Brahma Sutra:  Essential Knowledge “Now, the desire to know Brahman”

Notes:

Dedicated to all sincere and humble seekers

athato brahmajijnasa…”now the desire to know Brahman”

everything gravitates to the Absolute.. i,e. evolution either drifting or Knowledge inspired

srisomesvara.org  click 3 bars to right of ‘select page’ to make a donation

“The higher we are placed, the more humbly we

should walk.”

CICERO 

I was recently approached at the temple by a very kind and respectful young Brahmin gentleman. He spoke of his longing for true Knowledge. This touched my heart and compelled me to reflect deeply. I have been a teacher my entire adult life.  I have learned a great deal about people and how they receive or reject Knowledge.  The road of the teacher of deep knowledge is long and often leads to heartbreak.  How can a student remain steadfast along the path?  Where to begin such a limitless journey?  What are the pitfalls along the way?  Where and why along the way do so many spin out on tangents?  The simple answer it that a persons karma brings them to the Knowledge, and their karma takes them away.  This podcast is one more attempt to help.  It is humbly dedicated to all sincere seekers. Perhaps it will be the first of an unending series.  Or perhaps it is yet another in the lifelong unending series.

meditation..  experience vs knowledge

TM or youtube channel how to meditate

Veda traditionally not chanted for meaning but rather for repetition… meaning changes at various level of consciousness.  experience/knowledge

7 heads 7 levels of intellectual understanding

“practical” application

“You must train your intuition—you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.”
INGRID BERGMAN

However “Intuition” rooted in Chit [Conditioned subconscious, programming, personal childhood ‘issues’, stress, etc.] is not true Intuition

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© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

How To Maximize the Power of Prayer

These days there seems to be some conflict between spirituality and science.  But if there is a union of the two, would that affect prayer?  And if so, how?  The Ancient Secret is astounding!

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© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Thoughts and Emotions

It is a huge step forward when you can take a step back and view the relationship between your thoughts and emotions. Unlike computers, we are emotionally based. Of course, we do have the ability to think rationally. That, in and of itself, birthed the industrial age with all the technology we have grown to be so dependent upon.

However, what underlies our behavior is more emotion that rational thought. What we think matters little. How we feel about those thoughts makes all the difference. And what determines how we feel has more to do with our inner psychological landscape than anything else. Psychologists tell us that we can track those feelings back to the first five years of our life. It is during those years that the tonal quality of our psyche is developed. There are plenty of common one-line phrases regarding this, such as, “People hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest” (from “Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel).

As a teacher, I have to believe I can help people with their relationship with their thoughts and emotions. I really want to believe that we can together take a step back and look and how we behave and why. I have to believe that in so doing, we can heal our wounds, distortions, and biases. And, I still do believe there is truth in that. However, our psychological dynamic is rooted deeply in the physiology of the mind. Working with that can be likened to massaging a muscle. It can relax and get better. But under the stress of daily life, it returns to its habitual state. It takes time and regular massage to keep it healthy.

So many times, people have heard my teachings and sworn they would never forget them. But it is not so simple. Like a massaged muscle, the old distortions quickly return. Yet, over time, if we stay with it, things do heal.

Of course, the greatest tool of all to help calm, settle, relax, and heal the psyche is the Surya Ram Meditation. The technique is known in various circles, but various Mantras are used with various results. The Surya Ram Meditation employs the knowledge of Mantra held by our Vedic Pandits for thousands of years as healing, natural, and evolutionary. Deep inside, deeper than any distortions of the psyche, we are all eternally healthy. Our path of evolution is simply to rest into that—to heal.

Photo by Joy Anna Hodges
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Wisdom’s Call

Everyone, it seems, loves wise quotes. When we hear wisdom, it touches a place deep within us that is one with the Divine, that is eternally wise. Though that inner wisdom calls to us, so few are able to live wisely. People are behaving foolishly and lashing out everywhere. Let’s consider why this is so.

Though deep inside we are eternally one with the Divine, there are many psychological, intellectual, and emotional distortions on the more superficial levels of our being. When we are calm, settled, and reflective, those more superficial levels are still. So, at those times, the wisdom within shines forth and permeates all levels of our lives. At those times, wise quotes resonate with our depth and well up through our being. To experience this is to experience Bliss, Divinity. 

However, when in life we are disturbed, that deeper wisdom level of life is overshadowed. At those times, when we need wisdom most, we are unable to embrace it. We act instead from the superficial distortions. Sadly then, all too often, it is the superficial distortions that determine the course we follow as we navigate the waters of life.

This can be likened to the ocean. In the depth of the ocean, everything is still, quiet, and serene. Nothing is agitated. Yet on the surface of the ocean, storms rage. As we navigate those waters, we take on water, tip, churn, and perhaps even crash upon the rocks off-shore. Yet, when we are anchored to the depth, we weather the storms.

As we meditate, we become more and more fully anchored to the depth, the wisdom within us. Through proper meditation, the spiritual, mental, emotional, energetic, and physical levels of life are purified, as the distortions are healed. We more and more live in harmony with the Divinity and wisdom that eternally dwells at the depth of our being. 

But do take note: Living in harmony with the Divine does not look the way we may think it should look! People identify with their distortions, mistake them for the Truth, and thereby judge the wise as unwise or worse. History tells us that quite clearly. After all, they crucified Jesus. Some hated Lord Krishna (by which it is said some attained liberation because all they thought about was the Lord!). But I digress.

Contemplation, inner reflection, is also a valuable tool along the path to living wisely. That has a purifying value. However, it is a highly elusive path. You can justify anything with the intellect, and people do. Often, our reflections can simply be justifications of poor behavior: rationalizations. Few are willing to contemplate their behavior, other than to seek a way to justify it. So, we do well to be humble in our reflections. Humility is the flip side of wisdom. With the loss of humility comes the loss of wisdom. 

When the waters on the ocean of life are undisturbed, people generally behave quite honorably, quite wisely. But only the truly wise behave honorably when the daily disturbances of life arise. So, we do well to pick our friends based upon how they behave in troubled times, not how they behave when everything is calm and serene.  But, after all, we are all human. As illustrated in the Ramayana, even the wise may behave improperly from time to it. Yet, it is the wise who are able to acknowledge their imperfect behavior to themselves and to others. Only the wise can acknowledge, regain their balance, and move forward wisely. We will all act out from time to time. How we deal with that makes all the difference.

So, please do more than relish wise quotes in your quiet moments. Look beyond the mountains of judgement and negativity that consume you and your world. Look beyond that mountainous horizon to the light of the Sun, to the Divine. Meditate. Reflect and ponder. Strive to live a life of wisdom.

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© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

The Secret to Balanced Living

Recently, I asked the Pandit here at Mount Soma’s temple if he knew the one thing that was the sole problem with the world today. Sensing that I had something specific in mind, he looked at me inquisitively. I told him, “The imbalance between the Transcendent and the relative.” From what felt to me like the depth of his soul, he nodded in agreement.

The relative world is seductive. It pulls at you. It demands attention. It compels you to turn your back on the depth of your being (the Transcendent) and look to the surface, the relative. Even to the degree that you can even have a hard time sitting to meditate, you are compelled to turn your back on your true grandeur, your wisdom, the root of life, the anchor, the Transcendental depth of your being. That unbalancing, overwhelming compulsion toward the relative is, in and of itself, the problem with not only individual life, but also with global consciousness.

The relative calls you away from your wisdom. It compels you to cling to a paradigm, a perspective. It forces you to keep loading your plate with relative obsessions until the plate spills over and overtakes your being.

Do not allow that to happen. Regular meditation brings balance to your life and to the world. The rest is polarizing, relative identity. The foundation of balanced living is the Transcendent. It is the root that brings fulfillment to relative life.

Photo by Joy Anna Hodges
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Confidence vs. Arrogance

You can afford to believe in yourself. I mean really, really believe in who you are, deep inside. And, you can learn to come from that place within you. All too often people do not do that. There is an underlying doubt that undermines people’s confidence in themselves. 

If the underlying doubt is there, it will manifest and compromise your life in every arena. Life will reflect that doubt back to you as a confirmation, a validation, that such doubt is the truth. Of course, we all have doubts. The trick is to not allow it to overcome the deeper reality, which is that you can believe in yourself. Sure, you will make mistakes. Sure, you will have failures. But those things do not say who you are. Who and what your are is much deeper and more exquisite. It is only when you give in to the doubt that you compromise your life. Believing in, and coming from, that deeper place of inner knowing, that deep inside you are more than just okay, more than just good, is a key to life. Mistakes and failures do not determine who you are. Do not lose yourself to the doubts those things try to tell you about who you are. That deeper place inside is who you are. Stay loyal to it. Believe in it. Maintain your allegiance to it.  

I am not speaking of denial here. Lack of self-confidence is often shrouded under the cloak of arrogance and ego. That is just denial. People do not want to admit to their lack of self-confidence, and put on a facade of arrogance. They pretend to be smart, tough, wise, or powerful in an attempt to convince not only others, but also themselves. 

Confidence has no need for that sort of denial. Confidence in one’s self has no fear of weakness, foolish mistakes, etc. Confidence knows full well that those things are superficial and can be surmounted by coming from a deeper place inside. Now, for some practical examples: 

Some overweight people feel that they can simply not lose weight. Some people feel they can simply not gain muscle. Some people feel they cannot succeed in school or in business. They convince themselves that there is something wrong with their physiology or psyche… or perhaps resign to the idea that it is just ‘their Karma’.  More often than not, the problem is lack of confidence.  With confidence, we find a way. We do not accept that we are failures. We just realize that we may have failed at something, but it does not define us. We find a way. It is self-confidence that leads. Believe in yourself. Again, that is not denial in the form of arrogance. It is, in fact, a humble commitment to finding a way that is true to and consistent with the Divinity within. That lies far deeper than petty ego. It is not faith either. It is an inner knowing of the nature of life, your life, and all life. Deep inside we are all Divine. Stay loyal to that goodness within. You rest into that place when you do the Surya Ram Meditation. As you awaken to it, you live it more and more. 

This does not mean that anyone can succeed at anything. True self-confidence is not that limited. True self-confidence knows that you do not need to succeed at everything to be great. True self-confidence keeps on going until one finds their greatness, and lives it.  

To find your greatness, overcome arrogance, overcome petty ego, know that greatness is who you really are, and remain committed to that. It is an exquisite reality of existence that everyone, in their essence, is great, Divine. Regardless of what may occur in life, regardless of what may be reflected back to you through life experiences, stay loyal to that greatness, to that Divinity within. That, in and of itself, is the key to greatness.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

What We Incarnate With

We may think of the issues we incarnate with as psychological in nature and healed through the personal process of inner exploration and reflection. The idea being that the ‘light of awareness’ heals. That is certainly true and personal process is very important. However, it is a deeper understanding and of great value to see what we ‘come in with’ as a tonal quality of our being, including the cells, energetics, and all levels of our individuality. The beliefs or psychology is more superficial than the tonal quality—the psychology is just an expression of the tonal quality. Trying to heal the grip that our tonal quality has upon us, via the symptom, is like thinking the tail is wagging the dog. It is not the most effective approach. However, it does have value for sure, so the analogy is not perfect.

The most effective approach includes meditation which, over time, softens the grip of the tonal quality. There are also other things that can, if properly employed, have a healing effect on tonal quality: herbs, Mantras, gems, homeopathy, movement, ‘tincture of time’, etc. It is important to realize that the grip need not completely go away. As it softens, one’s relationship with the tonal quality transforms and is less and less a consuming influence on all levels: psychologically, physically, etc. Proper meditation and personal process (inner reflection) are the foundational tools.

Yet, at any given time, various modes of healing can be effective. If one meditates, but avoids personal process, then one likely will cling to a given psychological identity which resists, to some degree, the healing influence of meditation. It is as if meditation enhances the wind that propels the sailboat forward as we cross the ocean of life. Personal process and the other various techniques reduce the drag of various aspects of our boat, be they identities or resistances emotionally, mentally, physically, etc. The sum total of all the ‘drags’ constitute the tensions held in the tonal quality we ‘come in’ or incarnate with.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Novice Meditator Experience

I received the following question:

I have been meditating with your Surya Ram technique for about 6 weeks and love it. Early on I started often feeling a great sense of bliss, joy, contentment that I feel as an emotion and state of being. It is accompanied by a very pleasurable feeling in my body, especially in my hands and arms, or generally as a sense of warm energy on my skin. It’s very wonderful and I always hope that I will experience it. I don’t always attain this state, but it does happen with some regularity… more in the morning than in the evening. Is this a normal experience? I’m wondering what it is, exactly too. Am I connecting with my inner true being, or is it just deep relaxation (which I had never really felt before) or maybe both? Thank you.

To which I replied:

It is good to hear from you. Yes, your experience is very good. You are transcending, which is the natural result of this meditation. All life gravitates back to Oneness, back to the Transcendent. Through proper meditation, the entire physiology rests back into that beautiful foundation. Warm regards.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Advanced Techniques (Phase 2) – Guardians of Truth

We recently finished the Advanced Techniques (Phase 2) instruction for the Ashram Group. Just as with Phase 1, it was a great learning experience, not only for the participants but also for me. The Advanced Techniques are subtle and how to teach them is therefore subtle. The results were great, and confirmed that as wonderful as Phase 1 is, Phase 2 is still another quantum leap forward. Refining the words used and slight adjustments in the method of teaching prepare us to make the next Phase 2 instruction with the Mount Soma staff fantastic. Then I’m really looking forward to sharing it with the group, in the Phase 2 Course this summer.

You are becoming guardians of truth, and what defines that is your experience. I’m not your guardian of Truth. What you see as me is just a piece of flesh. Words are of the flesh. I speak through this piece of flesh to help you go to a place that lies beyond flesh. You see? Does that make sense? Don’t let flesh define me or you. Don’t let the literal interpretation of words that come out of this flesh define Truth. Words merely reach for Truth. They can at best only enliven the Truth within you. But they must not become a rulebook that you conform to in order to try to know Truth.

These are beautiful words. Please hear them in the way they are intended.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Advanced Techniques Phase 1 Remote Course

The recent Advanced Techniques Phase 1 Course went incredibly well, with some long-time students saying it was the best course they have ever attended at Mount Soma.

Unfortunately, a number of dedicated students weren’t able to make it to either the summer or winter courses at Mount Soma. Yet, they really want to keep up with the group and not miss the initial wave of Advanced Techniques. Fortunately, Phase 1 has been refined to the point that we feel confident offering them remotely via online videos. We really want everyone to join us for Phase 2 this summer, so we’ve decided to offer an Advanced Techniques, Phase 1 remote course.

We tentatively plan to begin the remote Advanced Techniques Phase 1 Course mid-March to early April. The course will likely be five to six weeks, with new techniques released each week until all of Phase 1 is taught. There will be at least two live streaming meetings with me. More information will be coming out soon!

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.