What does it really mean to forgive?
Hi Openhanders, we've been speaking recently on the site about the importance of not apportioning blame and instead taking full responsibility for the lives we're creating. One vital aspect of this approach is that of forgiveness: realising 'the other person' is not to blame and therefore being able to forgive them. In my experience, this is one of the most liberating and empowering things we can do. But if EVERY situation is purposefully designed by benevolence for us to self-realise, then what really is true forgiveness and how should we really forgive?...

...is it mankind's most divisive?
On reading Trin's journal entry about 'looking in the mirror', the title of a blog came immediately to mind: "The Blame Game" is it mankind's most divisive? I come across it (blame that is) so often in life in general, but also in spiritual circles. So what is meant by it, why is it so divisive and why so disempowering? Most importantly, how can taking full responsibility for our lives deeply empower us?...

Hi friends of Openhand,

Do you ever find yourself unable to make a choice? Maybe it's because you're not meant to? In our society, it seems so often the case, that we have to make decisions to meet deadlines and targets. It seems everything is preplanned and scheduled. So what happens if you simply feel you can't make a choice? Perhaps a decision just simply does not want to land? This is the situation I found myself in recently over some very important events taking shape in my life. As I could feel my field contracting somewhat around the issues, I watched for guidance and received a real corker. It had me literally splitting my sides with laughter. I'm "indespension"...

What does 'non-efforting' really mean?
There is an unwritten 'law' of non-efforting that is prevalent in countless spiritual texts with regards to walking the spiritual path. It is something we frequently refer to here at Openhand. It is of course about following the natural flow of the universe in every moment and not resisting it. However, it seems that frequently, this unwritten law is used as an excuse for not taking a certain step that's clearly presenting itself, or indeed not doing anything much at all! In our view, this is a serious mis-understanding of what true 'non-efforting' really means and is potentially very limiting...

Dealing with pain, discomfort and difficulty
Recently on the Openhand site there's been much discussion about dealing with the pain of the past. Whether we know it or not, we are all being effected by eons of karmic trauma. If you stop for one moment and contemplate the brutality, inhumanity and plain suffering that our race has endured throughout its history, then it should come as no surprise that when we lift the lid on Pandora's box by expanding our consciousness, that's going to come with a good deal of pain. And yet we are each seeded to deal with it. We have the character, make-up and courage to journey through it and process it out. And there is a powerful tool called 'transcendence' that we might make full use of. What does that mean exactly and how could we best apply it?...

The search for the Holy Grail
There is something which humanity has been searching for since our inception. Something which is the answer to every single question, every single thought, word, deed and feeling. It is our destiny, it is the beginning and end of everything...the circle completing itself. We can search, question and create as much as we want to in the external world of effects, but unless we've found the source of our inquisitiveness, we're guaranteed not to have satiated our desires. Yet even when we eventually give up the fruitless external struggle and embark on the inner journey, we still won't find it whilst someone is looking for it. So what am I talking about? It is the HolyGrail. The "Seer" of all things...

What are the qualities of your soul?
When we step onto the internal super highway of spiritual evolution, we begin to unravel the differences between personality influenced desires and those authentic inner yearnings of the soul. Every moment presents us an opportunity to shed those behaviours which no longer serve and instead allow the divine gifts of beingness to become us. This continual self realisation process is far from easy, sometimes it is exceptionally difficult to feel and know what is truly authentic - to be able to align with our profound truth. However, the Universe in its infinite benevolence has armed us which some powerful tools to unravel the inner coding. Sometimes we may take on a filter - an Archetype - that helps us better understand who and what we are...

Touching the void
From the Openhand perspective, whether we know it or not, we are all embarked on a journey of Enlightenment. In our truth, we all experience the state of Enlightenment from time to time, it's just that as soon as the experience arises within us, we associate it with something else and lose the experience. Alternatively, a part of us is not comfortable with the experience and therefore creates once more the condition of internal separation from it. However, there is no avoiding this experience of non-identified presence. It is there in the background of everything we do and dictates every experience. It is the guiding light and the faster we surrender to its inevitable pull, the more harmonious our lives will become. So what is this state of Enlightenment like? How can we recognise it? What can we do to surrender into it?...

An awesomely ordinary state of perception
There are probably many definitions for what Enlightenment is - it is likely that we would each describe it in our own unique way. That is because words are ultimately inadequate to describe what can only be experienced...

What are the characteristics of the soul?
The consciousness of the universe appears to be formed of at least seven rays of light. We see this when light is refracted forming a rainbow. For each of us, our soul is a unique blend of these seven rays. Each ray is endowed with specific characteristics which influence our every choice in life. If we can identify these influences and also how they get distorted as their energy flows through the personality, then we will understand much better why we make the choices we do, why they don't always work out and how best to follow the destined path of the soul....