Our inner guru knows everything we need to know, if only we listen to it. Yet we often look to others – teachers, therapists, a boss – to learn. But the best learning is often self-taught. When we learn something on our own we don’t forget it. As a child we touched the flame on the stove once; we didn’t need to do it again to know that it burns. That is not to say that we can’t learn from others, but their contribution to us is a function of how deep their understanding of the subject is, whether they have actually learned from personal experience. They can only show us the way if they have been there themselves. And yet, ultimately, what we learn from others we learn through our exchange with them. When we hear ourselves talk with them we are reminded of what we already know and that is related to what they are teaching. And if we don’t already have the seed of this lesson from a different or similar experience, we can’t relate to their experience or learn from them no matter how hard we try. Thus we can only learn what we already know on some level, what we have learned on our own. The mastery we have achieved in one domain permits us to see the laws and principles that exist in other systems. So the teacher becomes the translator. His job then is to help us find the common thread between our past experiences and the new one we hope to master.
Curiosity and adaptation to our environment are basic human traits, real learning and intelligence, and are responsible for our survival as a species. This kind of learning has led to our major inventions and scientific developments. When we think of voyages of the inner nature, guided by our inner guru, we can easily make a comparison with the early pioneers and explorers who set out in search of new territories. With each new climate or social context they encountered they were forced to adapt or perish. It was their fierce curiosity that gave them the energy to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, to spend months at sea or crossing harsh mountain ranges. Our inner guru learns by doing. Our determination to master our environment, our search for new experiences, is what gives us our knowledge and understanding.
We have an even greater source of knowledge available to us: our memory of the human story, our history, all of the knowledge of all those who have come before us. This knowledge is stored in our cells. We each possess this knowledge because we are each links in a chain of humanity that goes all of the way back to the beginning. Our inner guru has access to all of the answers to our questions. We need only observe nature to see the way things work. We have direct access to this universal library that contains the wisdom accumulated throughout evolution. The Guru in You is the connection between the past (all of our collective wisdom and experience) and the future (all of our inspiration and dreams).
We don’t need to remember the past to access this universal library because it is all around us, it is reflected in laws and principles according to which everything functions. It is therefore presented to us in everything we see. As above, so below, as earth as it is in heaven. Our messages are our life, and life is all around us. We need only choose to listen.
A related discussion, “D.I.Y. Guru” in the Huffington Post.
