by Michael Mamas | Monday, August 17, 2015 | Spirituality |
The dropped pebble radiates wave rings on the pond.
Similarly, the cosmos, birthed from a point, radiates wave rings.
Every point, every thing, in creation radiates wave rings.
Every individual radiates wave rings.
A Vedic temple radiates powerful wave rings in harmony with the cosmos.
The temple walls, fence, etc. are constructed on the cosmic wave rings.
Thusly, the temple brings all wave rings in harmony with nature… the cosmos.
This is the technology of world peace, prosperity, and fulfillment.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, July 13, 2015 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
We speak of the ‘family of humanity’. We speak of love. We speak of world peace. We speak of open-mindedness. Yet these things are not so easy to accomplish.
Some have a strong bias against spirituality as irrational. Others find solace in embracing the heartfelt aspect of spirituality, even as a reprieve from having to think. Cultures have their differences. One religion judges another. One political group despises the other. Many ‘open-minded’ people condemn those who do not think the way they do. One cultural or sub-cultural group is uncomfortable with another. Cultural Integrity so easily crosses the line into the biases of bigotry and racism.
My work honors the unique integrity of each culture while inviting you to see past the bias. In so doing, we can create a true family of humanity that honors the uniqueness of each culture – that respects diversity, not just tolerates it.
In my attempts to create a family of humanity, I often trigger a knee-jerk controversy. When I speak of God, ‘rationalists’ immediately reject my words. When I ask people to take a step back and see the rationality hidden beneath any spiritual superstition, I am accused of being too ‘heady’. When I wear Indian attire as a sign of respect to that tradition, I am judged as ‘another white guy trying to do the guru thing’. When I wear western clothes, I am not respecting the ancient traditions of spiritual knowledge. Casual observers so quickly cast my hat into the ring of their impulsive choosing.
Prejudice reigns. We are so quickly pigeon-holed, judged, and rejected or accepted based on the prejudices of every individual in this 30-second sound bite world. It happens in the blink of an eye, even by the most “open minded” individuals.
So where is the learning? How can people see beyond their biases?
I strive to move humanity forward. I encourage everyone to look deeper to live better. In so doing, the world will come together in harmony. In so doing, world peace can become a reality. I invite you to take a step back and reflect with me. Look more deeply into my words and actions than just a first glance may provide. We can heal this planet. We can have a loving family of humanity. It is within our grasp.
Be willing to reach beyond the limitations of your current mentality.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, July 7, 2015 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Memorizing facts has its value.
Memorizing mantras has its value.
However, to really know them is to understand them.
What does it mean to understand them?
Where does understanding come from?
Deep within you, deep within your soul, lies the source of all that is.
It is
… not physical.
… not material.
… not grasped.
It is felt.
… sensed
… deep within your soul.
… deep within your self.
It is the place within where you make sense of things.
For something to be understood is for it to make sense.
Feelings lie deeper than thoughts.
Feelings birth thoughts.
The seed of knowledge is feeling.
Understanding stands under, births, feeds, and supports all of life.
Facts emerge from that place, just as the tree emerges from the seed.
The seed of life births life.
To gain true knowledge, awaken to the source of thought.
The thoughts themselves are secondary.
One can know many facts and not be a person of knowledge.
One can know few facts and be a person of true knowledge.
Awaken to the place within where you understand everything.
Facts are useful tools.
But they are most useful in the hands of those who know the Self.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, July 5, 2015 | Spirituality |
There is one thing that is the source of everything.
Everything is, in essence, that.
Modern Physicists call it the unified field.
Others call it ‘God’.
I am that, thou art that, all of this is nothing but that.
All creatures, to varying degrees, sense it deep within themselves.
It is an innate inner knowing.
It is felt.
It is life.
It is instinctively known to be precious.
It is protected.
It is the soul.
It is the life force.
It is the Self.
Faith is rooted in that inner knowing.
The power of that inner knowing is remarkable
… humanity has constructed great cities, religions, and temples in its name.
… even though it
___… is not fully understood
___… can not be grasped
___… transcends relativity.
Yet faith’s vision is veiled
… by dogma
… by lack of understanding
… by emotional bias
… by intellectual bias
… by indoctrination
Aspire to that which lies beyond the veil of faith.
That process is called the path of discernment.
It is not blindly faithful.
It questions everything.
It is the path of inquiry.
Discernment is not
… just of the mind
… nor just of the heart.
Discernment unifies
… heart with mind
… soul with thought
… subjective with objective
As Adi Shankar said, the spiritual path is the path of discernment.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, June 29, 2015 | Spirituality |
The surface of life is predominantly run by cause and effect… it is the world of karma… predetermination.
The depth of your being is the source of your free will to influence and guide your life on the surface.
The degree to which you live from the depth is the degree to which you are free.
It is like the electron… a probability cloud with the freedom of all possibilities at the depth… a finite, locally confined point after it surfaces.
The depth lies deeper than thoughts… deeper than emotions. It is the transcendental level of your being.
Prayer is communion with the depth.
‘Communion with the One thing that is the source of all things.
‘Communion with your Universal Self… with the One Universal Self… the One thing that is the source of all things… of all of us.
‘The place where you are One with God.
God’s will has two aspects, two levels… free will at the depth and the will that creates the laws of the world of cause and effect on the surface.
As you awaken to the depth, freedom permeates the surface to greater and greater degrees.
It is not enough to think you are free…
It is not even enough to feel you are free…
You must awaken to the level of your being that is truly free.
To live from that depth is to be eternally awake to it.
You are then in the world of karma, but not lost to the world of karma.
You have entered into the world of cause and effect, honoring its laws, while being guided by that which is beyond the grasp of those laws.
You are free.
Your life then is a constant prayer.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, June 27, 2015 | Personal Growth, Spirituality, World View |
It seems that racism has subsided (or at least has become increasingly politically incorrect) in America, or perhaps people’s prejudices have not so much subsided as been transformed. Am I mistaken, or have the divides between right versus left, conservative versus liberal, the wealthy versus the poor, etc. taken on new highs in intensity? It almost seems that there is a certain degree of pride and prejudice within people that simply must be directed at something. Could that really be?
Let’s take a step back and look at the nature of our species. Certainly we are social/cultural creatures. We tend to flock together to create a society. As you traverse the globe, it becomes apparent that there is a great degree of difference between cultures. Individuals in a culture (or subculture) become adapted to, comfortable with, and cultured around the specific aspects of their culture. This, to a great degree, includes mentality, morality, ethics, and worldview, even including the inclination to rebel against the convention of that culture! There is a natural tendency to gravitate toward individuals that share your cultural and subcultural views. That seems to be quite commonsensical and natural. Laws are created and enforced in concert with those views, those convictions. Often other viewpoints are considered unhealthy, or even illegal. Of course, as times change people change, and viewpoints then, gradually change over time. In the USA at least, those transitions seem to occur through 10 to 15 year cycles. Just look at the 1920s compared to the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, etc. Yet through it all, we tend to adhere to our societal group of like-minded friends with whom we are most comfortable and identified. You may wonder if this is a good or bad thing. Should you strive to break free of your heritage? Or should you strive to conform to it? When does your affinity for your heritage cross that line from cultural integrity and mutual support and comfort to becoming prejudicial or worse? Is there a healthy pride and natural preference or should we strive to overcome it and create a homogenous world?
It seems clear that the right and wrong of it is all a matter of degree. Birds of a feather do naturally flock together. That is sometimes called cultural integrity. But as I have said in the past, racism is cultural integrity gone insane. It appears that such insanity has a physiological or organic component to it. It is not proactively overcome as easily as you may think. It is like subterranean ether in the blood that permeates heart and mind. It is like an overheating of the otherwise healthy blood chemistry of natural affinity. Once overheated, it must show its head in one prejudicial form or another. Attempting to suppress it one way only causes it to emerge in another. As racism is suppressed, political polarization and hatred go on the rise.
I remember the man I sat next to on a flight to San Francisco. He is a lifelong resident of Marin County. From his proud perspective, he was clearly open-minded, liberal, and beyond any trace of racism. Yet he was viscously intolerant of any opposing viewpoint. From his perspective, he had things all figured out and he was righteously indignant of any other viewpoint. Of course, in his opinion, he loved all humanity, all cultures, all races. But did he? Did he really? How little things have changed. As the saying goes, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” — “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” We ride upon these tides, currents, and waves of world karma within the ocean of life… far more so than most are able to see or willing to admit. Up creates down. Right creates left.
Is there a real solution to this? Yes, of course there is: human evolution… the balancing of fire (Agni) and water (Soma). The world is on fire. The people are righteously indignant. The shade trees have been cleared by the millions. Heat is on the rise. Global warming in this expanded sense is a certainty. Warming of the oceans would merely be one symptom of the greater dynamic. Attempts to rearrange the surface to hide what is going on in the depths will fail. Sweeping the dirt under the rug does not clean the house.
Where do you draw the line between cultural integrity and cultural arrogance? The answer to that is found in the depth of your being, not on the surface. But to do so, first the fire must be cooled. Proper meditation with the cultivation of discernment is the path.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, June 15, 2015 | Personal Growth, Relationship, Spirituality |
Feelings are everything. Thoughts matter little. How you feel about those thoughts make all the difference. If you feel a thought is not true, it is rejected. Feel it is true, and it is embraced. Even seemingly irrefutable thoughts are, in fact, considered facts because we feel that way about them. For example, ‘two plus two equals four’ is embraced because it just feels so right. Without getting overly technical or philosophical about this, one considers thoughts to be true based upon how one feels about them.
The uniting of our thoughts with our feelings is called ‘reasoning.’ The art of reasoning, wisely and accurately, is called ‘discernment.’ Logic is rooted in discernment is rooted in feelings. Feelings are everything.
There are two types of feelings:
1) Feelings in harmony with Nature, with Natural Law.
2) Feelings rooted, not in the laws of Nature, but in conditioning, limitation, indoctrination, dogma, programming, distortions, or what Maharishi Patanjali called ‘samskaras.’ This is to say your issues, sometimes called ‘your stuff.’
Of course, most feelings are a mix of the two. Your world view is a result of such feelings. It is important to understand that these two types of feelings essentially feel the same. Even how you feel about the feeling you have is the result of these two types of feelings. In other words, you judge yourself, others, and all thoughts and emotions based upon some combination of these two types of feelings. For example, you may feel that your anger is a bad feeling not in harmony with Nature. You may feel that happiness is in harmony with Nature. But it is not that simple. The full range of human emotions can be either in harmony with Nature or not.
It is very difficult then, to know the true nature of what you are feeling. You usually consider how you feel about something to be ‘your truth.’ But is it? Is it really? As you evolve, ‘your truth’ becomes more and more in harmony with Nature. Yet it is viewed by others based upon their issues, their world view. You can justify anything with the intellect… and people do. Your thoughts (your intellect) rally around your feelings to justify them.
But it gets even more complicated than that. World views are floating around everywhere you look. You become indoctrinated by them. The thoughts, based upon whichever type of feeling, begin to indoctrinate and program you. As that happens, you believe them. You feel they are correct. You consider them to be ‘truth.’ You become convinced that the world view is ‘truth.’ You even feel and become passionate about a particular viewpoint. Lives are dedicated to such a viewpoint. ‘Education’ then, is considered greater indoctrination into that viewpoint.
So, discovering what is true is not so easy to do. But one thing is for sure, Truth dwells within you. By filtering out your indoctrinations, you find harmony with Nature (Truth) within yourself. After all, you are one with Nature. You are the Unified Field. You are one with God, though today, more and more people are taking issue with the word ‘God.’
Everything I teach is for one purpose… for you to find harmony with Nature within yourself. More than likely, that does not look like what your indoctrination has convinced you it looks like. But I am not here to tell you what that looks like. I am not here to tell you what to think. I am here to help you learn to think for yourself… not your indoctrinated self, but your True Self. Your Self that is one with the source of all life and existence… infinitely wise, intelligent, creative, harmonious and divine. Proper meditation and cultivation of the art of discernment compose that gateway.
Consider the understanding of what is written here to be an invitation to walk through that gateway. Yet it is up to you to do so. The Self is revealed to the Self, by the Self, and through the Self.
Below is a related post, with video, on Facebook.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, June 4, 2015 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
I very much like Kahneman’s phrase, “Theory of Induced Blindness”. Identity with a paradigm, simultaneously valid yet contradictory realities, transgradient flexibility, conditioning, preconceived notions… How many ways have we said it?
Really, with just a little thought, it is self-evident… isn’t it? Education at some point is more about indoctrination than true education. Right? I think everyone actually knows it. However, it is like gravity. Everyone knew about gravity before Newton named it. Yet there is power in the naming of it. Once named, it is more easily focused upon, worked with, and more fully understood.
It is the same with spirituality. Every person, every religion, understands it, feels it, with some degree of clarity… or vagueness, depending on how you look at it… the glass half full or half empty. A belief system is identified with, thereby limiting people from seeing the bigger picture.
True learning is about expanding awareness, so all paradigms, all perspectives, all belief systems are understood… used or abandoned based upon the need of the moment…. i.e. transgradient flexibility. It is important to understand this, yet ultimately living it is a state of physiology, a level of consciousness, as opposed to just another belief system.
How did Emanuel Lasker, the ‘grandfather of chess’, put it? “I spent the last half of my life trying to forget what I learning in the first half.” Of course, you do not really try to forget. You just evolve your relationship with it. You become less identified with it. You see beyond it. You understand it on a deeper level.
https://creativeconflictwisdom.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/theory-induced-blindness/
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, May 30, 2015 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Yesterday Barbara, Marcia, and I had a planning meeting at Barbara’s house for the Enlightened City design. After a telephone conversation with the Sthapatis in India, we decided to walk down to the temple to report the latest developments to Panditji. Walking down the path by Hanuman Park, I mentioned that we all felt light-hearted as children going for an adventurous walk on a summer day. We were not embarked upon a task, we were enjoying a pure hearted adventure… light as feathers. They both agreed. They could feel it. One of us commented that this is how life should always be.
Later that day, my daughter mentioned a book title to me, “The Blinding Absence of Light”. Though I still have little idea of what the book is about, the title inspired me with a flood of thoughts. As adults, the lightness of heart, the innocence of childhood, is all too often absent. It seems that has almost become a requirement for adulthood. In moments of retaliation, adults may attempt to reclaim that lightness in unnatural ways. The truth is, lightness is more an inner state than an outer behavior. Too many are blinded by the absence of such light-hearted simplicity in their daily life. The company you keep, where you put your attention, and your attitude in general, all have profound effects on your psyche, your health, and your happiness.
Do we even have a word for mature, adult, inner light-heartedness? It is simple but not simplistic. It is playful, yet more about an inner state than an outer behavior. It is not blinding, but eye-opening to the blessings of life. The absence of such lightness is blinding, but has overtaken the belief systems of many. The solution is simple, not complex. Favor simplicity but do not be simplistic. Favor innocence but do not be naive. Remove the blinders of a burdened worldview. Your boat can be in the choppy waters of life, but no need for those waters to be in the boat of your Being. Favor a light relationship with life over a heavy, burdensome worldview. This need not be an overt act. It is just a matter of not getting in your own way and allowing yourself to enjoy life in a simple, innocent, and feather-light manner.
Of course, ‘light’ has another meaning as well. From deep within you, unencumbered by conventional views, indoctrinations, or self-imposed manipulations of your inner wisdom… there lies what may be called your inner light, your inner knowing, your inner sight. To deny it, even in the name of what you have learned to be a better way, is to impose upon yourself the blinding absence of light. Truth lies within you. Yet truth is easily obscured when you allow life’s complexities to blind you to your own inner truth. To be free is to live in harmony with that inner knowing, that inner wisdom, those inner instincts.
Now combine these two meanings of ‘light’ and simply live your life. Remember, Truth is light. All the tools I have given you facilitate the culturing of that. It is a process. Enjoy the light!
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, May 16, 2015 | Mount Soma, Spirituality |
I was asked the following question (edited slightly for completeness):
You say:
- Most of your karma is between your ears and in your heart .
- One’s chart is one’s karma.
I would like to hear how to reconcile the two. How does one get beyond each, both??
To which I respond:
Your chart is a ‘map’ of that which is mostly between your ears and in your heart. You get beyond it by doing the things I offer: Surya Ram Meditation, transgradient personal process, cultivation of discernment, and living in an environment that supports these processes, which is why I created Mount Soma.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
