You Are Your Own Guru

There’s no way around it.  The only way you can have experiences, the only way you can learn, the only way you can become wise, the only way you can get enlightened is by doing it your own self.  But how? 

We spend our whole lives trying to figure out the how.

It’s natural to want help with this.  It’s natural to want an easier way.

We go guru hunting to get help with the daunting task of figuring out how human life works and, sometimes, to hide under someone else’s umbrella for awhile.

We have a built-in hunger to figure life out and to find peace.  We’re hardwired that way.  Most of us look for ways to dull the hunger.  We fill our lives with enjoyments, busy-ness and time fillers.  Sometimes that works for a while, or even a whole lifetime.  But, sometimes, we get kicked off the rails and we’re back where we started, facing the old questions, “Who am I?”, “Where did I come from?”, “What is the good?”,  ”Where am I going?”, ”What should I do?”, “What is life about?”, “How can I be happy?”.  You know, the little nagging questions that can get in the way of sleeping.

Any guru worth her salt will just bring you back to the threshold of your own mind.  Any guru that doesn’t do that, one way or the other, isn’t really a guru at all but is a salesman.  You can learn from salesmen, but it’s expensive.  Then, you’re back on the road again.

Relax.  Every experience is good.  You are on a mission that will last your whole life.  Sooner or later, you will get to where you want to be.  If you pay attention, every step of the way will be good in its own special way.  Don’t be in a hurry.  You are exactly where you are supposed to be.  Savor it.

That’s the secret: pay attention.  Be here now.  Notice what’s around you.  Notice your thoughts.  Notice what you are feeling.  Notice what you are attracted to.  Notice what repels you.  Notice your behavior. Just notice, without having an opinion about it, as if you were watching someone else’s life.  You will notice habits and patterns.  You will start to realize who you are in this one instant of your life.  Then, you can have opinions about it and make other choices if you want to and see how that works out.

Life is designed to be self-teaching.  You can’t get ahead of yourself.  It’s all perfect.

You are work in progress, just like everything that lives in the Earth school.

Your only job is to be present.