Guru is from the Sanskrit; it means “heavy, weighty.” A guru is someone who is weighty in the sense of having a substantial presence, someone weighty with good qualities. A qualified Guru will be able to teach you from their own imediate, experiential realizations, because they have become a living embodiment of the Buddha's teaching. This sublime quality inspires, allowing you to open up and discover Dharma truths, and your own true nature easily and without confusion.

A relationship with a Guru is different from being a student of Buddhism in relationship with a Buddhist professor or Dharma instructor or meditation facilitator.  The Guru represents your own potential physically manifest to your senses; the Guru provides direct access to your own latent Buddha potential. The Guru is not only what you seek outside of yourself (through a healthy relationship with your Guru), but is what you seek inside yourself (through a deep heart commitment and practice of his or her teachings and advice). Problems you may have with your Guru amount to problems you have with your own Buddha potential so it is traditional to carefully evaluate a candidate Guru prior to making a heart comittment.

Whether the Guru, who is the active expression of the buddhas’ infinite kindness, manifests to us as a teacher of the Dharma or in the form of ordinary beings, situations, even inanimate objects in our life, whatever the outer form, the guru always serves to reveal to us our minds, our best and worst inner natures, so that we can grow in wisdom and compassion, and surpass our limitations on the path to awakening. It is simply up to us to open our minds to these manifestations of the Guru in our lives.