by Michael Mamas | Thursday, January 3, 2019 | Spirituality |
One of my students recently had a doctor’s appointment. When the subject of spirituality came up, the doctor commented that every spiritual group claims to have all the answers. Yet, the spiritual groups disagree with one another. They each claim to have the one valid knowledge. I think we can all agree there is a degree of truth in the doctor’s point.
So who is right? Are all of the spiritual groups wrong? What is going on here? So many are so adamant that their knowledge is the correct one. It ranges from the atheist to the devoutly religious. Is this a commentary on the spiritual oblivion of our time? Is there a way out of this dilemma? Isn’t it interesting that people generally believe what they believe, simply because they were born in a certain country, to a certain family, and grew up with a certain group of peers? How can that be the proper foundation for one’s perspective on the nature of life and existence? Furthermore, life seems to be permeated with paradox… irreconcilable facts. How can we sort all of this out?
Personally, as a young man, I was compelled to take a step back, look, think, and feel before I went along with any particular viewpoint. I needed to figure it out for myself. To me, it was about understanding the nature of life and existence. All the pieces of the puzzle of life needed to fit together. All paradox needed to be reconciled. I needed to use all of my resources to do my best to fathom the mystery of it all. I had to think rationally. I had to feel deeply. I needed to see how physics, anthropology, the arts, linguistics, and all aspects of life come together in a unified and harmonious manner. After all, isn’t that the nature of Truth? If something is true, shouldn’t it hold up to all forms of scrutiny? This path of exploration has spanned a lifetime. A brief overview of my conclusions follows. I believe they will provide some insights we all share.
Watching moths dance around a candle flame at night seems to say it all. Every moth is drawn to the candle flame, but no moth is able to grasp it. They simply dance around it. Similarly, in physics, the unified field is the non-tangible essence of all that is. It is the one thing that is the source of everything. Similarly, Iswara (God) is understood to be beyond fathomability—intangible, undefinable, ungraspable. We all sense that there is something called Truth. We all long for it. We all try to grasp it. We all try to define it. We all try to fathom it. We all feel the need to grasp it. Yet, physics, like Iswara (the Transcendent) tells us it is ungraspable. Everything, all of us, dances around it like moths around a candle flame.
However, the ancients tell us that there is a state that can be attained, where all of the pieces come together at the depth of one’s being. All paradoxes resolve. But even then, we, like the moths, continue to dance around the candle flame that some call Iswara, or the Transcendent, or God, or the unified field. We remain in the dance, but see beyond it. We are in the world, but no longer of it.
That state is not perspective, religion, philosophy, attitude or belief. To think you understand that state is to “understand” it too soon… for it is not just an understanding. It is a state of consciousness. Like the candle flame, it cannot be grasped. It cannot be fathomed. It cannot be defined. Yet, the pursuit of it is inherent in the nature of life… all life. From the amoeba to the human, we all reach for that undefinable something.
There are certainly levels of understanding of science, of every religion, and of every field of life. Personally, I searched to find whichever offered the deepest understanding with the most rigor and clarity. That turned out to be most readily available through Vedic Knowledge. At the same time, like the candle flame, the beauty of that knowledge is that it is ungraspable. When those living from that place speak, their words join in the dance. Those words immediately cease to provide the deepest meaning, and become what the listener heard, as the dance, ’round the light of life, goes on and on.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, December 31, 2018 | Spirituality |
With this song, I have always imagined an old woman living in a cabin tucked away in the woods of the Appalachian mountains, among the oldest mountains in the world. Everything maps… parallels… limitless levels of awakening. She attained full enlightenment in these mountains and wrote this song expressing her love and describing her experience. That is what I imagine with this song.
Grace is the nature of Oneness, of the Transcendent, in other words, of God. Awakening to That is so sweet. Regardless of what has occurred in life, That is always there, eternally sweet within the depth of your soul. Through all of life’s toils, That is present, underlying all that is… supporting us and guiding us Home.
The moment of first awakening to that is so precious, so tender, so profound. In that moment, one truly believes… because one then knows.
After that ultimate awakening, it never leaves. Even after ten thousand years, even for eternity, that Grace is felt and Known and praised… in eternal wonder, awe, devotion, and adoration… just as it first was Known.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home
When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind but now I see
Amazing grace, oh amazing grace
That saved a wretch like me
Oh amazing grace, amazing grace
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, December 28, 2018 | Personal Growth |
I was originally just sending the following to a friend, but now feel like it is a nice blog also.
To be completely honest, I was not all that impressed with this poem… until I read the last line. I learned from it. I believe it will make me a better writer. So much said in just one line…
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, December 22, 2018 | Personal Growth, Relationship |
When my daughter was just a little girl, I asked her if she knew what I taught in my classes. She responded, “How to be nice and not be mean.” That was so sweet, and in a very profound sense, so right.
What’s on the inside shows up on the outside. If deep inside we are peaceful and wise, then on the outside that ‘goodness’ shines through. If on the inside, we hold anger, resentment, etc., then that is what emerges on the surface.
Decades ago, it was just considered good manners to express one’s self politely and with dignity. These days, it seems vogue to do the opposite. Some say social media is partially responsible. Accusers no longer face the accused. Social media keeps people at a distance, free to lash out and vent at will.
Some say the drug and hippie wave from the 60s and 70s inspired people to act poorly, letting whatever was inside to be openly expressed. Manners and decorum were rejected. Indignant behavior was considered being true to one’s self. I say that is not being true to oneself. That is being true to one’s issues, inner demons, and inner distortions born of unresolved emotional wounds. Negativity, judgement, anger, and rage are the result of tired darkness within the human soul. We can learn how to express ourselves, but do so constructively with dignity, honor, and respect.
In this regard, being ‘nice’ means having a healthy soul unencumbered by inner emotional wounds. As the soul heals, we spontaneously express ourselves in a positive, not negative, manner. We behave constructively, not destructively. Character assassination of those we judge gives way to wise and reflective speech and behavior. We learn “how to be nice and not be mean”.
To do this properly lies far beyond the realm of suppression of our impulses. Rather it is a matter of purification of our hearts, of our souls, of our minds. That is called by various names: human evolution, psychological health, spiritual growth, etc.
Certainly, there are times when anger may be an appropriate response. But in this world, there is far too much of it rooted, not in wisdom, but in unresolved emotional issues. Certainly, it is normal and natural to have moments of anger. However, there is a problem when life-damaging bias and negativity do not soon quiesce into helpful, positive, useful, kind wisdom, communion, and understanding—what my daughter called: “how to be nice and not be mean”.
Feeling and even expressing anger is natural at times. However, if it is used to verbally attack, offend, ridicule, gossip, degrade, or condemn another, then it has crossed the line into simply being mean. To be nice is not to suppress one’s self, but rather to constructively articulate and express oneself with supportive and loving kindness, sincerity, wisdom, and understanding. Which is to say, to be in a state of oneness with all that is—in other words, the highest meaning of the word “love”—what my daughter called: “be nice and not be mean”.
Expressed in the words of an innocent young child, “how to be nice and not be mean” is the ultimate accomplishment of human evolution.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, December 18, 2018 | Personal Growth |
Facts matter little. It is your relationship with those facts that makes all the difference. If you doubt that, just watch the evening news… everything from the extreme left to the extreme right, even split decisions in our Supreme Court. One may wonder why, if the court is truly supreme, the justices usually disagree. Now it is easy enough to come to conclusions about that, but just generalize this principle and then take a look at how we humans function.
Back when I was a kitchen director in the ashram, I had a standard rule: No quotes of the Master allowed in the kitchen! Why? Because people would take an isolated quote to justify their perspective on just about everything: how to prep veggies, how to behave in the kitchen, what to eat, etc., etc. So one might ask, “What’s wrong with that?” The answer: For every quote, there is an equally valid, yet contradictory quote. That is why the field of relativity is called “relativity.” It is all relative. And relative to what? Relative to your relationship with the facts.
Facts are like dots on a page. Connect the dots one way, and you get one perspective. Connect the dots another way, and you get another perspective. Like dots on a page, connect them one way and you see the face of Buddha. Connect them another way, and you see Attila the Hun.
So how do people usually connect the dots? It is generally based more on their conditioning; psychological makeup; biases; life experiences; indoctrination; provincial, social, and subcultural orientation; rather than their wisdom. This even permeates the field of spirituality. People may read and memorize the same scripture, but they connect the dots all different ways. Sadly, if a person has memorized enough spiritual facts or quotes, they may conclude they are a spiritual scholar, Master, Guru, etc. They may then conclude that they have wisdom! But that is not wisdom.
So how do we cultivate wisdom? Certainly, learning what facts and principles we can helps. But what it really amounts to is what lies deeper than the facts and principles. It is about cultivation of the depth, the fiber, the fabric of our being. That is what evolution is all about. That is what proper meditation cultivates. There are deeply spiritual people that know few spiritual facts, yet are wise and therefore truly spiritual. There are those who know many, many spiritual facts, yet are not really very wise or spiritual.
When everything is going well and everyone likes everyone else, it is easy to be ‘spiritual.’ We find out just how spiritual a person really is when things get difficult. How we connect the dots is the best indicator of how spiritual we truly are. Yet we judge how spiritual another is by the barometer of our own level of understanding, our own level of spirituality. Basically, how we, ourselves, connect the dots. We then project our world view upon others. When wisdom is most needed, it is most often abandoned, as people revert to their conditioned responses, their conditioned ways of connecting the dots.
So the wheel of life spins ’round and ’round. As Socrates said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” That is to say, you know that which lies deeper than ‘things,’ deeper than facts. After all, the Transcendent, Ishwara, lies deeper than the dots. It is being established in that deeper place that enables one to wisely connect dots.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
