by Michael Mamas | Monday, July 8, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? Just rest into your Self. Isn’t that what everyone wants? Inner peace, inner contentment, satisfaction, fulfillment? But what happens when you do that? What happens inside of you?
You see, most of life is lived as a distraction, an escape. By keeping your attention on the surface, the depth is avoided. Now why would someone want to avoid that? Well you see, there are inner issues… stresses and strains, emotional tensions, inner turmoil. If you are left to go inside, then those things come up. They are no longer overshadowed by the distractions people create in their lives.
Yet if you were simply willing to live a life that supports resting within the Self, then those issues naturally bubble out. The physiology purifies. Of course the process does not always feel so simple. As those issues you have been avoiding bubble out, you feel them. You experience them. They seem so real.
The ordinary response is to make it stop. I hear the rationalizations all the time, “Oh, I have done enough long mediation” or “Oh, I am a householder, not a monk” or “Oh, I have responsibilities in the world I need to attend to” or “Oh, I need to stay in the ‘real’ world.”
The truth is that people cannot bear what dwells within them, so they look for distractions. Those distractions usually come in the form of idealized notions (mirages) they long for and relentlessly pursue and fleeting superficial pleasures they consume themselves with. That is called living a lie. What people really long for dwells deep within, beyond the barrier reef of inner issues, stress, and turmoil. But few are willing to do what it takes to free themselves from those things. They prefer to try to bury it all under the rug of distractions. Then they look back at their lives and wonder why they are not happy and fulfilled.
I remember all those years when I was in the ashram. The Master would just have us do our meditations and routine with very little, and for long periods of time no, attention given to us. We felt abandoned or brushed aside. Only after some time did I come to understand what he was doing.
People are like seething, bubbling buckets of emotional issues. They spend their lives trying to avoid those issues. In the ashram, the Master just takes that bucket, sets it in the corner and (with the catalyst of meditation and a supportive daily routine) allows it to calm down naturally. It was only after some time that I realized he was watching very carefully. Allowing the pot to bubble, but giving it a stir at just the right moments and in just the right way. This was all done so seamlessly in accord with nature, our nature, that it was not generally recognized.
Getting overly caught up in the turmoil of inner issues just fans the flame. The balance of personal process and physiological purification is essential. Also, the distractions must not overtake the individual. When they do, the rationalizations emerge and the individual finds the ‘reasons’ to throw in the towel, give up, and return to a life of distractions. Very few are willing to stay the course, the journey of the true hero.
Now do not misunderstand me. Relative life is wonderful and important. But it must be built upon the transcendental fullness of your own being, not an inner landfill of emotional issues caramelized with rationalizations. You must live a life that supports the process of inner awakening to that which dwells deep within. I offer that to you. The degree to which you receive or reject it, is your choice alone.
© 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 | Wednesday, June 19, 2013 | Spirituality |
Stringing crises together with moments of quiet trepidation between and calling that life is no way to live. It is as if everything is viewed as unstable and ready to pop at any moment. Periods of fear and worry between one turmoil and then the next.
Time to make the shift.
Imagine a life of contentment… stability. An inner knowing that all is well. Satisfaction. Knowing that there is a solid base that supports and sustains you day after day with an even keel. You are secure. Your life is supported. Your life works.
Walk through your day with confidence in this. What you feel you radiate. It permeates the walls and furniture in your home. It overtakes the clothing you wear.
What you expect is what you create.
Expect Happiness.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, June 18, 2013 | Favorites, Spirituality |
Evolution is a journey, not an epiphany.
Truth is not a concept, rule, idea, law, principle or notion.
Enlightenment comes through a lifestyle, not an excursion.
Your karma lies within you, mostly as your thoughts and your emotions.
Spirituality is not emotional indulgence.
Spirituality is not intellectual derivation.
You can justify anything with the intellect, and people do.
The depth of life is simple. The web it weaves is complex.
The longest way is the short cut.
© 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 | Saturday, May 25, 2013 | Spirituality |
The challenge of Kali Yuga is that you are led to believe Kali Yuga does not touch you, but instead, is about everyone and everything other than you and the select few with whom you see eye to eye.
Most of your karma is in your mind and in your heart. It is a trance, a mirage, an illusion. To live better, you must look deeper, deeper, and ever deeper.
I am here… I can help you with that… if only you are willing to look beyond your current identity.
Look inside. Your potential is infinite.
© 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 | Friday, May 17, 2013 | Mount Soma, Spirituality |
Imagine being so caught up in a television program that you forget it is just a projection on a screen and believe it is real. That is exactly what you have done.
The ‘screen’ is consciousness. It is the silent witness. It has no opinion. .. no comments… no shades or hues. It is crisp… clean… all wise and all knowing. It is profound in it simplicity… in its very nature. This is the Shiva value… transcendental.
It cannot be enlivened because it is eternally awake. Yet your awareness of it can be enlivened. That awareness changes everything, yet changes nothing. Existence remains exactly the same, just totally different. It is pure consciousness. It birthed everything. It is God’s consciousness.
Trying to ‘fix’ your life, or another’s life, by rearranging the surface is futile… temporary at best lest that rearrangement enlivens your awareness of It. Doing personal process or self-help without that understanding is sweeping the dust under the rug in an attempt to make your house clean.
This is not so difficult to understand intellectually, but to really know this is quite another matter. Do you really know it? Just take a look at how you live your life. There, you will find the answer to that question.
My purpose is to awaken you to It. I am creating a place that is so enlivened with that value that to live there is to just naturally come to know It over time. Yet your addiction to the images on the surface, on the ‘screen’, have so overtaken you, that you cling to the images and continue to look for Truth there… on the surface… as fleeting as time itself. That is your habit, your addiction. You are lost in the illusion, in the mirage. You continue to insist that it offers what you long for, what you need, what the world needs. You are lost to the illusion of time.
To awaken to ‘It’ is to awaken to that which exists beyond time. Time stands still there. Nothing is happening there. It is within ‘It’ where your life comes together. It is the water that feeds the root of life… the fountainhead, the source. It is the foundation you long for… the unification of all that is. To find it, you must go beyond the illusion of time. Yet to go beyond time, you must go through time. To vanquish the dragon of a dream, you need the sword of a dream. You must use time wisely to free yourself from the bindings of time… to see beyond time. Only then will you find what you long for.
It is called ‘Bliss’.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, May 11, 2013 | Favorites, Spirituality |
It is really very simple. When the body dies, the mind does not… just that simple.
When the body dies, your dreams become your reality. If your mind was habitually in the gutter before death, that is what you get. If you have been living in denial, your bluff is called. If your mind has been habitually transcending (as with proper meditation), you go to the highest heaven.
‘Just that simple.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
