by Michael Mamas | Friday, November 22, 2013 | Spirituality |
I have receive the following question:
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.”
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, November 21, 2013 | Favorites, Personal Growth |
Like most everyone, I do try to take care of my physical body. Unfortunately, when I get too busy, the first two things to go are diet and exercise. During those windows of opportunity in my life, when I do exercise and watch my diet, I enjoy reading and learning about nutrition and training. I take what I learn and create an ever-evolving program for myself. It is all very fascinating to me. And the principles are universal. They map on to personal evolution beautifully.
Recently after a great deal of exploration, reflection, and discernment, I found a trainer that I feel really knows his stuff. After reading most everything he has written, I decided to go with his diet and fitness instructions 110% and had a phone consultation with him. He has become my ‘fitness guru’. Such commitment is not so easy. It involves change. The good news is that it has given me a greater appreciation of how difficult it is for many of you to really listen to, hear, and receive what I offer.
I remember saying that if I ever find out that I should not be using stevia, that is where I would draw the line. Well guess what… no stevia for me. I felt all the resistances to that… all the rationalizations like: 1) well, how much difference can a little stevia in my morning coffee really make? 2) does he really know what he is talking about? Maybe he is wrong on just this one little thing 3) Maybe if I just take some cinnamon and other herbs with it then my blood sugar would remain stable, etc. etc. But I just had to stick to my commitment and go with what he said. That’s the deal I made, as I sit here sipping my morning tea since unsweetened coffee is just too bitter for me. One of life’s little pleasures gone with the wind!
Now stevia is just one example. As a result of my consult with him, I have had to revamp not only some of my habits, but also (and with even more difficulty) my thinking on many things that on one level “I already knew all about.” After all, I read all of his books and many other fitness and nutrition books as well.
Again the good news is, this has enlivened my appreciation of how difficult it is for many of you to make the changes necessary to move forward. As Winston Churchill said, “I like to learn, I am just not particularly fond of being taught.” But I prefer to align with what the grandfather of chess said, “Five minutes with a master is better than a life time of study”. As I like to say, you can know all about it, but until you embody it, you do not really know it. Real change is not so easy. Funny thing is, though I already knew everything he said, it went in deeper and in a different way after the consult… when I decided to be 110% accountable to him. You have to be accountable! And that is a real and ongoing challenge. Now is the time to make change happen. As Nike says, “Just do it” or as my fitness guru says, “Attack”, “You’ve gotta earn it”. “110% is the key.” Or as he likes to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Let’s get SERIOUS!”
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, November 17, 2013 | Favorites, Personal Growth, Spirituality |
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.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, November 12, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
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.
The way of this world is exquisite.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, November 5, 2013 | Personal Growth |
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“Genius is eternal patience.” – Michelangelo
What does it mean to be patient? On the surface, it may involve some self-control… resisting the impulse to speak or act. However, at the depth it is rooted in something quite different.
The Transcendent is infinitely patient. There is no time. There is infinite silence… infinite peace… infinite love, infinite understanding. The Transcendent stands under all that is… underlies all that is… understands all that is. It is the wellspring of infinite intelligence, infinite wisdom, infinite love, and infinite creativity. It is the very source of all the intelligence and creativity that birthed this entire universe. It is the silent, eternal witness.
By resting into that and living from that place within, you give nature the time and conditions required to well up through you with the full grandeur of all those qualities… intelligence, wisdom, love, creativity, understanding… i.e. the genius which is eternal patience… Divinity… Your True Nature.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
