The Guru is Within

Do I need to meet a guru to discover who I am?

No. You are the you that you already are. There is no discovering this--except as a matter of speaking.

And yes. If you think you are someone separate you may be helped (again as a matter of speaking) to consider the words of a guru who is at rest in his or her own natural state--who makes no effort to become someone or something.

This absence of effort is similar to the way a magnet magnetizes all the iron around it or the way a black hole turns everything into itself. Only there is a difference in that the guru is turning you into the you that you already are.

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It is common think that the guru is separate (albeit enlightened) and that I am separate (and unenlightened). However this is not the case. The guru is only the light of pure being and that light is your own. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj once referred to the outer guru as a milestone and explained that the inner teacher will walk with you to the goal as it is the goal.

You may meet an outer teacher. Or you may not. If you do meet one you will finally have to break free of that person by looking to the light of your own natural being.

What makes the lasting difference does not happen without. It happens within.