Don’t go searching for a guru, when you are ready, the guru will find you. Or something like this, is the quote I’ve heard stated by yogis and mystics. Sadghuru says something like this.

I’ve always wondered what this means, how this could be the case. And then something dawned on me. Perhaps the guru is not a teacher in the typical, wise old man ready to dispel knowledge my way. Instead, perhaps the guru is the one who comes searching for something from you.

After all, isn’t it in the teaching of something, when you really begin to learn and know something very well? Or in the helping of someone, that we get beyond our personal issues, and expand into something greather than ourselves? Or even in the learning to deal with circumstances and people that seemingly causing us pain, that we learn to go within and find the means to come out the other side more resilient and with a deeper sense of self?

The young child, who brings all of their questions to you, and in their asking, they remind you of the wonders of being young. Or in the case of the shaman, it is the patient that the shaman needs. In this strange, almost twisted sort of way, the shaman needs the illness and darkness in order to perform their duty and perfect their craft. Or even when it comes to our own physical pains and traumas… lurking from the shadows to reveal something to us about the nature of the deepest parts of our being.

The guru, or teacher comes in many forms. If not from a wide old man, or even a young child, then even from a place within, when the time is right.