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 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 meditation. Here then 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

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

~ as seen in a house in Florida

“The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your action will be.”

~ The Dalai Lama

“If we do not practice mindfulness while carrying a bucket of water, it is a waste of time to seclude ourselves in a monastery.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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.

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?

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.

Do you love
And then how am I to know?
If you don't let your love show for me
C’est la vie.

~ C’est la vie, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer

I’ve written before a friend battling addiction, and today I remembered another thing she told me:

I don’t remember her exact words, but her point was that some (or many) people may think that addicts don’t want to recover, but once they get to a point where they DO want to recover, it’s still a very difficult battle because the chemical addiction is so strong. She mentioned several times that she felt nearly suicidal because she WANTED to stop, but could not stop, at least not without a lot of help and support. She told me this while she was crying so hard she could barely stop.

Fortunately for her, in those times when she did feel suicidal but couldn’t stop on her own, she did reach out for help, and eventually made it past that point.

On a personal note, my friend was a very nice person; she just didn’t have a good situation growing up, and made some wrong turns on the road of life. My experience with her opened up my eyes about people battling addiction.

“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.”

~ Alan Watts

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own.

~ from Chasing Cars by Sarah Bettens (originally by Snow Patrol)

I basically gave up my life savings to pay for my mom’s caregiving needs, and as a result, I’ve had to make payments to the Boulder Community Hospital for the last ~24 months on an installment plan for my own medical needs. Today — ten months after I last lived in Colorado — I finally made the last payment on that installment plan.

(Part of me feels like there should be a little celebration for this, but for today, a larger part of me isn’t feeling any joy.)

As I became lucid in a dream this morning, I ran into Ram Dass. He was wearing a long-white outfit that I have seen in pictures of him, he was healthy again, with a big beard, and was much taller than I expected — significantly taller than me. (I later looked this up to find out he was 6’3”.)

He was standing next to a doorway and gathering people together for a seminar that he was giving, and asked if I wanted to attend. I said yes, and he said I was welcome if I could be like “The Lamb of God.”

I thought I knew what he meant by that, but just to be sure I asked him what he meant.

Regarding Jesus Christ, Maharaji began to cry and said, “He lost himself in the ocean of love.”

~ Maharaji (Neem Karoli Baba).
quoted in Miracle Of Love

“Books are the training weights of the mind.”

~ Epictetus

Cats sit on the window sill
Children sit in the show
Why do I feel I don't fit in
Anywhere I go

Thunder clouds have their lightning
Nightingales have their song
And don't you see I want my life
To be something more than long

Rivers belong where they can ramble
Eagles belong where they can fly
I've got to be where my spirit can run free
Gotta find my corner of the sky

~ from “Corner Of The Sky,” written by Stephen Schwartz (sung by the Jackson 5, Dusty Springfield & Petula Clark, and others)

“Perfected beings are pure awareness.”

~ Ram Dass, as I write about here

I came across two quotes recently that seem related ... and not necessarily just in a spiritual/religious way:

“The devil doesn’t come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for.”

“The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.”

Lately I’ve been thinking about how some people get to a certain point and then never mature any more. It’s like maybe they get everything they ever wanted, and they stop there. They become comfortable or complacent, and in doing so, they create their own prison.

The following are some favorite quotes from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and his book, I Am That.

And on a personal note, to think that I have come to understand all of these quotes in this lifetime is a little mind-blowing to me.

Here then are the quotes:

Treat everyone you meet as if they are God in drag.

~ Ram Dass