There is a famous Zen saying:

Before studying Zen, men are men and mountains are mountains. Whilst studying Zen, men are no longer men and mountains are no longer mountains. After studying Zen, men are men again and mountains are mountains. 

So what is the difference between before and after? The difference is in you. Beforehand, like all average people, you perceive the world through the gauze of ego. The job of your teacher is twofold: firstly to convince you that there is a more vital and interesting way of being and perceiving, namely through energy and spirit (in fact, on one level, the student already knows this otherwise they wouldn't have sought out a teacher) and secondly to teach a methodology to bring about the slow, arduous and inevitably painful process of abandoning ego and entering, for good, the world of energy. ​