by Michael Mamas | Sunday, November 8, 2015 | Clarifying Confusion |
There are many stories about kings who gave up their entire kingdom in order to pursue spiritual growth. It has even been said that it is more difficult for a wealthy person to attain enlightenment than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Is this really true? Let’s investigate.
What does the word “kingdom” really mean here? It is far more than the literal interpretation. In the sense the word is used here, everyone has a kingdom, a fortress. Your kingdom is what you cling to as truth, what you hold for your safety, comfort, purpose, and meaning. It is what you are identified with.
What about “renouncing?” What does that mean? Does it really mean that you have to give up all your wealth, turn your back on your family, and reject everything you have learned? Certainly not.
The deeper meaning of renunciation is quite subtle. It has little to do with how your life appears on the surface. It has everything to do with the state of your awareness, the state of your psychophysiology at the very depth of your being. For many, the depth of their being can even be a frightening place, a dark cold abyss with no edges and nothing to cling to. For them, it is the last place they would want to go. As you awaken more and more fully to the true nature of the depth of your being, it is experienced as a cosmic cushion that holds and supports you, providing you with the support of all of nature. In fact, the depth of your being, your nature, is one with all of nature, held by Mother Nature. It is the source of your wisdom and true intelligence.
So, renunciation in the deepest sense means seeing beyond, not just conceptually, but experientially seeing beyond your ‘kingdom’ that dwells on the surface. “Surface” here does not only mean the material, but also the emotional and even the thinking mind. The grandeur of your being, the kingdom of heaven, lies beyond all thought and all emotion. It is Transcendental.
Interestingly enough, the purely Transcendental is beyond experience. It cannot be touched, it cannot be grasped. However, its qualities of infinite love, harmony, intelligence, wisdom, and so on, can be experienced as they radiate out from the depth of your being and permeate all levels of your life. Those radiations are what we commonly refer to as your soul.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, October 31, 2015 | Clarifying Confusion |
Many spiritual texts claim that the enlightened have no desire. They even cite examples of enlightened individuals who have to be force fed because they have no desire for food. They have to be tended to carefully because otherwise they may wander off into the jungle or be indifferent to worms boring holes through their legs. You may wonder if that is really true and if so, what is actually going on there. Let’s take a look at the mechanics involved.
The human nervous system has evolved sufficiently to hold within its awareness the full spectrum of the grandeur of existence, including direct awareness of that one thing that is the source of all things, pure Consciousness, pure Is-ness, the Transcendent, the unified field of physics. That level is the essence of everything, the source of everything. It cannot desire anything because it already is that thing.
However, full enlightenment is an integrated state, where the individual can function in harmony with all levels of existence. Harmony on the physical level certainly includes tending to and caring for the physical body.
In the state of full enlightenment, a person is then awake to that level of their being that is free of desire, while simultaneously functioning in the world of desire, the world of wanting. So even while it is true that an enlightened individual is free from desire on the deepest level of their being, they simultaneously have desires on more superficial levels.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Sunday, May 24, 2015 | Clarifying Confusion |
Your life purpose is in accord with the nature of your nervous system, your Being, the nature of your physiology, your true nature, your inherent and spontaneous nature. It is natural for you.
There are four basic types of nervous systems. As with each type, the Kshatriya nervous system is a profoundly honorable, noble, dignified, and laudable type. The Kshatriya upholds harmony with nature and cultural integrity in accord with natural law. Lord Krishna was a Kshatriya. The purity of Vedic Knowledge is entrusted to the Kshatriya, who protects and upholds it.
In this age of humanity, as with all four types of nervous systems, the role of the Kshatriya has been misunderstood and distorted. But the heart and soul, the spirit, of the true Kshatriya remains eternally pure. On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember and honor the purity of those warriors who gave their lives in the spirit of the Kshatriya.
It is said that those Kshatriya, giving their life in battle, attain immediate enlightenment. They are among those who uphold and protect dharma… righteousness, purity of heart, and the Divine within us all.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Thursday, April 9, 2015 | Clarifying Confusion, Spiritual Evolution, Vedic Technology |
Recently, a number of people have been inquiring about how things should be handled when someone passes, particularly with respect to Mount Soma. This is something I have discussed extensively in the past with our Panditji and other Vedic authorities. From time to time in classes this has all be explained.
That information follows here:
Generally, bodies are cremated. This helps to release the soul from the earth plane, so the individual can most rapidly move forward with their evolution. The ashes are not to be taken home. They should instead be quickly placed in a large river, ideally a holy river in India. Currently, there is a movement in India to clean the Ganges, so people are no longer allowed to put the ashes in that river.
In the West, it is a common practice to construct a little shrine or garden area to honor the deceased. That practice too can hold the soul back from moving forward with their evolution as they let go of their worldly life.
Along those same lines, mourning is something that is best to be limited. There is, of course, a natural mourning period which is not to be suppressed or judged, but is also not to be prolonged. The mourning process is another way the soul is held back.
In short, after a person passes, the best thing to do is what is best for that soul. Though it is understandable, if we are not careful, we end up doing what makes us feel better which may not be the best thing for the departed.
We, at many times, have received requests for ashes of the deceased and shrines or garden areas to be placed at Mount Soma. According to the Vedic tradition, that cannot be permitted. Mount Soma is a place that moves souls forward. So, we certainly take great care in not doing anything that would hold them back.
I certainly understand and am most sympathetic with the more traditional approaches. I understand traditions like the spiritual teacher not being around the sick, mourning, or dead is difficult for many to understand. In these most delicate and tender times, it is extremely difficult to handle all of this seamlessly. Please know, however, that we are all doing our very best. In so doing, we often find ourselves in an awkward position. Please understand that.
Please also keep in mind that in the best situations, change is difficult. In these challenging times of a life in passing, may we all do our very best to do what is best for the soul of the deceased.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Saturday, October 25, 2014 | Clarifying Confusion, Spiritual Evolution |
When a culture is healthy, the wisdom of the ages is passed down from one generation to the next as tradition. If a culture becomes unhealthy, the wisdom underlying the traditions becomes lost or misunderstood. Unfortunately, those echoes of the underlying truth are still perceived as truth. Echoes of truth, perceived as truth, hold truth at bay. At some point, the younger generation cries fowls and rejects the traditions all together. Cultural decay is the result. This is why, as Adi Shankara said, the Knowledge must be regenerated by every generation. That is the deeper meaning of the word, “generation”!
Each child must find truth within himself. If they are merely indoctrinated into echoes of truth, traditions will eventually be rejected. Society will ‘throw out the baby with the bathwater”. The underlying wisdom of the ages will no longer be passed down from generation to generation. The result is social decay.
So how can we help our children find truth within themselves? We must understand the modern mentality. All parents sees their children, to some degree, being influenced by the current social mentality. With the expansion of the Internet, television, etc. those influences are becoming ever more pervasive. Though real knowledge is eternal, the way it is expressed must change eternally to interface with the mentality of the times. We live in a time of logic and science. To be embraced, things must make sense. If they do not make sense, they will be rejected. This is what is happening to religion. It has ceased to make sense to the younger generation. Having to choose between faith and logic, they chose logic.
In one sense, I was lucky. Though religious, my parents were by no means fanatical. Furthermore, my father, being an electrical engineer, instilled in me a deep appreciation for logic. I was then, perhaps unintentionally but quite naturally, left to myself to figure things out… and I was passionate about doing so, combing the worlds of philosophy, physics, spirituality, etc. to find truth from within myself. I was not encumbered by indoctrination. It was through my inner searching and struggles that I came to conclusions about the nature of life and existence. Imagine how thrilled I was to find that Vedic Knowledge was there, expounding with great detail and precision, what Truth I found within myself.
Presenting this Knowledge to the world has been fascinating to me. I come up against indoctrination on a daily basis. Many find Vedic knowledge too foreign to the traditions and indoctrinations they were brought up with and therefore reject it. Interestingly enough, people who were brought up in the Vedic tradition often are simply indoctrinated into it and have not really looked deeply into it… though they would disagree, they have not really found it within themselves. It is really just that the indoctrination has reached deeply within them. Their children may, even if those parents do not, see it as indoctrination that makes no sense and those children therefore reject it. They throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Vedic Knowledge, when not found within, over time reduces down to indoctrination, just another religion. The knowledge then, as Adi Shankara said, gets lost. No culture should ever let that happen, but as surely as the Sun rises and sets, every culture does. It is time for the Sun to rise once again. Truth is revealed to the Self, by the Self, and through the Self. Each generation, each child, must find it within himself.
In the larger sense, all members of humanity are children. In the deepest sense of the word, Veda is, by definition, Truth. Parents must facilitate the process of Truth-discovery in their children, in all children, young and old. Mount Soma was created to help humanity achieve that goal.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
