by Michael Mamas | Sunday, September 2, 2012 | Spirituality |
I received the following question:
I recently was talking to a friend who told me he knew of a man who claimed to know the secret of eternal life. I am confused as to what eternal life really is. Would you be so kind as to give me his perspective on the true meaning of eternal life?
To which I respond:
In essence, everything, everyone is the unified field, which is eternal. So in essence, everyone has eternal life. The key is awakening to that level of your being.
Many claim to have the secret of that. Very few do. It is not just a technique or a science. It is also an art. The art of working with others to facilitate their enlightenment. Many claim to be enlightened. Very few are.
Eternal life of the physical body is another matter. It is indeed possible. The question is, even if you could, why would you aspire to it? What is the motivation? In other words, “Why are you here… really?”
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, September 1, 2012 | Spirituality |
Since we moved to North Carolina nearly 15 years ago a number of times I have had occasion to interact with Southern Baptists. As with all religions in all parts of the world, there are some closed-minded fanatics and Baptists are not unique in that regard. However, I have experienced what feels like a disproportionate number of Baptists with some characteristically wonderful qualities. In this day and age, generalizing about any social subgroup is a bit risky, but people need to face that there are such demographic tendencies we need to acknowledge lest we bury our heads in the sand.
Firstly, I have noticed a great deal of purity and innocence from many Baptists. Note that by innocence I mean the opposite of fanatical or closed. Secondly, I have experienced a great deal of warm-hearted kindness from many Baptists. I remember being in the checkout counter at WalMart… The older white haired lady behind the counter was incredibly sweet, open, and loving. Her sincere “God bless you” as we said goodbye was pure hearted, beautifully touching, and characteristic of my experience with so many Baptists.
However, the final point is the one I find most compelling. I have on three separate occasions had long discussions with Baptist ministers all sharing one common thread. Recently, it was with a man sitting next to me on my flight home from the San Francisco class. He boarded the plane with a fiddle case under his arm, string tie around his neck, and cowboy hat upon his head.
My first words to him were to pull out his fiddle and play us all a tune, which in a most abstract sense, is exactly what happened. He reached out his hand and introduced himself with two initials followed by his last name. As is my way, I could not help the discussion going from southern gospel music to music in harmony with the laws of nature of the land that birthed it, to cultural integrity and tradition which upholds living in harmony with nature.
He was clearly open to my words and wanting of more. After telling me he was a Baptist minister, I covered everything from the manifestation of existence, to free will versus predetermination, to Darwinism versus creationism. I was touched by the depth of his pondering and lifelong pursuit of the deeper meaning of life as expressed through the Bible. He was very open to the notion that since the Bible had so many times been interpreted, translated, revised, and rewritten mostly 400 years after the passing of Christ, my oft used line that, ‘When the Master speaks it immediately ceases to be what the Master said and becomes what the listener heard’ was important. The quote, I believe, even thrilled him.
Now do not misunderstand me. His devotion to Christ and the Bible was great and unquestionable. He is a wonderful man who goes to Africa every fall to do missionary work and speaks beautifully of the people there. He is a deep thinker. He looks deeply into the Bible to find the gemstones of Truth in it, though they be hidden from so many that read the book. At the end of the flight, he thanked me for clarifying so many things for him. When I told him how much he was helping so many people, he seemed moved as if it were something he was not even aware of… adding in my mind to the affirmation of purity and innocence he lived. He asked for this website address which I provided.
I trust that he is reading this blog and would like to say to him, “My congratulations and thanks for a life well lived.”
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, August 30, 2012 | Spirituality |
I was asked in ‘comments’ about these things to which I responded:
You are like a diamond with many facets. On a superficial level you are just flesh and blood… a biochemical machine if you will.
On a deeper level you are a personified being. When you think of another person, you think of that being. The body of flesh and blood is just what that being is occupying. I used the word ‘soul’ to mean the essence of that being. It is the junction point of the persona with the absolute. You can feel your soul deep inside. However, you cannot feel the absolute… it is beyond relativity. Similarly, though you cannot feel the Sun… it is too far away… you can feel the Sun’s rays. By so feeling the rays, you come to know the nature of the Sun. The Soul is like the rays… emitting from the absolute.
The picture of a person serves as a portal or gateway to their persona, then the soul, then the absolute. It is a continuum.
The picture or image of a God is structured in the finest level of existence… the fabric of existence… eternal.
The Gods can be viewed as different aspects of the one God… facets of the one diamond. Each facet is a portal into the entire diamond. They are operators of existence just as addition and subtraction are operators within the field of mathematics.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, August 26, 2012 | Spirituality |
In ‘comments’ to the previous blog I was asked about the Grace of God, to which I responded:
The Grace of God lies in the omnipresence. In technical terms: The unified field underlies all that is. It birthed and sustains all that is. Everything comes out of it and all is gravitating back to it. Like the out breath and in breath. Evolution refers to the return… the in breath. Manifestation refers to the out breath. Gods Grace, God’s Love, is the eternal ‘gravitational pull’ of the unified field. “Pull’ is one word. Perhaps you may prefer another. It may also be referred to as ‘The Support of Nature.’
The understanding is the important thing. We are like water atop a mountain returning to the ocean. The pull of gravity that propels the water is God’s Grace. As you evolve, that Grace is felt more and more fully. You can fight it, which is often done even in the name of it. However, as you fight it less, you receive it more. In time it overtakes what you thought of as yourself and you awaken to your true self… you realize that you are one with God. God’s Divine Will and your will are then realized to be one. See?
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, August 25, 2012 | Favorites, Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Psychosis is a mental disorder characterized by a life of emotions, perceptions, and thoughts that are so distorted that the individual has severely impaired contact with reality. Neurosis is essentially everyone else. My dad used to say that ‘we’re all nuts.’ Now add to the mix the notion of subtle sight, hearing, etc. and we are in a delicate arena indeed. You can justify anything with the intellect and people certainly do!
How do you know if you perceptions are perception, psychosis, or neurosis? To my way of thinking psychosis is blatant, even to the ordinary observer. However, regarding neurosis verses subtle perception, I have seen many, New Agers in particular, who could use a lot more humility in the matter. It boils down to having ‘a healthy relationship with’ your perceptions.
No one really perceives. We all project. We perceive on to. Wisdom includes having a healthy relationship with that fact. The more fully integrated the surface of your being is with the depth, the healthier your relationship with these matters. But then, how do you know how integrated you are?
You must learn to discern. This includes learning how to use other people as a mirror. That too is subtle. You can find people to collude with easily enough. However, do keep in mind that everyone, at the depth of their being, is infinitely wise… one with the Unified Field… one with God. Therefore, on that level everyone can sense how healthy they and others are. Yet that knowing is masked by ones neurosis or psychosis, i.e. ones conditioning (samskaras).
It is a double bind, isn’t it? It seems like there is no way to know, doesn’t it? Well that’s life, isn’t it? Most look for a solid handle on life to cling to. However, the only absolute there is has no handle. It is like a soft cloud you rest upon. It is the Self. It is God… the place you are one with God. From a scientific perspective, it is the Unified Field. As you evolve you awaken to it more and more. Your physiology becomes more and more fully integrated with it. However, it does not come with a handle.
Introducing subtle perception to others must be done wisely. Otherwise, the introduction becomes an invitation to neurosis, if not psychosis. But to throw out the baby with the bathwater and reject the entire arena is unfortunate. You must learn to discern. I strive to help my students, as well as my kids, cultivate discernment. Only then can you well navigate the subtle arena of life.
I remember years ago I attended an expo where there was a room of people offering ‘psychic readings’. One glance at the group was enough to convince me I wanted nothing to do with it. If you are honest with yourself, and reflective, then you can develop insight enough to have a good sense of the person you are speaking to.
This may be disconcerting to many who want a simple cookbook approach to all of life. There are many out there that offer that and many cling to those offerings. I will not do that, because it is not the way life really is. On the other hand, the beauty of life lies in its subtlety… in its elusive nature… in knowing that the only true knowing is knowing that you know nothing.
After all, the unified field is beyond relativity. It is the field of ‘No Thing Ness’. How beautiful… God is beyond thingness, yet permeates all things.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, August 22, 2012 | Favorites, Spirituality |
~
Everyone longs for adventure,
yet many prefer only read of it,
hoping that will satiate the desire to live it,
without risk.
I have chosen to live the adventure.
Not for the sake of adventure,
but because I chose to look beyond the horizon.
Having seen what is there I am compelled to go forward,
through the portal,
into the greatest adventure of all…
The pursuit of Truth,
the unraveling of the mystery of life,
of existence,
of the Self.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, August 20, 2012 | Spirituality |
By watering the root, all aspects of the plant flourish.
There is a technology that works at the most sublime level of life to transform all of life by feeding the root of life. Bringing that forth is our purpose. Once this is understood, you do what ever it takes to bring forth that technology
The following quote someone sent in applies nicely:
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t
assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, August 16, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Humanity is in love with its idealized notions. The concept of enlightenment and spirituality are permeated with such notions. Much of my work has been to separate the wheat of spirituality from the chaff of false notions. Needless to say, that meets with a great deal of resistance.
As the following quote suggests, idealized notions include much more of life than just spirituality.
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.” – Thomas Sowell
I would only take issue with “of the Western world over the past three decades.” When humanity is without a clear sense of the transcendent, attempts to replace it with idealized notions run rampant in the hearts and minds of the people. No arena is left untouched… psychology, love, politics, philosophy, ethics, justice… even the hard sciences like physics. Such echoes of truth, perceived as truth, hold truth at bay for lifetimes.
That is world history in a nutshell.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, July 25, 2012 | Favorites, Personal Growth, Spirituality |
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” – Albert Einstein
When you consider a situation, when you look at a picture, when a notion comes to mind, use it as a portal, a catalyst, to all the possible scenarios it implies. The literal nature of it is confinement. The true nature of it is infinite and freeing.
Anything before you is a signpost pointing in all directions toward unbounded freedom and unlimited possibilities. It is only for you to connect the dots. The pathways are there if only you open yourself to seeing them. Confining yourself to the literal is a travesty. Every thing is a gateway to all that is.
Intelligence and knowing the literal meaning are often equated, but in truth they have almost nothing to do with each other. They are only tangentially related… barely touching at only a point. They might best be viewed as enemies. They become friends only when each is a springboard launching your heart and mind in the direction of the other.
Every point and particle in space and time is a possibility cloud that reaches to infinity. Clinging to the literal collapses unboundedness down to a tiny little point value. You have no limits other than those you impose upon yourself.
You are free.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, July 24, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Karma means action. A couple hundred years ago, Sir Isaac Newton came up with many laws of karma on the physical level of existence. Like everything else, those laws permeate creation on all levels. For example, let’s take his ‘for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction.‘ On a more cosmic level we say it as ‘what goes around comes around.‘ Momentum (Newton’s Mass x Velocity) is expressed as ‘having a full head of steam’ or as being ‘on a roll.’ Newton’s laws of classic physics permeate all levels of life. Even Einstein’s laws of relativity are simply that with a bit of a twist as you move through existence from one level (one reality) to the next and to the next (i.e. move transgradiently).
Inertia is ‘the tendency for an object in motion to remain in motion and an object at rest to remain at rest.’ Interestingly enough, before Newton, everyone thought that an object in motion would naturally slow down. That is, of course, not true. The reason we may think it is true is because outside forces, like friction, are acting upon the object.
Inertia can be your best friend… good habits, healthy routines, ‘moving in the right direction’, etc. However, inertia often presents your greatest challenges… bad habits, routines, etc. You do very, very well to take a look at the inertia in your life. Having trouble getting up off the couch to go to the gym? That’s called inertia.
People tend to love inertia so much that ‘moving in another direction,’ even from a wrong to a right direction, is resisted. People aspire to inertia… getting their life ‘on cruise control’ so they can coast. That can be a good thing if the routine is a healthy (evolutionary) one. One wonderful aspect of ashram living is that everyone goes to meditation twice daily… that flow just carries you along.
Inertia (like all of life) gets really tricky. What you think and how you think are also subject to inertia. People avoid change in this regard. For example, what someone may think is ‘healthy’ usually has a great deal of inertia to it. How well I know that people’s relationship with spirituality has inertia to it. Your relationships with people have inertia to them also, don’t they?
At any rate, please take time to explore your relationship with inertia in any and all aspects of your life. Otherwise it can remain one of your greatest foes. To become a master of life, master your relationship with inertia. Then it becomes one of your greatest allies.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
