I am really excited to offer pages from Look Deeper Live Better on Google+ free of charge. In the future, I would like to also add quotes from The Dharma Sutras. When I first heard someone described those books as poetry, I was taken aback, having never considered myself a poet. Enjoy!
Learn more about the book, Look Deeper Live Better.
Transcendant
Atman
individual
family
community
society
city
state
nation
continent
hemisphere
world
galaxy
universe
Transcendant
All are concentric circles around the One.
View my latest slideshow, “The Wonder of Thanksgiving“, on SlideShare.
Also, read my Medium.com article, How to Have a More Meaningful Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Question:
Is “the backdrop” the same as the unmanifest?
My Response:
I was wondering if anyone would have that question. It is a beautiful question. The simple answer is ‘yes’.
Or we could say it is that deep, finest feeling level within. The delineation is so fine, like the distinction between Atman and Buddhi. Yet in those sweet tender moments when first fully awoken to, what the ‘backdrop’ is cannot be described so analytically.
The feelings it invokes are so exquisite… awe, wonder, fascination, adoration. The backdrop is pure consciousness, only to be described as God’s consciousness… the eternal omnipresent witness of all that is. No opinion, no comment, yet full and all knowing.
It is said that Knowledge is contained in the gap. Knowledge in a book is not contained in the letters. The knowledge is held on the page, the backdrop of the letters. Knowledge of the world is contained in the backdrop, only perceptible to those who can see it. The secret doctrines remain secret to those who read them, less they can see the backdrop.
As Bruce Lee said,
“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”
On the news this morning, they did a little piece about Billy Graham. He is from the Asheville area and so his influence here is seen around town. It’s really fascinating to see excerpts of his sermons. He talks about God and heaven, being forgiven of your sins, being saved, and all those sorts of things. It’s all beautifully heartfelt and touching. He was obviously coming from a very deep place inside his soul. I’m sure that everybody senses that same place within themselves. Yet different people relate to it differently, to the point where everybody has their own unique relationship with it.
With the knowledge that I’ve given to people reading these blogs, I think it is easy to see what Billy Graham was getting at, what he was trying to say. I think it’s also easy to see how having an understanding of the nature and structure of existence from a rather scientific or rational perspective provides a deeper insight into what that is really all about. It also provides insight into how, without that scientific or rational understanding, the Knowledge easily becomes obscured.
Spiritual growth is about clarification, not just intellectually, not just emotionally, but also viscerally, physiologically, and directly experientially. Every religion has its foundation, that deep sense within all beings. It is often referred to as one’s sense of divinity within.
It is my purpose to provide people, regardless of their religion, with ever increasing levels of clarity in their understanding of this very nature of life and existence.
In case you missed it, my new Vedic Knowledge Blog was recently launched on DrMichaelMamas.com.
This blog will help bring the reader to a level of understanding that few are willing to take the time to comprehend. Comments on blog posts are welcome.
Someone sent the following rather cynical quote to me:
“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.”
I do not know how accurate those percentages are. However, I do believe that of the people that actually do think, only one in a thousand actually discern. Combine that with the fact that Adi Shankara said that the spiritual path is the path of discernment and the state of humanity becomes clear.
Discernment is not only the path, but also the goal… integration of all levels and aspects of your being… integration of thoughts and emotions with what lies deeper.
An introductory lecture I gave in Walnut Creek a while back has been posted on SoundCloud. I’m told that people really enjoy this lecture, and the sound quality is great.
SoundCloud is an online platform for sharing audio. If you create a free account, you can follow me to receive notifications of future audio uploads. You can also "Like" audio posts and share them on social media.
Also, there are free SoundCloud apps on the Apple Store and Google Play that allow you to listen to SoundCloud on your phone.
The lecture is in two parts. Enjoy!
Awakening to Your True Nature
Part 1: The Fundamentals
Part 2: The Process of Spiritual Evolution
When asked a question, to really know the answer means to find it deep within yourself. But what does that mean?
There is a big difference between feeling as deeply within as you are capable of feeling and feeling all the way to the depth. Commonly, people are taught that the depth of their being is an emotional level. That is not correct. Others believe that it is an intellectual level of clarity, which is also incorrect.
The depth of your being is generally a highly elusive thing. Why? Because of what I call ‘astral echoes’. When you drop a pebble in a pond, rings ripple out in concentric circles. Each circle corresponds to the circle closer to the center. All existence, including your being and your psyche, is like that. For example, when someone says they feel their oneness with everything, it means different things on different levels. New Agers may hold hands and emotionally feel they are one with everything. Many religions incite this emotional response with music and pomp. I remember when I would lecture about oneness in the early 1970s, hippies would say they took LSD and had the experience of Oneness, or God, and therefore, knew everything I was talking about. Even intellectuals reflect on modern physics theories of Oneness and decide that they ‘get it’. Spiritual leaders also decide that they ‘get it’ and promote their perspective. I call that the ‘I Get It Syndrome’. Due to astral echoes, everything has a corresponding meaning on all levels (concentric rings around the pebble in the pond) and the listener is certain they know exactly what you are talking about. This is why spiritual knowledge is so highly elusive.
Memorizing spiritual teachings and texts is not the solution. Why? Because they are read from the level of understanding of the reader and are thusly interpreted. That is why so many spiritually oriented people think they are ‘enlightened’. After all, they totally ‘get it’. Right?
To truly under-stand is to look deeper, to see deeper, to experience deeper and deeper levels until the very depth of your being is known.
The depth of your being lies beyond the reach of thoughts… beyond the reach of emotions. It transcends relativity. To attain it is to refine, refine, refine, your awareness. The most powerful tool to do that is PROPER MEDITATION. The cultivation of discernment is also essential. Otherwise, you lose yourself to echoes of Truth, perceived as Truth, which then holds Truth at bay.
Indeed, the path to Truth is highly elusive. Of course, that is actually a good thing. If not so elusive, everyone would have figured it all out long ago and the game would be over!
The Truth about Religion and Flatlining
