Posts in the “personal” category

For the person in your life who constantly says, “I worry ...”

“It’s better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.” ~ Alan Watts

In a dream this morning
I’m pushing a little unpowered vacuum/sweeper
like you see them use at Denny’s
or maybe Cracker Barrel.

And then I look up
and see two young girls
and they’re singing a pretty song.

I ask what the song is
and they giggle a little,
and one asks the other
if they should tell me,
and she says yes.

So they tell me that there’s this
old abandoned house
and sometimes when they go by it
they see an old woman pushing
a sweeper like this.

I did a “gratitude” meditation exercise two nights ago, and it ended up going almost four hours. (Fortunately for me, at advanced levels you can trade some meditation time for sleep.)

The technique is to put your mind in the area of your heart and express things you’re thankful for, including this crazy body I have, all of you, and in the end, basically everything.

If it helps you can start by feeling love for one being — such as Zeus — and work out from there.

A soul that temporarily has a body

At some point it really hits you that I’m some soul that’s pushing this vehicle that was named “Alvin” around, and YOU are also some other individual soul. So when YOU don’t do what I want, that’s okay, because you’re another student here in Earth School. Basically, MY soul needs to give YOUR soul that freedom to work your stuff out.

I don’t watch many movies or tv shows, at least not as many as most people. The reason I don’t is because I experience lucid dreams most night that Hollywood can’t compare to. I don’t know why I have these dreams, but I have had them since I was a young child, and that’s just the way things are. This story from May 2, 2022, is just one example.

~~~

There was a bomb in the building.

Somehow I knew that.

I remember walking into a government-style building that had a parking lot directly in front of it. If you walked into the front doors, went down the hallway to the right, and then took your first left, there was a device on the floor that looked like a boxy, 1970s-style tape recorder, but it was really a bomb.

So I began working with a friend to evacuate the building. He went one way, I went the other.

As I ran around the building, Lori — my friend who died last summer — ran up to me and said in a panic, “He knows everything about you. Everything! You have to run.” I looked at her and tried to make sense of how she was here and what she was saying, but she was terrified and screamed, “RUN!” Then she ran away in the direction I had just come from.

A woman in a dream this morning was quite distraught and spoke only Spanish. I tried communicating by speaking very slowly (“Why .. are .. you .. here?”, “You're .. in .. the .. wrong .. dream”), but that didn’t help at all.

(A dream from September 22, 2013)

I was watching a Season 4 episode of Maine Cabin Masters and heard an interesting saying that Ryan has about Sunday and Monday:

“Don’t let your Monday ruin your Sunday.”

Initially Ashley and Jedi were talking about this, and then I think Ryan talked about it as well. They started the conversation when they found a sign in someone’s cabin, and Ashley noted that Ryan says that all the time.

The basic idea is that you know you have to go to work on Monday, but don’t let that ruin your Sunday, meaning that Sunday is still your day off, and you should enjoy it, rather than worrying about Monday all Sunday like many people do.

They also mention this saying in this Facebook post.

If you’ve ever seen the “Maine Cabin Masters” tv show, you may have seen the black flag that they fly on their cabins while they’re working on them. If you ever wondered about their black flag, here’s what I can tell you from this deleted scene video:

• In the video, which was posted on March 19, 2020, Ryan states that the flag is new.
• The flag signifies the Maine Cabin Masters “are here” and “we’re kicking butt on this project, and it’s going to be the best this camp will ever be.”
• It is the Maine Cabin Masters “skull and crossbones.”
• The image is a Chase Morrill design.

“Always kiss me goodnight. Always kiss me goodmorning, too.”

~ as seen in a house in Florida

Dear Fellow Christian Voters,

The 2024 voting season is upon us in the United States, and many politicians and news networks will try to make you believe they support Christian values.

Frankly, I’m fed up with all of them trying to use and distort Jesus’s message, and I’m here to ask you to ignore their WORDS and pay attention to their ACTIONS. As a Christian, just ask yourself:

Do the ACTIONS of this person really represent Christian values?

Dear Fellow Christian Voters,

It’s now September, 2024, and I’ve spent a lot of time with a man who is 85+ years old, and is a true devout Christian. At church he ushers people to their seats, and volunteers at all the church events, volunteering two days a week at the local food pantry. He’s come to know that he’s going to pass away in the next 10 or 20 years, and his number one concern in life is that he doesn’t want to go to Hell.

Now you may not be in your 80s or thinking about death, but I can tell you that he is, and he doesn’t want to spend eternity in Hell.

I have another relative who is a devout Christian, and she watches Fox News a lot, and her number one concern is that The Rapture is coming, and she doesn’t want to be left behind.

Being a True Christian, and the 2024 Presidential Election

What does this have to do with the 2024 Presidential Election?

Dear Fellow Christian Voters,

As what I call a True Christian Voter, it REALLY upsets me when politicians and so-called “news” networks distort Jesus’s messages for their own political gain. It obviously drives me crazy, because here I am writing this.

To help un-distort those false words, I’m asking you as a True Christian to base your 2024 votes on the FACTS. Don’t vote based on what politicians SAY, but on WHAT THEY DO.

Put another way, don’t let politicians and pollsters tell you how to vote: Vote based on your own knowledge and faith in the words of Jesus and The Bible.

As a brief note today, here is a short list of spiritual teachers I am aware of who have expressed the idea “I am not the body.” Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj made this the most obvious to me by writing a book titled, “I Am Not The Body,” but when you think about it, many spiritual teachers have said the exact same thing in different ways.

One thing you learn when you really become dedicated to mindfulness practice is that every moment you aren’t being mindful, you’re feeding your ego. Any thought about the past or future solidifies this ego-cage you have built up in your mind.

In a previous post I wrote that True Christian Voters should trust the Bible, Jesus, and themselves, and today I want to get into a topic that has made me so upset that I’ve started writing about these things: That we — Christian voters — need to start voting for people who REALLY tell the truth, and SHOULD NOT vote for people who blatantly lie.

If you can’t tell from that paragraph, I’m sick and tired of politicians and television shows trying to co-opt Jesus’s message for their gain. I hope you agree that this needs to stop.

What Jesus said about telling the truth

To begin with, let’s look at what Jesus said about telling the truth, and how we should not lie.

Dear Fellow Christian Voters,

I have no idea what’s true anymore, but it is being reported in many places, such as this NPR article, that the Russian government and “Russian operatives” continue to try to influence American elections. I don’t know about you, but that makes my stomach upset, at the very least.

Therefore, I am writing a series of articles where I ask you to ignore all the propaganda and just look at what The Bible and Jesus have said, and use only that and your common sense in voting in 2024. Here are my current articles:

• Trust The Bible, Jesus, and yourself
• Quotes from Jesus about lying, and people who lie
• The Ten Commandments and the 2024 Presidential Election

This is especially true in swing states, because people who live in those states will be targeted even more than other states.

Dear Fellow Christian Voter,

In the 2024 Presidential Election we face more lies and misinformation than ever before — especially those of you who live in swing states. Personally, I love my country, and as a result, I am writing a series of articles where all I ask you is to trust The Bible and Jesus Christ:

• Trust The Bible, Jesus, and yourself
• Quotes from Jesus about lying, and people who lie
• The Ten Commandments and the 2024 Presidential Election

In this time of lies and A.I.-generated propaganda, I hope will ignore all of that misinformation and just trust those sources: The Bible, and Jesus Christ. Thank you.

After my first-ever bought with diverticulitis, I wanted to make notes about what happened over the last five days.

Monday, April 7, 2015

On April 7, 2015, I woke up at 3:30am with pain and discomfort in my lower-left abdomen. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was. It felt like a golf ball was lodged in there, and several hours later it was still there.

While many people know the famous Ram Dass book, Be Here Now — which is currently the #1 All-Time Best-Selling book in Spiritualism on Amazon — I’d argue that it’s not necessarily his best book.

For example, I have met a few people in my travels who were struggling to read and understand it it because of all the art and 1960s “hippie style” stuff — which I personally like — and it was at that time I realized that while Be Here Now is his most famous book, it may not be his best book. (The problem with the “hippie stuff” is that it’s also distracting.)

Ram Dass’s best books

IMHO, I think the following books are his best, where I believe best will also depend on (a) a person’s experience with his writings and teachings, and also (b) their own progress on the spiritual path. And in this case, I think it’s also about book’s that are more straight to the point.

As a brief note today, I’ve been reading the Bhagavad Gita (translated by Jack Hawley) lately, and he shares this good line that relates to desire, attachment, and even addiction:

“Realizing the truth of your True Self
is your principal weapon for eradicating desire.”

My short interpretation of that is that our True Self is not our physical body, but something else that you might call awareness, consciousness, the subtle body, the soul, or the Atma — depending on your background — AND, it is possible through yoga, mindfulness, and meditation practice to get in touch with (feel/experience) your True Self. And then, once you realize who “you” really are, your attachments to the physical world will go away.

I used to have a friend who was an addict, and I know she was always looking for anything that would help, so I hope this quote can be helpful for others.

Update: As a followup to my original post, in the book, I Am That, Nisargadatta Maharaj basically says the same thing (many times) as the quote I shared above.