by Michael Mamas | Saturday, December 21, 2013 | Spiritual Evolution, The Gods |
I remember my teacher. Through the years the theme of his life to enlighten the world never changed, yet his focus would shift from one topic to the next: ayurveda, jyotish, vastu, gandharva ved, on and on. As his attention shifted, our attention shifted with his, and we thereby learned. But we did not just learn facts about one field of knowledge and the next. More importantly, we learned how he thought and how he functioned. We saw how everything shared a greater context that was essential to really understanding anything. We saw universal principles at work that permeated all of life .
Recently, my focus has been on the health of the physical body. I have explored a multitude of theories and approaches. Your responses to this (assuming you have been reading my blog, attending classes, or living at Mount Soma) have been diverse. Perhaps taking a moment to explore your personal response would be of value to you.
I enjoy many quotes from the fitness industry. Here is a small sampling as best as I can remember the wordings:
‘Just do it’
‘Do today what others won’t, and tomorrow you will do what others can’t”
‘Do not go for greatness, go for consistency. Through consistency, greatness will follow.’
“The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.”
‘First you fuel the desire, then the desire fuels you.’
‘Day by day, be better’
‘You want me to do something? Tell me I can’t do it.’
‘Focus on the possibilities, not the problems. Focus on the gain, not the pain. Make it happen, don’t just let it happen.’
That sort of direct, all out approach to enlightenment is excellent. Oh yes, and my recent favorite: “Digestion is everything.” Part of me would like to stop right here and ask you to connect the dots and reflect on the implications and extent of that quote for yourself.
Firstly of course, digestion is not just of food. Nor is it simply of the gut. For example, focusing on how food feels after you eat it is indeed crucial. How you process the same meal can vary from day to day. Have you noticed how sometimes a meal just seems to go right in? The cells of your body just seem to drink it right up – sometimes not. The same is true with digestion of thoughts and emotions. It is incredibly fascinating to watch how people digest and process their life experiences. As with all of life, more attention should be on how you digest food. In many ways that is more important than what food you ingest. It is said that when the digestion is good, the body transforms whatever you eat into soma… the nectar of immortality.
All the Gods, i.e. all the laws of nature, are instrumental in digestion. Ganesh is the Lord of Categories. When digestion is good, foods are partitioned properly. Nutrients feed the muscles and organs instead of accumulating as fat or toxins. Hormones, timing of meals, combination of foods, on and on… it can all be viewed as the domain of Ganesh.
At the same time, Shiva is the pure transcendent. When the physiology is established in that, all things work in harmony and health. Digestion then, is the domain of Lord Shiva.
Skanda is the commander and chief of the whole army of the gods. Easy to see then, how digestion is His domain.
And Mother Divine. Well, rest into the arms of the Mother. Eat what She offers and needless to say all will be well. Digestion is clearly Her domain.
All the Gods, all the laws of nature, are totally interconnected. They are all one. Viewing anything and everything through the facet of the diamond of life of each God provides an ever deepening understanding and expansion of perspective on all that is.
Get your digestion right, and you are whole, healthy, and enlightened. As with all fields of life, as we explore the facet of life called fitness and health, all the laws and deepest secrets of life are revealed. To really understand, to really digest, anything, is to really understand everything. If you explore the world of fitness, or anything else, watch how you digest it… how opinionated you are with respect to it… how open you are… how fascinated you are or are not…. how universal and deeply you look… where you get stuck… where you dig in your heels… on and on.
We have and will continue to explore many fields of life. I invite you to join me in these explorations. Through these explorations, we till the soil that facilitates the blossoming of life. How do you digest life? Digestion is anything and everything. Digestion is the key to life.
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By the way, we have created video blogs of the essential points for enlightenment and will be posting them soon, probably one by one. But the next blog I have planned is on a topic that desperately needs clarification and is currently up in the media, namely, “Sin and Salvation.”
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, September 2, 2013 | Clarifying Confusion, Spiritual Evolution, Vedic Science |
There is so much to say about the following comment I received. Really, it is far too much to address in a blog, but I will do my best to say it in a nutshell here.
You can study the Veda (in fact, all of life) from different perspectives. One would be that you already know exactly what Lord Krishna means by fearlessness, Atman, controlling the five senses, Advaita, Abhaya hastha, etc. In so doing, you interpret His words on your own terms and from you own level of evolution. Another perspective would be that you cannot possibly know what he means until you have attained the highest level of consciousness. In fact, the primary purpose of studying the Veda, meditation, etc. is the facilitation of your evolution in that direction. In so doing, you open the door to advancing your understanding. This is why I say that your growth is not so much about learning new facts as it is about attaining a deeper understanding of the facts you already know. The facts below are lovely, provided they are reflected upon to see deeper than you currently can see. If you assume you can read Lord Krishna’s words and know what he means, you freeze it and thereby you freeze your own growth and evolution. See?
Perhaps the greatest calamity of spirituality, and all religions, is that people think they understand what is being offered by the Masters. They believe they understand it when they do not. As I am fond of saying, “When the Master speaks, it immediately ceases to be what the Master said and becomes what the listener heard.” If we are to bring out the Knowledge in its purity, we must remain steadfast, unwavering on this point. As I have also said, “An intellectual understanding of spirituality is a good first step, all too often mistaken for the goal.”
As an exercise, I invite you to reflect on the terms and concepts in the comment and see if you can open the door to deeper understandings of what each term may mean. As an aid to this, you may want to reread my blog, “Fear of Death,” which I posted a few days ago. I can help you to look deeper, but only if you are willing and open to doing so.
The comment follows:
I can’t resist sharing some thoughts about fear (bhaya). It was just yesterday morning I woke up contemplating on Abhaya meaning fearlessness. And I open the blog to find this topic. Lord Krishna talked a great deal about fearlessness (Abhayam) at the beginning of His discourse Gita when Arjuna gets disheartened by the fear of fighting the Mahabharata war against his own kith and kin and for the fear of losing them. Lord Krishna described fearlessness (abhayam) as the first quality among the twenty-six good qualities one should possess. Lord Krishna asserts that to understand spiritual knowledge, one should be fearless.
The Abhaya hastha (hand) of Hindu gods and goddesses (an open palm with fingers pointing upwards) is often misinterpreted as the blessing hand. When one begins to look inward (this can be achieved only through unwavering meditation), one would realize the atman (soul) is one with God. This oneness is called Advaita (no duality). You are God and God is you as atman. When one is considered enlightened when she/he is able to apply and practice advaita principle to all the living beings around them. Until such time, we are believed to be following dvaita (duality); we are different from each other. Hence we fear danger, harm, and threat of death from others.
Since it is believed that the soul is eternal, it has this knowledge of Advaita. So, one does not fear one’s own self. However, we perceive fear of bodily harm, losing people or belongings, or death from others around us. If there is no duality where is the source or cause for fear? Devotee Prahlad demonstrated fearlessness as he visualized Narayana in every life form.
From philosophical perspective, five fingers in abhaya hastha denote, controlling of five senses to experience oneness with God as denoted by the fingers pointing upward. In nutshell, the entire philosophy of Advaita is given to mankind through Abhaya hastha.
“When fear is associated with every sensory pleasure you experience, where is the happiness? Those who surrender to God will become fearless and detached and enjoy the ultimate bliss. Those who have realized God understand atma jnana and become fearless. Fearless people are not afraid of death also. Swami Vivekananda was known to be a fearless person.” – Referenced from Sree.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, August 27, 2013 | Clarifying Confusion, Spiritual Evolution, The Veda |
The following is a very beautiful comment to the “What is Reality?” blog and very true. I believe that the word, Hindu, was created by the British? It meant followers of Indu! This is just something I learned years ago and can not document it. Of course, there are many philosophies spinning around The Veda. Though different aspects of Veda are called philosophies, they are better thought of as ‘eternal principles’ as stated in the comment. Veda is nature. The mechanics of nature are understood through study of the Veda. The fundamental basis of nature as viewed through western science is the unified field. As in the comment below, it is Oneness, the principle of “advaitha”, non-duality.
I would add that the principle is not understood through study alone. It must be embodied. It must be experienced. This speaks of a level of Unity Consciousness. Not an attitude or belief system but a level of consciousness… enlightenment. Of course, to study it is of great value and facilitates the path to enlightenment… proper meditation also being highly important. Also the word ‘reality’ is often used loosely. I attempted to give some sense of the deeper meaning in the ‘What is Reality’ blog.
Sree, I enjoyed this comment very much. It would be a pleasure to meet you at Mount Soma some day.
Sree’s comment follows:
The word “Hinduism” and “Hindu Philosophy” are wrongly used by many millions in Bharath (India) and throughout the rest of the world.. There is no such word in ancient Indian scriptures. Hindu has no meaning and it does not belong to any of the Indian languages. First of all, Bharath has no religion (reunite) and there is a very good reason for that. We have eternal principles that one must follow. The most important one is “advaitha” or one-ness. In other words, there is no duality in this universe. Once this concept is understood, you understand the reality.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, August 21, 2013 | Clarifying Confusion, Spiritual Evolution, The Veda |
“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.” – Albert Einstein
This universe is a reality continuum… an infinite number of simultaneously valid yet contradictory realities. On one level, in one reality, you and I are one… everything is the unified field. In the physical reality, you and I are separate. People cling to one reality or another and call it truth. Divergent branches of Hinduism insist they are right and the opposing Hindu philosophy is wrong.
The enlightened cling to nothing. They align with the reality that best serves the moment. They spontaneous live life in harmony with the reality continuum. They live in freedom. Their life is infinitely creative. What they align with is not based upon what any teacher told them or anything they have been indoctrinated into. They use the philosophies of different realities, yet the philosophies do not use them. They express themselves in terms of popular world views to be understood more easily, but see beyond those views at the same time. They may use quotes and philosophies of famous people to give expression to what they experience, but are not limited by any philosophy, world view, or belief system. An infinite number of world views emerge from deep within them from moment to moment as best serves the situation. They are not enslaved by any world view.
They see clearly. They see what is. They place little value on what they are told should be. It is called spiritual emancipation for a reason. They are free of indoctrination… free of samskaras… free of limitation…. unbounded… infinitely creative from moment to moment. The enlightened live in harmony with nature. Their nature and Mother Nature are one. Nature then determines the philosophy they align with from moment to moment.
If you are to comprehend what is being said here, you must strive to do so. Yet it is quite understandable that you may strive to refute it in order to keep your current understanding, your current knowledge, your current belief system in tact. However, if you do that, your resistance will likely be enough to prevent you from understanding what is being said here. You may try to refute this as another belief system. You may claim you already understand it but just disagree. You may insist that it just does not interest you, or you do not need to know it. You may search for a way to prove it wrong before you really even comprehend it. I assure you it is a profound and most important thing to comprehend. Once comprehended, you will realize that it is the essence of what the tradition of enlightened master, the rishis , were saying. If it were not just that subtle and elusive, everyone would have been enlightened long ago. Also remember, the spiritual path is a long one. A lifetime of study is a very short time. The spiritual path is not measured in years or decades. It is measured in lifetimes.
The knowledge of Veda is sometimes thought of as a secret knowledge. However, it is not a secret because it is hidden away. It is secret because even after reading, studying and listening, it remains a secret to the student. It is as elusive as the mystery of life and existence itself, for that is exactly what it is about.
The genuine spiritual Guru uses philosophies to lead the student to a place that lies beyond the grasp of all philosophies. This level of teaching is extraordinarily rare and oh so very precious.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, July 16, 2013 | Spiritual Evolution, Vedic Technology |
Spiritual Knowledge… real spiritual knowledge is so profoundly subtle. It is what I teach. When I look at the world, even the current court case in the news and see how people think, how they react, how they behave… and what forms their opinions… It brings me face to face with what I am up against.
How can something so sublime as deep spiritual knowledge be conveyed to a world of such fractious emotionality and irrationality of thought? Yet that is the task at hand. I see no way to resolve the world’s challenges other than to face that one supreme challenge head on. Yet we have a great technology available to us… Vedic technology. Furthermore, we have the very nature of life itself… the natural tendency for separation to merge back into wholeness… oneness… Unity and Harmony.
Regardless of the degree of the challenge, there is nothing else to do. There is only to face the wind head on and move in the direction of the Divine that dwells deep within us all.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
