by Michael Mamas | Saturday, March 3, 2012 | Spirituality |
Spirituality is simply another word for the depth of your being.
I have been savoring that notion. Spiritual evolution is simply seeing and living from that place within with greater and greater clarity.
Yet it is not a ‘clarity trip’. It is not simplistic. It is profound.
It is a physiological state, like the harmony of the branches tips flowing in the breezes of life while firmly rooting in the trunk of the tree. Like smoke from an incense stick. Like water tumbling over the rocks of a mountain stream.
It is unencumbered by conditioned beliefs or emotional upheavals. It is quiet. It is deep. Yet it is dynamic and can cut with uncompromised conviction, while also is balm on the wound of limited thoughts and emotions.
It sees beyond the horizon, yet flows with what is.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, March 1, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
What makes a flower beautiful? A healthy root.
What makes a person happy? A healthy essence.
Tend to the depth of your being first. Then the surface will be fed. Just as a healthy root is the source of a beautiful flower, a healthy essence is the source of a happy life.
By tending excessively to the surface of life without sufficient attention paid to the depth, life is starved of the very source of happiness.
Tend to the depth. If the soul is strong, life will prosper. It is in the depth that you find the strength, creativity, flexibility, wisdom, and intelligence to cultivate a happy life.
In this world today, the surface of life is the primary focus. That is upside down.
Spirituality is really just another word for the depth of life. It is not a philosophy or belief system. It is a state of physiology.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, February 23, 2012 | Personal Growth
Throughout the years I have encouraged people to work with their psychodynamic issues. Impressions (samskaras) from past experiences, when left unresolved, can disrupt your behavior throughout your life. It is important to work with that. I spent years developing the techniques of Transgradient Counseling to help you with those issues in your personal process.
Through personal process, you can heal your inner hurts, resentments, angers, and fears. When properly done, this helps to clear those impressions. That is, of course, a good thing.
It is not an uncommon error, however, to bring those attitudes into your daily interactions with people. That is not a good thing.
There is personal process, and then there is just plain bad manners. Such behavior is not acceptable.
I understand full well that the position I am in sets me up for a great deal of transference. I become the authority figure, and heaven knows how many issues people have with authority.
We are forever entering new levels and phases in the evolution of our world and our community. As per the Vedic Tradition, there is no room for acting out with bad manners as it applies to your relationship with me, or people representing me. Please afford us at least as much respect as you would a college professor, a judge in the courtroom, or a senior family member.
I do invite and encourage relaxed, warm, and friendly relationships between my students and me. However, that must not be interpreted as a right to act out. When you speak to me, as per the Vedic Tradition, do not forget with whom you are speaking.
There is one fundamental rule of thumb for your relationship with others: Just basic respect.
We live in irreverent times. But that cannot and will not spill over into what we are doing here. We’ve been forgiving with these matters in the past but that will not continue. Please reflect on these words and act accordingly.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, February 17, 2012 | Spirituality |
The Absolute is infinite, unbounded, and eternal. Through meditation you rest into that level every day. “Coming back” into relativity can feel quite confining. In relativity there are laws of nature to respect. There are limitations, rules, and regulations. However, by going back and forth between meditation and activity, over time, unboundedness and boundedness become seamlessly integrated. Unboundedness flows through relativity.
The inclination may be to feel negative toward the world and other people. You do not want to have to ‘paint within the lines’ or conform to policies or regulations. These can be experienced as that which is in your way – imposing limitation upon your otherwise exquisite life.
If allowed to do so, relativity is avoided to the point that rarification takes over. You may feel like you are right, above all else, and nearly enlightened. But enlightenment means integration. I have seen people who have gone that route. It is not a pretty sight. They are clearly disconnected from the world and reality. Their head is in the clouds.
The more you meditate, the more you need to engage in activity to integrate it. That is why we structure activity into the ashram program. You cannot meditate your way to enlightenment. You need to integrate existence within you. I do understand that there is a common tendency to sit around and rarify between meditations. But to go that direction would be most unwise.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, February 16, 2012 | Spirituality |
A visionary is not one who just sees the pure, clean, self-evident truth. A visionary is one who commits to that truth and follows wherever it leads.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The time is always right to do the right thing.”
This is not complicated. The question is not whether you can see the horizon. The question is: Are you willing to steadfastly go where it leads?
Dr King also said, “If a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
I would also suggest, “If a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t alive.”
Furthermore I would suggest, “If a man hasn’t died, he isn’t alive.”
Death here is not the physical kind.
The only true life comes from the death of death… the death of the life of pettiness, of smallness, of pride, of fear, of what some refer to as the ego or small self. This is attained through commitment to following what you see in the horizon.
I implore you to live.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 | Spirituality |
It has touched my heart through the years to see how beautifully children take to Valentines Day.
The one and only underfying force in all of nature is love… the force that brings separation to oneness.
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All else is illusion.
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In our busy lives it is wonderful that we take one day out of every year to proclaim one sweet and humble thing… purely and innocently… simply that
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We Love
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© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, February 12, 2012 | Spirituality |
The key to life is good orchestration. If you are not a good orchestrator, life will not work out so well for you.
All the pieces of the puzzle are right in front of you. Are you orchestrating them masterfully?
Imagine a world where all people are masterful orchestrators.
This is certainly valid on the surface of life, yet true orchestration happens at the depth of your being, not the surface. And it may not be how you think it should look, not only regarding others, but even for yourself.
Get the depth right, and the surface will take care of itself. Focus on the depth. No depth, no chance.
You cannot build a solid house with no foundation.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, February 10, 2012 | Spirituality |
There is an ancient legend. God decided to create the universe. He made the galaxies and the Earth with its oceans, mountains, forests and streams. He created us, so we could enjoy his creation.
However, when we came here and took a look around we decided that we would rather just be back in Heaven with God and simply left this creation and returned to him.
Well, at first God was disappointed and thought: “What can I do to keep man away from Heaven so that he can explore all the wonders of my creation? If I make a ‘key to life’ they will find it. If I put it at the top of the highest mountain they will climb up there and get it. If I put the key at the bottom of the ocean, they will devise a way to get down there to get it.”
Then God had an idea that delighted him; he thought: “I will hide the ‘key to life’ in the very last place that anyone will look—in the depth of their own heart!” And do you know what?…. It worked.
We go all around the world looking for truth and fulfillment. We create great melodramas for ourselves. We get PhD’s. We build empires. We go on spiritual quests and crusades. We find other people that we look up to for the answers. The last place we look is inside ourselves!
The key to life is alive and well—inside of you. You can find it!
Introduction to Consciousness Unfolding, by Michael Mamas
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Mount Soma |
I have been quite busy lately. Though I spend a great deal of time at Mount Soma addressing county, subcontractor, and logistical concerns, those matters are secondary. My primary activity is going to the temple in the morning to meditate, do my mantras, etc. There I reflect and seek communion with God. If the inner is right, the outer will be right. I live in dedication to that.
I find great comfort and support in Pandit Prasad. He and his wife, Lakshmi, have become my dear friends…. pure, simple, and innocent. I rely upon them. Through them I have an additional supportive conduit to the Almighty. For too many years I have traveled this path feeling that, though loved, too few could understand me. Abandoning their world in India to join me here stands as a solid testament to their commitment to our purpose. We can bring peace to this world. All that is required is commitment.
The blossoming of the Guru Shala (Enlightened City) also involves communication with Harsha, my dear friend in Mumbai. We are establishing our foundation in India, which requires my attention of course. Needless to say, also of great significance is the MMWPP (Michael Mamas World Peace Project). Also, the Pandit Boys School in India is going well.
All these things require a great deal of time and energy. My commitment to my students also requires my time and energy. I am most grateful to all of you that are so respectful and careful in how, when, and why you communicate with me. At the same time, I feel sad when my time is so limited. Even today, people came to the temple and the demands upon me did not allow time to sit and be with them. This happens all too often.
And that is an update on my life at this time. In the future I hope to have time to write more books, chat with more people, and have more time for my beloved family.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, February 2, 2012 | Spirituality |
If you could just apply both of the following quotes to spirituality and live your life in that context, you would get enlightened very quickly.
“We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” – Winston Churchill
“You can’t help someone get up a hill without getting closer to the top yourself.” – Norman Schwarzkopf
Truth is all around you. Only the wise person knows it when they hear it. But only the enlightened live their life from that place.
Great quotes are simply not heard by the many. The wise can feel those quotes resonate with the Divine deep within. The enlightened spontaneously live their life accordingly.
Even the wise are baffled by the behavior of an enlightened one. It is one thing to feel the touch of the paradoxicle, it is quite another to live from that place.
As you evolve, you help the world evolve. As you help the world evolve, you evolve. You cannot measure the degree to which you are helping others with a superficial measuring device. If you could, you would immediately stop living for your self as you know it and begin living for the world as you currently do not know it. You cannot move in the direction of enlightenment without abandoning your conditioned self to a proportionate degree. Your evolutionary rate cannot be measured by your current conditioning, it is measured by that which lies deeper within you. It is something you can feel, but do not awaken to until you are enlightened.
Do you want to get enlightened? Look beyond the horizon of your current thinking. Feel the place inside that resonates with wise quotes and devote yourself to that, wherever it may lead. Do not think with your conditioned mind. Look beyond the horizon.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
