Does having practiced for many years or being called a teacher necessarily mean greater ability?

Not necessarily. Look at what the person has actually learned over those years, rather than only the number of years or whether people call them a teacher. If someone has practiced earnestly each year, the accumulated experience naturally has value. But a number alone does not show how much someone understands.

I once met someone who had practiced for only a few years. Because I looked relatively young, this person wanted to give me a great deal of guidance. I do not usually rush to assess people when I first meet them, nor do I want to compare my experience everywhere. But when the person raised the matter, I could explain what I understood. It reminded me that looking young or old does not necessarily reflect how much you know.

The title “teacher” also depends on what someone teaches. A kindergarten teacher and a graduate-school teacher share the title, but the content and level differ. In spiritual practice, accumulating wisdom and ability is intended to let you help or offer direction when someone has a problem. When practitioners meet, there is no need to rush to compare powers. You can have ability and remain modest, but you must not reverse that and assume someone is more capable simply because they stay silent.

In the early days, two students attended group practice. One had meditated in a park and felt like standing up, moving like a large bird spreading its wings. Unfamiliar with this experience, the student came back to ask me. I could explain and discuss it because I had experienced related spirit movements earlier. I felt more deeply then that what I had lived through and learned gave me something to share when others later had questions.

What matters to me, then, is what experience those years contain. Do not assume a young person understands nothing, or stop examining what someone has actually learned simply because they have practiced for many years.

You can also consider whether those years involved merely completing rituals or changing how one responds to events. Someone asked why a family still struggled after practicing for more than thirty years. Without personally understanding that family, I first separated the questions: Were they learning and correcting habits? What was the medium connecting with? Had the matter been examined clearly? Thirty years alone could not establish the cause.

Becoming better than yesterday means reviewing your own practice. Responding with more understanding and less impulsiveness, and learning approaches you did not know before, are forms of progress. Compare with yourself. Do not use someone else’s years of practice or current circumstances to decide how well they practice.