With the passing of Mr. Iyengar last week I have been thinking about how I responded to his death and some of the implications of having a “guru”. Is it a requirement to a yogic practice? And if so what are the pros and cons of deciding to adopt a guru? This is not the first time the question has arisen for me: “To guru to not to guru?”

A great way of looking at the idea of a guru was suggested to me by Sharon Gannon and David Life while on the Jivamukti training in upstate New York. They suggested the concept of the being open to what they referred to as the “guru principle”: A kind of learning energy that is accessible in our daily experience. To access it we should endeavour to cultivate the correct state of mind to be sensitive to it. This phenomena could conceivably take the form of a person, but could also be a situation, a profound thought and serendipitous movement in an asana, etc.

The correct state of mind that they were referring to was one of humility and openness to new possibilities. Being willing to entertain the idea that there is always something outside of your immediate awareness is key. You probably won’t be able to access new information unless you’re willing to drop some of the preconceptions that are preventing you from seeing those possibilities. Said another way, if you think you already know how things work you’ll be less inclined to keep investigating how things work.

So being humble and willing to learn are clearly useful skills/attitudes to cultivate.

The counter point to this humility comes in actively choosing to test and verify the that information once you have been exposed to it. This requires effort and discernment. It is part of the responsibility of the act of learning.

Imbalance towards any of these directions causes potential problems. Too much humility and subservience can lead to mindlessness obedience whereby you might find yourself living out someone else’s reality at the expense of your own. Too much critical thinking can lead to close-mindedness and/or cynicism. So, as is the case in so many other endeavours, balance seems to be the key to being open to continuous learning.

A last note

Guru’s and teachers often inspire us thought their innovation. They break new intellectual ground, over-turn existing social structures and make ideas more accessible to others. Surely then, if this is what we are inspired by we shouldn’t be fixating on the person but rather in what or how or why they did what they did.

I am reminded of a quote that I think was credited to Basho* although I can’t be sure: “Seek not to follow in the footsteps of the masters, rather seek what they sought.”

*does it matter who said it if the idea makes sense