by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, April 11, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Mojo is a term made popular from the southern blues music era. It means a charmed, almost magical, component to your life.
I am sure you have noticed how some people seem to lead a charmed life in one form or another. Some always seem to get a nice place to live, some always seem to have people around that help them out, others may have a knack at making money, or even winning the lotto.
You have a deep relationship with the Divine. It is unique to you. You do well to explore the nature of that relationship and do all you can to cultivate it, nurture it, evolve it. That is the art of cultivation of mojo.
In the west, it is called ‘luck’. In the Vedic Tradition, it is called ‘support of nature’.
By living in harmony with your own true nature, you live in harmony with all of nature, and thereby receive the support of all of Mother Nature. That is the ‘stuff’ mojo is made of.
Your mojo is unlike any other person’s mojo. Pursue it. Discover it. Live it. “How?” you ask. By meditating, coming to classes (i.e. reflecting deeply within in a manner that take you out of the confinement of your preconceived notions), visiting Mount Soma and Sri Somesvara Temple, and doing your best to live life in accord with what you learn from those experiences.
In the words of Will Rogers, “I would rather be lucky than good.” Translated into Vedic understanding, “By living in harmony with nature, you gain the support of all of Nature.”
In the words of the southern blues movement, “Get your mojo workin’ “.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, April 2, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill
Relative existence is the field of imperfection.
Therefore, life is a series of failures.
Life is all about “relationship with…”
In the words of the poet, “There’s no success like failure, and failure is no success at all.”
Life is paradox.
Persistence reaps reward.
Just don’t stop.
What you long for lies beyond this world, yet can only be attained through this world.
There is no greater gift than the human physiology. It is the vehicle that you ride to the field of perfect.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, March 24, 2012 | Personal Growth |
I remember when writing The Golden Frog how many times my editor and I would go back and forth on even one sentence. It drove me nuts but it was great. It is the process of writing. The messenger is not the message. Yet all their personality flaws glare in your face if you do not like the message!
Thoreau would spend days on one sentence. He said there is no choice about the words. There is one and only one right word.
Write and rewrite… then do it again and again.
Did you see the movie, ‘A River Runs Through It’? The father was teaching his son to write. Whatever the son wrote, the father would read it, give it back to him, and say “Ok, now write it again with half as many words.”
Learning is often frustrating. Writing is like mathematics in that way. It can be a most frustrating process.
What you write is an intimate part of your self. It is not uncommon for edits to feel invasive.
Treat those edits as part of the process. Writing is a learned skill, like playing a musical instrument.
I am not a great writer, but I do have some sense of the process of how to become one.
For the purpose of blogging, I just write. I look forward to having the time to try my hand at really writing again.
As time passes, the process gets more and more fluid.
As you know, Hemmingway wrote a book that required no edits. That is something to aspire to, but do not mistake the goal for the process.
It takes a lot of pressure to make a diamond.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, March 14, 2012 | Personal Growth
Whatever you want, 90% is just showing up.
Want to have a PhD? Just keep showing up to college. Become more spiritual? Just keep showing up to meditation, classes, temple. Be in good shape? Just keep showing up at the gym. Good parent? Just keep showing up for your kids.
Really and truly, if you just keep showing up, you will attain great things in this life. It is just that simple. Just keep showing up.
Once you are there, you will do the other 10% as a matter of course.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, March 13, 2012 | Personal Growth
Neither of these quotes stands alone as the way to manifest your dreams. Taken together they paint the picture.
“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” – Winston Churchill
“Leadership is action, not position”. – Unknown
Said another way:
Many are great conceptualizers. Few are great actualizers. It is not what you can do. It is what you actually do that matters.
© 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, January 20, 2012 | Personal Growth
How do you go about making decisions?
The key to answering this question is to explore and understand the feelings that underlie your process.
Facts are important. How and why you feel the way you do about those facts makes all the difference.
For your decisions to be wise, the process must be wise. That sounds simple, but for most everyone, it is not.
In the upcoming classes, we will explore your decision-making processes.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, January 14, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Here is a wonderful quote. Through my years I have seen its truth over and over again. Your ‘relationship with’ is everything. Witnessing those with an ongoing upbeat and positive attitude is so refreshing… so inspiring…. so moving. And to see how life works so well for them is confirmation that the quote is true.
“When a man is willing and eager,
the gods join in.” – Aeschylus
To enjoy the support of nature in your life, cultivate a healthy relationship with life.
Put still other ways:
“Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person we become.” – Jim Rohn
“Do less and accomplish more. Do nothing and accomplish everything.” – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, January 13, 2012 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
I like the following Churchill quote a great deal. It is not to be impulsive. It is not to run and hide. It is to move forward, forward… always forward. Though a dancer may hold a pose momentarily, the action is still there… dynamic… alive.
“I never worry about action, but only inaction.” – Winston Churchill
Rusty gears? Why? Fear? Inertia? Mistrust? Oblivion? Why?
“Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” – John F. Kennedy
I assure you that the finest places in heaven are reserved for those who step forward to infuse the world with transcendental being.
Now is the time to act. Whatever is going on in your life, NOW is the time to act.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
