Finding the guru within
I have enjoyed the ‘Dalai Lama’s Cat’ series of books, including the most recent addition, ‘The Dalai Lama’s Cat and the Claw of Attraction.’ The author of the series, David Michie, also recently wrote a helpful article, based on the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, on how to find a guru (Michie, 2023a). The article includes a summary of how a guru can help someone seeking enlightenment and then gives 10 points to look for to help find such a being. It is a very clear and useful guide, and well worth a read, so I have linked to it in the Bibliography below.
I thought it might also be helpful to write a short blog, not from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, on finding a guru or teacher within oneself. Most of us are familiar with this through labels such as ‘gut feeling’ and ‘intuition’. This is something that can be used and developed to be a more powerful inner guide, guru or teacher, also by those seeking to develop their potential and awaken to a deeper experience of who they are.
One very good reason for taking this approach, rather than seeking an external guru, can be seen by any open-minded person who gets into the field of counselling and psychotherapy. One of the first things that new therapists learn is that no-one understands the client better than the client themself. One of the main jobs of the therapist is therefore not to give advice, but to ask the client useful and searching questions so that they can access their own understanding of themselves in a clear and usable way, to make their own lives better.
And, in fact, if you compare the process of developing the inner guide and learning to trust that, with the process of finding an external guru and learning to trust their guidance, you will find similarities. You have to learn who is a reliable guide, who can be trusted and who your intuition indicates is right for you! There is even an equivalent process to that of giving one’s life over to an external guru who likes to create dependent followers of people who follow them slavishly. In one’s own mind it is possible to believe and act on every thought and idea that pops into one’s head, and that’s not a healthy process either!
It would go against the spirit of this blog for me to go on at great length about how to develop your connection to the inner guide so I’ll leave it to you to do that research 😃. Just to get you started though, one of the first and most useful things is to have enough inner quiet so that you can hear and discern the difference between random thoughts and useful inner guidance; the inner voice that Eileen Caddy, one of the founders of the Findhorn spiritual community, called, “the still, small voice within” (Caddy, 2005).
And, at the end of the day, that’s all we have to go on...
Michie, D. (2023a). Finding our guru: 10 points. Accessed on 17th December 2023: https://davidmichie.substack.com/p/10-points-on-finding-our-guru
Michie, D. (2023b). The Dalai Lama’s Cat and the Claw of Attraction. Hay House Australia. ISBN: 9781401977719 (ISBN10: 1401977715).
I thought it might also be helpful to write a short blog, not from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, on finding a guru or teacher within oneself. Most of us are familiar with this through labels such as ‘gut feeling’ and ‘intuition’. This is something that can be used and developed to be a more powerful inner guide, guru or teacher, also by those seeking to develop their potential and awaken to a deeper experience of who they are.
One very good reason for taking this approach, rather than seeking an external guru, can be seen by any open-minded person who gets into the field of counselling and psychotherapy. One of the first things that new therapists learn is that no-one understands the client better than the client themself. One of the main jobs of the therapist is therefore not to give advice, but to ask the client useful and searching questions so that they can access their own understanding of themselves in a clear and usable way, to make their own lives better.
And, in fact, if you compare the process of developing the inner guide and learning to trust that, with the process of finding an external guru and learning to trust their guidance, you will find similarities. You have to learn who is a reliable guide, who can be trusted and who your intuition indicates is right for you! There is even an equivalent process to that of giving one’s life over to an external guru who likes to create dependent followers of people who follow them slavishly. In one’s own mind it is possible to believe and act on every thought and idea that pops into one’s head, and that’s not a healthy process either!
It would go against the spirit of this blog for me to go on at great length about how to develop your connection to the inner guide so I’ll leave it to you to do that research 😃. Just to get you started though, one of the first and most useful things is to have enough inner quiet so that you can hear and discern the difference between random thoughts and useful inner guidance; the inner voice that Eileen Caddy, one of the founders of the Findhorn spiritual community, called, “the still, small voice within” (Caddy, 2005).
And, at the end of the day, that’s all we have to go on...
Bibliography
Caddy, E. (2005). The small voice within. Findhorn Press. ISBN: 9781844090570.Michie, D. (2023a). Finding our guru: 10 points. Accessed on 17th December 2023: https://davidmichie.substack.com/p/10-points-on-finding-our-guru
Michie, D. (2023b). The Dalai Lama’s Cat and the Claw of Attraction. Hay House Australia. ISBN: 9781401977719 (ISBN10: 1401977715).
"the still, small voice within" is where I go more often to find my inner guru. As I have aged, I have come to rely and trust my own inner wisdom. I had many guides and guru's that supported me along my spiritual path. Many "mystery schools" and teachers provided assistance just when I needed them. However.. Perhaps, with age, comes the realization that my inner guru always lead the way anyway. All the spiritual guides I had along the way were simply outer expressions of what my soul was reflecting back to me. Ah yes... I can trust that the silence will now lead me to where I need to be. Thanks Peter... Diane Krompart 🙏💖
ReplyDeleteThank you Diane. My life has followed a similar course to yours when it comes to the 'guru within'.
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