by Michael Mamas | Monday, July 1, 2013 | Personal Growth |
In a nutshell:
1] You start but see little or no results. This is when most people get discouraged and quit. Fear and doubt take them over. They decide it is not for them, or they are just not cut out for it… something is wrong with them, etc. They quit and end up feeling bad about themselves. If this sounds like you, please do not give up. Try again OR, if that really was not for you, then find another longing inside yourself, a new challenge. Keep going until you get to step #3 below, in some area that resonates with you. But remember that the time most people quit, is right before they were about to get to that all important step #3, i.e. before the get over THE HUMP.
2] You keep up step #1 just long enough to see some results. This stage often is first realized when another person acknowledges your progress, even before you acknowledge it for yourself.
3] THE HUMP: This is when you really get that it is working. You are making progress. What you are doing is working. All you need to do is keep it up. You get inspired to stay with it. This is when you really come to acknowledge, to know, from within your own self that it is definitely working. Once you get over that hump, your chances of reaching your goal increase many, many fold. You’ve essentially done it! You were climbing a seemingly unclimbable mountain until this moment. It is now “all down hill from here”. Unfortunately, most people quit before they get over that hump. Acknowledgement from another in step #2 above can often be just what you need to reach this step of knowing you know how to do it from within your own self. Never lie to someone to try to get them to step #3 though. Once your credibility is shot in that way, you are finished in their eyes. You can cheer them on to get them there, but do not tell them they are there when you do not really believe it.
4] You gain momentum. You start forming opinions based upon what really worked for you. You start filtering through all the information and advice you have gathered to determine for yourself what works and what does not.
5] You become a true authority on the topic, or at least your particular segment of it. That is actually a pitfall for some who think that the way they did it is the only way. Yet if they remain humble with what they know and do not know, it leads to step #6.
6] You enjoy sharing what you have learned with others and helping them along their way.
7] You branch out to the next challenge, the next new step #1, the new horizon. Only this time, you are more confident with step #1 because you have learned the steps to success from your previous experience.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, June 29, 2013 | Favorites, Personal Growth |
When you encounter conflict, it is good to remember that there are three things involved:
1) you
2) the person you are in conflict with, and
3) the conflict itself.
Usually conflict puts you on one side of the fence and the person on the other. You equate the conflict with that person.
Consider another approach: You are on the same side of the fence shoulder to shoulder with the person. The conflict is what is on the other side of the fence. The two of you are on a team striving to overcome the conflict.
Now, of course, usually the person is not looking at it that way. They equate you with the conflict. That is ok. But you need to remember that the conflict has overtaken the person, but in actuality you are both on the same side. Neither wants the conflict. Depending upon the relationship, you may even be able to relate this to the person and work together to overcome the conflict. It is almost like the conflict itself is a third person involved that is dedicated to overtaking you both. It has a mind of its own. It wants to rule you both.
Also remember: Time is the great resolver. The most irresolvable issues are resolved by time. In time, even nations at war become allies. Life, nature, has a rhythm. Find that rhythm and allow it to be. After all, rhythm is timing. Rhythm is nothing other than a healthy relationship with time. There is a cosmic flow to nature. Find that within yourself. Impatience interferes with rhythm… interferes with the cosmic flow. Do not insist upon finding a solution immediately. Forcing the issue interferes with the natural flow. Give things the time and space they need to resolve themselves. The solution will come if you allow it time and space to reveal itself. Give time the opportunity to flow naturally.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, June 24, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
“Your direction, not your intention, determines your destination.” – Anonymous
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, June 22, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
I remember as a kid being inspired by a short essay Emerson wrote about circles. Every culture is a circle with a high and low end. Every religion is a circle. Every ethnic group is a circle… even every individual. There is no end to circles. Even the horizon goes around 360 degrees to form a circle.
All too often when generalizing about people, focus is placed upon the low end of the circle, as if that defines the entire individual or group. Implying this is demeaning, damaging and misleading.
Why not focus on the high end of every circle, but not blindly focused. That would be called denial. But lean in the direction of moving every individual, subculture, culture, nation, and all of humanity forward in the direction of the high end of the circle. This is called evolution. Proper discernment is of course, as with all things, essential.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, June 16, 2013 | Personal Growth |
“Fear or Stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.” – Albert Einstein
“Failure does not come from falling down. Failure comes from not getting back up.” –Anonymous
Many failures are not acknowledged as failures, but instead are viewed through the eyes of denial… “Oh, that wasn’t for me anyway” or “Oh, I’m glad I finally found something better than that.” Such denial is the most common form of “not getting back up.”
It requires strength, courage and self-respect to acknowledge failure as just another failure, and to then get back up and try, try again. Fear and stupidity masked as strength, courage, and self-respect are by far the more common basis of human action than are true strength, courage, and self-respect.
Yet when I view people, I see the depth within them as them. That depth – who they realize themselves to be once they see beyond the surface – is an infinite reservoir of strength, courage, self-respect and all great things.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, June 12, 2013 | Personal Growth |
Most allegiances are not determined by a fair evaluation but rather by familiarity and impulsive loyalty. This includes not only spiritual convictions but also personal and political points of view. Blind allegiances to friends, spouses, groups, and philosophies rule most individuals. Unfortunately, the most common exceptions are the impulsively militant crusader and the rebellious teen.
Though clearly the case, it still amazes me how biased people are. No matter what the specific issue, republicans across the board consistently defend the Republican Party line views as do the Democrats. The other day I asked someone what they thought about all the scandals plaguing the current administration. They responded that they have not been watching the news and so they knew nothing about it. In the very same breath they gave their opinion about the validity of the claims. No knowledge… just opinion.
That seems to be how most people function. They have already chosen a side, which dictates their perspective. To live better you must be able and willing to look deeper. The process is called discernment. It is the path of evolution. It is most precious. It is most rare.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, June 6, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
With the completion of so many homes, buildings, and cottages here at Mount Soma, I have learned a great deal about color.
First, I learned that samples of paint chips are nearly useless. Many times, a group of people would put their heads together to pour over paint chip samples and finally came to an agreement. After the paint went on the wall, everyone was amazed (and occasionally horrified) how different it looked.
Second, a color may look great on one wall and completely different on another, even in the same room. Throw in the different times of day, and direct or indirect sunlight, and you would be certain it is a different paint entirely!
A significant percentage of the population is colorblind. I count myself in that category, at least to some small degree. My experience is that I see all the colors. I know all the colors. However, it is as if the color receptors are just weak. In certain lighting, or up against certain other colors, a color can get somewhat ‘lost’.
To understand color and our relationship with it is to understand LIFE. We all have some types of ‘receptors’ that are weak. For some people, it is about dancing. Everyone can see what a good dancer looks like. But the integration of that in our own bodies may be weak. Knowing a good dancer when you see one does not make you a good dancer.
With others, it is as if the ‘intelligence receptors’ are weak. They know what logic is… but to follow along in a conversation and arrive at a logical conclusion evades them. Confusion, emotion, brain fatigue, or tangential thoughts take over. To be completely honest, I feel sometimes that my weak color receptors gave me the gift of understanding the weak ‘mental receptors’ that many people live with throughout their lives. It helps me understand how some are baffled by my inability to distinguish colors at times. It is indeed difficult for us to imagine what life must be like for another with a weak receptor in an arena where ours is strong.
Now, combine this with the second point above: In life, anything can be viewed from many different angles, perspectives, belief systems, and contexts. The possible combinations of situations are endless. How is it possible then to fathom the hue, tone, shade, feel, and truth of a particular color? How can one fathom their way through life?!
And trying to mix paints defies everything. To make your own custom colors is a mind expanding and humbling experience. No wonder creativity is so elusive for so many!
Now the first point, namely, sample paint chips. It is very challenging, if not impossible, to learn about life from paint chip samples. At best, it is knowledge with a small “k.” To find Knowledge within yourself is what life is ultimately about. Scholars are not scholars if they have not found Truth within themselves. Teachers are not teachers if they do not know their subject from within. Yet, so many go out into the world with their deck of ‘paint chip samples’ and believe themselves to be authorities, scholars, teachers, gurus, etc. They wear their paint chips as badges of honor, degrees of accomplishment, or licenses to practice.
Some may read all this and find it to be depressing, “How will I ever figure it all out?” But never forget, the beauty of life lies in its unfathomable, sublime, and elusive nature. It is something to be in eternal awe over. Beauty lies in the elusive nature of Maya, the Goddess, the Source.
The parallels of color with life are endless. Jyotish (the study of the interaction of the spectrum of variables that form life, existence, and its function and operation) is the study of color. “Jyotish” even means light.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, May 30, 2013 | Personal Growth |
I received the following question:
I am embarrassed to say that with regard to “God” I think I have some sort of “chosen” status. I can best express the Vanity of it by saying I feel like I have some special inside track. I suspect it comes from my Irish Catholic family background where I was strongly encouraged to become a priest, a special vocation for special young men specifically chosen by GOD, and I bought into that belief system. This fallacy distracts me from my efforts to evolve even while I know it’s some ego game. Any suggestions to help me move beyond this? Thank you.
To which I respond:
Yes indeed. You do have a special connection with God. You are one with God. You feel that specialness deep within. Good for you for acknowledging, even embracing, that! It is not a bad thing. It is a great thing.
How beautiful that everyone has the specialness! What an exquisite universe! The place people get confused is that they do not understand this. “How can everyone be special,” they may ask. Or they may try to affirm specialness on the surface of life, on an egotistical level. That is just confusion around the deep nature of life.
It is said that all are created equal. This is a profound statement of the depth. We are all one with the Unified Field, the source of all that is… God. See? People mess that notion up when they think it means we are all equal on the surface. That is self-evidently not so. How remarkable that people, in their confusion, try to make it so! Honestly, some of us are more artistically inclined than others. Some are more intelligent. Some are just naturally better dancers. We are like flowers… diverse, like roses vs. daisies vs. orchids. Yet each is rooted in and born of and one with the same one Mother Earth.
So hold on to the sense of your specialness, your divinity. It is 100% valid and it is most precious. How beautiful that you do know and have always known it, and no one could ever convince you otherwise. Embarrassed by that? Absolutely not!
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, May 23, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Let’s be very clear on one point. When first stated, you may think you already know it, but let’s take a deeper look: The spiritual path lies within you. Let’s say it a few different ways: Evolution is an inner process. The battlefield of human evolution is within. The spiritual journey is an inner journey. Most of your challenges, most of your karma, lie between your ears and within your heart.
Now the all-important point #2: You take that inner landscape and project it out onto the world. You have challenges: financial, emotional, logistical, moral, intellectual, personal, political, social, etc. You have obligations. You have conflicts. You have irresolvable issues. You have needs. You have made mistakes. You have hurt and have been hurt. You have many fears. You have beliefs and convictions about all of these things. Now here is the tough one: I say again, you take your inner landscape and project it onto the outer world. You convince yourself that your challenges are not about you, but about the situation you find yourself in. You decide that it is what lies outside of you that is wrong or needs attention. Oh yes, if the outer world just had it right, then you would be fine. Then you could tend to your evolution and make some real progress.
My daughter is in France for 10 days on a class trip. She had typical concerns such as who she would have to sit next to on the plane, who she would be assigned to room with, etc. This is the first time she went so far from home for so long. I found myself reflecting on what few words I would most like to say to her before she left on her journey. My first bit of advice was to stay close to the group, which she somehow turned into a funny joke about her dad telling her to not flirt with the taxi cab drivers. The second was to have a good attitude. Be a ‘player.’ Keep a positive attitude and be flexible with challenges or situations that may not be to her liking.
This made me think of my students. There are those that seem to be eternally plagued with outer world, insurmountable obstacles that torment them. Then there are those that keep going forward without getting caught up in this or that disturbance.
You are climbing a mountain. Imagine you have partners to climb that mountain with. What would you like them to be like? What kind of person would you like them to be? What kind of attitude would you like them to have? What attributes would make them the best partner along the way? How would you like to see them deal with conflict, adversity, things being not just exactly how they want them at times, and how they deal with major challenges?
In all honesty, I know of no one that can better help you with the inner journey than I. And I say to you, be that person. Never stop. Keep your eye on the ball. Stay one pointedly focused on climbing that mountain. Do not be distracted by your preconceived notions or the outer world. People come up with innumerable reasons to not keep their priorities straight. Your number one priority must be your evolution.
Attitude is everything.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, April 28, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” – Edward R. Murrow
Prejudice reaches far beyond the limits that most project upon it. This is particularly so in how one views ones own personal prejudices. Through prejudice, you create your world.
Most information is wrong information.
Putting all that together, you may feel there is little hope… no way out of the illusion. However, it is through the awareness of this nature of life combined with the dedication to Truth that you will navigate the waters of life and ultimately attain wisdom.
Life’s beauty lies in its elusive nature. The spiritual path is the path of discernment.
Discernment arises with the integration of heart and mind, both discovering their roots in the same one thing.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
