Questions and Andreas

Q: So, you expect me to start working on myself on a daily basis so that my consciousness becomes clearer?

A: I absolutely do. If you are serious about inner transformation, you have to start practicing techniques and cultivating attitudes that will bring you into the moment. To be is not enough, because you have to do something before you can be.

Cultivate and nourish the longing to experience this...

As I continue to speak to people and engage in the silly effort of explaining what happens in Samadhi, here is a part of what I said last weekend in Brussels.

Imagine that your consciousness is merely just a tiny, tiny presence associated with and in your body. Now imagine that this consciousness expands. Imagine that it now has expanded to include every atom filling the room you are in.

This now means that your body exists within your consciousness, so does every other body in the room. Whatever is in the room, it is part of you, inside of you. Even though the other bodies are separate, you have the very clear perception of merely looking at your very own being as you look at the “others.”

Now, dialog is becoming a joke, a kind of pretense, comparable to a puppeteer who is holding tow puppets in his hand, pretending them to have a conversation.

This experience is why Bodhisattvas have delivered the seemingly impossible vows to liberate all sentient beings across the Universes. Why would they say such a silly, impossible thing? Because they relate to all sentient beings in the way we relate to our fingers and toes and so on. We feel a clear relationship with our fingers. But the Bodhisattva has the same type of tangible relationship with all sentient beings. They exist inside of him and therefore, their suffering is personal to him/her.

This is the foundation of his vow.

Now continue to imagine. Imagine your consciousness simply explodes into all directions… the drop disappears, only infinity exists.

Then we have a taste of the Buddhas. Then we have a taste of Samadhi.

Unconditional Love

Unconditional love self-arises spontaneously when our consciousness is so extremely expanded that the other merely stands inside of our consciousness. Then, when we look into the eyes of the other, we simply and solely see our very own being. While the practice of unconditional love is commendable and indeed of merit, it will probably break if put to severe tests, because the practice is personality based, even though soul-inspired.

Therefore, it is even of greater importance to activate the expansion of our consciousness to a point where unconditional love is merely a by-product, just like the flower does not pursue the goal of smelling sweet, but rather strives to find its blooming. Its scent then is just a wonderful by-product … of its flowering.

Brussels - The Center of the New Europe

The second trip to Brussels bore many fruits. People loved our work and teachings and we scheduled next years activities with some major spiritual growth centers in and near Brussels.

We are back in Paris.

Workshops

This weekend is the first time Raylene and I gave simultaneous workshops. Her for women and I for men. This does seem to fill a need in the sense that women and men at times need to be in a safe environment to heal in. Something I want to repeat in the future...

2007

The year the US economy collapsed. 2008 the year it was noticed.

The Great Work

One of the things that I observe in our continuous contact with people is the need to remind over and over again of this need .... to work upon oneself, every day.

The experiences of the opening of the inner space, as I have described them, have taken place upon the grounds of massive and sustained efforts. And that is what is required if one seeks this experience.

Treasure

Treasure deep and powerful experiences of the opening of the inner space. Be like a gardener who will cultivate a climate of positive and sustained growth. If you do not take care of your garden every day, it will stop growing.

Your spiritual growth is just like that. You need to support it every day or else it will just be sporadic. It will not be sustained and ultimately slow down and even fade.

Brussels

We are currently in Brussels for another series of workshops and therefore I do not have much time for posting. The biggest news is that we now have a Spanish agent for the publication in Spanish-speaking countries and also Portugal and Brazil. So much for the "outer" news.

The Friday Night Entry

There is something I like to clarify concerning my Friday night entry.

I gave it that title because this event happened to me. I wrote these statements not because I read about them or thought they represent interesting philosophical data, but because I experienced this at that point in time. My consciousness was there and experienced what I described. There was experience and knowing that arose in the event just like when you directly witness a sunrise, rather than read about it.

Generally, the untrained mind does not know to differentiate between an intellectual concept and a direct experience, as strange as that might sound. Only if one stops and reflects and asks, do I really know this in my marrow, or am I just promoting a concept that I find agreeable, then one realizes that one actually .... does not have direct knowing and experience.

This entry is a sharing of what was at that moment a very deep and profound direct experience.

The Braid

By Andreas Mamet

© 2007

Our quest for spiritual empowerment has at its core the association with those who we believe can assist us in our endeavours by virtue of their accomplishments. For this reason, we seek out teachers and gurus.

When we imagine how an accomplished teacher might look like or behave, we draw many inferences from our Judeo-Christian belief system, which describes God as perfect and infallible. We conclude that a person who experiences nearness to God, or even full God-
Realization, is infallible. We believe that such a person is perfect in making decisions and can do no wrong. This is what I believed three decades ago, at the beginning of my spiritual journey.

Now, 35 years later, after much observation, I have come to think otherwise. Mistakes do not stop after an individual becomes God-Realized or finds her/himself emanating more and more Divine Light. Errors of judgment remain a possibility. This was one of the more surprising realizations for me, as I believed in the myth of infallibility.

This myth is promoted often by the priest archetype, the "god professional," in as much the following illusion is projected: God is infallible. I am close to God. Thus, I am infallible, and you need to do exactly as I say. This defines very much the traditional guru-disciple relationship of olden days, reaching into our present. It is, however, to be noted that recent decades have shown many instances wherein gurus have imploded their structure by making decisions that, in the end, displayed poor judgment and created havoc. This left their disciples spinning, forced to wonder what happened here and come to their own conclusions or responses.

One response was that the guru or teacher is so enlightened that he merely gave this experience to us as lesson to learn. That is the "denial response," seeking to uphold the illusion of the infallible master, justifying the continuing, uncritical association of the individual with the guru archetype. The stance of total devotion and surrender is maintained.

There is a story that deals with the theme of total surrender as is often asked of the disciple archetype. Gurdjieff, a spiritual teacher at the beginning of the twentieth century, was on a trip by car. At one point the lights stopped working, and Gurdjieff asked his disciple to sit on the hood of the car and hold a flashlight. The disciple was about to climb up to do as asked when Gurdjieff stopped him, asking, "Does it not occur to you that this is a completely idiotic request?"

Yes, there are beings who are very close to the Divine. They emanate qualities that are breathtaking. When you come into their company, powerful experiences take place instantly. It is those experiences that lead us to assume the teacher is perfect, a satguru. This assumption is an illusion. Yes, enlightenment may be there. But infallibility is not. This puts the entire concept of unconditional surrender out of commission. It places upon us the need for total responsibility and minute-to-minute alertness.

We are to wake up from the sleep that lets somebody else tell us what to do and how to act. Every second, we are required to display intelligent wisdom, discernment, and accept or reject what is placed before us on the grounds of this discernment. Had the Gurdjieff disciple displayed this (hard-to-attain) ability, he would have told Gurdjieff, "No."

But, to reject the action of a being we feel is God-Realized or God-Near is a most difficult thing. We are prepared to sacrifice our common sense and intelligent discernment for an act of idiocy if we believe that God is merely testing us. To reject a Buddha is most difficult.

"When you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!" The Buddha himself said that. What does this mean? It means that after a thorough and deep relationship with an awakened being, the attachment is so huge, it becomes an obstacle in the disciple's process of liberation.

This is the image that I have created for myself to understand what happens in the arising of God-Nearness: It is like a braid. You take one strand of hair and braid it with another strand of hair. The strands become completely intertwined, utterly close; one section, the human; the next, the Divine. This, to me, represents the reality of things.

Hence, the entire system of Asian teachers, Tibetan lamas, and others based on surrendering to a "high consciousness" are promoting an illusion. I feel we have entered an era wherein this illusion will be revealed. The fact of the remaining humanness of the one who experiences God-Nearness will become more evident, and the old, traditional system of unconditional surrender will be recognized as inappropriate. It will gradually disappear.

This creates a problem of different kind. It remains a fact that there are those who, on the grounds of superior and long-established practice, have indeed generated a God-Nearness that supersedes our own. This simply has to be admitted and acknowledged. Respect is due where respect is due. It should be expressed. When a transmission of light and wisdom is given, respect and gratitude are to be given in return.

But we should be able to turn on a dime. The second a teaching or request is expressed that is inappropriate or simply painfully outdated (women on the left, men on the right, thereby promoting old patriarchal and matriarchal illusions and power structures), it should be challenged on the spot. In this way, old traditions that simultaneously carry blessings and ignorance are stimulated by infusions of needed reform and reflection. Teachers who carry blessings and unreflected garbage of olden days are given food for thought. If these infusions are not accepted, considered to be sacrilegious gestures, then we should be willing to turn on our heels and walk.

In the end, the Divine Experience will come to us on the grounds of our longing for it. That is the basis. The longing for the Divine will fill our body with the experience of the Divine. Translate your longing into fervent, ceaseless practice. Call the Divine until the Divine is tired of hearing your voice and descends into your body completely to get rid of your crying.

Friday night, 3 A.M.

When Christ was on the cross, the inside could not have been more separate and distant from the outside. On the outside, his body was suffering. On the inside his transformation soared into unspeakable dimensions, inconceivable to the human imagination. Sunlight turned into a 1000 suns and the occasion, an initiation for him, also turned into an initiation for some of the ones that loved him and had the courage to be present at this moment in time.

Mary Magdalene was present with Christ as he was on the cross; she was the recipient of a transmission that was immense. From the heart of Christ a shaft of Light exploded, and reached and pierced the heart of Mary Magdalene. What Mary Magdalene experienced in this moment was an explosion of ecstasy and agony both. The ecstasy of becoming one with Christ (this moment was her enlightenment) and the agony of seeing Her Beloved’s body in pain.

After that point, there was no more division between herself and Christ. She was God-realized as Jesus and emanated blessings and healings as he did. Whether or not this was realized by those who recorded history, she lived and breathed this reality until her own death.

Chronicles of Samadhi in Positive Health

Article Chronicles of Samadhi in Positive Health. The article is the second piece I wrote that was printed in this lovely magazine from England. It came out in July and is now available also online.

Today

Call somebody and tell them how much you appreciate them.

Workshops in Belgium

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A Good Man, A Good Teacher and the Difference

A good man says what he needs to say.

A good teacher says what needs to be heard (or remains silent in the absence of proper ears).

Stage

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