All things are full of consciousness and when the consciousness comprehends itself there is knowledge  – in Yoga Vāsiṣṭha

By that, who’s the guru and who’s the disciple?

(from Dyckowski’s The Aphorisms of Siva, pp. 80-81):  Tantras declare: just as a bee, desirous of nectar, goes from flower to flower, so a disciple, desirous of knowledge, goes from teacher to teacher…  In the end, the disciple discovers that the Guru is none other than himself/herself and s/he, as the disciple, is the reflective awareness of the inquiring consciousness of the individual Self, which constantly responds with ever-deepening revelations of its own nature. _/\_

The bottom line is that Guru is within, and when you resonate with something received through sensory channel, or mental recollection process, it’s the inner guru that’s at work.  We just need to give that “reflective” disciple part sufficient time for him/her to make sense of that information at an ever deeper level. We emphasize the information aspect, and underplay the inner guru aspect.  We need to give this inner guru credence, sufficient room to express and teach us individually, and not just look outwards.

Siva Sutras is very direct about this  inner guru aspect (adapted from Mark Dyczkowski’s translations) –

vidyasamutthane svabhavike khecari sivavastha (2/5); gururupayah (2/6)
When the knowledge innately inherent in one’s own nature
arises, (that is) Siva’s state… 2/5; Guru-form is (that Siva-state) 2/6;

When the student is truly ready the teacher will disappear – Tzu

Now going a little deeper,  a couple of related perspectives.

From the Tat Twam Asi-standpoint, if we find a Guru in the external world, there must be a projection of that in the internal world too – right? As far as yogis are concerned, there’s no breaking of that holographic principle of tat twam asi – not that they are artificially imposing this rule, but that’s how nature works, according them.  Advaita Vedanta, and particularly the Shaivisim-branch, offers detailed expositions and insights into this aspect.

1. From this, how are the inner and outer aspects related?  Essentially it is the projection aspect that’s at work.  Basically, it is not that someone outside is saying something that you did not know, but you are in the right place, at the right time to resonate with the message you heard.  That’s resonance aspect is the learning or knowledge acquisition process, your own consciousness is the Guru, while the reflective awareness of the inquiring consciousness of you is the disciple.  The Guru is always there; it’s the reflective awareness of the inquiring consciousness, the disciple is normally the one that’s missing most of the time.   That’s why contemplation and reflection are a lot more important than belief – that reflective consciousness.  Beliefs actually weaken, ignore or suppress the inner guru.

Going back to our daily experiences, when a piece of information is flying in our way, the inner guru-aspect of us resonates with that information.  Depending upon the state of the rest of our minds, that information leaves a trace.  The stronger the emotion it evokes, the deeper that trace is, and the longer that information lasts in our mind.  That’s why we forget some pieces of information immediately, while some we remember.   When this information plugs into active usage, it expresses itself as knowledge (Jñāna), but when information pervades the entire mind-field, it turns into wisdom (vijñāna); the prefix “vi” has a special place in vedanta, referring to distilled, inner-worldly connotations – like in jaya/vijaya,  nayaka/vinayaka, jnana/vijnana, nyasa/vinyasa, bhrama/vibhrama like pairs.

Not all pieces of information are consistent with all other pieces of knowledge we already possess. This is more true when we don’t meditate enough on our own existing knowledge base, to integrate new information with the already-existing – that process is bhaj-an, or bhajan.  Over time, these inconsistencies show up as debilitating cracks in our personalities, which are the biggest cause of stress in our lives.  Children perceive those inconsistencies in our personalities with ease – that’s how children become our teachers, by pointing out those inconsistencies.  We learn by answering their questions without prejudice, while we learn from our parents by asking them questions.  Expanding that concept, every event becomes a teacher, and the very experience is the essence of our action, (and not the trivial results) – and this takes us back to the 4th tenet of Karma Yoga.

There’s another angle to this teacher-disciple chain.  If disciples acquire knowledge by someone teaching them only, then that teacher must have gotten it from someone before, and so on.  Using this recursive logic, it takes us to the first teacher who taught the whole world (jagadguru, adiyogi), which is Siva, a perfect zero-state!  So zero-state is our first teacher?  Rishis tell us to achieve that adiyogi state, where the disciple and the guru merge, where the animal (pasu) and divine (pasu-pati) become one_/\_

It is not that we shouldn’t receive information from outside, but we should have the right attitude to receive it to contemplate and integrate it appropriately.  Yogis’ principles in that sense are very simple and straightforward. Here it’s about  looking inwards also – in the “vi” direction, a reason why we end all our sessions with the acknowledgement of the teacher within.

May we all be blessed with the vi-type of knowledge also _/\_/\_/\_