by Michael Mamas | May 27, 2017 | Announcements, Health, Humanity's Future, Relationships
The Huffington Post
“Forgive and Don’t Forget: How to Move on Wisely”
For a number of years, I had a holistic healing practice. During that time, a woman came to me looking for help to get over the emotional damage from abuse that had happened many years before. She told me that she had been working with counselors for a long time, trying to get over and forget about the trauma she incurred. Many of her therapists would have her relive the abuse in her mind, encouraging her to feel into it so that she could work through it. Even though she had relived it over and over again in therapy, it was still horribly traumatic every time she did so…
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Medium.com
“Evolving Our Generation’s Mentality”
I find it fascinating to look back at generational shifts and see the resulting societal changes, particularly in the United States. Even more interesting is how they explain where American society is today. For example, during the post-World War II era, parents who lived through the Depression and the war wanted a better life for their children (now known as the Baby Boomer generation). At the same time, the idealized notion of a little house with a white picket fence, a dog, a cat, and a car in the driveway became accessible to many Americans. This became the foundation for creating an ‘ideal life’ for their children…
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ElephantJournal.com
“The Transformative Power of Qigong”
We have been working with a Chinese Qigong master who practices the healing arts. As a result, I wanted to share some of what we have learned.
Firstly, let’s look at connective tissue or sinew.
If you look up the word sinew in the dictionary, it’s definition is closely linked to tendon. The dictionary indicates that this word is not used much anymore. However, I believe that the way the word was originally used describes the meaning that I want to convey, so I will use it in this article…
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by Michael Mamas | May 19, 2017 | Announcements, Business, Personal Growth |
The Huffington Post
“Moving Beyond Self-Limitation Begins Here”
We all paint ourselves into a corner with our habitual thinking, feelings, and behavior. It’s not so difficult to see how other people do this, but it can be very difficult to see how we do it to ourselves. If only we could step out of our own head, and into someone else’s for just a minute, it would be worth a lifetime of psychotherapy. The more insight we gain into how other people paint themselves into a corner, the more capable we become of taking a look at how we do it.
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LinkedIn
“To Disarm Negativity in your Team, First Understand its Function”
It is important to understand that venting and negativity are normal and here to stay. From time to time, they are going to happen. So, it is important for you, as well as everyone else on your team, to find ways to deal with them constructively.
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by Michael Mamas | May 14, 2017 | Announcements, Relationships, Spirituality
The Huffington Post
“Is Intimacy the Opposite of What You Think It Is?”
Intimacy in a relationship is often thought of in terms of knowing one another fully. To love someone is to know in your heart everything about them, and still feel fully committed to them. These ideals, at first glance, can seem quite beautiful. The reality, however, is that such notions fall short of the true beauty of a relationship…
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Medium.com
“The Wholeness of the World”
A world is a wholeness. It holds within it the full range of polar opposites. Everything is in perfect balance. For example, the very notion that without up, there is no down. Without good, there is no evil. Our physical world is an expression of a wholeness. For something to be whole, the full range of possibilities is contained within it. For every left, there is a right. The world is a totality…
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by Michael Mamas | May 8, 2017 | Meditation
The following questions (edited for confidentiality, etc.) along with my responses are posted here to answer many common questions. Some of the questions are from Advanced Technique practitioners.
Question 1: I have never felt that I transcend on the Mantra or the Sutras. Perhaps I do transcend on them, but not with the feeling I associate with transcending. Would you please comment?
Response 1: Transcending is a matter of degree. Everyone transcends to some degree when they meditate. However, you only fully transcend once, at the time commonly referred to a Cosmic Consciousness (CC), which then becomes a permanent state, a permanent level of consciousness attained. CC is further refined over time which is referred to as “higher states of consciousness”. It is similar to turning the lights on in a dark room. Once the lights are on, they are on. But it takes time for the eyes to adjust.
Preconceived notions of transcending can get in your way if you allow them to. Meditation is so natural that it, well… it just feels natural!
Question 2: The Advanced Techniques, on the other hand, I love because I feel myself transcending effortlessly on them. Will you comment on this?
Response 2: The Advanced Techniques are more powerful techniques. However, they only work because you have been transcending with the meditation. With the meditation, you established the habit of transcending. Now you ride that wave when practicing the Advanced Techniques. Doing the Advanced Techniques without first establishing the habit of transcending would not be effective. Consider your experiences with the Advanced Techniques to be confirmation that you have been transcending all along!
Question 3: Since the Advanced Techniques are supposed to be followed by the Sutras, I keep an eye on the time and then start those, but often I don’t feel like doing them. Is it okay to skip the Sutras? Is there still value in doing the Sutras and should I lean in the direction of doing them?
Response 3: It is all right, especially at first, to spend more time with the Advanced Techniques and less with the Sutras. It could even be that the Advanced Techniques are so enjoyable that you initially have meditations when you only do the Advanced Techniques. However, the Sutras are precious and as the benefit of the Advanced Techniques is enjoyed, returning to the Sutras will be a natural desire and become highly intriguing.
The Sutras are extremely valuable and it is wise to practice them regularly. With the Sutras, it is as if we enter the Transcendent, then move around in it a bit, and then that value wells up through the physiology. With the Advanced Techniques, we enter into the Transcendent in a manner the integrates the depth with the surface more directly. Both have great value and one enhances the other.
Question 4: I cannot make it to the summer course to learn the Advanced Techniques. When will there be another opportunity to learn them?
Response 4: It is everyone’s experience that meditating in a group is more powerful than meditating alone. This is simply the dynamics of group consciousness. The group consciousness carries the consciousness of every individual in the group to the Transcendent. Ten people meditating together is 100 times more powerful than one person meditating alone. That is the common experience. As mentioned earlier, the Advanced Techniques are based upon the habit of transcending. To ensure that they are learned properly, it is then wise to learn them in a group when the process of transcending is so much more powerful.
We will no doubt offer Phase 1 of the Advanced Techniques series again, but it is not certain when – perhaps this winter. To be in this first group over the next few summers will be an invaluable experience. Please do your best to attend this summer. If you cannot, then watch for the next opportunity, hopefully this year, so you can join the group in the summer of the 2018 Phase 2 course. The first group will, no doubt, be the largest and therefore the most powerful group.
by Michael Mamas | May 7, 2017 | Announcements, Business, Humanity's Future, Personal Growth
The Huffington Post
“Personal Growth: The Challenge and Value of Finding Your Own Way”
We human beings are very complex. In spite of many attempts otherwise, how we think and feel seldom follows a completely rational course. It doesn’t work to tell ourselves how we are supposed to feel. We feel what we feel. We may try to override those emotions, but it only drives them deeper. The more we drive them beneath the surface, the more they fester and distort, only to surface again in another way, at another time…
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Entrepreneur.com
“Build Your Personal Brand by Conducting Business Like Best-in-Class Entrepreneurs”
In my life, I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with best-in-class, wealthy businessmen who function in a realm untainted by pettiness, greed, anger or negativity. It’s almost as if they exist within some rarified current that flows above any earthly vices — yet is the guiding light that directs their worldly business affairs…
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Medium.com
“The Big Bang of the Brain: Is Humanity Evolving Toward the Image of God?”
Darwin was correct about species evolving to promote the survival of the fittest, but he didn’t have the whole story. According to computer models, the big bang of the brain occurred far too quickly to be attributed strictly to survival of the fittest. A viable explanation follows…
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