally ascribed to Shankara. The silent teaching suggests that the highest knowledge exceeds verbal articulation, so that instruction becomes a transmission of recognition rather than of information. Eliot Deutsch notes that Advaita's emphasis on direct knowledge of the Self lends plausibility to the idea that the highest truth is communicated without words. Sengaku Mayeda's study of Shankara's pedagogy in the Upadesasahasri shows the tension between the verbal teaching of the commentaries and the ideal of silent realisation. Richard King observes that the Dakshinamurti figure was adopted by several Vedantic schools, and that its appearance in Shankara's name reflects the wide diffusion of his tradition. Paul Hacker cautions that the devotional hymns attributed to Shankara are of uncertain date. The image expresses a theme of the tradition, and its attribution to Shankara rests on the devotional corpus.