by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, January 5, 2016 | Spirituality |
I was asked the following question regarding the previous blog, “Free Will and Predetermination are One: The Experience“:
I wonder, when first experiencing the gap, does one swing back and forth between the doer and the witness quickly and involuntarily?
To which I respond:
Yes indeed. At first before enlightenment, the witness is experienced briefly from time to time. Particularly at first, the gap between the witness and the doer is huge. In time, they coexist with no gap between the two. Desirelessness and desire, sequentiality of time and no time, free will and predetermination, efforting and effortlessness, control and no control… all these dichotomies merge (resolve, become the same thing). In the resolution of paradox they become one (unification). As is said, you and God are One. It is as if you live at the edge (mergence, junction, unification) between polar opposites… fully in the Absolute and fully in the relative at the same time.
There is so much confusion regarding “desirelessness”, for example. Desire in life does not cease in enlightenment. Just consider the story of so many saints, even Lord Rama. They have many desires. Yet they were simultaneously fully awake to the level within which is already one with everything and so can desire nothing.
Initially in early enlightenment, a gap between the two is experienced. In time, they coexist with no gap between the two. They are experienced as the same thing… two sides of the same one coin.
Early, unintegrated glimpses of enlightenment can enrapture one so much with the Absolute that for a time people may feel overwhelmed by that aspect of their being that is free from desire. It is also easy to make a long standing mood or attitude of freedom from desire. In time one moves past the overwhelm and confusion. Integration of paradoxes takes place and life becomes more natural.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, January 3, 2016 | Personal Growth |
On Dec. 20 I wrote a blog about Free Will vs. Predetermination that you may wish to reread before proceeding. In this blog I illustrate what it is like to experience it, not as a theory, but in the here and now.
Consider the notion of ‘effort’. At first glance effort can seem to be the assertion of free will. You use free will to make something happen. Such effort is an attempt to overcome karma. Such effort is tiring. It is a struggle.
On the other hand, such effort is also predetermined karma. All action resides at the interface between free will and karma. The question becomes your relationship with that interface, that edge. When the edge is ridden, free will and karma are experienced as one. Effort and effortlessness become the same thing. You are doing and not doing at the same time.
At first, this is experienced as ‘witnessing’. You are doing, but it is as if you are watching the doing happen. There is a separation, a gap, between you, the doer, and you, the witness. It is sometimes described as if there is a movie camera in your head watching everything happen.
However, in time, the dichotomy of the doer and the witness are experienced as one. Your effort just happens while you are fully engaged in the doing as coming from your own free will. At the same time, you carry your actions while nature carries you. It is all the flow of nature… superfluid. Karma and free will are experienced as the same thing simultaneously and without contradiction.
When that dichotomy is experienced as one, other contradictory notions also merge as one… for example; past, present, and future. The sequentiality and simultaneity of time merge as the same thing. Paradoxes resolve within you as a moment to moment experience.
The following points may assist reflection:
- No control means control.
- What will happen has already happened.
- Being lost to effort is being lost to illusion.
- Being lost to effort means fighting effortlessness.
- Being lost to effort means trying to overcome the way things are… the way things will be.
- When effort is experienced for what it is, effort and effortlessness are experienced as the same thing.
- Trying and not trying are the same thing… Both are free. Both are predetermined.
- What was, what is, what will be… are all the same thing.
- There is no time.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, January 2, 2016 | Announcements, Vedic Knowledge |
All Vedic knowledge related blog posts that were on this blog have been moved to the new Vedic Knowledge Blog on drmichaelmamas.com.
These blog posts have been placed into the following categories:
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, January 1, 2016 | World View |
The power of attention can not be denied. All over the planet people celebrate today as the first day of the new year. I enjoy the positive feelings all the attention to this day enlivens. It is beautiful, bringing a wave of positivity, renewal, and fresh beginning to everyone. I find it to be so marvelous that the attention of all the people can have such a lovely influence upon particular days of the year. Understanding the power of attention speaks to how we can influence our world through the power of attention. The power of group consciousness is not to be underestimated!
At the same time, it is interesting to note that designating January 1 as New Years Day is rather arbitrary; or at least has little to do with the actual celestial dynamics of our planet. For a date to be a natural holiday, it would have to have something to do with nature. Right? It is interesting to ponder what effect it would have if we in fact did celebrate New Years on the date prescribed by nature. According to Vedic tradition that day is call Ugadi.
The new Vedic lunar calendar with the change of the moon’s orbit is marked by Ugadi. It is a festival which occurs on the first day (prathipad) of the bright half (Shukla) of the Vedic month of Chaitra, which generally falls between mid-March and mid-April. Lunar calendars have a sixty year cycle and start every New Year on Yugadi (era).
Ugadi is also the day on which Lord Krishna gave up his mortal body in a sacred place of pilgrimage called Dwaraka.
Having said that, we can all be confident that January 1 will remain the official New Years Day well into the future. With the power of attention being what it is, I for one certainly enjoy riding the wave it brings. This is a wonderful time of year!
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, December 28, 2015 | Announcements, Social Media |
The Vedic Knowledge website is filling out nicely, and two recent publications are doing quite well at attracting public attention. Below are some recent articles, etc. in case you missed them:
New Vedic Knowledge Pages
The Vedic Science and Vedic Arts sections on drmichaelmamas.com have been expanded. The new pages are:
Vedic Science:
Vedic Arts:
New SlideShare Slideshows
New Articles
ElephantJournal.com: “Our 2nd Nervous System: 3 Points of Caution Regarding Yoga”
Note: This article is getting a great response, with over 23,000 views to date! Elephant Journal is featuring it in their “Popular Now” section on the home page.
Entrepreneur.com: “5 Steps to Master the Art of Negotiation”
Note: This article also had great success! We don’t have a count on the number of views it has gotten, but it has over 3,800 Shares on social media.
LinkedIn: “7 Ways to Inspire Your Workforce”
Medium.com:
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
