Fine Tune Your Inner Compass & A Meeting with Shams

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Guest Post by Nigel Bell

Last year, I was asked to talk about fine tuning your inner compass. I have always been taught by my Master, that Spirit is the Source of Inner guidance and if you practice spiritual techniques daily this inner guidance becomes ever clearer. In contemplation one day, I also received five keys to fine tuning our inner compass from Shams-i-Tabriz.

During preparation for the talk, my inner guidance began to draw me away from making metaphors and analogies about compasses. It drew me to some early soul connections I made, where the call of soul raised its golden-tongued voice above the musings of the mind, right into my heart center. 

This guidance drew me to the early evening of December 1963, in Northern England. I was looking outside of my lounge room window into the back garden. As I did, I couldn’t help but look up to witness a continuous tumbling motion of dazzling snowflakes pouring down from the sky. I fixated my complete attention on the falling snow. The fading light outside, combined with the light from inside the lounge room, appeared to change the appearance of those snowflakes into what looked like millions of sparkling atoms of shimmering light. 

This spectacle filled me with quiet wonder. Its effect was mesmerizing. It brought with it an inner calm, a complete stillness, and contentment. Time stood still. It reawakened in me a deep connection to something greater than who I knew myself to be. At the time I was a child of four; I had no words to convey the blessings I experienced in that moment, but I never, ever forgot it. It stayed with me all of my life, and I kept it to myself for decades.

An Upside Down World

Spirit led to another time, some eighteen months later, after migrating to Australia. I was playing outdoors on my own. It was a warm summer afternoon. Caught in the grip of a lazy mood, I decided to wake myself up by hanging upside down on an iron bar fence. From that position, I began looking up into the wide-open, deep blue sky and I became instantly entranced by its blue eternal vastness. 

An inner nudge encouraged me to imagine myself hanging upside down as if I was looking down from the sky. So instead of looking up at the sky, I’m now imagining myself looking down from the sky onto what now looks like a deep blue, vast ocean many kilometers below me. It really captured my attention.

The longer I stared, the easier it became to believe I was looking down upon a vast blue ocean. An inner shift in consciousness occurred in that moment. There I was, believing I was hanging in the sky from the bars by my legs, looking all the way down. 

I imagined it so well; I began tightening the grip of my legs on the bars, fearing I was going to slip off the planet and fall into the deep blue oblivion of space. This experience took me outside of my body. And just as quickly, I came back into my body again. As I was processing what had occurred, an inner voice posed a couple of questions, “What if you are only dreaming you are living in Australia? What if you are still living back in England and you are fast asleep in your bed, dreaming you are living in the migrant hostel in Australia? 

This silent inner voice had me questioning my reality! As I did, a subtle impression entered my mind. “What if this entire world is all a dream?” I thought. As a six-year-old, I never had the words or the desire to convey this experience to anyone else. The insight was only for me to know. It was a “knowingness” a direct form of intuition I never ever forgot. 

It was, in fact, a spiritual wake-up call. With the benefit of hindsight, I came to understand the Holy Spirit or Divine Presence wanted me to remember these spiritual moments for later on in my life when I was ready to take the next step spiritually. I have since come to learn many Souls have these spiritual experiences they can’t explain, and we have to park them away for a while until we are ready to take the next step? 

How does it relate to fine tuning your inner compass?

Would you agree if I told you, the Holy Spirit, or this Divine Presence, has been communicating with you all your life, trying to awaken you to its divine love and wisdom? Over a whole lifetime, it continues to offer its help, inner guidance, divine insight, protection, and unconditional love. It started since before we came into this world to fulfill its eternal promise. ‘I am always with you!’ it demonstrates. 

The Path of Light and Sound, has not only shown me the reason I have had certain spiritual experiences, but it has also taught me the value of establishing a conscious personal relationship with divine Spirit, to be able to live a more meaningful life. Spirit’s guidance, when followed, leads to a more Godlike state of consciousness. That often equates to more joy, patience, compassion and understanding toward yourself and others.

How do you fine tune your Inner Compass to foster a conscious personal relationship with divine spirit? There is a lot of value in reviewing your childhood spiritual experiences, inner nudges and those intuitive insights you have had already, to see what your attitude was and where your focus was, when they brought you closer to God’s unconditional love, wisdom and guidance. 

After reviewing those early childhood experiences, I could see how important it was to maintain genuine curiosity throughout your entire life. Acquiring the ability to playfully surrender to the present moment. To see how it opens the door to consistent spiritual guidance, divine insight and sometimes distant memories of lives spent in the spiritual worlds.

Inner guidance through the practice of out-of-body techniques has enabled me to learn the value of becoming a beholder of life. This often undervalued skill opens our heart to spirit’s unconditional love. 

A great example of the natural quality of Soul’s ability to be a beholder is when we watch a sunset or a sunrise. During such experiences, do you ever say to yourself, ‘hurry up’ or ‘this is taking a while.’ No, right? We simply allow it to be and surrender completely to the divine moment. 

Extending or generalizing this ability across to other more mundane events, can produce poignant blessed heart opening moments daily, even on days when you can’t witness sunsets or sunrises. Beholding almost anything can literally open your heart to the divine if you learn to center yourself into the heart of the present moment.

A Meeting with Shams-i-Tabriz

Some years ago, I wanted to connect with the great Master, Shams-i-Tabriz, teacher of Rumi, the 13^th century Mystic poet. I guess I wanted to focus my inner compass upon this great Soul to learn more about him. I researched and read as much as I could about him to get an understanding about who he was and why he was such a great Soul. 

One afternoon, after reading his biography, I fell into a light contemplation and I found myself out of my physical body sitting in the middle of a rocky desert world surrounded by dry, red, rolling hills. I was sitting by a campfire where I met Shams-i-Tabriz sitting opposite me.

What I want to share with you here is the simple message he shared. 

He identified five daily practices. I believe they are about doing what it takes to fine tune your inner compass. They are not new. There are many teachings that advocate them as part of their spiritual practices in some form or another.

What was new and refreshing for me was his unique perspective. He delivered his message straight to my heart. He highlighted how important it was to work at establishing a clear connection to Divine Presence or Holy Spirit to get closer to the source of Life.

He said to the effect. “Each Soul has its own way of maintaining its daily connection with the Shabda, the Voice of God,”(He was referring to the Life Force or Holy Spirit. Which is seen as light and heard as sound.)

He said, “At the end of an evening, digest all the spiritual lessons and divine truths spirit brings. Allow each one to touch the depths of your heart, for this is how you absorb wisdom and understanding.

“Set aside plenty of time to listen to the God Current as it resonates through the heart of Soul, calling it back to the God center. 

“Speak the sacred names of God continuously. At least be mindful to speak the holy names or mantras every day with affection and reverence. Allow God’s love to be your all-consuming aspiration.

“Take with you on your journeys something you value. Appreciate its worth, and when the moment is right, pass it on as a gift to another without regret. In this way, you will help reciprocate God’s constant love. Such selfless daily acts help build spiritual vitality and a humble character. It will remind you there are many, just like you, who are also worthy of God’s love.

“Rejoice and thank God often for all that you see and do in life. Life is indeed a wonderful gift; use its blessings wisely. No greater bond exists than God’s love for Soul. 

He summarized by saying, “If you can accomplish all five practices each day, God’s love will forever fill your world. By so doing, you will be more than a student of life. You will be the divine lover of life who dances daily to the rhythm of its fiery light in service to the Lord of Lords.”

Remember, the Great Spirit has been reaching out to help since before you were born. It is up to you to establish a closer relationship with It by opening your heart to It; the words, “I am Always with You!” are worth remembering. Divine Presence is always with us. When emersed in the human condition, we often turn away from this sacred relationship, acting as if it isn’t with us, when it is and always will be.

Why not start by looking at our own life and recognizing those moments of connection you have already made and then build from there.

A lover of life like Shamus-I-Tabriz, Rumi’s teacher, does all that he can with his creativity to connect with the object of his affection, by doing everything in the name of the Holy Spirit and God. It is sometimes as simple and as profound as putting your heart back into life and letting it be your infallible compass. What an adventure we can have when we do. 

Nigel loves to keep a written record of how life reaches out through daily life to teach, guide, and protect him on his spiritual journey. Writing is a way for him to learn, share, and capture the love of the Great Spirit.