Be an Effective Guru for Yourself

We are blessed to live in a marvelous age—one in which both the ancient and modern wisdom from throughout the entire world is available just down the street at the multinational chain bookstore. Most of us own many of them and wish we could own many more.

Yet in spite of these spiritual riches, its still just as hard to live the wisdom that can read about in these books. Way too often, we love the insights we gain from reading them, and then we go back to being our ordinary selves, untransformed, unenlightened, and not very much better than we were before.

Why is it so difficult to incorporate the new wisdom we've learned into our lives after gaining those insights? What about two months later, when we've gone on to another book, another source of wisdom, and we've forgotten about the previous month's installment?

It seems that what we humans need is a logical, step-by-step procedure that is easy to do because we believe in it. This is why people frequently used to seek out a wise guru or why people today seek out coaches to help us stay on track.

The Secret of Being Your Own Guru

So why would anyone want to be their own coach or their own guru? Let's start with a logical analysis. If you went to a guru who was really good at her job, and if you asked her for the secret to being totally happy and fulfilled, here's what she would do. (And by the way, a guy guru would do exactly the same thing.)

She might close her eyes, or she might simply enter into a heightened state of awareness while looking at you. She might burn incense. She might pray or meditate. She might invoke a god or goddess. She might consult a Tarot deck, the Bible, the Koran, the I Ching, or the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Or she might just sit and stare into your soul, and speak directly to your need.

But whatever else she did, you can count on her doing one thing: getting in touch with her inner sense about you—her intuition about you—as well as deeply connecting with her higher self or inner guidance. While consulting this inner source of wisdom, an answer would come to her.

What this guru might tell you might make no logical sense at all, because she did not think it out logically—at least not at first. Of course, the reason you would go to see her in the first place is to get wisdom that is found deeper than logic and beyond the rational mind. This is wisdom that she will get in a noetic fashion—perhaps telepathically or empathically. It is wisdom about the situation that comes from a higher and broader perspective.

In other words, it comes from deep, deep, deep within.

So that's exactly what you need to do to be your own guru. You go deep within to gain a noetic sense about your situation and concerns from a completely different point of view—from the point of view of your higher self. When you choose what you need to do from this altered consciousness and this higher point of view, you will follow through.

You won't question it at all. You'll just do it, because you'll know that it's correct.

Wisdom is Useless Unless You Practice It

Insight is valuable, yes? Insight gives you an understanding of what you did that you need to change. It gives you perspective that enables you to give up your anger or fear, to make changes in your course in life, to grow to new levels of understanding. Insight matters.

However, one of the greatest fallacies in modern thinking is that insight makes a big difference. Understanding why you did something is of no consequence if it does not change how you live your life. Punishment, which teaches people that they "did wrong," doesn't generally create positive results in the long run, whether you are talking about adults or children. Everyone knows how to lose weight, but that doesn't mean they actually can do it. Everyone knows that forgiveness helps the forgiver more than the forgiven, but that doesn't make it easy to forgive.

These days, people who are in action about something important usually hire or find coaches. This includes the highest paid sports people, the top politicos, and the highest paid CEOs. The people who are most serious about their spiritual growth tend to seek out a spiritual advisor, regular sessions with a clergy person, or a guru.

On the other hand, people who aren't going anywhere or doing anything important generally don't have coaches, teachers, spiritual advisors, and other similar support. These people, who are legion, may be unhappy, disempowered, frustrated, and angry. But the only support they find for themselves is disempowering, pitying, unhelpful, emotionally harmful, or discouraging.

Here's what people tend to gain from the best types of coaching:

Step 1:     Coaches and other teachers generally give you assignments and tell you when to do them and for how long.

Step 2:     Coaches and other teachers generally provide you with feedback on your performance so that you can try something or different to achieve far greater success.

Step 3:     Coaches and other teachers also usually give you hints and suggestions about how to accomplish the assignments most easily.

So if you want to be your own guru, and do it effectively, you need to give yourself assignments, appropriate feedback, and hints and suggestions. In fact, the better you do this for yourself, the more you will gain when you find or hire another person to be your coach.

Consult with Your Higher Self to Distinguish Wisdom from Folly

"Be Your Own Guru" is another simple exercise you can learn today. It will help you to noetically evaluate everything you learn about yourself and about life from this moment onward. For instance:

Step 1:     If you go to a workshop or seminar, the Be Your Own Guru exercise will help you apply what you learned in ways that you've never done before.

Step 2:     Whenever you read a book or a magazine that inspires you, this exercise will help you to respond to what you learn in the most efficient and effective way that is available to you or anyone else.

Step 3:     If you go to a worship service of any religion in the world, it will help you determine which parts of the service you need to take to heart, as well as guiding you in applying these insights in practice.

Step 4:     With the Be Your Own Guru exercise, the next self-help book, spiritual book, inspirational fiction, or enlightening film that you enjoy will help you transform your life.

Step 5:     Even conversations with friends can become far more significant and important to you if you later evaluate what you have learned with the Be Your Own Guru exercise.