The One you can trust

Good morning.

This morning, I would like to talk about a very interesting topic. It's about the question: "What can you trust? What is a good guide in your life? Who knows what he or she is talking about? Whom to follow?"

And this question becomes especially interesting when it is about the spiritual path in life; because in all the other practical areas of life, we usually know a little bit about it. We have the feeling: "Okay. I know how it works." But when it comes to spirituality, we just have no clue. When it's about: "How do I come to Heaven? How can I discover God? How can I discover my own soul?", we don't even know what these words mean.

We don't even know what we are talking about. We don't even know what we are looking for; we have no clue. So, what can you trust? What or whom to follow? That's the topic of this video. And I got inspired for this by a comment I received on YouTube for one of my videos. In that video, I talked about Gurus. Somebody asked me: "How does a Guru live practically? How does a spiritual Master live practically? What kind of people are these Gurus and Masters?"

And for this lady who wrote me this comment, the the question came up: "How do I recognize a Guru? How do I recognize a Master? How do I recognize a guide in this spiritual field?" And I would like to start this video by reading out this question, and then I will talk a little bit about it.

How do you recognize a Guru?

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"There's a question that came up for me. I used to think that one could recognize a Guru by the immense love radiating from his eyes, like with the Dalai Lama. Is this also just a myth?"

What a beautiful question.

This really puts the finger on the essence. Whom can you trust? How do I recognize somebody who knows the way?

Can you recognize somebody by his eyes, by what's radiating from his eyes, or by what he speaks, or how he speaks, or how he behaves... or she, if it's a woman?

I would like to tell you about how I met my spiritual Master and how I came to my Guru. I want to tell you about what was showing me the way there.

It is now pretty exactly 24 years ago that I came to my spiritual Master, Soham. Back then, at that time, his name was Samarpan.

And at this time in my life, 24 years ago, I didn't look for a spiritual Master. I wasn't searching for someone. I wasn't looking for this guy, but somehow, by accident, I ended up in his Satsang. I didn't know what Satsang was. I didn't know him. I had no idea about what I should expect at this event in this evening.

But I had read about this man in a book, and when I was in town – that was in Munich 24 years ago –, I discovered: "Hey, this guy I was reading about, he's in town. Maybe I should go there and check the whole thing out." I hadn't planned this. I came to Munich for something entirely different. So, I was sitting in this room, together with a 100 other people, waiting for Soham to arrive.

And then, a man entered the room and walked up front, sat down in the chair of Soham, and I was initially irritated, because this guy who was walking into the room, he looked totally ordinary; nothing special. He had clothes on which I didn't find particularly attractive, kind of old fashioned, nothing spiritual, nothing holy-looking.

And the man himself, he didn't impress me; there was nothing where I thought: "Oh, wow, these eyes...". There was no love radiating from his eyes, as far as I could tell. And then, he started to speak with the people, answering questions, and there was nothing which seemed to be extraordinary. If I would have met this man out on the street, I would probably not have noticed him.

But then, something interesting happened inside of me. I was sitting there, and suddenly, I had no problems anymore. I had no questions anymore.

It was like all the questions, all the problems, all the trouble which I usually carried around with me, that was all gone. I was empty, and I was just happy. I just felt content, quietly, deeply content. No problems, no questions... just like this. It was nothing Soham had said. It wasn't that he had looked at me and then something got transferred and I was changed. Nothing like this. I was just sitting there, wondering why I'm here. And then, this happened inside of me, and I had no indication that this had anything to do with this man, with this Master, and with the Satsang.

And only later, I realized that what I felt inside of me was his peace, his emptiness, his happiness.

I was sitting in his aura, and I was able to feel how it feels like in such an energy. It was borrowed, but I didn't notice. It was my experience. It was something I felt inside of myself, as if it was my own.

I didn't have to listen to his words. Nobody told me something magic or spiritual. No. It was an inner experience I had inside of myself, and only later, I realized where that came from. But this inner experience then led to very interesting things in my life. It wasn't that I then consciously made decisions. It wasn't like that I was thinking: "Okay, I felt like this when I was there, this means: he is my Master." I didn't think anything like this.

I wasn't thinking: "Oh, this means I should stay with him." Nothing like this.

I just felt like this, and I went home. But all by itself, things happened on their own accord during this first Satsang I attended there. In the course of the Satsang, certain things happened. There were certain conversations taking place between Soham and other people, and that led to me joining his team the very next day. It wasn't that I made the decision based on my inner feelings.

It just happened. I was open. I was completely open. Something inside of me knew: "There I want to be", and I didn't even know what this 'there' means. I didn't think: "Oh, this means I should stay with him and work for him." No. I just felt good. I just felt: "Here, where I am right now, inside of me, in this energy which I feel in me"... it felt like my own energy..., "here I want to stay."

And then, my life changed. The next day, I joined his team, and from this day on, he was my spiritual Master. I was part of his team. I was traveling with him for 20 years to come, but I didn't make any decision. I just felt my feeling, this energy, and out of this, like a miracle, all this had happened.

And something very similar happened to me many years later, 16, 17 years later, when Swamiji, my Indian Guru, entered my life. This is now six and a half years ago. And there, it was kind of the same. I wasn't looking for a Guru. I was happy. I was with Soham, my spiritual Master. I had learned from him to be happy. I had learned from him to be here. I was content.

I was not looking for anything else, let alone for a Guru. But then, something happened. We had a week's break between Satsangs. Soham had been at home, and I was spending this time somewhere else, and then we joined again for the next Satsang time, for a retreat. And on the evening before the first Satsang, we were sitting together in his room, and we had a conversation.

And in this break, which we had before, Soham had been contacted by a person from Swamiji's team. Swamiji had sent this person to Soham to invite him to come to India and to meet him. And this person brought Swamiji's autobiography, the books he wrote, as a present for Soham, and she told him about Swamiji, about the Samarpan Meditation, about what this Guru was doing. and she brought the invitation.

And during this conversation Soham had with me on that evening, six and a half years ago, he was just sharing with me about this. He didn't say anything special. He didn't say: "Mikael, you have to meet this guy. It's amazing"... No, no, nothing like this. He just told me: "Hey. You know what happened? I got contacted by this person. She told me about Swamiji, this Indian Guru, and she brought me these books, and I got invited"... And he just told me this, kind of matter of fact.

But while he was talking about this, something happened inside of me. I felt an energy in me which I have never felt ever before in my life. I felt such a strong energy. The feeling was... if this energy would have been words, they would have said: "Ah, finally... finally! I was waiting for this moment all of my life." I didn't know what this means.

The feeling was: "I was waiting for this for so many lives, lives and lives and lives. I was waiting for this moment where this comes back to me, where I find this again." I didn't know what 'this' is. I didn't know what I was rediscovering. I didn't know what was coming to me, and yet, this was my feeling: total openness, total gratefulness, instant surrender to something I did not know, and I did not understand. And it was all happening inside of me.

And from this day on, although I had not met him, Swamiji was my Guru. There was no question. I didn't even know what this means. It just was like this. For you, this might sound strange, but when it's your own experience, there are no questions. It's totally clear.

We recognize in ourselves what is for us

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So, this is what showed me the way, my own inner experience. That is what happened when I met my spiritual Master. This is what happened when I met my Guru. My own inner experience, my own feelings inside showed me: "Here I'm open. That's the way." And I didn't even know what this means: 'that's the way'. We don't have to understand anything. We just experience this, and it is as if this experience does its work, and we don't even have to know anything about it.

We don't have to know what it means and where it leads to. We don't have to know what to do next. All this becomes clear by itself. So, this is how you recognize a Guru; this is how you recognize a Master: by your own inner experience, by your own feeling, not by anything somebody else says about this guy or this woman, not about his looks, his eyes.

There are very charismatic people out there; they look very trustworthy, very convincing. All this is meaningless.

Your compass you have with you all the time, it's built in: it's your inner experience, your feeling; the energy you feel for something; the joy you feel for something. This is your guide.

Your compass you have with you all the time, it's built in: it's your inner experience, your feeling; the energy you feel for something; the joy you feel for something.

This is your guide.

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And this is very practical. This is nothing esoteric. It's something you feel inside of yourself. You always have this compass with you. More, you don't have to know.

Can I trust this feeling?

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But then another question occurs, and the question I was just reading out at the beginning of this video, when I read this comment on YouTube, I briefly answered there. Basically, I said something similar to what I just shared in this video. And the next day, I received another question from the same lady.

She writes: "About recognizing the Guru, I hope that I can trust my feelings. And, you know, I doubt this a little."

This is so great. I love this question. I love this honesty.

Yes, it is like this. Isn't this funny? The last thing we would trust is ourselves. The only thing we know for sure is what we feel inside. That's the only thing you can know. We know nothing about other people. We don't know whether they know what they're talking about. We don't know how they truly are.

Isn't this funny? The last thing we would trust is ourselves.

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The only thing we know from our own experience is what I feel inside, nothing else. And yet, we are unable to trust ourselves, and we are ready to believe anybody else.

And that's the way it is.

We don't know whether we can trust our own feeling. Of course, we don't know whether we can trust any anybody else, but somehow, we are more willing to trust anybody, some stranger who looks convincing, who has radiating eyes, or who has a lot of followers, who fills halls with thousands of people... We are willing to trust these people, people we don't know anything about, but our own energy, that what we truly feel, that what we know, we think: we can't trust this.

But the truth is that this is the only thing you can trust. There's nothing else in the world, nothing else in life that you can trust, only this.

It always feels wrong to trust yourself

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And it feels wrong. I know what you're talking about. You feel a feeling. Your energy is clear and says: "I want to go this way", and it feels wrong. Your thoughts say: "No, no, no, no, no. This is totally unreasonable. This can't be good." And your head has 5 or 6 or 7 very good reasons why this is a bad idea, but your energy is clear. Your energy says: "I want to go there". Your joy says: "I want to do this." And everything in you says: "No! This is stupid." It feels wrong. It's the same for me.

And yet, this inner compass you carry inside of you is the only thing you can trust, no matter how it feels.

You know, for me, it's the same. Like, this video, for instance. This morning, I felt: "Today is the day the time for another video." It was clear: this morning, a video wants to happen, but I felt totally incompetent. I felt so blank and not knowing. I thought: "I can't do this. This would be a terrible video.

I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm empty." But the energy was clear: "Today is video time." So, I'm sitting down, I follow this energy, I feel wrong, I feel inadequate and incompetent, and I start a video. And this, by the way, is how all the videos happen, every single one of them.

And this is how I live my life.

It's not that you feel your inner compass and it feels great and convincing. This would be easy; then, nobody would have any difficulty being true to themselves. The funny thing is that it always feels wrong. It is as if we have these two instances in us, these two authorities. The one is this inner experience, this inner feeling, and the other is our thoughts, our reasoning, our intellect.

It's not that you feel your inner compass and it feels great and convincing. This would be easy; then, nobody would have any difficulty being true to themselves.

The funny thing is that it always feels wrong.

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And you feel your inner compass, and your intellect, your thoughts always say: "This can't be right. This is stupid. This is not trustworthy. This is total nonsense. I know it better." And it is like this for me, too. Just the last few weeks... There was a time where I made two videos every week, and somehow it was possible. But the last few weeks, it wasn't possible for me. I love making a lot of videos, but it is only possible if it happens out of itself, so to speak. And during the last few weeks, this energy wanted to do other things.

I was working on technical things; I was cleaning up old things; I was answering letters; I was preparing things which need to be taken care of. And whenever I did this, I had the feeling: "This is this is not the right thing to do. I should do another video." This is what the head says, and I feel pressure, and my head says: "Well, if I don't do more videos, people will be upset, and they won't watch the videos anymore." This is what my head says. But my energy speaks a completely different language. The energy knows exactly what's up now, and so I do this. I have no other choice.

And when I then follow my energy and I do the things which I have energy for... when I do the things which I have joy for, I feel wrong, and I'm sure nobody will like this. But then, I discover something very, very interesting. Only later, after I followed these impulses, in retrospect, so to speak, then I realize: "Oh, wow"... Out of these seemingly wrong things I'm working on, there develops something new, something I didn't envision, something I didn't know was possible, and it happens just by me doing one little wrong step after the other.

All I do is follow my inner compass, and only later I do realize: "Oh, wow. This is really good what's developing out of this." But when I did it, it felt wrong. I felt inner pressure. My mind was saying: "This is stupid. You should do something else."

And it's always like this, not only for you.

That is why I advised you in one of the last Satsangs to make peace with this feeling of being wrong. It's funny, but when we are true to ourselves, when we are following our own energy, we feel wrong. And the more you can say yes to being wrong... the more you can accept this feeling: "Yes, I am wrong", the more you can be true to yourself; the more you can feel your own energy; the more you can feel this subtle compass you have inside of yourself.

That's why I often mention this story of the black sheep. Jesus talked about this too very often. We just feel wrong when we follow this clear energy we sometimes feel inside of us. That's why I encourage you to trust this. I know your head says this is wrong, but I tell you: trust your own inner feeling. Trust your energy. Trust your own inner experiences.

It feels wrong. I know. And yet it's the only thing you can trust in this whole life.

The inner experience

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Swamiji says the same thing, by the way.

He says: "Blind faith is really bad. It doesn't lead to anything good. What you can trust is your inner experience." This is what Swamiji says, this Guru. He doesn't say: "Believe me!" He says: "It's about your own inner experience." You know, sometimes I listen to him, and then I feel something inside of myself – and that's my Guru; that's my guide.

That's the only thing you can trust. And it's so easy, because this, you always have with you: your energy, your joy.

So, the question was: "Can I trust this?" Right now, you can't, because you have no experience with this. When we are children, we learn to follow that what other people tell us to do, and we learn to ignore our own energy. Children know exactly what they want. They know what they want to eat, they know what they want to do, and they know exactly what they don't want to eat and what they don't want to do.

And we tell them all the time something else, and that's how we learn, as children, to not trust our own energy and to trust any other idiot out there. And that's what we do for the rest of our lives. But I tell you that what really works is the opposite: Trust this inner feeling, which feels so unreasonable.

That's a good way. That's a good compass.

And it's the only compass you have. You cannot trust anybody else, not me, not the Dalai Lama, nobody but yourself. That's the way. That's what I want to encourage you to: to trust this.

Trust this inner feeling, which feels so unreasonable. That's a good way. That's a good compass.

And it's the only compass you have. You cannot trust anybody else, not me, not the Dalai Lama, nobody but yourself.

That's the way. That's what I want to encourage you to: to trust this.

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Meditation: becoming more sensitive to the subtle

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And the meditation helps with this. It's like this: when you do the Samarpan Meditation... I don't want to go into a lot of detail in this video. I talked about the meditation in countless other videos, but... When you do the Samarpan Meditation every morning, what happens is that it increases your sensitivity for the subtle inside of you.

When you do the Samarpan Meditation every morning, what happens is that it increases your sensitivity for the subtle inside of you.

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We are so used to have our attention out there in the world, in the loud, in all the things which we perceive outside. And these things are very loud, very coarse, including our own thoughts. But this inner compass I was talking about before, this energy, this inner experience you have, this is something quiet, something subtle.

And the meditation makes you more and more sensitive to the subtle. It helps you to listen and to hear this better. And that's why it's such a great help. The meditation helps you to stay on your path. It doesn't impose somebody else's path on you. It's the key for you to unlock your own path, and this is the miracle about it. And that's why it's so helpful.

Why does everyone strive for enlightenment?

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And now at the end of this video, I would like to read out a third question.

And initially, it might seem that this question goes into a totally different direction, but let yourself be surprised.

"I wanted to ask you something about karma and liberation. Why does everyone strive for liberation? Isn't life a gift? Nature, animals, beautiful people, food, and so on... there are so many beautiful things in life that we have here. Why not be born again? What is meant by liberation?"

Thank you for this question. I like these innocent, practical questions. Why all this fuss? Why spirituality? Why enlightenment? Why liberation? What is this about? And what this lady writes is true: life is so beautiful, and the more you meditate, the more you see the beauty of life, and the more you can appreciate it; the more your worries and your sorrows disappear; the more you find your own way; the more beautiful life becomes.

So, what's wrong with it? Well, there are two different things which happen to people at some point in life. Some people experience the following. You enjoy your life, you enjoy your work or your career, you enjoy partying, hanging out with friends, drinking, drugs maybe, or you enjoy sex... You enjoy relationship, or you enjoy nature.

But then comes a time in your life where suddenly, it is as if suddenly you can look behind it, and you discover: "This is all empty. All these things, which I enjoyed up to this point in my life, I can't find joy in them anymore." It is as if you discover that in reality, they are empty. And this is a surprise. You don't know what changed.

The things are the same, but it doesn't give you anything anymore. You could look through it, and you don't even know how that was possible. And another thing which happens to other people is that, suddenly, they realize something. They enjoy their lives, their relationship, their job, nature, and suddenly it dawns on them: "All this will pass very quickly. When I die, it's all gone."

And that's what Jesus said once. He said: "You can't take any of this with you." When this body dies, all of this beautiful life disappears. And then you want to know: "If this is true"... and you know it's true, you just ignore the fact of death... "If this is true, if this body will die, if all this goes, I want to know now what remains.

I want to find out what was before this life started, and I want to know what is after this life is over." It is as if we can sense in us that there is something else, but we don't know it. We know there is something. We know there is something to know, but we have no idea what it is. It is as if we know the truth: "Life is temporary, but there is something eternal." That's what speak Jesus was talking about: eternity.

When the spiritual path starts

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And then you want to know: "What is this?" You want to discover this. And when you come to this point, either way, this beautiful world, this beautiful life does not satisfy you anymore, because you know it's temporary.

Every beautiful experience you have, you still enjoy it, but you know: "Okay, but it doesn't give me anything. I want to discover the truth. I want to discover what's real." You don't know what you are talking about, but you feel like this. And that's when the spiritual path starts. The spiritual path is about discovering what remains; discovering that what is eternal in you.

The spiritual path is about discovering what remains; discovering that what is eternal in you.

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And again... also these questions, it's only about your own inner experience. When you are happy in your life, when life gives you joy and fulfills you: don't worry. Enjoy! But when you are at this point where you suspect: "This is not it"... When this question comes up in you, then this is a different story; then, this question, this feeling you feel inside of yourself right now, this: "There is something.

I want to know this"... You don't know what it means. You have no clue what you're feeling there. It's totally foreign to you, but you feel it. Trust this. Follow this. You don't know where it will lead you to. You don't know what it means practically. But also there, this will lead you on this path, on this unknown path.

And then, you will discover the truth. You will discover your own Heaven, that what you experience yourself. Heaven is that what doesn't come and go. Jesus talked about eternity, and you know it exists. You can feel it, but you don't know it.

And also on this spiritual path, it's only about your own inner experience. Nothing else. You don't have to be knowledgeable about spirituality. The only challenge on this path is to learn to trust your own inner experience and your own inner feelings.

That's why the meditation is so helpful. And then, you will discover that what is eternal; then; you will discover that what makes you truly happy... not this happiness which goes away at some point again.

There's nothing wrong with the world. All the experiences in life are there for us to enjoy them, but they don't give us anything. And the spiritual path is about discovering that, what gives you the one thing which is truly satisfying; that what lasts. And everyone has to experience this by themselves. Words don't help. And I just encourage you to trust your own feelings, your own questions. They will lead you, although you have no idea what this means.

And that's why this path is so easy.

It doesn't feel, easy because you know nothing. You don't know what to expect. You don't know what I'm talking about.

But it's easy because you have your guide in you: your joy; the openness you feel for something; the energy you feel for something.

That's your guide; that will guide you, step by step. You can trust this. That's how I live, every day. Mostly, it feels wrong, and it's always a miracle what happens out of it. Trust this; that you can trust. Nothing else.

Thank you for being here. I'm so happy that you are here.

I love you.