by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, January 8, 2013 | Spirituality, World View |
Though a great invention with many practical applications, the on/off switch has overtaken our lives. Turn off the lights, turn on the car, start the computer… there is no end… ongoing throughout the day.
However in nature, the day gradually turns to night and the night to day. The seasons change gradually. Temperature, climate, arrival of a storm and then sunshine…. it all happens gradually. The few things in nature that are ‘on/off’ are at least somewhat shocking to the nervous system… for example lightening, thunder or an earthquake.
We run our physical life with on/off switches. It is no wonder that people try to run the rest of their lives that way asking, “What is THE right answer?”, “What time does it start?”, “How much do I owe?”, etc. We are taught to answer when, how, and why all of them with on/off, yes/no, types of answers. Then people wonder why they are so stressed by life.
The only straight lines in nature are sunbeams and moon beams. You can’t grab on to either one. Enlightenment is life in accord with Nature, your own true Nature.
You can function through a world of on/off. That is fine. But cultivate a state of awareness that is not lost to on/off. Life just doesn’t work in accord with your on/off switches. It’s time for a new way of thinking.
After writing this, my wife told me that Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs could not stand on/off switches. My iPod does not even have one. Interesting.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, January 7, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Thomas Edison said, “There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”
On face value, I do not agree with Mr. Edison. People think all the time… way too much. Thoughts, thoughts, and more thoughts run through their heads incessantly. However, the deeper point I am sure he is alluding to, is that few think in a clear, coordinated, coherent manner. Scientists are trained to think rationally but that too is not sufficient for a fully developed life. In the scientist’s laboratory as many variables as possible are fixed. In life, all variables are dynamic and ongoing.
The mind is like a muscle. It must be used properly to develop. If it is not exercised properly, it remains weak. Connections between variables are flimsy. A single point can consume the mind and cast the thinking process in a skewed direction of no return.
I believe Mr. Edison’s point was that few are adept at attentive, mindful thought. That process remains atrophied from lack of use. Until the mind is developed, such thinking just seems to require too much effort. The brain quickly becomes fatigued and jumps to a justification to stop the process. It is similar to lifting weights in the gym. No rep seems most desirable, but certainly after several, that next rep feels like pure torture. Mindlessly floating through life is then more appealing, though not truly rewarding. Mind-numbing entertainment, primitive or sensual over-stimulus, presents itself as the easy way out. But it is, in the final analysis, a downward spiral.
Consider color blindness. Usually a color-blind person does see and appreciate the full range of colors even though the color receptors are weak. It requires focus and effort to identify the color that is right in front of their face. The mind is similar. The connection between the mind and the world at hand is often weak. Some say that you must open your mind. More correctly, you must develop your mind. However, few are interested or willing to do that.
Fortunately, there is an effective methodology for development. Namely, meditate and act. You cannot meditate your way to enlightenment. Enlightenment means an integrated mind. For those willing to do it, my writings and lectures along with proper meditation offer the steps of progress. I ask you to think… but not just in a limited manner… instead in an expanded sense, integrating feelings and emotions with thoughts, perceptions and profound concepts.
Such far-reaching reflection integrates the mind with itself by harmonizing it with nature, which is the mind’s true nature. The whole brain harmonizes. It is simply the state of healthy function of the mind. Attaining that can be challenging. You may jump off on a tangent, just as a weightlifter finds a reason to not do those last couple of reps.
However, the reward is enlightenment, if you are willing to stay the course.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, January 4, 2013 | Personal Growth, Spirituality |
Wherever you look (life’s daily situations, business, politics, proper diet, proper exercise, personal relationships… it doesn’t matter where) life is permeated with wrong information. Even in what seems to be the simplest matters, contradictory perspectives collide. If your relationship with that is not healthy, life can be most frustrating.
What is the source of that frustration? Looking to the surface for the depth. Looking for the absolute in the relative. Looking for perfection in the world of imperfection…. for ‘relative’ essentially by definition means ‘imperfection’. You may need to reflect upon that a bit to under-stand it. Relative means perspective, means no bottom line.
What is the solution? Understanding the nature of life. Delighting in that. Marveling in that. Acting in harmony with that. The absolute is the trunk of the tree of life. See the connection of the movement of the branches to the solidity of the trunk, but do not look for the solidity in the branches… only look to see the connection, the pathway, from all the branches to the trunk.
Opinions fly in every direction. The more opinions you hear, the more different directions you are pointed. Look for the connection. Connect the dots. When all the wrong information is assimilated within your being, the truth is felt… but never put in a box. Truth, the Absolute, by its very nature lies beyond grasp. By living in peace with, in harmony with, that simple understanding, your proper course of action will lie before you.
We all long for That.
What to do? Where to go? How to live? What to think? There is a simple approach expressed in the Veda… Neti, neti, neti… not that, not that, not that. By holding things lightly, you rest into Truth, which lies beyond relativity… beyond information.
To be well informed is to have a healthy relationship with information, is to see beyond the surface… neti, neti, neti.
Arguing a perspective is a futile exercise, lest you see beyond your point, even while you are making it.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, December 30, 2012 | Personal Growth, World View |
“Obstacles can’t stop you. Problems can’t stop you. Most of all, other people can’t stop you. Only you can stop you.”
– J. Gitomer
I have seen the truth in this quote over and over again. Yet I suspect some who read it see the untruth in it more than the truth.
Another way of saying it is: “fortune favors the bold”.
Then there is that song… “I hope that you dance…”
Or, “when you wish upon a star”.
Or, “forward, forward, always forward”.
Really they are all saying the same thing.
Reflect deeply. Choose wisely. Look past the superficial self. Look to your true Self… beyond dogma, beyond greed, beyond fear, beyond weakness, beyond fatigue, beyond parental inner voices of the superego, beyond smallness, beyond grandiosity, beyond superficial ego, beyond need of recognition, beyond pride, beyond all conditioning.
You are great. Your domain is the universe. Live it.
After your physical body is gone and your true Self remains – when you are standing all alone at the ‘Pearly Gates’ – what would you do now that would make you then stand up tall, stare Saint Peter right in the eye, and say, “I did what I believed in.” ?
Decide what you truly believe in. Then ‘just do it’.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, December 23, 2012 | Spirituality |
I saw a brief interview with a neurosurgeon who had a ‘near death experience’. He spoke very well. I liked what he said about consciousness… something to the effect that scientists see nothing to explain how the physical brain gives rise to consciousness.
He said that the brain just acts as a filter (a reducing valve that reduces consciousness to a trickle) through which our greater consciousness flows and is limited by.
He spoke of meditation as something that can open people to what lies beyond those limitations.
He spoke of the inner voice (I sometimes refer to it as an aspect of the ‘personality self’) that people think is the self, but it is not.
He said that the true being we are lies deeper and is eternal and spiritual.
That’s pretty good. I have not looked at his book and do not know anything more about him other than what I saw in the interview. At any rate, the link to his website is listed here if you have any interest in investigating it.
http://www.lifebeyonddeath.net/
After writing the above blog, I visited his website for a moment. In the brief video on his website he mentioned something to the effect that at one point he realized he was a speck on the wing of a butterfly. In the context of what I have said about Unity Consciousness, do you see what he was referring to? We are one with everything. He briefly had the beautiful experience of his oneness with a speck. In reality, you are one with every speck that is, ever was, and will ever be. You are one with everything and everything is God.
In the state of enlightenment, that is an ongoing living reality… not an attitude or philosophy, but a self-evident truth.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
