Articles
Wasting Time With a Guru
By Megan McDonough
Last week I went to see a guru. Billed as an expert on Internet marketing, I cleared my schedule and spent the whole afternoon in a large conference room with other eager learners. Sitting in the front row to hear every word he said, I waited for the wisdom to flow. The first fifteen minutes I was surprised. The second fifteen minutes I was restless. By the end of the first hour, I was yawning. When was he going to stop talking about his superstar accomplishments and start teaching?
Not too long after that, I had a conversation with a yoga student. She told me how she had found liberation by simply saying “no” to expert advice that didn’t fit her style.
It would be nice if the answers to our problems could be handed to us on a silver platter by a wise guru. But this belief is pure fantasy. The only place where truth resides is in you.
The best that any guru can do, whether that’s a business expert or a spiritual leader, is to point you in the direction of your own Self.
Gurus can do that by being a shining example or a hideous caricature. In either case, gurus only point back at you, reflecting what you aspire to be or what you rebel against.
Yup, it’s all about you.
Beyond the judgments about “good” gurus and “bad” gurus, something else quietly lives. In yoga class, we touch this place when we lay in relaxation after all the movement. In life, we know this place when we acknowledge the truth of our own experience.
If the purpose of a guru is to show us our own self, then each person we come across is a guru. And there’s no such thing as wasting time.
Megan McDonough is a Business Yogini, teaching Yoga to business people and business to Yogis so that all can work with more clarity and less confusion. She is the award-winning author of Infinity in a Box; Using Yoga to Live With Ease.
