I then returned to the world…
… to offer what I had gained
… to teach
… to heal
But then there were too many to heal one by one…
So I began teaching others to heal…
But to heal is not to learn techniques
To heal is to be… to be established in your own being…
… in your own true nature
… which is to say, in your spiritual nature
… once that is attained, the ability to heal comes naturally, with every breath.
So I now focus on cultivating the spiritual growth of individuals… of groups of individuals… of the world
There is so much wanting in this world…
To answer every wanting on its own level is not possible…
There is no end to all those wantings on all those levels…
But to bring fulfillment to all wanting by introducing individuals to their True Nature
That is attainable
That must be the fixity of purpose
There is a natural inclination to answer every wanting…
But to remain focused on the highest purpose… is my purpose… is our purpose.
Just to be sure it is clear, when Jesus says: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
He is saying that he is one with the Transcendent. There is only one Transcendent and that is (He is) the only way, the one and only Transcendent. To become it is to become one with the Father.
God’s Grace is that we are all one with that… I am That, thou art That, all of this is nothing but That. We have only to find it within ourselves.
Now, that is something for which we can all be really, really thankful.
Modern Physics calls it the unified field. It is also called the transcendent and the absolute. The ancient rishis, as well as some modern physicists, call it consciousness. It is oneness… the one thing out of which all things emerge… similar to how all sorts of ‘things’ emerge from your consciousness when you dream. As you evolve, this understanding moves from an intellectual notion, to an inner sense, to a clear certainty, to a direct/perceptible experience. That evolution takes place within you. Though it may be prompted by a notion presented to you, it is how clearly you find it within yourself that really matters. To take the notion and put it in your closet proclaiming, “I already know this, what else can you teach me?” is a wasteful relationship with that knowledge. Your ‘knowledge’ must become your ‘Knowledge’ with a capital ‘K’. All knowledge is there deep within you, but it is shrouded, not totally clear. Yet it is that inner knowing that spurs you on, that you live in dedication to. You do well to work with the knowledge of the transcendent in diverse ways to make it more and more clear, more and more of a certainty for yourself. Proper meditation is, of course, the most important tool. But deep thought and careful reflection are also of great importance. Everything has to make sense TO YOU. And making sense is not just about the intellect. It includes all level of your being… thoughts, finest feeling, emotions, common sense, wisdom level, etc., etc. It is not a matter of convincing yourself. It is a matter of finding the truth of the Absolute within yourself, through your OWN convictions, your own reasoning, your own personal experience. Without that, you are merely parroting something you heard. You only own it when you become it, when you find it within you. That process of becoming is called evolution.
What are examples that may help you find the Absolute within? Well, how is it that all fields of knowledge parallel one another? How is it that principles in business parallel principles in music and science? If you reflect on this you will see that it is only possible if all things are coming out of the same one thing, like spokes of a wheel all spinning around the same one axle. But it is up to you to see this from within yourself more and more and more clearly. It is not a matter of accepting it, or clinging to your current level of understanding of it, but of exploring that notion more and more to see it more and more clearly. Do not try to convince yourself. Try to find truth within yourself. These are two very different things.
Another example: Look around you right now. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you experience? Now for an exercise in total honesty: How do you know any of it is real? How do you know it is not just an illusion, like in the movie “The Matrix”? What do you really know? Maybe everything you are conscious of is an illusion, but one thing is for sure… irrefutable: Consciousness is. If you are just honest with your ongoing experience, the deepest secret of the universe is revealed to you. All is born out of one thing… consciousness… your consciousness. There is only one consciousness, or as it is said, you are one with God. The only difference is your angle of approach, your relationship with that one consciousness. That is what makes you uniquely you. So there you have the second example, but are you going to work with it and explore it and discover the truth of it within yourself? Or are you going to put it in your closet and say you get it? The exploration is yours, no one else’s. Exploration tills the soil that uncovers deeper and deeper understanding. Evolution is not so much about learning more facts as it is about finding a deeper relationship with the facts you already know.
Remember, real knowledge of anything and everything is found within YOU. Find ways to explore the notion of oneness for yourself. To own it, you must become it. And that is a process called evolution.
So Point #1 is Discernment. Point #2 is that there is one thing that birthed and underlies all things. Spend time with these.
Students who excel in academics are the ones that really listen to what the professor says. It is so easy to tweak or distort what the real message is. To stay true to it and work with it until you really know it from within yourself is not so simple. Commonly, you read it, ‘get it’, and then move on with your distorted version of it (a.k.a. “the I get it syndrome”).
Now enter the real world. Suddenly there are a multitude of diverse opinions pushing and pulling you in all different directions. The natural inclination is to pick and choose what you like from each and distort or reject what you do not like in each. This leaves the bulk of your distortions, biases, and limitations of thoughts and emotions perfectly intact.
Needless to say, weight loss guidance is a great example. Who do you listen to? Well, at least in that arena, you can try diverse approaches until you find what actually works. However, that too requires giving each approach a chance… which leads us back to the challenge of listening. Of course, then you only need to listen for a few weeks or so before you have definitive results.
Now enter the spiritual arena. Real spiritual progress is not as easy as weight loss. Real spiritual progress is more abstract and also takes more time. Of course, people cling to superficial things to try to convince themselves they are growing spiritually. But real spiritual growth is something much deeper and far more elusive than a sugar coating! Yet there are plenty of alleged spiritual leaders out there walking the sugar coated walk and encouraging you to do the same. There are plenty of alleged spiritual leaders out there offering limited, simplistic, or distorted spins on the knowledge. Even the writings of truly great Masters have been lost in translation or in your interpretation. For sure, the spiritual arena in this age is a real mess. Even more disconcerting, it seems most everybody from the atheist to the self-proclaimed spiritual scholar is certain that their understanding is the correct one!
So now, how hard is it to listen? Who do you even attempt to listen to? The process of determining that is called discernment. You may want to try it out on something easier than spirituality and see how you do. Explore for example, your convictions on diet. Every time I bring that topic up in a group, the passions and convictions run wild… so many strong opinions. Do not feel alone in this. I experience it also when I read something from a new diet or exercise guru. But I do my very best to discern.
Can you let go of your current indoctrinations? It is not so easy. Even when you think you are listening and decide that you ‘get it’, well, do you… do you really? Even when you think you are listening, even when you think you are being discerning, well, are you… are you really? Is what you are hearing resonating or conflicting with your bias or the truth that lies deep within you? The normal inclination is to believe that your bias is actually truth. But is it… really?
Discernment is not done with just the mind. It is certainly not done with just the emotions. It is not a matter of the mind rallying around the emotions to create a rationalization to justify your reactions. You need to start on steady ground… unbiased, unconditioned, open, refined in feelings, and free, while solid, balanced, reflective, rational, and willing to take a look, not just at the information, but even more importantly, how you receive and process that information… what it resonates with or clashes with inside you and why!! Are you reinforcing your biases or are you moving beyond them? Only as you explore this, will you begin to cultivate your ability to discern, will you begin to cultivate your ability to listen, to know how to listen, and what/who to listen to. As Adi Shankara said, the spiritual path is the path of discernment.
In the Does Your Life Have Context blog, I promised a handful of essential points. Discernment is point Number One.
Do you pay your own way or do you receive some financial compensation from your sangat?
To which I respond:
This is a question that I do understand some people are really concerned about. I am in the fortunate position that I donate to the temple, classes, CRS buildings, etc. more than I financially receive from them. But does your question imply that if a spiritual teacher relied on the temple or classes he teaches for income it would be a bad thing? If so, you may want to reflect more upon that. You may want to read my blog called “Money, Money, Money” written 10/17/13. I do know that in other cultures people generously donate to support the teacher. Therefore, they have no need to charge in order to have a place to sleep and food to eat. That tradition does not seem to be as popular in the west. There are so many such superficial standards that people go by to evaluate others. It can be particularly misleading when people from one culture are judged by standards of another culture. This is unfortunately common in not just the spiritual, but many arenas of life.
Allow me to end with an old tale. There were two monks, one old and one young. While traveling on foot, they came upon a stream to cross. At the same time a young woman needed to cross the stream as well, but she felt unable to do so on her own. The old monk picked her up, carried her across and set her down at the other bank of the stream as the young monk followed along. Walking several miles more, the old monk turned to the young one and said, “I can tell something is troubling you. What is it?” The young monk said, “We are monks and are not to touch women, yet you carried that young woman over the stream.” The old monk said, “Yes, that is true and I set her down on the other bank. You have been carrying her all this time.”
My point is that we all do well to look deeper than the superficial. It is important to under-stand, not over-stand. As one of my books is titled, “Look Deeper, Live Better.”
It is good to have a reference frame or conceptual context for your life. It may be a philosophy or religion or intellectual understanding of just what life is and what your place in this universe is. These contexts, of which there are many, usually come with a moral code, rules of conduct, and model of the mechanics of creation. For example, the modern scientific context, which is quite popular, has codes and rules based upon what can be derived from the current intellectual understanding of the world, which is rooted in physics and logic. It is the context that seems to be most universally adhered to in the world today. Needless to say, religions generally provide an alternate perspective on how the universe came into being and where we should look for moral codes and rules of conduct. Isn’t it fascinating that we live in a world where there are so many wildly diverse and contradictory perspectives on just what the context, the bottom line, of life actually is.
Now at age 63, if I were to look back and summarize my life, I would say it was lived in the pursuit of a valid and all encompassing context. Science certainly provides a steady rudder in its demand for validity… the demand for factual, verifiable proof. Certainly that is a good thing and a demand that I have always adhered to. In other words, I always insisted that the underlying context of life’s understanding make sense! For that reason, I always had a bit of an issue with the notion of ‘faith’. I did not just want to have faith, to just believe. I wanted to know.
This led me to an exploration of the notion of Truth. How do you know that something is actually true? If you think about it, truth is something that applies and is valid when all aspects of life are taken into account. When there are no blinders on, no limitation to thought and experience, no denial of what certainly is… when science is not denied but incorporated fully and integrated fully with all aspects of life. But we must, at the same time, embrace the simple truth that our current scientific knowledge is quite limited. Along the lines of what Sir Isaac Newton said, our knowledge of science is like one grain of sand on the beach of knowledge. That is certainly still true today. When it comes to moral codes and rules of conduct, pure ‘scientific thought’ can, and does, justify almost anything. This led me early on to realize that though science is a great aspect of the puzzle of life, and a great tool to employ in the unraveling of the nature of life, it does not provide the complete context for life. However, the valid context for life must not contradict science, but include it. There is no room for denial.
In my rigorous pursuit of truth, I came to some conclusions. I found some principles that I knew had to be true. The first and foremost was that there had to be a unified field… one thing out of which all things emerged. That is the only way, I reasoned, that everything could be so seamless integrated… that principles in business and biology could parallel so perfectly. That math could apply to music as well as economics.
After deriving a set of principles I felt certain were valid, an amazing thing happened. To this day I still marvel over it as I think about it. I discovered that in ancient times, there was a group of people who revealed a context for life and existence that was completely consistent with what I had come to know must be true. This was remarkable to me. How could it be? How did they do it? What was even more incredible was the fact that they had developed the understanding of this context to a magnificent degree. No stone was left unturned. All aspects of life were included… psychology, physics, architecture, music… everything. I did, however, find that in today’s world, irrationality, unclear thinking, superstition, and limited understanding had in many instances undermined people’s current relationship with that knowledge. However, the core, the essence, was there… meticulously preserved in great detail.
That knowledge is referred to as Vedic knowledge. However, Veda is not a belief system… it is the underlying substrate of nature… just as a seed is the underlying substrate of a tree. Veda is nature. Vedic knowledge is knowledge of that seed. All aspects of the tree of life are contained in the seed… the one thing out of which all things emerged. To hear about this is of value. To learn all about it is of more value. To find the validity of it within yourself is of great value. In so doing, the wheat of knowledge is separated from the chaff of limitation, irrationality, distortion, superstition, and blind faith.
I do not want you to take anything on faith. I want you to know, and know clearly, from within yourself, not just feel or believe. There are about a dozen principles that I will be providing soon. If each is understood and woven together with the others, an understanding of a context of life is revealed. No stone is left unturned. No blinders must, or even can, remain on. No scientific thinking is denied or contradicted. No question is taboo or blasphemous. BUT more importantly, if you reflect on those principles, you will, in time, find within your own self (not as an indoctrination from the outside, but as a discovery from within yourself) that there is a valid context to life. And that, for you, will change everything.
You know how athletes get mocked for praying to God for help to win a sports competition? Everything has a personified aspect, which is the deeper more meaningful value. When you think of another person, you do not think of them as a machine built of organs, tissues, and flesh. You think of the being… the personified aspect. That is the true meaning of the person. For example, the personified aspect of a beautiful meadow in the early morning mist is a Goddess or Deva of that meadow. Every city has a Deva. Every football team has a team ‘spirit’… a Deva. Every thing, has a corresponding deva, soul, personified essence. That is what gives it meaning. When Einstein was asked if a sunset could be explained in terms of pure physics he said that it could, but if it were, it would lose its meaning.
Now, of course, everything is the unified field. That is just physics. Viewed from the personified perspective, the more meaningful perspective, everything is God. So when an athlete is praying to God for help to win a ballgame, that prayer goes to, or through, the ‘spirit’ of the team, or city, or country they represent. Two opposing teams could each pray to God that they defeat the other. There is no contradiction there. Your team ‘spirit’ and the opposing teams ‘spirit’ are real and essential part of the competition. A healthy relationship with them is essential.
It is normal and natural to feel that. However, limited thinking (that sees it as a contradiction or that knows of no scientific proof that such things have a personified value) has simply sterilized the lives and thinking of many people. It is a matter of innocence… not naivety, but innocence. Naivety is based upon oblivion. Innocence is rooted in purity of soul. To be innocent is to perceive accurately the nature of life and of all things. Innocence is not the denial of rationality. That is oblivion. Innocence is the integration of rationality with unbiased, uncompromised, direct experience. If you were only innocent, you would perceive the Gods, Devas, and Spirits that surround you and orchestrate the entire symphony of life. I am not speaking of emotionality here. I am speaking of clear and direct perception. I am speaking of a life that is capable of observing what is… and then living that. The alternative is to decide what you think life is, and forcing your experiences to conform to that. Science is great, but a limited understanding of it will limit your life.
Yes, there is such a thing as personification on all levels of life. Yes there is such a thing as team ‘spirit’. How remarkable that blinders can be so domineering that life is not seen for what it is. That is a pet peeve of mine. But then again, to be free of that limitation is discovered along the highly elusive path of evolution. There is great beauty in the subtlety that veils the mysteries of life. So maybe ‘pet peeve’ is not the right choice of words.
You know how sometimes you can just take a step back and see another’s behavioral pattern? Doesn’t it sometimes feel like you wish you could just snap them out of it? Remarkably, it often seems most everyone can see that person’s pattern… except that person! Around and around they go, as if they are spinning around in circles on the surface of a behavior bubble, seemingly getting nowhere, unable to break, or even see, their all-consuming pattern.
I call that pattern a karmic bubble. Everyone has their own karmic bubble. Though their essence is certainly rooted in something that transcends the karmic bubble, it is the karmic bubble that seems to run their life. In fact, they cling to it. They believe in it. It is what makes them feel safe. It is ‘their truth’. It is as if they are one with their karmic bubble!
In spite of what you may like, you cannot pop that bubble. They cling to it too tightly. They defend it with emotion and rationalization. It would be unbearable if it ever popped. They cannot even see that it is a bubble. They cannot see it is their karma. Often, they are convinced it is their dharma!
To help a person move beyond their karmic bubble is a subtle art. It is a finesse. It is delicate. It must be done carefully, respectfully, and humbly. You cannot allow yourself to be self righteous, simplistic, patronizing, or too aggressive. At best, you are a catalyst to their own natural self-correcting process. All too often healers, spiritual advisors, therapists, counselors, and the like are far too presumptuous regarding the clarity and certainty with which they see another.
There are only two things in this world: karma and dharma. Karma is simple cause and effect. No free will there, though it may seem to you like you are free. Dharma is living in accord with your true nature… that which transcends the karmic bubble and is totally free. Karma binds. Dharma frees.
I have been reading your discourses for almost a year now as my wife follows your group, somewhat. Some of your writings are very good. I have been to India and became an initiate of Maharaj Charan Singh Ji (Surat shabd yoga). In their teachings they say that a perfect saint sat guru will not charge money for spiritual teaching.
This has made it difficult for me to put much faith in your teachings. Could you comment on this for me? I like you and enjoy most of what you say.
To which I respond:
In a perfect world, a perfect Saint would walk into a perfect grocery store and take what food his family needed and not be charged. That is not the way of this world.
However, I do give away a great deal. The website is free as are educational videos, articles, free lectures, online meditation instruction. The list goes on. A number of people with little or no money who live at the ashram at Mount Soma do so for free. But the ashram does require money to run. Those who have money give money. It is simple pragmatics… common sense really. As far as I am concerned, all my teachings are free. Of course, someone needs to pay for the room, food, water, heat, etc.
In closing, please consider that there may be opportunity for exploration in the things I say that you don’t like… perhaps even more than in what you do like.
Last night, a television news program was discussing the rise of atheism. They were unsuccessful in their attempts to determine why it was happening. To me it is very simple: The spiritual understandings of modern day religions make no sense. The rationale is that you must ‘have faith.’ Such ‘faith’ is a rationalization for oblivion.
On the other hand, true spirituality makes perfect sense. However, mainstream religion has compelled the rational to throw out the baby with the bathwater, turning their backs on spirituality and becoming atheists. The leading theologians of our time need to step up to the plate, admit that they do not understand spirituality, and revamp their dark ages throwback perspective.
We can thank the atheists for standing up and saying, “The emperor has no clothes!” May they inspire a much-needed renaissance in spiritual understanding.
I am sending to following to the news program in hopes that they read it on the air:
The reason for the rise in atheism is very simple: Modern day religions make no sense. Being a very spiritual man with a scientific background, this deeply saddens me. The essential teachings of the world’s religions have been twisted beyond recognition. We can at least thank the atheists for standing up and saying, “The emperor has no clothes!”
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"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
In my longing for Truth, I went inward.
It is good to have a reference frame or conceptual context for your life. It may be a philosophy or religion or intellectual understanding of just what life is and what your place in this universe is. These contexts, of which there are many, usually come with a moral code, rules of conduct, and model of the mechanics of creation. For example, the modern scientific context, which is quite popular, has codes and rules based upon what can be derived from the current intellectual understanding of the world, which is rooted in physics and logic. It is the context that seems to be most universally adhered to in the world today. Needless to say, religions generally provide an alternate perspective on how the universe came into being and where we should look for moral codes and rules of conduct. Isn’t it fascinating that we live in a world where there are so many wildly diverse and contradictory perspectives on just what the context, the bottom line, of life actually is.
I was asked the following question:
