Regrets

by | Saturday, June 12, 2010 | Spirituality | 1 comment

It seems a popular stance to claim you have no regrets in life.  Though from one perspective this makes sense, I do not think it is wise to feel you must always adhere to it.  Personally, I do not regret that I have regrets.  This is simply the nature of life.  I am thankful that none of my regrets are major or life altering.  However if you have such regrets, developing a healthy relationship with them is the path of wisdom.

 

flowerOddly enough, my motivation for this blog stems from what is in the greater scheme of things a small regret.  Once in a public lecture, I was asked what I considered the major

threat to our world.  I simply said that there were many, and nuclear annihilation may well be the most pressing.  Later that evening, I regretted missing the opportunity.  Perhaps I should have chosen annihilation of the honeybee.  Of course there are also the possibilities of global famine, epidemic, unleashing a weapon of mass destruction, a comet crashing into the earth, etc.  The point is that there are an unlimited number of potential threats to our existence.  If we just take a step back, it is easy to see that we cannot possibly address each on its own level and succeed.  There are just too many.  Humanity has had no choice but to function on those levels because it saw no other way to solve the problems.

However, there is a way.  By evolving the consciousness of humanity, we can save the world.  However, this does not mean indoctrination into a particular philosophy or way of thinking.  It is a more organic, more physiological, more fundamental process.  It is an evolutionary step every bit as much in a spiritual as a Darwinian sense.

The greatest threat to our world is the lack of evolution of humanity.  Evolution can be facilitated.  It can be cultivated.  By doing so, all threats to humanity will be solved.  How

can this possibly be so?    It is like a plant.  Without water, many different seemingly insurmountable problems arise. The plant wilts.  Insects devour it.  It does not bear fruit, etc., etc.  Watering the root regularly can solve all these problems.  Similarly, watering the root of life, consciousness, can solve all of humanities problems.  The depth and profundity of this cannot be overstated.  Before this is understood, the implications are so staggering that they trigger a level of disbelief that precludes further investigation.

The greatest threat to our existence is lack of consciousness in the most fundamental sense of the word.  Many of you have heard me speak on this subject over and over again.  Yet until one has actually experienced what it means to truly evolve, this is all just theory.  Superficial substitutes for true evolution (like adherence to spiritual or political philosophies and behavioral modifications) distract, mislead, and hold true evolution at bay.

I regret missing the opportunity to have responded to the question in this way.  The greatest threat to humanity is the lack of understanding of what it truly means to evolve and how to effectively go about it.  When this is understood, one naturally pursues their chosen walk of life in accord with that theme.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Taste of a Strawberry: excerpt from Unconditioned Spirit

by | Wednesday, June 9, 2010 | Spirituality

I reviewed with some fourth-year students a concept I cover in my first-year classes.

After class, a student came up and asked, “Why didn’t you say that before?  That would have been very helpful to know earlier.”

The student was experiencing the concept in a deeper way for the first time.  Within each of us is a deeper understanding of everything.  When we awaken to it, it can be hard to believe we’ve ever heard it before.

 

strawberryThis can be compared to knowing the taste of a strawberry.  You can hear all about what a strawberry tastes like, interviewing people and gathering descriptions of strawberries.  You can study strawberries for years, from berry picking to chemical makeup and genealogy.  You could even get a Ph.D. in strawberries.  You would then have a thorough intellectual understanding of what strawberries taste like.  But if you did that without ever tasting one and finally bit into one, you would probably say, “I know all about strawberries.  I have a Ph.D. in strawberries.  And there’s one thing I can assure you:  This is not a strawberry.”

An intellectual understanding of the taste of a strawberry does not provide the experience.  There is no way to know the taste of something without tasting it.

Deeper knowledge is within us, waiting for us to experience it.

 

In the case of the student, she had heard the words of the lecture, but hadn’t tasted the understanding, the experience of it.  When she finally had a deeper experience for herself, things came together for her.

As the nature of existence becomes more available, it transforms the same old words you have heard before into something else, something new.

This is why I discuss the same concept in a myriad of different ways.  When it hits right, knowing about becomes understanding at a deeper level.

And now for an even more fascinating point:  In the future, it is likely that same student will approach me and say, “I thought I got it then, but now I really get it.”

 

Eventually, we begin to realize that each, “Now I get it,” brings us to another level of understanding, and then another, and then another.  As the process goes on, we learn that we will never really “get it.”  Truth is not a place or product; but a continuum. We grab onto notions because they serve and support life in that moment.  Our next step may be to let them go.  In time as we realize the progression, it becomes easier to hold things lightly, always ready to let them go.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Karma

by | Tuesday, June 8, 2010 | Spirituality

rootsWe all have mountains of karma. The waves come here and there from lifetime to lifetime and moment to moment as they do.

There is no way out other than through…

Meditate, explore, and meditate some more to dissolve it on the level of the Transcendent. You cannot get rid of it. But you can transform it to a level where you hardly feel it at all. In so doing, you transform world karma for all humanity as well.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Four Leaf Clover

by | Monday, June 7, 2010 | Mount Soma

cloverThe four leaf clover is a mutation of the white clover which has 4 leaflets instead of 3.

To this day it is supposed to be extremely fortuitous to find one, and it is traditional to pick it and press and dry it so that good luck will remain with you.

The 4 leaves represent happiness, faith, love and inspiration (or God’s Grace in the case of shamrock).

Here at Mount Soma, there are many four-leaf clovers to be found.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Evolution

by | Sunday, June 6, 2010 | Spirituality

mountainRemember that true evolution is a culturing process. It is a lifestyle. It is natural to long for a better life. This longing is rooted in the Divine longing to merge with the infinite perfection of the Absolute, the perfection of God.

I know that the path to God, at times, can feel like crossing a huge desert. At those times, you can easily be distracted. Do your best to return to balance as soon as you can by remaining committed to what you have learned. Remember that building a fulfilling life begins with building yourself. Remember to return to the stability and grace of your inner being when you become distracted by worldly matters. True fulfillment comes from that place.

By returning over and over again to that inner place, you will culture/build from within yourself a life based upon it. Certainly, this task will be easier if you live where your environment supports such an understanding. Yet wherever you live, your evolution ultimately depends upon you and you returning to your inner Divine Self over and over again, until your awareness of that never fades.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

Incompatibility

by | Saturday, June 5, 2010 | Relationship

flowersThere are many bogus spiritual beliefs prevalent in the world today.  Much of my work is to point out these errors, and as a result, I am sometimes perceived as negative.  However, I see no pressing need to talk about the viewpoints that are correct.

One widespread belief that many people adhere to is to think that you need to stay in a relationship that is not working in order to work out your ‘issues.’  Though that may be true at times, it is very important to realize that some couples are just not compatible, regardless of any issues.

If you are in a relationship that is not working, it is essential to ask yourself whether it is due to your issues or just incompatibility.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

The Simple Life

by | Thursday, June 3, 2010 | Spirituality

chairsWhat does it mean to live a simple life? Perhaps it is better to ask what it does not mean. It does not mean living barefoot in a cabin without water or electricity. You can be fully engaged in the dynamism of life and still live simply.It almost feels like there is more air or space in your life.

Though your days may be very active, you continue to come from a place of relaxed openness, restful alertness, dynamic serenity, harmony. It is something more felt than seen. It is a state of physiology, and that state radiates through your environment.

People may or may not notice, but it does affect them. As your physiology evolves, you more naturally function from that place. It is like the eternal stillness at the depth of the ocean. Even in the harshest storm, it lives on. What does it feel like? It feels like open space – unencumbered, sweet, clean, and gentle.

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.