The only thing I've ever found that could be trusted 100% when making decisions is the heart. Another name for this might be the inner guide, or the divine spark within, or whatever we want to call it. But we recognize it by an expansiveness, an openness, a lack of fear, a lot of love.
As far as I can tell, the inner guide comes from complete love and possibility. It's not reckless; it's just that it doesn't seem to come from fear. Rather, it comes from a place of seemingly infinite love, a place of pure knowing, a place of "things fitting" on a deep level—though they may not necessarily be smooth on the surface.
Have you ever had a word on the tip of your tongue? You try out different possibilities but none of them seem quite right. And then you remember the right one and suddenly there is a congruence inside and you say, "Yes, that's it!" That's what the inner guide is like—a pure and congruent knowingness.
However, we may not always want to hear what the inner guide is saying. For example, I have several friends who got married while having a gnawing feeling inside that it was a mistake.
However, the wedding arrangements had been made, everyone was coming, and it just seemed easier to deny the inner feeling and go ahead with it. None of those relationships turned out well.
The rational mind will always supply what is asked of it. If we ask the mind for reasons why we should ignore our inner sense and go ahead with what seems like the "reasonable" course, it will supply us with what we ask.
But the inner guide doesn't work like that. It doesn't list reasons for anything; it simply comes from a pure knowing. And one of its signs is that it's full-on; it's not conflicted. It's either a pure "yes!" or nothing at all.
In fact, that's the best way I've found to recognize the inner guide. It's that full-on quality, the sense that the energy is fully engaged and that there's no hold-back. And if there is a sense of holding-back, of not being sure? Then that's not the inner guide; it's still the mind talking.
So for instance, if you find yourself asking the question "Should I marry John?" the answer is "no", or at least "no" right now. Because if it were truly right to marry John, there would be a knowingness about it, a "yes!" about it.
The very posing of the question indicates that the inner guide has not spoken and that therefore we should wait.
That's the general principle. If we're posing a question like "Should I take this job?" that in itself is the answer we're looking for. Because if the energy were truly moving that way, the question would not arise. Perhaps the job will be right for us down the road somewhere, but it's probably not right for us now.
When the job (or whatever) is right there won't be any posing of questions, there will be an almost automatic moving toward it. If that quality isn't there, it's usually better to wait until we find our inner energy strongly moving.
Which brings up an important point: It takes courage to follow the the inner guide, because doing so is not always smooth-going on the surface. Taking the path of inner guidance is not always smooth or easy—that's a fallacy—yet deep inside there is this deep sense of flowing with the river.
The mind can always supply reasons to override the inner guide, because inner guidance is not pushy and its advice doesn't always seem practical. Quite simply, it's operating from a different realm. Yet it can take courage to follow it, to be true to one's own inner energy.
The mind is generally concerned with being safe and secure and comfortable. The inner guide is not against safey, security or comfort; it's just that it doesn't come from there. Rather, it's coming from a deep and almost unfathomable love and trust in life and its possibilities.
—jim sloman, fall 2000 for Jul 9
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