According to Eastern philosophies, the truth in skiing, specifically the efficient technique, emerges when we cease to think, as both language and thought can be confusing. The common belief is that true ski technique is achieved within us, but for Western thought, skiing truth must be transmitted by a third party.
However, who teaches us a genuine ski technique? If the technical truth is not taught, then we must learn it ourselves. However, if it is taught, does the teaching of the technique distorts the technique?
Does the ski instructor possess the technical truth? Is the explanation or correction he provides accurate? It is true if it serves us in our skiing, provided that we accept it as a fact. However, what if the instructor is dishonest, employing white lies to alleviate guilt over our lack of progress? If he is lying for the sake of us as learners, to avoid discouragement, frustration, or to prioritize the bond, then “lying for the good” would be the same as telling the truth insofar as truth prevails.
To lie means to say something that is not true, and to not tell the truth is to hide something. Would an individual who conceals the complete truth be committing deceit? We shouldn’t, through ignorance or bad faith, omit part of the truth. We are aware that withholding the complete truth can lead to interference with the truth of others, and by intentionally withholding the truth, we generate a negative moral burden.
In the case of an instructor who is hired to teach us how to ski, omitting what he thinks about our performance is a malicious omission because, in his role as a professional teacher, he must communicate to us our real situation of which we have a legitimate interest in knowing.
Skiing knowledge has a significant emotional impact because it reassures. The ski instructor, who has the knowledge and assures the truth about the slope to be descended or the difficulty of what we are going to learn, calms us down, just as when he explains something he clears his doubts. But we must take into consideration that doubting is part of uncertainty when skiing. To accept doubt is to accept ourselves as skiers, as well as to accept skiing as it is.
