by Michael Mamas | Saturday, July 21, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
I’m struck by the amount and degree of anger people carry within them. It seems they are waiting for the opportunity to unleash it. Some do so directly toward others, some toward themselves, and some others are passive-aggressive.
You may ask, “Why so much anger?” The answer is simple. At the depth of their being, everyone is divine, infinitely wise, and intelligent. Everyone senses that within them. It is why we are so protective of our lives. However, to bring it forth and manifest it to the world is quite another matter. It requires a great level of integration and a very high level of evolution. Being unable to bring it forth results in hurt and frustration, which leads to anger… anger at yourself, anger at others, anger at the world.
This is first experienced in childhood. It is there that the basic dynamic and mechanisms in which you manifest your anger are formed. This is why an exploration of your relationship with your parents is such fertile ground.
You may then ask, “How is it that an enlightened individual can be angry?” Regardless of one’s level of evolution, to be in this world is to be in the world of karma. If one is free of karma, by entering into the world of karma, they interact with karma. This is sometimes referred to as taking on another’s karma or taking on world karma, etc. It has been said that an enlightened person in this world of karma is kicked around like a football. Needless to say, in such instances, there can be an appropriate time for anger.
As per my blog “The Way the Wind Blows”, the dynamic that takes place within your soul that we are referring to here is hidden from view in the form of denial, then emerging and being directed outward as oblivion.
What is the way out? The most powerful tool is meditation, which integrates the surface of your life with the depth of your being. Discernment (inner exploration) tills the soil that facilitates the process.
I have sometimes used an analogy from my childhood: We lived at the bottom of a hill. When it rained, my brother, friends, and I would take sticks and run up to the roadside gutters at the top of the hill. The more it rained, the stronger the flow of water down the gutters. That is like meditation washing away the obstructions to your integration (to your evolution). With the sticks, we would push away the mud and leaves where the water was obstructed, thereby facilitating the flow. That is likened to discernment.
Meditation and discernment together provide a powerful path for human evolution. The Guru provides the meditation, as well as the guidance, to facilitate the inner exploration and prevent that exploration from becoming a reinforcement of denial. The path of human evolution is indeed subtle and highly elusive.
The Guru lights the way.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, July 20, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
You may want to read the comments to What Is Common Sense to which I added the following.
It is worth noting that western science sees and attempts to explain everything via the one pattern to which it adheres. Being so overtaken by that pattern, all others are ignored or rebuked.
This is of course not to say that western science is anything short of fantastic. However, it does not and cannot explain everything.
What is needed is not a new thought, but an entirely new way of thinking.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, July 18, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
I’ve been struck to witness attempts to define “common sense”. They all seem to fall so short. The reason being, the nature of life that would provide a context for the answer is not readily available.
We know there is an underlying basis to all existence that is the source of infinite harmony and intelligence. We also know it is common to all people. “Common sense” is simply sensing into that level and acting from that place.
So what is “wisdom”? “Wisdom” is simply taking that to a deeper level.
This nicely illustrates how the essential context for life and existence (the big picture) provides answers to many questions that are otherwise elusive and fleeting. Attempting to answer such questions without this context is putting the cart before the horse. That lack of understanding is the unfortunate foundation of most philosophies.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, July 16, 2012 | Favorites, Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Everything about a person is completely transparent… right there on the surface for everyone to see. Some think they hide, but they do not. Denial is the only shroud. Denial begins with how one views ones self. From there it projects outwardly upon the world as oblivion.
Life is all about people. Facts and figures are secondary. Your relationship with fact, figures, and everything else is what makes all the difference. Life is paradox. For every perspective, there is an equally valid yet contradictory perspective. Which perspective you adhere to is determined by conditioning… the sum total of your life experiences… your karma.
Life is that way. Everything blows in the winds of karma… not only the perspective of individuals, but also of groups… subcultures and cultures. Want to know the way the wind is blowing? Watch the news. Experts in every field disagree. Why? The winds of karma.
When everyone is leaning one way, under-stand the other. Not just to be contrary, but because the universe needs balance. A full head of steam in any direction will eventually run you off the road. For every perspective, there is an equally valid yet contradictory perspective. Life is politics… all prescribed by karma. Everything is political. It’s all perspective. Think science is not? Think again.
Want to understand the world? Want to understand life? Watch a field of wheat blowing in the wind. Want to understand yourself? Ask which direction you lean and then attempt to fathom why. Only the transcendental, eternally silent witness knows…. and it speaks not. Like the stable earth it is unmoved by the wind. Root yourself in that.
From there, everything is virtual… lightly etched on the face of being – completely transparent.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, June 27, 2012 | Personal Growth |
A dream is often a symbolic representation of the current tone of your psyche. For example, if you watch a frightening moving and then go to bed, you may have a nightmare. If you are feeling wonderful and go to bed, you may have a lovely dream about flowers and sunshine.
Life after death is the same, only it is based on the longer cycle of lifetimes. Tend to the tone of your psyche. Perhaps you can rationalize how you are thinking now, but after you drop the physical body, you are left with the realm that corresponds to the tone of your psyche… be it love, good will, lust, fear, nobility, divinity, or whatever.
The best way to cultivate a desirable tone to your psyche is to practice proper meditation. I recommend the Surya Ram Meditation which is taught free. Then after a few months, you may choose to progress to the Surya Ram Meditation with Advanced Technique.
The second important thing to do is to watch your thoughts. What you put your attention on grows stronger in your life. Cloaking poor thinking in humor or other rationalizations does not get you through the pearly gates. That is the place where all bluffs are called.
Speak the sweet truth, never denounce anyone, do not entertain negativity, avoid base desires. And yes, you can do that while remaining practical and realistic in your relationship with life and people. Embrace the high road of righteousness, good will, harmony, and peace. You will thank me for this, five seconds after you’re dead.
Do not worry, just do your best. That will be successful. Count yourself among the most fortunate in that you have this knowledge.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, June 23, 2012 | Favorites, Mount Soma, Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Each of us has a world we live in. Of course, in the deepest sense, you have no limit. However, on the level of daily life we each have a certain size to our sphere of awareness, activity and influence… our world. Our global group mentality, too, is a world… a group consciousness… a self perpetuating system.
The other morning at the temple, around 4 a.m., sitting in front of the linga, I saw the size of our world – the group consciousness of humanity. It was represented as the size of the linga before me. Then my awareness went to the bigger invisible linga that reached infinitely up and out of the temple and into the earth, engulfing the physical linga before me. It was as if the physical linga was a small gateway to its greater nature. It started with a mudra that took me over, raised back my head, pushed back my arms, and showed me what was always there, but not yet physiologically lived by humanity.
To accomplish our goal for Mount Soma, the group sphere of awareness is expanding to this size. This is not a conceptual shift but a physiological shift. As your sphere of influence expands, your world expands – your physiology expands.
We are all ever-expanding – always opening to new horizons. But to open further, you must be willing to open. If not, the process is resisted and constrained. But to want to open is not to know what that really means or to see what direction it leads… what it feels like in the physiology, in the psyche. Even among those wanting to open, few are willing to open, preferring that it would conform to notions of how it should be… conform to your current sphere, world, mentality.
Even a small glimpse of that new world is a wonderful gift pointing in a direction and opening the way. Each sphere, each world you may for a time be living in, seems small, cloistered, and constricted in contrast to the next. Yet the physiology must be prepared before the next shift can take place. Otherwise, the individual can not hold it… like a lotto winner who can not deal with the world they find themselves thrown into… or an overnight success in the entertainment business unable to live in the new world they find themselves in. When done in this balanced manner, each successive sphere brings with it greater joy, wisdom, happiness, evolution, positive influence, and vision. It is like the successive blossoming of a flower. Through proper meditation and discernment, you culture your physiology for expansion. When done by even one individual, it supports the future expansion of global consciousness.
There is no end to expansion. It happens gradually, yet with phase transitions along the way. The next stage of expansion of our global mentality is on its way. A glimpse, of not just the conceptual details but the physiological experience of an expanded global mentality, changes lives. It will be quite something when it happens globally. We are most fortunate to be living at this time of great transition.
Now it is important to make it clear that each individual’s role will expand as the global awareness expands. Those leading the way will expand to take on greater roles, opening the doors for all others. The shift in the linga size represents the shift in each individual’s role.
The other night this expansion from the physical to the bigger linga was experienced as the expansion of my own personal role that will, and needs to, take place. It may or may not look dramatically different on the surface. That will depend upon the perceiver. However, inside, where it really matters, the shift will be huge.
I invite you to join me.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, June 21, 2012 | Personal Growth |
Emotion, Moon, and Music…
Intellect, Mercury, and Mathematics…
These are two sides of the same one coin. There is math in music and there is music in math.
What we think of as intelligence is more superficial than emotion. Yet the ‘intelligence’ underlying all existence, underlying emotions, wells up through the emotional level to give intelligence as we generally think of it. Reason is the junction between emotion and the more superficial intellect.
Healthy emotions are founded upon the human instrument staying in tune. This is a physiological quality that must be cultured. You can not expect a person to always stay in emotional balance, any more easily than you can expect a musical instrument to always stay in tune. However, a good indicator of emotional health is how quickly a person is able to come back in to balance.
You must culture your emotional physiology, just as you would condition your muscles to be healthy and strong. Otherwise, you will emotionally spin out when pressure is imposed. It is easy to be in balance when there is no pressure.
When you do go out of balance, do not view it as a flaw. View it as inspiration to culture your emotional physiology.
The greatest tool for this is proper meditation. Then comes discernment.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, June 18, 2012 | Personal Growth |
“The better part of valor is discretion.” – Shakespeare
~
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, June 15, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Just keep in mind that juggling does not mean, “figuring it all out”. Nor does it mean having no cynicism, anger, fear, etc. It means awakening to the place deep within that holds all of these things… holds everything… and is beyond the touch of any of it.
Oneness does not mean one with all the things you like and elimination of all the things you do not. Oneness means oneness.
The course of action is eternally unfathomable. You never figure everything out. You juggle… everything remains up in the air. That is why they call it ‘relativity.’ No bottom line. No figuring it all out.
To juggle means to have a healthy relationship with… which means to under-stand, not over-stand. Humility, innocence, not knowingness, are all built right into it, while concurrently, at the depth, you are awake to all knowingness, infinite stability, infinite flexibility, infinite peace, etc.
The nature of the depth and the nature of the surface are two very different things. The error of ‘cross realm projection’ is to try to transfer qualities of one upon the other.
In enlightenment, they exist concurrently… the surface along with its nature, and the depth along with its nature. Yet the surface, from the perspective of your depth, is then experienced as virtual… just lightly etched on the face of the absolute.
The root is stable, the leaves juggle in the wind.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, June 14, 2012 | Favorites, Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Most aspire to a state where everything in their life is tucked away nicely in place. No dangling ends. No unresolved situations. No problems. No worries. No fears. Everything settled and solid and safe.
Of course life is not like that. There are always many ‘balls in the air” and plates at the end of poles that you need to keep spinning lest they fall to the ground and shatter. So many spend their lives trying to catch all the balls and stash them away and grab all the plates and pack them up snuggly.
In other words there is a longing for stable ground. The longing is actually good, but it is misdirected. The stability you long for is not on the surface of life. It is in the depth of your being. Trying to attain it on the surface is a fool’s play, like a cat pawing at its own reflection in pursuit of contact. Or like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
The juggler finds stability within. This is what allows him to enjoy and excel at his craft. The art of juggling maps on to, i.e. parallels, the art of accomplishment in life. The fulfillment it brings is the stability one feels when established in the transcendent even in the midst of great activity. At first that solid stability is felt only for a moment here and there during meditation. Imagine it being there all the time… during the greatest hardships and greatest joys. Imagine tossing more and more balls in the air and spinning more and more plates, without fear of losing the stability of the inner Self. That is the art of juggling.
You cannot just meditate your way to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the integration of silence with dynamism… of activity and rest… of the absolute with the relative… of inner oneness and outer multiplicity. The Guru can help you with that. It is what a Guru does. Yet along the way, many decide they have it figured out and know better and aspire to catch one moonbeam or dangling carrot or another as per their own choosing.
But listening to the Guru does not mean attending an isolated lecture here and there, or being inspired by a lovely quote and then going about your business. It means listening and living life accordingly. Very few are willing to do that. After all, you did not come here to learn to juggle… or did you?
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
