I want to keep emacs open most of the time, and then whenever I open a text file, python file, etc (from nautilus/finder), I want it to open as a new buffer in my current emacs
Did you start server in emacs? Make sure that you add (server-start) to your .emacs or do M-x server-start from an existing EMACS session.
(server-start)
M-x server-start
Conceptually, it's really easy, just do emacsclient file-name on the command line or where you name the program.
emacsclient