Advanced Yoga Practices
Main Lessons

Note: For the Original Internet Lessons with additions, see the AYP Easy Lessons Books. For the Expanded and Interactive Internet Lessons, AYP Online Books, Audiobooks and more, see AYP Plus.

Lesson 57 - The Guru is in Me?  (Audio)

AYP Plus Additions:
57.1 - Spiritual Desire (Bhakti) Flowing in Stillness  (Audio)
57.2 - Those Grouchy Gurus  (Audio)
57.3 - The Traditional Indian Guru System and AYP  (Audio)
57.4 - Improving the Guru-Disciple Connection  (Audio)

From: Yogani
Date: Sun Dec 28, 2003 1:13am

New Visitors: It is recommended you read from the beginning of the archive, as previous lessons are prerequisite to this one. The first lesson is, "Why This Discussion?"

Q: You end every message with the phrase, "The guru is in you." Does this mean I am my own guru and don't need any outer guru or teachers?

A: No, it doesn't mean that. We all need outer knowledge to open ourselves to inner experience. The phrase is intended as a constant reminder that your enlightenment depends on you more than anyone, because it is only through your desire and action that divine experience can rise in you. It is only through your nervous system that pure bliss consciousness and divine ecstasy can be known. You cannot delegate it. It is only by you making a daily effort to purify your nervous system that anything can happen. It is you who are making the journey.

Maybe your journey means surrendering at the feet of an outer guru for your whole life. Or maybe it means purifying yourself by following a number of teachers over your lifetime. Whatever the outer relationships turn out to be, it is the divine expression coming from inside through your heart's longing that will lead you to them. What happens outside is a reflection of what is happening inside, not the other way around. This is the meaning of, "The guru is in you." If we long deeply inside, we will attract the teachings we need. Then it is up to us to take advantage of the blessings we have attracted, and act. If we do, then there will be an expansion inside -- an expansion of pure bliss consciousness and awakened divine ecstasy within us. We will find whoever or whatever ideal we have chosen expanding within us also. So, the guru is inside, even as we may be interacting with him or her in form (or forms) on the outside. Outer teachers and gurus are storehouses of spiritual knowledge and energy we attract and are drawn to on our journey to the infinite. Ultimately, our interaction with them is inside. Inside is where the rubber meets the road.

The guru is a flow of consciousness that begins in us, travels outward on our desire, connects outer knowledge, and then expands inside us as the knowledge is applied.

There is the old saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

A question we should ask ourselves every day is, "What have I done lately to get ready?"

The guru is in you.

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Note: For more on divine attraction, see the AYP Bhakti and Karma Yoga book, and AYP Plus.

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