by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, March 13, 2013 | Spirituality |
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein
Only when you awaken to your oneness with everything does your life make sense. Then there is no ‘other’.
Said another way, the small ‘you’ ceases to exist. You function through such maya, illusion, but you are no longer lost to the illusion. The paradox of Oneness and Separateness melts away into the flow of infinite integration of even polar opposites.
What you do for the world, you do for yourself. What you do for yourself, you do for the world. There is no contradiction.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, March 12, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
I remember the early morning rains of my childhood. Invariably a time to pick up a stick and poke around at the ground and roadside as we walked to the school bus stop. I remember all the worms on the road… millions of them, it seemed. A gentle tap with the stick and they work scrunch right up… contracting to a fraction of their size where they remained until the road and their bodies dried up.
Admittedly it’s an odd analogy, but how to you respond to external events and notions in life? Your life is your choice. Henry Ford put it beautifully:
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
I also remember my childhood encounters with butterflies.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, March 3, 2013 | Spirituality |
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Between facts and concepts, concepts (ideas) are closer to Truth. Truth is unbounded, without edge. Facts melt into the deeper and broader arena of concepts, which melt into the deepest and broadest field of the Absolute… Oneness…Pure Consciousness… Pure Isness…Truth.
As facts rest and dissolve into concepts, and concepts rest and dissolve into Isness, all levels of life become seamlessly interconnected, like the branches of a tree grounded to the trunk and then to the earth. Integration of life emerges. When the connection is weak, the mind becomes small and ungrounded, like tumble weed. A slight breeze then carries the mind adrift. Anything can then be justified by the intellect. That is called a life of karma… of bondage to the surface.
Awaken to the depth, more and more live life from that level, and become great. That is called freedom, emancipation, enlightenment.
Your relationship with anything and everything is determined by your level of consciousness. Tumble weed can and does argue as it will with the mighty oak. Within the world of the weed, it is the tree that is seen to be tumbling while the weed remains steadfast. From the perspective within the speeding train, one looks out and sees the trees flying by, while the train is experienced as the solid, stable reference frame.
Your level of consciousness consumes and defines your entire world.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, March 1, 2013 | Spirituality |
I was asked the following question:
You are my teacher, but I was wondering if it was all right to visit other Masters.
To which I respond:
Everything is more about your relationship with it, than about it. Better to have a healthy relationship with a bad thing (which would mean stay away from it) than an unhealthy relationship with a good thing. If your relationship with visiting other “Masters” was healthy, then it would probably be fine. But there are many things to consider here.
First and foremost, the vast majority of those considered spiritual Masters today would be more appropriately students rather than teachers. Too too many have some intellectual knowledge or lifestyle/behavioral patterns that they consider spiritual and so decide they are rightly spiritual teachers. Though they may be quite well intended, they lead so so many sincere seekers astray. A true Master is a much rarer thing than most seekers realize.
Secondly, the subtle difference makes all the difference. I can not tell you how many times people have come to me and told me of a book or teacher that ‘says all the same things that I do.’ Yet when I look at what they teach, I am appalled. It is easy to drift off course without even realizing it.
If there were a genuine Master out there to visit, it would probably be ok. But do you really believe you have the ability to tell? People easily fall for a lofty belief system, a dramatic appearance, magic tricks, or emotional performances. Most alleged “teachers” are simply more fully indoctrinated into a paradigm than their students are. Enlightenment means liberation, not indoctrination. Yet indoctrination into the notion of liberation is not enlightenment. It is all highly elusive, evading many well-known “spiritual masters”.
Also keep in mind, as Ramana Maharshi put it, when you are traveling down a river it is best to have both feet in one boat.
This is Kali Yuga, the Age of Ignorance. You need to be careful.
There is the story about a great saint who had many supernatural powers. It is said that he could fly through the air and walk through walls. Do you know what his motto was? Safety first.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, February 21, 2013 | Personal Growth |
As one follows the path to enlightenment, the small self viscously fights back in the name of its very survival.
That is commonly called “ego”.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
