Paradox

by Michael Mamas | Thursday, August 11, 2016 | Spiritual Evolution | 4 comments

“People aren’t afraid of change, they’re afraid of being changed.”

I saw this quote on the Internet but the source was not provided. I like it. It is sort of like something I believe Winston Churchill said: “I like learning, I just don’t like being taught.”  It also offers a perspective on: “You can’t take it with you.”

We tend to be quite identified with how we see ourselves. We do not like that messed with. We want to improve, but feel threatened by the idea that we need to change in order to do so! In the expression “I want to get enlightened”, we want the ‘I’ to go through that portal intact. The very expression: “I want to get enlightened” carries that contradiction with it. The “I” in that quote must cease to exist in its current form to pass through that portal.

Life is funny… It’s all a paradox.

Methods and Facts vs. Principles and Understanding

by Michael Mamas | Thursday, July 21, 2016 | Spiritual Evolution | 3 comments

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few.
The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods.
The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

For years I taught the healing arts. Most people wanted step-one, step-two methods that could be memorized. I taught that memorizing techniques would not make them a good healer. The principles underlying those techniques is what is important. Once principles are understood, limitless techniques are easily created as needed.

This applies to all areas of life, from painting a picture, to dealing with our personal issues, to learning to dance. Looking to surface facts is just a starting point. Feeling and understanding what underlies the surface, grasping the principles, is what really matters. Facts are merely the gateway to what lies deeper. We must be willing to go deeper. If we stay on the surface, we never find fulfillment. To understand, is to feel into, is to have a deep feeling for, is to comprehend, is to become the wise, skilled artist, is to be free from the constraints that limit us.

Memorizing stories, chants, or facts does not make a person spiritual. Understanding the principles that underly those things is what really matters. And what lies deeper than understanding is the True Self, the Transcendent, Oneness, God. Understanding is the gateway between the surface and the depth. To understand principles is to have a deep feeling for the information, the knowledge. Feeling is the essence of understanding. But we are not talking about emotions when we say feeling. We are speaking of having a fine feeling for the matter at hand.

Without understanding, without comprehension of the underlying principles, deep spiritual knowledge is not under-stood. As such misunderstood information is passed down through the generations, the meaning is lost. Only the wise teacher can assist the student along the path of understanding, the path to the transcendent. Adi Shankara said the spiritual path is the path of discernment. This is true in all areas of life.

Look deeper to become the artist that creates a magnificent life.

Reading Minds, Cosmic and Otherwise

by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, May 11, 2016 | Spiritual Evolution | 4 comments

Why is it so hard to believe that the source of sentient beings is sentient?

We do not have the technology to read people’s minds. Nor do we have the technology to read the minds of the personified correlates, the quantum fluctuations, and patterns at the source of existence.

The technology to do so is based upon refinement of human awareness. That level of life was attained by the ancient seers. Their cognitions stand as proof of their validity. If only they were studied and understood.

This knowledge is subtle. As subtle as the nature of life and existence, for that is what it is… nature. It slips through the fingers of superficial understandings.

Angle of View is Everything… But Then  Again?

by Michael Mamas | Friday, April 15, 2016 | Spiritual Evolution | 12 comments

Everyone views the Absolute from a different angle. That is why even the enlightened disagree, not to mention the unenlightened.
Truth is a diamond with many facets defined by edges and boundaries.

View the facet of your choice clearly… or through a looking glass, a fog, a haze, an echo, slightly, dimly..

Each facet, complete with edges and boundaries, is a viewpoint upon Truth.
Yet where Truth dwells, within the diamond, there are no edges, no boundaries.
Is that so difficult to comprehend?
Apparently so.

Humanity, through the ages has sought a facet that would define the diamond, would define Truth.
It does not exist.

Every culture.
Every generation.
Every paradigm.
They all attempt to define the undefinable… and decide they finally found the answer.
All the while, the wheel of life goes ‘round and ‘round in search of that one facet that defines what lies beyond all facets.

Here and there, along the way, one soul or another finally gets off the wheel, sees beyond the wheel.
Then by all of humanity, they are mocked. Yet they forge on calling out, “Please, listen! There is no need for all the suffering and foolishness. Just look beyond the horizon.”
Yet throughout the ages…. Christ, Buddha, Krishna, on and on they call out…
Yet few listen. And even fewer can hear.