Mitch Blum

I love Yoga clichés. Some people hate them, especially when they’re endlessly rolling off the tongue of a vinyasa teacher, but I love them. Yes, I’ve railed against inane teacher chatter in the past and yoga clichés do tend to comprise the bulk of inane teacher chatter, but I’m never above self-contradiction. As the saying goes, never trust a trickster.

I love yoga clichés precisely because they’re ambiguous. Most of the clichés are true and false; harmful and helpful; insightful and inane. Thinking about the clichés gives us an opportunity to learn more about the practice.

A few months ago I attempted to decipher the idea of breaking down your ego and came to the conclusion that it could be good or bad advice, depending on the intent and the context.

Today I’m thinking about the very awful advice to “follow your inner guru.” Actually, it isn’t really awful advice, but it’s very misleading and potentially dangerous.

The goal of involution is to work our way back up the chain from the grossest to the subtlest evolutes of nature (prakriti) in order to realize our true nature as pure consciousness (purusha). So we first begin to observe and meditate on the objects of our senses. Then we progress to the senses (jnanendriyas) and instruments (karmendriyas). Next up is our old friend the monkey mind (manas), then the I-sense/ego (ahamkara) and finally the intellect (buddhi). {Liberated folks can actually reside in consciousness itself, but that’s not really an area that I can even blabber about!}

It goes without saying that this process can be long, difficult and painful. We use Yoga as a practice/technique/tool/road map to help us get there. You don’t just decide to be self-realized, it unfolds experientially in stages. First you realize that you’re not your mind (or its friends the senses) next you realize that you’re not your ego persona and then you realize that you’re not even your discerning intellect.

This purification process allows each aspect of our nature to function appropriately, so that we’re not always reacting to sensory desires or acting defensively in order to protect our frail personalities.

The metaphor is the crystal vase and the rose. The vase is colorless, but it looks red when there’s a rose behind it. The nature of the vase never actually changes, but the perception of it does, as it’s colored by an outside agent.

Your “Inner Guru” is your intellect (buddhi) in a colorless state. It is pure wisdom and it is an infallible, perfect guide. So, when people say “follow your inner guru” they are giving you good advice – if you’re at that stage of involution.

But for us workaday yogis, odds are that we’re not there yet. The buddhi isn’t purified and we’re not tuned into the message. And when we think we’re listening to our inner guru, we might just be listening to our sensitive, protective ego or our immature, oft-distracted mind.

Our mind is all about seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. If your inner guru is telling you to take a short-cut, or to avoid something hard, or to start practicing pranayama prematurely, it’s probably not really your inner guru talking.

So, I’m going to give my outer gurus (e.g. teachers, books, direct experience) a few more years of practice before I start listening to my inner guru. I happen to know from experience that my inner guru is a slacker.

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