by Michael Mamas | Saturday, July 31, 2010 | Spirituality
Never underestimate the value of sleep.
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During meditation retreats we like to say that sleep is king. By that I mean that it is good to get to sleep early so that you are fully rested for your daily meditations. If necessary, take a nap in the afternoon, so that you are fresh for your evening meditations.
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Remarkably, upon hearing “sleep is king,” some choose to sleep through their meditations. Oh my, how easily the knowledge is lost. If sleep comes during meditation do not resist it, but structure your life to make the most of your meditations.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, July 30, 2010 | Health, Spirituality
The Fly Wheel effect exists transgradiently – on all levels of life. It refers to momentum, habit, and conditioning. The world-view into which you are born often stays with you for the rest of your life. The result of the Fly Wheel effect is like wearing a set of blinders, it narrows and limits your vision.
Personally, I needed a better reason than I happen to be born into a Christian home to dedicate my life to Christianity. People born in Muslim cultures are Muslim, in Hindu cultures are Hindus, in Buddhist cultures are Buddhists, and so on. This is the Fly Wheel effect at work. I needed a better reason.
In the short term the Fly Wheel effect is quite lively as well. For example, it is recommended that you change your fitness routine about every month. Due to the Fly Wheel effect, that is very difficult to do. In many ways, the most difficult routine you will ever do is the first day of a new routine.
As new understandings are revealed, a natural resistance rises up to oppose them. This too is the Fly Wheel effect. I recently heard a nice quote, “Whatever is innovative will be met with resistance.”
You would do well to look to your own life and identify the Fly Wheel effects that permeate it. Long, short, and intermediate term.
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What you long for lies beyond the Fly Wheel, yet it is veiled by the Fly Wheel.
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video clip
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, July 29, 2010 | Spirituality
There are three realms to existence. The most superficial is the physical, the deepest is the transcendental, and the intermediate is the psychoenergetic. The psychoenergetic is what is commonly called energy or electromagnetic. The personality exists on that level. In fact, everything has a personified correlate on that level. The personified correlates make up what is called the astral realm. Even tension in the shoulder can be viewed as an astral quality, a negative being, a rakshasa, for example. Remarkably, the world can be interfaced with on that level, yet it is a dangerous path born of duality and polar opposites. It is the realm in which good carries within it the affirmation of its antithesis. It is a realm in which one can get lost for lifetimes. Yet it is a very real aspect of life. If one is capable of navigating those waters wisely, the astral realm can add meaning to life.
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What does it mean to navigate those waters wisely? It means to see beyond that realm, not just intellectually or emotionally, but also physiologically. To be awake to that level which dwells beyond the astral, beyond duality, beyond the field of polar opposites.
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When awake to that level, one knows that the transcendent, God, has no polar opposite. There is only the transcendent and lack of awareness of the transcendent. In that sense there is such a thing as absolute good (God), yet there is no such thing as absolute evil (D-evil). Evil is nothing more then lack of awareness of ones own true nature.
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Until the transcendent is perceived clearly (this is a state of physiology, not a perspective) notions of God are astral echoes of God. Echoes of truth perceived as truth hold truth at bay. Direct experiences of emotions regarding God fall far short of the direct experience of God. The path to God is one of humility.
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In its purist sense, everything is rooted in the transcendent. However, common practices of all of these things are astral echoes of that Truth. Thereby, they hold the practitioner in the clutches of the astral. Do you believe you can practice such things without loosing part of yourself to them? Perhaps you would do well to think again. The relative is sticky. Aspire to the highest.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, July 27, 2010 | Meditation, Mount Soma
Everything about the retreats is structured with intent. Meditation retreats are a time to quiet the fire of identity with the surface. During the day people bring their awareness to the absolute through meditation. In the evening we have a meeting.
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One purpose of the evening meeting is to enliven the subtle value of the transcendent by listening to Vedic chants. Another purpose goes unnoticed by many, but it is perhaps of even greater importance – disuse atrophy. After meditating all day, during the evening meetings, in waking state, without allowing the fire of identity to be fanned, the identity atrophies, softens, dissolves away through disuse. This is essential to the integration process. It is similar to taking a few minutes to come out of meditation before you come back into activity.
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Meditation is of little value if its effects are not integrated into daily life. Skipping evening meetings to fan the flame, ie., have dinner with friends, etc…, is like trying to fill up a bathtub with the drain open. It makes no sense.
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This is just one example of the subtly of the structuring of the retreats. You will do well to not second-guess the program, but to instead follow it along innocently.
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I hope to see you all at our next meditation event; Mother Divine, Oct. 8 – 17, 2010.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, July 26, 2010 | Mount Soma |
Guru Purnima is celebrated every year on the full moon day of the Ashada month, normally in July. This year, Guru Purnima was last night and we had a wonderful celebration in the moonlight. The evening was perfect with a soft warm breeze and a bright moon. Some pictures from the evening are posted in the Gallery.
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© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, July 25, 2010 | Spirituality
Bruce Lee is considered to be the rebel of martial arts. His conviction regarding classical styles was to ‘absorb what is useful and reject what is useless.’
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I have little doubt that the original masters of each style saw eye to eye with Bruce Lee. However, over time, their knowledge was reduced to a rigid system, i.e. their knowledge was lost to a degree.
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It is the obligation of each generation to pursue and uphold the purity of the knowledge. However, Knowledge does not exist in books or rules. It exists only in the awareness of the enlightened. Now I am not saying that Bruce Lee was or was not enlightened. However, I am saying his approach to martial arts maps on to (corresponds with) the principle stated here.
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My work is to bring this principle to spirituality… to re-enliven the knowledge in its purity at the only place it dwells… within the awareness of the individual. Of course to do so, means we must enlighten the individual. That is no small task.
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Unfortunately, spiritual scholars today are more often historians than they are true scholars. A true scholar knows Truth from within their being. A historian recites memorized informational residue from the past and thinks of that as Knowledge. Though it is correct to revere the ancient Masters, it is incorrect to think that a historical record of their teaching embodies their Knowledge. When the Master speaks, it immediately ceases to be what the Master said and becomes what the listener heard. This is, of course, equally true of their written words.
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Bruce Lee met with great resistance as he pursued his goal. Martial artists felt he was disrespectful of the traditions of Masters. Actually, the opposite was true. Likewise, I certainly have been, and will meet with, resistances as I pursue my goal to bring forth Knowledge. It is my mission, my purpose in life, to do so.
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For us all, Bruce Lee stands as a symbol of dedication to that type of journey.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, July 24, 2010 | Spirituality
The concept of “The Power of Attention” is well known. What is not well known is how crucial the nature of that attention is.
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Unhealthy attention limits the mind, as if one were putting on blinders.
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Healthy attention frees the awareness to expand and penetrate ever deepening levels of wisdom and understanding.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, July 23, 2010 | World View
What ingredients are necessary to make a culture great, large, and enduring, like the Golden Ages of the Chinese Dynasties or the Egyptian Empires? For anything to powerfully rise up in nature and be sustained, it must be in harmony with nature. If not, it would not receive any support.
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For a culture to have become great, there must have been a number of highly evolved people coming together and giving birth to that culture. Otherwise it wouldn’t rise up. It’s not possible.
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An Excerpt from Unconditioned Spirit.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, July 22, 2010 | Mount Soma |
Mount Soma is lively this week with the Summer Retreat going on. Please join us for our Guru Purnima Celebration on Sunday!
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© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, July 21, 2010 | Spirituality
A devotee once asked an Indian saint, “Why did the universe manifest?” He answered, “It didn’t.”
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The transcendental realm, is sometimes called the “absolute.” Put simply, the transcendent realm equals Pure Consciousness. Pure Consciousness is the ultimate reality, it is Truth. In the final analysis, Pure Consciousness is the only thing that actually IS.
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All that exists is pure Consciousness.
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My own discovery of the transcendent occurred when I was in college. I often pondered life and its meaning. Is there anything that I can say I really KNOW? I looked at my hand and wondered, “How do I know that this is my hand?” Senses can be deceiving, and how did I know that, as some philosophers suggested, there wasn’t a manipulator, a deceiver, behind the idea that my hand was actually a hand?
During that time, I noticed that all fields of study contained the same principles. Whether we’re talking about mathematics, music, or engineering, there’s a commonality, an underlying basis that unifies all fields of existence. I began to have profound spiritual experiences. I knew that Einstein was correct—there is a unified field, a oneness to everything! I experienced that Consciousness is the continuum in life, the unified oneness—The Eternal One.
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Because of these experiences I rephrased Descartes’ famous quote, “I think, therefore I am,” to “I think, therefore Consciousness is.” Pure Consciousness, the transcendent, is all that we really have—it’s the commonality, or unified field, out of which all else springs.
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Transcendence is oneness. It connects everything and everyone.
It rises above, or transcends, both the physical and the electromagnetic realms.
Consciousness is the only thing that is not created by our projections.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
