Posts in the “personal” category

I recently started reading the “spiritual classic” book, I Am That, by Nisargadatta Maharaj. The book is rated 4.8 stars on Amazon and 4.4 on Goodreads, so that’s pretty impressive.

After reading the first 100 pages or so, I’m glad to report personally that there isn’t anything significantly new here for me. Even though I never saw Ram Dass refer to Nisargadatta Maharaj, the words in this book are remarkably similar to those in Ram Dass’s best books, which I have already written about. That is, the words are a little different, but all of the concepts are the same, and they are consistent with what I know about meditation.

I’ve been working with ChatGPT lately to create images that go with “spiritual quotes,” and it created this image to go along with the Ram Dass quote, “Enlightened beings are pure awareness.”

Here are two favorite quotes from Anandamayi Ma. I think almost all of these quotes come via Ram Dass, but at the moment I can’t remember what book I saw this in. So at the moment, I assume that Ram Dass or one of his assistants spoke, wrote, or compiled almost all of the following, and I’ll link to one of his books once I can confirm this.

March 10, 2017: My immune system has been struggling the last two weeks since I had some bad Kroger yogurt. (The yogurt didn’t taste bad, but I got very sick within an hour of eating it.) Today I put a mala on my wrist like I have 10-15 times this year, and after a little while it felt like it was itching and burning. This is what my skin looked like almost half an hour after I took it off. I’m assuming that this is a result of the mast cell disease (MCAS).

Because of the MCAS I usually see a series of specialists and only see my primary care physician (PCP) once every year or two, but I had to go her office a couple of days ago. One of the benefits of going there is that she has this terrific view of the Rocky Mountains.

Buddha said, “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”

~ Michael Clark Duncan

I enjoyed the tv series, “The Finder”, it’s one of my favorite tv series that lasted only one season. I like pretty much everything about it, and loved the quotes from the character played by Michael Clark Duncan. RIP, MCD, you are missed.

If you ever wondered what life was about, here you go. From Leo (Michael Clark Duncan) in The Finder.

“Are you familiar with Sun Tzu?”

~ Michael Clarke Duncan, in a favorite tv show, The Finder

“The world is won by those who let it go.”

~ Lao Tzu (via The Finder)

In mindfulness meditation, “Stagnation is guaranteed if you cling to pleasant sensations.”

~ Daniel Ingram

November 3, 2020

Dear diary,

I got pretty sick this afternoon. That’s always been one thing about this body, if you push it, it will push back. Some of it may be mast cell related, some of it may be kidney related (some of my kidney numbers are not good currently).

Ended up sleeping from noon until 5pm. I have the heat turned up now, drinking warm fluids, and wearing a heavy shirt. When I laid down earlier I started having chest pain, so I took some Benadryl and that eventually went away, but then I slept.

I don’t remember how I first heard this, but I love this song named Runaway by Aurora.

As I update this post on December 16, 2023, I particularly like the lyrics, “Take me home, take me home where I belong.” (You get to a point in meditation that some people call “The Dark Night,” and I’ve been there for a while now, and I just want to finish the deed.)

Mostly because of Ram Dass books, and also more recently because of the book I Am That, I have been digging deeper than ever into the spiritual concept of “The Witness.” By that I mean both in terms of how we use the witness as a mindfulness and meditation technique, and also what that really means.

To that end I have started collecting Ram Dass quotes about the witness and the process of witnessing as a form of mindfulness, and the following are the Ram Dass quotes about the witness that I’ve found so far.

Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story

A friend of mine who was been battling addiction told me that the most important thing for them once they were “triggered” was to get away from the trigger and also ask someone for help.

Additionally, they said that when they couldn’t do those things for one reason or another, they had certain phrases that they would repeat to themself. They even kept cards with them that they’d carry around.

One of the phrases went like this: “You CAN keep doing the same thing today, tomorrow, and every day until you die, or, you CAN choose to make a change right now.”

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 1: 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.

UPDATE 2: Ram Dass offered a quote that’s in the same ballpark: “One way to get free of attachment is to cultivate the witness consciousness, to become a neutral observer of your own life.”

“Hello Peter, this is me ... your father ... Walter Bishop.” (From one of my favorite tv series)

About half an hour ago I was a passenger in a car in Poland. I was debating with the driver about what to do, because we had already checked out of our hotel, but we were running late, and we had planned on getting to another country. Because we were so late and things were unfamiliar, I was saying that we should go back to the hotel. I think we were in Krakow and talking about where to go next, but maybe going to Krakow was part of the plan.

In front of us there was a car, and then another vehicle that looked like a dump truck. Suddenly the truck exploded. It was a huge explosion that obliterated the truck. Inside the car, my ears were ringing.

October 26, 2019, in a meditative state:

As I return from the blackness of meditation, I see a very old man with long white hair and long white beard sitting in front of me. He’s wearing a full-body length white garment that I would call a dress if a woman was wearing it. (The garment has another name that I don’t know.)

He’s seated in a full-lotus position, with his eyes closed. I admire his posture, with one foot on each thigh, one hand resting on the other in a mudra in his lap, his shoulders back, and his chin tucked.

Not knowing what to do of whether he even speaks English, I whisper, “Hello.”

His eyes open gently, and he looks at me with a small, pleasant smile. “Welcome,” he replies.

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.

(Note: I saw the term ego-cage in a book, but I don’t remember which one.)