The Guru within...YOU are the Captain of your Soul

Submitted by Open on Sat, 08/24/2013 - 05:59

These are extraordinary times of great change and upheaval. Many things we've come to rely upon, the establishments and systems in society, even the very foundations of the reality we've believed in, are beginning to crumble. So in an environment of such turmoil, who and what can you really trust in? Gone are the times when a great saviour - a Messiah - has come to 'save the day'. These are times of the past. Now is the time to put faith in your own soul. Yes of course, other people can reflect back to you your gifts, they can empathise and catalyse, but they are not your gurus. They may point towards a Gateway, but only you can walk through it. Only you are the Captain of your Soul...

Who to trust in Now?

One of the greatest problems humanity currently faces, is the deceptive fog of karmic consciousness that we're living in. It's a past where many have unconsciously devolved responsibility to others for decisions made. Perhaps it was previously to a Religious or Spiritual teacher, a politician or a business 'chief', our very society has been founded on the notion of devolving responsibility to the state. To varying degrees we've all done it. We've accepted the reality society has created and gone along with that. It's formed a matrix of belief systems, ideas, rules, regulations and codes of conduct. It's a fixed reality that's limited people more to an identity that fits within the system. Of course now the lid is lifting, the confines bursting at the seams. The problem is: What to trust in? Who to believe? Learning to listen carefully to the soul is not easy. Certainly not in the beginning. It doesn't speak as the ego does. It doesn't package answers around what you most want to hear. It doesn't always provide the immediate answer, the immediate choice. It will often leave you guessing, wondering what is supposed to be going on. The soul has an intangible air to it, like the wind blowing through the trees, you only know it by its affect, its 'rustle through the leaves'.

The sense of not-knowing

The problem is it's so easy to become conditioned in society to the immediate answer. And if you don't have one, you're often seen as woolly, indecisive or vascillating. Yet this is often how the soul builds energy. It's watching and feeling the way forwards, waiting for all the parts of the jigsaw to land before moving. Yes, sometimes it's felt very directly as an upwelling - "this is how to be now" - but it is not always immediately clear what to do.

My observation is the need to get used to this sense of not-knowing, to become awesomely okay with it. What happens then, is that your consciousness opens around the moment. You watch, feel and in so doing, build energy. It has nothing to do with fear nor timidity, it's about holding the space until divinely inspired action wants to naturally happen through you.

And when you truly feel it, it's like all the lights of the universe got turned on all at once. There's no longer any question. Even no need for a choice. The choice is obvious, it reveals itself. I call it the Power of Being.

The guru within

So what about working with a 'guru'? By which, I mean in the truest sense of the word 'teacher'. The point is no one else can teach you about what you know in your soul. If someone else could know your soul better than you, there would be no need for you. You wouldn't be here!

To me, the purpose of the soul is for each to have a unique and varied experience of The One - the Absolute - that unites us all. The soul helps to create the experience of relativity and therefore life itself. Without you and me, in an experiential way, there could be no experience at all. So only you can truly know the depths of your soul, what it means and how to express it.

There are 'way-showers' in life however. There are Mirrors and Catalysts - beings who can help bring into light a stronger sense of feeling of who you really are, at a soul level. A good catalyst can resonate a vibration - through words, feelings, energy and actions - which can activate a similar vibration in your own being. Similar, but not the same. Not exactly the same. And you can work with these people, but if you're truly following your soul, they will never be your guru, never your 'teacher'. For only your soul can teach and lead you. The only guru, the only teacher, you'll ever need is the one inside yourself.

Looking in the Mirror

Sometimes, especially in such times of great confusion, it's good to have a mirror. So you can truly see and feel your truth. I'd say this is what humanity most needs right now: people who can hold the space empathically and people who can catalyse a feeling deep in your own being - remembering that it's always Your feeling they're activating.

How will you know it's your soul you're feeling? The first thing is to move beyond the collection of beliefs and ideas banded around as truth. To me, truth is what you feel as a deep resonance inside. Others may share a point of view, but if elements of our own truth are contained within it, we have to truly process it. And by that I mean to feel it as a resonance.

So humbly I say, it's time to leave the sense of needing an external guru or teacher behind. Humanity has for too long enslaved itself to some kind of power it thinks greater than itself. People have devolved responsibility for choices in life for far too long. Now is the time to learn to listen to the soul, to begin to trust in what it says and follow that inner intuitive guidance. Find a clear mirror to look into yes, but it is your own reflection you're looking for.

Making mistakes

It's about not fearing to make a mistake.

Speaking personally, I can say my own path has been defined exactly by the mistakes I've given myself the space to make. For it's only then that you can truly learn. And if you learn, how can a choice you've made ever really be a mistake?

Whilst I've not followed others, I have learned from them. In other words, I have seen reflections of myself in their being and actions. Yes I have found greater expressions of myself through the observing and feeling the expressions of others. With one proviso though: when they're being authentic, when they're being real. Then the reflections come the strongest, with most clarity.

Empowerment of the Self

So let's work with each other yes. Let's learn from the interactions with each other yes. Let's empathically hold the space and catalyse shifts in each other yes. But now is the time - unlike any other - when self empowerment is the true king, the true leader. Now is the time for each of us to be the Captain of our own soul...

PS: Openhand's approach of facilitating people, is all about catalysing self empowerment by the Activation of Consciousness. Discover more about our...Advanced Course Activations

In loving support


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Very gracious to receive such insight, I remain open to the message as it resounds, reverberates, and eventually resonates as the impression settles through to perceived clarity.I do experience apprehension in the labels of catalyst and empath as the two seem to be one. I can't decipher the perceived division as they both flow seemlessly with benevolence. Being humble through it for all these years... it feels unreal to actually find others who speak the same language. Solitude instills serenity and clarity yet the impulse to align harmonize with unity consciousness is...I am so gracious for the vastness of this exposure but am ready for all that comes. The energy has been building, reconstructing for so long..The scale of the playing field is expanding. Time to get out of the pond and navi"gate" into some new waters! Glorious day!

Deep in my soul there's a desire to be free
Why am I still bound?
Deep in my soul there are longings to be heard
Why don't I listen?

Deep in my soul there's a song to be sung
Why am I silent?
Deep in my soul there's a dance to be done
Why am I not moving?
Deep in my soul there's someone to embrace
Why am I so closed?
Deep in my soul there's a joy to be expressed
Why do I feel sad?
Deep in my soul there's a picture to be painted
Why is the page empty?
Deep in my soul there's a cry for mother earth
Why am I in the city?
Deep in my soul there's a garden to be grown
Why are there no flowers?

Deep in my soul there's a desire to be free
Deep in my soul there's a longing to be heard
To be real, to be true, simply to be
Today I listen and set my soul free!

Thank you for this article...I see myself in every bit!

Wanted to share an experience I recently had. I have been going to the same yoga class for 6 years and have gone through many levels of attachment to my teacher. I have projected a lot onto him...and I I had tried to fill many needs be liked, appreciated, special, to get knowledge, to grow. Since there was such a self created cloud between us, I felt incredible anxiety around him because I couldn't figure out how to be to "achieve" my grand goal of acceptance and love. I experienced a pretty big shift with this recently and feel quite in front now...not looking for something from someone comes up but I keep working with it and expanding back to a place of Self reliance...being mindful of when I feel the urge to put someone else out front for me to follow. Lately I have been feeling so in love inside - being mindful to not project it onto another, yet last night I felt a natural urge to approach my teacher after class and give him a hug and tell him how I appreciate him and am grateful for his presence...there was no seeking or needing or anxiety about it felt so clear and right. I feel like I really saw him for the first time and that I really let myself be seen.

There is still some trepidation in knowing the soul as the only teacher I need...I feel a sense of aloneness when I contemplate this and watch as there is a searching for something more solid and sure seeming - and then I keep coming back to knowing this is where I have given my power away many's never served me to disempower myself - perhaps given a false sense of security but in the end I've come back to the same place.

I find this article so reassuring!

Thanks you,

Hi Jenny - lovely story. Wonderful that you feel so much love inside :-)

This jumped out...


Remember a really important point: that at the heart of every distortion is a truth. Find the truth, peel away the distortion and it will set you free.

To me the truth here is that when you feel something inside, it always reflects outside. And if you can build a feedback loop with what is outside, then it will elevate energies ten fold. So there's a natural expectation that the inner would reflect into the outer. It's just that there's the risk sometimes of identifying the mirror we see in the outer as the subject of our feeling.

So the invitation is to see the reflection, express and work with it yes, but then always feel the energy building inside. Don't take your eye of the 'inner ball' - so to speak.

It means you're never alone, but you're always all-one.

Open *OK*

Hi Open,

At first there was just mud when I read this =) like WHAT?? but something got through when I left it alone for a bit. From what I hear you saying...the sense of aloneness is also the experience of all one ness when we tune in more deeply to the ongoing dialogue and interconnectivity. If this is what you mean, yes, I do feel on the edge of this experientially - though there is just this little piece that just pokes it's head up to see if I could possibly attach to just one really reliable person =) - I am just aware of a part of me that is not at ease with letting go of dependency and I keep making steps out allowing that little feeling to just kind of hang there.

Your response with regard to the inner feeling and the feedback loop turned a little lightbulb on but I am not entirely sure that I got it...It sounds to me that when these more subtle energies start to really get intense inside...for example in my class the other entire torso was pulsing with warm, circular, loving energy - it grew so big that it overflowed in what felt like a natural expression of gratitiude. It sounds to me that in those times, the moment is inviting more than just an overflow...that I can build a feedback loop by bringing attention to where that inner feeling is being reflected outside...staying seated in the building energy and perhaps then it would be more clear how this energy wants to be expressed? Perhaps some patience too in containing the feeling and waiting for more clear right action?

Hmmm...I could probably use some refinement on this understanding!! =)

Thanks for your response!

Hi Jenny,

You said...


Essentially yes. But I'd say there's a little piece of the jigsaw missing.

When we get overwhelmed by such feelings, that's where it's easy to get disconnected and lose oneself momentarily in a 'blind spot'. So as the energy overflows, it's easy to lose the source of the feeling and instead 'flow out with the feeling'.

So what I'd suggest looking at, is allowing the feeling to flow, but with at least part of your attention, make sure you stay present inside. Allow the feelings to express naturally as you did. But keep 'one eye' on the source. In that way, it should help to bring the energy in a circular loop back inside. Otherwise it just becomes a flow which ultimately drains and depletes.

Best wishes

Open *OK*

Hi Open,

ok! Now I see what you are saying and I can see how I have felt the build up and then let it out - definitely losing contact with the inner feeling in the exchange and missing the possible full circle. This makes sense! Thank you =)!

This also puts words to what I feel when guiding a yoga practice. Sometimes it feels like there is a sense of denseness like the energy isn't going anywhere And I have attributed this to my own temporary disconnect at that time and other times it feels like a complete Circle and I feel quite lifted up after class rather then emptied out. Funny to see that in my daily life I don't keep the same attention to feedback energetically as I do when purposefully working with others. Seeing however that Every moment may be inviting this level of connection.

Thank you for this inspiring article and video clip, Open. Invictus is a poem I read often. It speaks deeply to my soul. So does the film about the life of Nelson Mandela who embodied the meaning of Invictus: Unconquered. Profoundly moving.

xxx Catherine

This is a truly inspiring article and I am so glad you re-posted it.

Fiona - I don't recall reading your poem above before and it is incredibly touching and mirrors much of the feeling I experience (as I am sure many others as well!!) - thank you for those soul inspired words <3.

Recently I changed vehicles after 8 years...I was moving from a mini-van but wasn't sure what was replacing my surprise the best fit was a Pilot...and so here it was, the outward expression of what I have been feeling within...the letting go of the "mini" (me) and embracing the soul as the pilot.

I have also been experiencing some shifts with people I perceived as teachers and historically looked to for answers...I wasn't ready to know the soul as the teacher, and to release the dependency. I am finding their input confining and defining and this input communicates to me that I need help and that they need to give it to me... Recognizing and taking responsibility for how I drew those who would play the role of "my teacher" and now allowing that to fall away. Everything is a teacher....everything is showing me all the a mirror, not as a dependency. And thank goodness for the wayshowers as you so nicely put it Open, to share a perspective and allows us to see how that resonates, to see our distortions and our truth in the mirror, but never to tell what someone else's truth is or to "fix" them.

Much love and gratitude,

Ooooohhh caught something here! I said it is the input that is experienced as confining and defining but in truth it is the need for it, the need to fit into it that is confining. Input is just input ....being defined by it or confined by it is on me. Ahhh! This is why expression is so helpful!! =)

I like this article.

Something about the 'not knowing' spiked for me. Its a place that's not always easy to be in necessarily. I can understand why people might want others to direct them when in that place. Something I found is that usually its exactly right, and if I hold to (honour) the not knowing then often it pushes buttons of most people around me. Now that I feel more comfortable in myself with holding that space, people seem less bothered than previously, or if they are then I don't feel the tightness of needing to placate them as in the past. many ways to be a mirror.