As promised, here are this Weeks Thought Fragments
Todays world:
Gordian knot….easily solved “by finding an approach to the problem that renders the perceived constraints of the problem moot”
This is a time to endure but not to cower. Everything will be fine for the world, but this is a time of transition. if you can just take a step back, that is obvious.
someone responded saying, yes but hasn’t the world always been nutty like this. i say no, not like this. moral decay in every arena has become mainstream. it won’t last long. time of transition. the pendulum will soon swing back to a more wholesome world. just hang in there.
humanity needs to learn how to cultivate a healthy relationship with the internet. a healthy relationship with hemlock is to not drink the tea…favor the good, avoid the bad. very simple but yet the lowest common denominator is ruling these days
These days negativity is the lowest common denominator
But wholesome living is inherent to life, simple. It will rise with Golden Age. it is a joy to be simple. negativity pulls at and spirls down, positivity uplifts and refreshes. simple question: is life pulling you down, or is it uplifting you. simple choice. surf the internet or the tv channels and see the direction the world has gone. but that is not where we will be going for long.
Todays marijuana/THC potency like heroine’ destroying todays youth
Bill Mar: from 1950 to present… LGBTQ self-identification has gone for less than 1% to over 20% and increasing exponentially.
are they ‘protecting trans’ or turning kids away from straight?
BLM, defund police, promoting trans.. all the same thing really
one saint advised another about the world: “why go out in all that mud”
many people come for spiritual teaching… clueless but think they ‘get it’
divide and conquer….woke. lost to narratives
what wearing a cross means to people… alignment with wholesome. Good/God
Christ = Chitanyaa
Chaitanya = transcendant
Weaponizing justice… ww2 hungarian woman said creeps in over time like a thief in the night
guilt by accusation
politicizing justice system
right left-handed tundra law justice S/supreme court.. Natural Law or biased
Lenin: the worse the better… see it as birthing pain to transition to their takeover
just like Bolshevik revolution: starve people to get then to overthrow Czar
spiritual escapism is no solution
Logic rationality and clear thinking is irrelevant rather emotion is what carries the day
law, justice, natural law, politics
said it would be easy to find supreme court leaker… so who is it? cover up? A justice involved?
yuga dependent law and justice..
the caste system is misunderstood
nazi germany and legal system
watch movie: ‘judgment at nuremburg’ to see how it happened
“A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false.” ― Benjamin Franklin, A Benjamin Franklin Reader: The Essential Writings of a Colonial Sage
how to unravel a twisted rubber band–very simple
The subtle Art of Conflict Resolution in Our Conflicted World
who started it doesn’t matter
from within a twisted perspective, your viewpoint looks straight
after calming down, it doesn’t matter any more
stay out of weeds in first place: the art of relationship
once you step in it, it is hard to get it off your shoe
You don’t put out the fire by fanning the flame
Worst thing imaginable used to think others don’t believe you were that you could be wrong but ultimately it does not matter
Left handed tantra is addictive: tearing open 3rd eye, intoxication, indoctrination. obstacles to spiritual growth. Explosive results … destructive. Blurs Vedic understanding
i get it syndrome
fish bowl
Vedic principles do not exist in isolation, they all appear at every point in creation. universal
we will see a rise in right handed tantra
Moral fabric versus political correctness
Right/left tantra: do u prefer a rapid or gradual solution? the ultimate distraction.. detonation vs blossoming.
can justify anything with the intellect
twisted. From within the twist, it seems straight: Evolution is highly elusive.
angry grocery store guy with tee-shirt telling people to calm down
convolutions, messy… taking the twist out of it…
Mt Soma
To listen to the audio version, please click here.
Everything boils down to integrating the surface of life with our inner wisdom/depth/Divinity. BUT culturing that enlightened state takes time. Here is the simple yet elusive ancient secret to harmonious behavior. To listen to the audio version, please click here. To watch the video on Twitter, please click here. To watch the video on Facebook, please click here.
I sincerely believe that if we all sat together and discussed personal and political matters, we would realize that we all share the same ideals. For example we all want peace, harmony, prosperity and justice for all. Politics has just put a harsh and passionate spin on it all. As with so many levels and issues of life (interpersonal, community, political, philosophical, religious, even dietary etc.) the belief that seems to hold true is that the best way to win a disagreement is to demonize those with the opposing view. “We are good; they are bad” seems to dominate over a mature, balanced, and reasonable joint effort to move life forward. Paticularly in this election year and certainly regarding the current challenging jyotish, we do well to sidestep the politics and not get caught up in all the negativity. Needless to say demonization breeds hatred which destroys so much of what we all long for. Speaking of jyotish, Saturn and Jupiter are moving closer and closer together. They will be the closest around December 21, which is not good. Also, Mars and Saturn are very powerful these days. So for the next few months we do well to put extra attention on staying ‘out of the weeds’ of conflict and negativity. A brief look at the history of humanity makes it clear that we have a lot to learn before we can live, let live and just get along. Hatred and contempt is no way to run a world, a country, a state, city, community, or personal life. Perfection dwells deep within the Kaivalya of the Transcendent. We do well if we do not demand it of others…or of ourselves. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
These days, in my short early morning drive from home to the temple, there are lots of rabbits all along the road. They so clearly reflect my feelings to me. When I am calm and peaceful, they remain still, as I drive right by them, not even moving off the road. If I am in a hurry, they scurry off into the bushes when they sense my distant car approaching. With great accuracy, they spontaneously feel me through my driving.
Last night, I was chatting with a person from the ashram. We were trying to articulate feelings and mindsets. No words seemed to work just right. What seemed to sort of work for one of us just felt blatantly incorrect to the other. There was a huge gap between the feelings we felt, and the words we used to try to articulate those feelings. The more words, the bigger it seemed the gap became. Yet I could tell that we were both feeling the same thing. Assigning words to the feelings only undermined our communication.
We humans rely heavily on words. Animals are not burdened with words. Maybe that is why so many people love their pets. With pets, we stay with feelings unencumbered, unfettered, uncompromised, undistorted by words.
When someone says something, we tend to hold on to how their words affected us. That is rarely completely consistent with the feeling, the motivation, behind those words. The words, then, take on more significance than the feeling they were intended to convey. When we reflect on the interaction, we reflect on the words that were said, that clouded the communication, not the feeling behind them.
Words are most often defining, limiting, and misleading. Feelings are pure, honest, and genuine. We do well to give lots of space around words that we share. We do best to feel what is behind those words. Sincerity lies in the feelings that lie deeper than the meaning of the words we use. Words, at best, point in a general direction.
When we try to communicate with another, we do well to pay more attention to the underlying feelings than the meaning we assign to their words.
The light of awareness heals. With so much negativity in our world, let’s take a step back and explore the nature of negativity in hopes that the exploration will illuminate the path to healing it within ourselves and our relationships. May we proceed then in the spirit of loving kindness and understanding.
Fixed Perspectives
From time to time, we all get angry, negative, and judgmental. Someone says or does something that upsets us and we react. That is normal and quite understandable. But there are some things about this that merit a great deal of earnest reflection.
First and foremost, many people hold on to their anger and resentment for a long time. It is as if a judgment is made and then, within a person’s heart and mind, it is etched in stone.
Now, please do not misunderstand me. It is reasonable and proper that we come to recognize how another behaves. Some may often be abrasive. Some may love to gossip. Some may frequently judge harshly. We all have our ways about us. To ignore or live in denial of those things is not wise. As we learn more and more about another’s tendencies, we act accordingly, and do our best to not trigger those tendencies or put ourselves in the wake of those tidal waves of negativity. However, to respond by reciprocating with negativity is neither wise nor constructive.
What I am addressing with this first point is the fixity of a negative perspective we hold toward another person and how damaging it is, not only to them, but also to ourselves. Our thoughts, emotions, and perspectives are things that have very real effects upon ourselves, others, and our environment.
It is one thing, and wise, to strive to understand others so our relationship can be healthy. It is quite another thing to inflame and feed negativity in this world. To be a good and loving person is not to be oblivious to how people behave. Rather, it is to recognize how another behaves, yet still see that there is a soul within them that is one with God. We must learn to let go of the hatred and negativity within us, while understanding such negativity does exist within people who hold on to it as their perspective, attitude, and ‘truth,’ thusly coloring their hearts and minds.
On a daily basis, the best we can do is to understand this, while striving to not lose ourselves to the negativity to which we see others so lost.
Relativity and Conflict
Secondly, it is important to understand that this is the world of perspectives. Fundamentally, this world is built upon perspectives. That is why it is called ‘the relative.’ The only ‘Absolute Truth’ transcends this relative world of perspectives. We could go deeply into the physics (Heisenberg) and Vedanta (Ishwara) of this, but for now, let’s stay on a pragmatic daily level. Where there are people involved, there are contradictory perspectives.
The question then is: “How do you respond (mentally, emotionally, and psychologically) to people with other perspectives?” Do you respond with polarization and negativity? Do you dig in your heels and judge them? Do you resent, criticize, demean, and scorn? Or do you, with humility, remain open-minded and open-hearted, as you strive to see what truth may be there for you to gain and learn from? As I am fond of saying: “To be wise is to under-stand, not over-stand.” You will never find another person with whom you will always agree with regarding everything. Love, kindness, wisdom, and peace all see much more deeply than that.
Friends and Affinities
Thirdly, where do our judgments come from? So often they are not a result of what we have directly experienced, but rather what we have heard. And what we hear and then believe is the result of affinities. We tend to believe our friends. We tend to believe our political affiliates. We tend to believe what we hear from those we associate with. And we also tend to believe what we have heard first, and have allowed it to color our hearts and minds. With so much negativity consuming our world, if we instinctively take what we hear as truth, we too become consumed by the negative. We do well to remember the poet’s words: “In war and peace the truth just twists”. We do well to rest more deeply into the ocean of our being… in a place that transcends the tidal waves of perspective and negativity.
Assumption and Fear
The fourth point involves assumptions. We often assume the worst of the intentions and behavior of others. We tend to think wisdom means being ‘streetwise’ and “streetwise” means to assume the worst of others. Such assumptions are not made because an individual is particularly negative. On some level, it serves us; it protects us. It is said that this is a characteristic of survival in the jungle: a deer walking through the jungle, not appreciating the beautiful flowers, but rather assuming there is a tiger behind the plants, waiting to pounce. However, at some point, such assumptions no longer serve, but instead compromise our life and our relationships.
Furthermore, it is not at all easy to recognize when we’ve lost ourself to the negativity and have then distorted our perception. Such assumptions are rooted in fear. So, within our Darwinian genetics is fear… the assumption that the worst dwells in others and the belief that to understand them is to believe that they are motivated by the worst within them. We are afraid the tiger will get us. We are afraid and assume we will be, or have been, betrayed, cheated, lied to, deceived, hurt, or worse. To be cautious is wise, but to be ‘streetwise’ is not wise. It is rooted in fear.
We do well to at least consider that goodness motivates other people, even though their perspectives may contradict our own. In times like this, evolving our relationship with our assumptions and fears is extremely important and largely determines the course of our lives. So we do well to take a step back when our assumptions and fears are triggered. Humility and self-reflection will then serve not only the situation and the other person, but also ourselves. Keep in mind that the assumptions and fears are deeply rooted in our physiologies, as if they determine the color of glasses through which we view others. Seeing past the color of the glasses is a challenging, but most rewarding, process.
The Squeaky Wheel
Lastly, let’s consider an old expression: “The squeaky wheel gets the oil”. We can play with it a bit to realize that what we hear the most is what we tend to believe. What squeaks the loudest is what overtakes us and negativity squeaks and squeals with volume and vigor. Wisdom, on the other hand, tends to remain more reflective, nonjudgmental, and silent. Wisdom prefers to not feed and support the churning ocean of conflict, judgment, hatred, and perspective.
Our Relationship with These Insights
On the one hand, all this may feel depressing. Yet, if our relationship with these insights is healthy, it can facilitate healing. If we lose ourselves to these points, we then actually become negative. But if we hold them wisely, we heal. May this light of understanding serve as a cooling balm to heal the state of our world. May we hold these insights in a manner that helps us see, understand, and live untainted by negativity. Yes, in a moment, we may lose ourselves to negativity. However, with this understanding, may we find our way out of entanglement within the weeds of negativity that consume so much of life. And may we thereby attain greater understanding, wisdom, peace, harmony, and love.
Mona Lisa’s portrait is famous for saying so much with the slightest smile, while not saying a word. One day, I had a Mona Lisa experience from a shrug. I was telling someone that I wanted to do some yardwork (trim hedges, landscape, etc.), but I didn’t really know much about gardening. The response was just a subtle polite shrug; nothing more. Yet, it said so much. It set me free to act from my own inner knowing. I couldn’t even put it all into words. But to say a few words, it told me: It’s just common sense. If you mess up, things grow back. Just play with it for a while and it will be fine.
I tried it and it worked great. Mona Lisa says more with a smile or a shrug than perhaps can be contained in volumes. The point is that communication is an art often best achieved not with an excessive preponderance of words, but rather through a feeling in a smile, a shrug, or perhaps a look in the eye.
When my daughter was just a little girl, I asked her if she knew what I taught in my classes. She responded, “How to be nice and not be mean.” That was so sweet, and in a very profound sense, so right.
What’s on the inside shows up on the outside. If deep inside we are peaceful and wise, then on the outside that ‘goodness’ shines through. If on the inside, we hold anger, resentment, etc., then that is what emerges on the surface.
Decades ago, it was just considered good manners to express one’s self politely and with dignity. These days, it seems vogue to do the opposite. Some say social media is partially responsible. Accusers no longer face the accused. Social media keeps people at a distance, free to lash out and vent at will.
Some say the drug and hippie wave from the 60s and 70s inspired people to act poorly, letting whatever was inside to be openly expressed. Manners and decorum were rejected. Indignant behavior was considered being true to one’s self. I say that is not being true to oneself. That is being true to one’s issues, inner demons, and inner distortions born of unresolved emotional wounds. Negativity, judgement, anger, and rage are the result of tired darkness within the human soul. We can learn how to express ourselves, but do so constructively with dignity, honor, and respect.
In this regard, being ‘nice’ means having a healthy soul unencumbered by inner emotional wounds. As the soul heals, we spontaneously express ourselves in a positive, not negative, manner. We behave constructively, not destructively. Character assassination of those we judge gives way to wise and reflective speech and behavior. We learn “how to be nice and not be mean”.
To do this properly lies far beyond the realm of suppression of our impulses. Rather it is a matter of purification of our hearts, of our souls, of our minds. That is called by various names: human evolution, psychological health, spiritual growth, etc.
Certainly, there are times when anger may be an appropriate response. But in this world, there is far too much of it rooted, not in wisdom, but in unresolved emotional issues. Certainly, it is normal and natural to have moments of anger. However, there is a problem when life-damaging bias and negativity do not soon quiesce into helpful, positive, useful, kind wisdom, communion, and understanding—what my daughter called: “how to be nice and not be mean”.
Feeling and even expressing anger is natural at times. However, if it is used to verbally attack, offend, ridicule, gossip, degrade, or condemn another, then it has crossed the line into simply being mean. To be nice is not to suppress one’s self, but rather to constructively articulate and express oneself with supportive and loving kindness, sincerity, wisdom, and understanding. Which is to say, to be in a state of oneness with all that is—in other words, the highest meaning of the word “love”—what my daughter called: “be nice and not be mean”.
Expressed in the words of an innocent young child, “how to be nice and not be mean” is the ultimate accomplishment of human evolution.
Brahman, Maya, Manifest creation, the unspoken unbelievable reality� New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! � streamyard.com/pal/d/4738990091796480... See MoreSee Less
"Take the time to reflect on what is said here. If you find yourself associating this material with things you have heard elsewhere, please take the time to diligently explore how they are different. This knowledge is elusive. I share it here because I have seen how much this knowledge helps people – the potential is enormous." – Michael Mamas
"True knowledge slips through the fingers of those not willing to ponder…" – Michael Mamas
"Take what I say and work with it to develop a deeper understanding of life, rather than taking what I say and forcing it into the mold of your current relationship with life." – Michael Mamas
"Evolution means change." – Michael Mamas
"Your disposition is the tone with which you hold yourself, your cells, your psyche, your beliefs. More than anything else, it determines your life." – Michael Mamas
She roosted her nest under a ledge on my front porch. 
Mona Lisa’s portrait is famous for saying so much with the slightest smile, while not saying a word. One day, I had a Mona Lisa experience from a shrug. I was telling someone that I wanted to do some yardwork (trim hedges, landscape, etc.), but I didn’t really know much about gardening. The response was just a subtle polite shrug; nothing more. Yet, it said so much. It set me free to act from my own inner knowing. I couldn’t even put it all into words. But to say a few words, it told me: It’s just common sense. If you mess up, things grow back. Just play with it for a while and it will be fine.
When my daughter was just a little girl, I asked her if she knew what I taught in my classes. She responded, “How to be nice and not be mean.” That was so sweet, and in a very profound sense, so right.
