by Michael Mamas | Sunday, January 13, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Anger comes in two forms.
That born of the True Self, the Divine Self, one’s own True Nature, which commands the world to align with Natural Law.
And that born of the conditioned, programmed, personality self, with which most are identified and which demands the world conform to its petty will.
Based upon observation, the latter almost always perceives itself to be the former.
Even when one knows it to be the latter, the individual is rarely able to confess to that… particularly to those most deserving of the confession.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, January 7, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Thomas Edison said, “There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”
On face value, I do not agree with Mr. Edison. People think all the time… way too much. Thoughts, thoughts, and more thoughts run through their heads incessantly. However, the deeper point I am sure he is alluding to, is that few think in a clear, coordinated, coherent manner. Scientists are trained to think rationally but that too is not sufficient for a fully developed life. In the scientist’s laboratory as many variables as possible are fixed. In life, all variables are dynamic and ongoing.
The mind is like a muscle. It must be used properly to develop. If it is not exercised properly, it remains weak. Connections between variables are flimsy. A single point can consume the mind and cast the thinking process in a skewed direction of no return.
I believe Mr. Edison’s point was that few are adept at attentive, mindful thought. That process remains atrophied from lack of use. Until the mind is developed, such thinking just seems to require too much effort. The brain quickly becomes fatigued and jumps to a justification to stop the process. It is similar to lifting weights in the gym. No rep seems most desirable, but certainly after several, that next rep feels like pure torture. Mindlessly floating through life is then more appealing, though not truly rewarding. Mind-numbing entertainment, primitive or sensual over-stimulus, presents itself as the easy way out. But it is, in the final analysis, a downward spiral.
Consider color blindness. Usually a color-blind person does see and appreciate the full range of colors even though the color receptors are weak. It requires focus and effort to identify the color that is right in front of their face. The mind is similar. The connection between the mind and the world at hand is often weak. Some say that you must open your mind. More correctly, you must develop your mind. However, few are interested or willing to do that.
Fortunately, there is an effective methodology for development. Namely, meditate and act. You cannot meditate your way to enlightenment. Enlightenment means an integrated mind. For those willing to do it, my writings and lectures along with proper meditation offer the steps of progress. I ask you to think… but not just in a limited manner… instead in an expanded sense, integrating feelings and emotions with thoughts, perceptions and profound concepts.
Such far-reaching reflection integrates the mind with itself by harmonizing it with nature, which is the mind’s true nature. The whole brain harmonizes. It is simply the state of healthy function of the mind. Attaining that can be challenging. You may jump off on a tangent, just as a weightlifter finds a reason to not do those last couple of reps.
However, the reward is enlightenment, if you are willing to stay the course.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, January 4, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Wherever you look (life’s daily situations, business, politics, proper diet, proper exercise, personal relationships… it doesn’t matter where) life is permeated with wrong information. Even in what seems to be the simplest matters, contradictory perspectives collide. If your relationship with that is not healthy, life can be most frustrating.
What is the source of that frustration? Looking to the surface for the depth. Looking for the absolute in the relative. Looking for perfection in the world of imperfection…. for ‘relative’ essentially by definition means ‘imperfection’. You may need to reflect upon that a bit to under-stand it. Relative means perspective, means no bottom line.
What is the solution? Understanding the nature of life. Delighting in that. Marveling in that. Acting in harmony with that. The absolute is the trunk of the tree of life. See the connection of the movement of the branches to the solidity of the trunk, but do not look for the solidity in the branches… only look to see the connection, the pathway, from all the branches to the trunk.
Opinions fly in every direction. The more opinions you hear, the more different directions you are pointed. Look for the connection. Connect the dots. When all the wrong information is assimilated within your being, the truth is felt… but never put in a box. Truth, the Absolute, by its very nature lies beyond grasp. By living in peace with, in harmony with, that simple understanding, your proper course of action will lie before you.
We all long for That.
What to do? Where to go? How to live? What to think? There is a simple approach expressed in the Veda… Neti, neti, neti… not that, not that, not that. By holding things lightly, you rest into Truth, which lies beyond relativity… beyond information.
To be well informed is to have a healthy relationship with information, is to see beyond the surface… neti, neti, neti.
Arguing a perspective is a futile exercise, lest you see beyond your point, even while you are making it.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, December 30, 2012 | Personal Growth, World View |
“Obstacles can’t stop you. Problems can’t stop you. Most of all, other people can’t stop you. Only you can stop you.”
– J. Gitomer
I have seen the truth in this quote over and over again. Yet I suspect some who read it see the untruth in it more than the truth.
Another way of saying it is: “fortune favors the bold”.
Then there is that song… “I hope that you dance…”
Or, “when you wish upon a star”.
Or, “forward, forward, always forward”.
Really they are all saying the same thing.
Reflect deeply. Choose wisely. Look past the superficial self. Look to your true Self… beyond dogma, beyond greed, beyond fear, beyond weakness, beyond fatigue, beyond parental inner voices of the superego, beyond smallness, beyond grandiosity, beyond superficial ego, beyond need of recognition, beyond pride, beyond all conditioning.
You are great. Your domain is the universe. Live it.
After your physical body is gone and your true Self remains – when you are standing all alone at the ‘Pearly Gates’ – what would you do now that would make you then stand up tall, stare Saint Peter right in the eye, and say, “I did what I believed in.” ?
Decide what you truly believe in. Then ‘just do it’.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, November 22, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Everyone has idealized notions. This is a good time to ask yourself what your notions of the ideal Thanksgiving look like. And then remember that it is different for everyone.
For some, it is family joining around the kitchen table, preparing the feast, with loved ones in the other room playing scrabble. For others, it is a day at the football game or watching television.
It is no wonder that it is a time when some feel melancholy. No one seems to have the exact same ideal notion as you. It seems everyone’s notion is that everyone else fits perfectly into his own personal ideal notion. Then they are disappointed.
Look deeper.
Thanksgiving is a time to let go and relax into the depth of your being… that which is pure satisfaction, and that which loves unconditionally. We all share the same one humanity. Your friends and loved ones join you on a level that transcends idealized notions. It is the level of universality. The power of Thanksgiving dwells there. With the attention of so many on that level, Thanksgiving becomes a profoundly healing and evolutionary time for all. Having your attention on that level assures a beautiful Thanksgiving.
Get the depth right, and all else takes care of itself.
This one day each year is set aside to be thankful for all the good that is. It is a day to count your blessings and release your cares. Do not underestimate the powerful blessing we all receive by joining in the national group consciousness of that gratitude.
Resting into that, you will most assuredly have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Let us all be thankful for our lives and for one and other.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, November 10, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
False dignity is pride
True dignity is humble integrity
True Integrity is alignment with the True Self
True Humility is rooted in abstraction… which lies beyond rules, codes, laws…
yet proper use of rules, codes, and laws can help light the way to True Integrity and True Humility.
Improper use of rules, codes, and laws clouds, inhibits, or even attacks The Way.
False integrity is alignment with dogma.
When the Master speaks, it immediately ceases to be what the Master said and, in time, becomes what dogma dictates.
Jesus was judged harshly by the ‘spiritual elders’ of His time.
Today is no different than then.
Reflect, learn and become great.
Truth lies within you as You.
Do not rely upon smallness. Who you are is great, grand, beyond smallness, beyond dogma, beyond simplistic… yet it is very simple.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, November 8, 2012 | Personal Growth |
To ‘know all about’ is one thing. To embody is quite another. This is true of everything from cooking, to psychology, to hard science, to spirituality and more.
True knowledge is structured in consciousness. Superficial knowledge is about facts and techniques. Such superficiality most often shrouds the deeper meaning and knowing.
As Benjamin Franklin put it:
“A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.”
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, October 9, 2012 | Personal Growth |
“Be neither silly, nor cunning, but wise.” – Benjamin Franklin
I would add:
“Be neither silly, nor cunning, nor reactionary, but wise.”
The first reactionary response is often terribly damaging. When stirred, give yourself the time to settle back into yourself before you act.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, October 6, 2012 | Personal Growth |
I was recently asked the following question (edited for content)
…what do you do with someone who insists the dimension of God they “know” is sufficient? I am a little sad because I notice when there is combativeness (as I sense in this situation), I seem to lack the maturity to disregard all that and rest into myself. Instead, I fault myself for not being able to find the right words/manner to be heard…and my joy takes a hit!
To which I respond:
We have a new kitten. My daughter loves it. It is easy to see that the kitty waits for her to come home from school. Then, when she does arrive home, the kitty hides under the cars, the porch, and bushes. This frustrates my daughter who wants to hold and pet her kitty.
I told her to just sit on the porch and play with something else or pet the other cat. It was hard for her at first but she finally did so. As you no doubt can guess, the kitty came out in little time and sat on her lap.
Who is the kitty and who is my daughter in your life right now?
Adults get into the same relationship tangles as children. We just couch them in more ‘sophisticated’ verbiage.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, September 30, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Do you want to be a great success?
What you truly love, what you really believe in, is there, alive, inside of you. Devote your life to that and your life will be a most fulfilling success.
To do so, you must look beyond ego… beyond greed… beyond any and all conditioning. It is pure and beautiful. It is Divinity as it wells up through you, as you.
It need not be conventional nor need it be grandiose, yet it is, most assuredly, grand.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
