Daily Quote, Saturday August 15, 2009.

Here we get to the heart of the relationship between each of us and our personal transformation. There can be no system or program, and hence no guru or teacher from which the program will come. It can only begin with your self-observation. Can you see the difference? To follow a guru is positive inquiry (see yesterday's quote), but to inquire into yourself is a negative inquiry; we always seek the positive because we want help and we want someone to do the transformational work for us. But is this an adequate response?

Robert

Today's Quote:

That light cannot be given to you by another.

Most people, when they are confused, disturbed, want to return to the past; they seek to revive the old religion, to re-establish the ancient customs, to bring back the form of worship practised by their ancestors, and all the rest of it. But what is necessary, surely, is to find out whether the mind that is the result of the past, the mind that is confused, disturbed, groping, seeking - whether such a mind can learn without turning to a guru, whether it can undertake the journey on which there is no guide.

Because it is possible to go on this journey only when there is the light which comes through the understanding of yourself, and that light cannot be given to you by another; no Master, no guru can give it to you, nor will you find it in the Gita or in any other book. You have to find that light within yourself, which means that you must inquire into yourself, and this inquiry is hard work. No one can lead you, no one can teach you how to inquire into yourself. One can point out that such inquiry is essential, but the actual process of inquiring must begin with your own self-observation.

The Collected Works, Vol. X - 254