by Michael Mamas | Saturday, May 30, 2015 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Yesterday Barbara, Marcia, and I had a planning meeting at Barbara’s house for the Enlightened City design. After a telephone conversation with the Sthapatis in India, we decided to walk down to the temple to report the latest developments to Panditji. Walking down the path by Hanuman Park, I mentioned that we all felt light-hearted as children going for an adventurous walk on a summer day. We were not embarked upon a task, we were enjoying a pure hearted adventure… light as feathers. They both agreed. They could feel it. One of us commented that this is how life should always be.
Later that day, my daughter mentioned a book title to me, “The Blinding Absence of Light”. Though I still have little idea of what the book is about, the title inspired me with a flood of thoughts. As adults, the lightness of heart, the innocence of childhood, is all too often absent. It seems that has almost become a requirement for adulthood. In moments of retaliation, adults may attempt to reclaim that lightness in unnatural ways. The truth is, lightness is more an inner state than an outer behavior. Too many are blinded by the absence of such light-hearted simplicity in their daily life. The company you keep, where you put your attention, and your attitude in general, all have profound effects on your psyche, your health, and your happiness.
Do we even have a word for mature, adult, inner light-heartedness? It is simple but not simplistic. It is playful, yet more about an inner state than an outer behavior. It is not blinding, but eye-opening to the blessings of life. The absence of such lightness is blinding, but has overtaken the belief systems of many. The solution is simple, not complex. Favor simplicity but do not be simplistic. Favor innocence but do not be naive. Remove the blinders of a burdened worldview. Your boat can be in the choppy waters of life, but no need for those waters to be in the boat of your Being. Favor a light relationship with life over a heavy, burdensome worldview. This need not be an overt act. It is just a matter of not getting in your own way and allowing yourself to enjoy life in a simple, innocent, and feather-light manner.
Of course, ‘light’ has another meaning as well. From deep within you, unencumbered by conventional views, indoctrinations, or self-imposed manipulations of your inner wisdom… there lies what may be called your inner light, your inner knowing, your inner sight. To deny it, even in the name of what you have learned to be a better way, is to impose upon yourself the blinding absence of light. Truth lies within you. Yet truth is easily obscured when you allow life’s complexities to blind you to your own inner truth. To be free is to live in harmony with that inner knowing, that inner wisdom, those inner instincts.
Now combine these two meanings of ‘light’ and simply live your life. Remember, Truth is light. All the tools I have given you facilitate the culturing of that. It is a process. Enjoy the light!
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, May 16, 2015 | Mount Soma, Spirituality |
I was asked the following question (edited slightly for completeness):
You say:
- Most of your karma is between your ears and in your heart .
- One’s chart is one’s karma.
I would like to hear how to reconcile the two. How does one get beyond each, both??
To which I respond:
Your chart is a ‘map’ of that which is mostly between your ears and in your heart. You get beyond it by doing the things I offer: Surya Ram Meditation, transgradient personal process, cultivation of discernment, and living in an environment that supports these processes, which is why I created Mount Soma.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, May 8, 2015 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
There is a very common practice that creates a lot of senseless problems for good people everywhere. It involves two E’s… Emotions and Extrapolation. Extrapolation is the continuation on a trajectory. For example, if the temperature drops 5 degrees in one hour, by extrapolation you would think that in 24 hours we would all be freezing.
Combine an emotional response with extrapolation and you build things up in your mind and emotions, creating terrible fantasy worlds for yourself that have essentially nothing to do with reality. You get terribly troubled over small insignificant things that through extrapolation inflate to become the source of huge upsetting conflicts, traumas, hurts, angers, etc. etc.
A word to the wise, you take a HUGE step forward in your relationship with yourself, with people and with all of life when you can catch yourself before you get hooked by the Double E. Watch for the Double E and you will be amazed to see how often it overtakes good people everywhere.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, April 29, 2015 | Meditation, Spirituality |
Genuine spiritual growth has been said to be as elusive as traversing the razors edge or passing through the eye of the needle. To understand this, you do not need to look any further than the technique of meditation. Thoughts are a part of proper meditation. Proper meditation is a very natural process. So sometimes when you meditate, you may feel like nothing is happening. As a result, you may be tempted to stop meditating or look for something that is more emotionally engaging or exciting. In so doing, you just let true spiritual growth slip through your fingers. I am often asked what more a person can do for their evolution. I answer by saying, “Be consistent. Do not be distracted. Keep a steady hand on the rudder!”
It takes time to, for example, lose weight or to get good at playing a musical instrument. However, true spiritual growth is the ultimate challenge. Give it the commitment and time it deserves, and you will attain the results you desire.
Learn about the Surya Ram Meditation.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, April 19, 2015 | Spirituality |
Your awareness has a structure, like the lattice structure of a crystal. That lattice processes all the facts, information, emotions, and beliefs you have in a manner unique to that structure. Generally, that structure changes very little as you move through life. All your life experiences are assimilated and processed in a manner determined by that structure. They serve to reinforce that structure as a belief system, as a world-view.
The underlying basis of existence also has a lattice structure. It is called the structure of the Veda. Though multidimensional, it is represented in two dimensions as a yantra. That fundamental structure is called Buddhi… cosmic intellect.
Your evolution, your growth, is not a matter of how much you feed the current structure of your awareness with new facts and understandings. Your evolution is determined by the transformation of the structure of your awareness in the direction of the structure of Buddhi. The Purusha value is the quality of human awareness that is one with the structure of Cosmic awareness, the structure of the Veda. However generally, growth is incorrectly seen as reinforcement of the current structure of your awareness. It is a sort of indoctrination and reinforcement.
Proper meditation frees the awareness to evolve. Proper use of facts and experience will also evolve your awareness. However, that is a very rare and largely forgotten art. That is why I say that I do not teach facts, I use facts to help you evolve. Evolution is not so much about learning new facts… it is about the cultivation of a whole new way of thinking, a new structure to your consciousness… a structure that is one with the structure underlying all existence. The process is as natural as the blossoming of a rose.
Consciousness is the underlying basis of all that is. Consciousness becomes conscious of itself as other… and duality is born. Aware of the duality, a third thing is born. That process cascades out to infinity as the lattice structure of the Veda emerges.
Your evolution is the process of expansion and transformation of your awareness to the Purusha value… Buddhi… Cosmic Consciousness.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, April 8, 2015 | Spirituality, World View |
Did you know that the Hubble telescope has revealed a galaxy that is older than current science says is the age of the universe? Yet, that information is commonly ignored because it does not fit the currently accepted physics paradigm.
Did you know that statistical studies show that the evolution of species occurred far more rapidly than can be accounted for by Darwin’s theory? Yet, that information is commonly ignored because it does not fit the currently accepted biology paradigm.
Did you know that statistically, studies of group meditation have proven it reduces crime rate and incidence of war? Yet, that information is commonly ignored because it does not fit the currently accepted scientific paradigm.
The Kuhn Cycle progresses from a paradigm that rejects the new information as absurd to a new paradigm that accepts the new information. You can read more about it HERE.
Havans, pujas, dynamics of group meditation, and other Vedic technologies have been, and are being, scientifically shown to be effective. Gradually, the scientific community is accepting this. Soon, through a paradigm shift, science will fully embrace the information. Darwin’s theory and other theories will be more fully understood in that new light.
The new paradigm will offer technologies that promise to heal problems in our world that currently seem insurmountable. Those future technologies are, in fact, ancient Vedic technologies that are being revived at Mount Soma today. Unfortunately, in the world today, those technologies have been largely rejected or improperly employed. That is the result of the wide acceptance of the current scientific paradigm. When the current paradigm and Vedic technology are understood to harmoniously merge, a great new era will be born. The evidence is there now. However, the Kuhn Cycle does take a little time.
Rationality and spirituality will be shown to be two sides of the same coin. Each will compliment, clarify, and stabilize the other. Currently, superstition and distortion have crept in to Vedic knowledge, just as Adi Shankara predicted. At Mount Soma, the knowledge is being purified. The potential is enormous.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, April 5, 2015 | Spirituality |
What does it mean to be reflective? Is it simply natural for everyone? Is it spontaneous? Or is it an art form? Are there obstacles to being truly reflective? Sometimes I think my favorite part of Easter is the movies shown on television. Currently, I am watching Barabbas. So many thoughts are evoked: How little people have changed through the ages. How rigidly people hold to the worldview they were born into. How self-righteously they judge all else accordingly. How certain they are of their perspective of what Jesus taught, of who He was, of who He is. How resistant they are to taking a deeper look at his words. How they mold his words to conform to their current worldview.
Let the word of this day be ‘humility’. If I were to tell you that you do not know everything, you would quickly agree. But do you live your life that way? The opposite of humility is judgment. Replace your judgment with discernment. Know that a major component of discernment is humility. Look beyond your horizon. Look your worldview directly in the eyes. Take a step back from it. Question it. Dare to see its limitations. Have the courage to not call your judgment by the name discernment.
In a word, consider that the essence of the teachings of Jesus is ‘freedom’. Freedom from what? Freedom from a limited and confined worldview. You have only to look beyond your current worldview. Yet those who believe they do so adhere to their newfound notions and judge accordingly.
Freedom through humility is the message of Easter. Yet it is not a philosophy or perspective. It is a state of physiology… a state of being. It cannot be taken on as a new set of clothes. As the centuries go by, humanity rearranges the same old furniture and calls it evolution. Yet the state of the psyche, the state of the psychophysiology, remains unchanged. Real freedom and humility is attained through true evolution. Aspire to that. Think big. You have the potential to unlock the deepest teaching of Jesus. But it is not a simplistic task. I implore you to look beyond your current horizon. It has the potential to reveal what has been called the Kingdom of Heaven.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, April 2, 2015 | Spirituality |
The Sun rises and you notice that the seat of your garden bench warms up. At the same time, you notice that the driveway asphalt warms up. That is a simple example of correlation.
It would be a mistake to think that if you warmed up the garden bench, your driveway asphalt would warm up… causation. The cause of the warmed up asphalt is, of course, the Sun… not the warm garden bench.
For a more interesting example: Yesterday, Bill and I placed a Shiva Linga in the waterfall. I told Bill that should bring some good luck. Then with a smile, I told him I was going to make a phone call to see if it worked. For months, I was hoping for a particular thing to happen and I would call and see if there was any good news about it. And then, eureka, it in fact happened! The phone call brought the good news.
Now here we need to be careful. Firstly, the good event actually happened BEFORE we placed the Linga, so causality between the two is not a possibility. Secondly, of course, we do not know for sure that it was not just a coincidence; so we certainly do not KNOW that a correlation phenomena occurred. That is to say, both the Linga placement and the good event could have occurred as the result of some other causal event they had in common (similar to the Sun rising causing multiple things to warm up); or it could have just been a coincidence.
However, this sort of thing happens a lot. We do a havan and come home to good news regarding the intent of the havan. Or as happened recently, someone receives a gemstone recommended by his jyotishi and immediately the desired result occurs. At some point, you have to begin to understand the principle of correlation on a more cosmic level than the garden bench and driveway example.
Then the inevitable question arises: Would the good news have come if the Linga was not placed? Would the desired result have occurred if the gemstone was not received? Well, just ask yourself this: Would the driveway have warmed up if the garden bench did not?
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, March 25, 2015 | Mount Soma, Personal Growth, Spirituality |
A beloved member of the Mount Soma community recently passed away. At such emotional, delicate and tender times, one naturally wonders why. How could such a thing have happened? What are we to do with our grief? Why would a person with so much to live for be taken away? What is the nature of life and death?
To honestly speak of such a thing, I can only come from a place deep within myself. To do so is not so simple in such a sensitive time. I hope my words are understood and well received.
To ask why someone passes when they do, it is best to remember Lord Krishna’s words from the Bhagavad Gita, “The course of action is unfathomable”. It is not even so simple as to claim it is karmic. The are times when one can be ‘called’ upon to do some work on some other level that gives them the opportunity to move more rapidly forward with their evolution. We are not to second-guess such things or even pretend to know the answer. We can only remain humble with respect to the possibilities. From our side, of course, life is always precious. It is natural and appropriate to protect all life. We do our best to support the lives of one and other always. However, to understand the mechanics of incarnations, I feel offers great comfort in such times. To view the matter from a worldly perspective is natural and appropriate, but humility regarding the cosmic scheme of such things is wise and does, I believe, also offer comfort to the grieving who are willing to be with that understanding.
For myself, the loss of a dear friend or loved one is an inward time. It is a time when I feel their soul deeply. It is a time when I desire to be with them in my silence. It is a time when I feel I have some sense of how they are doing and can offer my love and assistance during their time of transition.
Traditionally, it is a time when the grieving come together to mourn. I do understand that, but it is not my way. For me, it is a time properly spent in relative silence with the deceased, not with the living. I understand this may even offend some, but for me it is not proper to attend a funeral. Or perhaps better said, a funeral is a quiet inward and alone time. That is just how I am, and I feel it is important for the deceased that I do so.
It is important to understand also that only the physical body dies. The soul lives on. There is much anecdotal evidence of this, but for me that understanding came another way. As I child, I remembered. But I did not understand how I could remember. But it was a memory. Only in later life when I first heard of reincarnation did I then understand how I could be remembering. So for me, the notion of reincarnation is self evident and unquestionable.
Many wonder what happens after death. I can best say that the possibilities are endless and depend largely upon the ‘angle of entry’. It is said that when one is meditating regularly, they naturally go to the transcendental level, to the highest heaven. I have no doubt that is true. Of course, there can certainly be a brief time of confusion. However, that would be sorted out rather quickly and quite naturally.
I know there are many questions about reincarnation, life after death, and so on. However, I feel now is the time for me to be with our beloved friend. So if you have questions, please feel free to post them, but also please understand if I, for now, choose not to respond to some or all. This is a delicate and heartfelt time. Please forgive anything that may seem improper or unclear. At this time, I can only speak of such things from deep within myself, from a level that is difficult to express in writing. I trust these words will offer some comfort and understanding.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, March 21, 2015 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
I was asked the following question:
Why are some people lucky and some not? What is luck? As I contemplate my life, both past and present, I realize I’m a very “lucky” person. I have been so fortunate. Good fortune just seems to drop in my lap. Some people I know haven’t been so fortunate. Why am I so lucky?
To which I respond:
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as luck. Life has two components: Karma and Dharma.
Karma is quite simply action. The laws of karma (action) are simply the laws of cause and effect. The effect is not always immediate. It can take even more than one lifetime for the fruits of your action to affect you. The effect can be there for an entire lifetime or a period of time or in a moment. What we think of as good luck is more accurately viewed as the result of some action in the past for which the effect is happening.
Dharma means life in harmony with nature. As you evolve, you live more and more in harmony with nature and thereby receive the support of nature. As with karma, that is often called luck.
It is not so easy to know what is karma and what is dharma or lack of dharma in your life. This is particularly true because of the time lag between cause and effect. You can be a very dharmic person but experiencing the unpleasant effect of a much earlier karma. Or you may be a person living a non-dharmic life but being carried by a wave of fruitful karma from long ago. This is one reason why the puzzle of life is not so easy to unravel.
So if you are lucky this lifetime, do not squander it. As the saying goes, make hay while the sun shines. Meditate, look deeper, live a good life, and evolve.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
