Ram Dass Love Serve Remember

Question: I’d like to know about forgiveness as a bridge between the separate self and the awakened soul.

Ram Dass: That’s a nice way of phrasing the question. It’s a step on a ladder that goes from dualism into non-dualism. Because as you forgive or allow or acknowledge or say “Of course you’re human” or “We all do that” or something, you open your heart again which embraces the person or the situation back into you, which allows the play. See, every time you close off something with judgment, it’s as if you take a bit of energy and you lock it away and make it unavailable to you. Until pretty soon you are exhausted. You don’t have any energy, because you are so busy. I often visualize it as having little doors inside your head. You’re holding a grudge — and so every time you think of that person your heart closes down. It’s as if you’ve got a little room with a guard at it that doesn’t allow you to flow freely. And they’re all the no’s of life — the no, no, no, no, no. It’s an emotional “no” against the world — against the Universe — against the way the Universe is. As opposed to “yes”. We’ve been telling you how to say no without closing your heart, but the no I’m talking about is the heart-closing no. It’s the judging, grudge, non-forgiving no. And it costs more than it’s worth. Even though you are right, righteousness ultimately starves you to death.

Righteousness is not liberation. It is known as the golden chain. You’re wonderful and you’re absolutely right, but you’re dead. I mean you’re dead to the living spirit. And finally, you want to be free more than you want to be right. And you have to forgive somebody not because they deserve forgiveness within your other model, in a righteous sense.

Maharajji said to me “Ram Dass, I told you to Love everyone and tell the truth.” And I looked at those people who I had built up all this righteous indignation and hatred towards, sitting across the courtyard at the temple. And I went over there and I was in this ecstatic state from being with Maharajji and also my ego was in incredible pain, and I took apples and I cut them into little pieces and I know that you can’t feed somebody with anger, or it’s like giving them poison. And I went up to each person who I had built up resentment to and justifiable, righteous resentment. I mean I am very creative in justifying my reactions, so I had a good reason to be angry with that person. And I stood there, and he didn’t say work it out, which is what we in the West psychologically like to work out our anger so that everyone saves face. He said “Give it up.” And I looked at the person, and I had to just let it go. And it was so painful! And when I had let it go and I could look at that person with Love again, I stuck the apple in their mouth. And it took me over an hour and a half to do that for these people. Before I could finally really let go enough to do it. Because I couldn’t afford it. I couldn’t afford not to forgive. Once you are in the One, nothing builds up so there is no forgiveness. No forgiveness is required, because you don’t forgive a tree and you don’t forgive a river. You know? It’s like lightning strikes your house and you say “I forgive you.” I mean, who are you forgiving?

It’s interesting. You know that story — the Chinese story about the boats and the fog? As the boatman, he hits another boat, and he starts swearing at the other —“You, why didn’t you look where you were going?” And then the fog lifts for a moment and he sees there is nobody in the other boat. And he feels like a fool. Well, it’s roughly the same thing. I mean you hold a grudge against your father, as if he’s in there. He isn’t in there. Psychologically you think he is, because you think you are in you, but once you begin to see he’s just a set of phenomena happening. You are busy saying “I forgive you. I forgive you.” To a clock? You know, it’s really nothing different than that. I don’t mean to demean personality. It’s quite interesting. But it is a lawful set of events. It’s not freedom.

Original Article

I’m not really sure how one can adequately put into words the power and utterly intense compassion in which one meets Ram Dass, whether through his inspiring works, or in person. He’s only been in my life now for about two years, but in the past two years he has become one of my greatest teachers and one of my soul’s most beloved friends.

I first found Be Here Now when I was seventeen, through a friend who had stumbled across it at a book store. At this point in my life, I had just gone through a near-death experience. I was angry at the world and full of cynicism. In a nutshell, I was empty, longing for something that I could not obtain, but ached for in the deepest core of my being. Shunning religion and my previous belief system, I turned more to an Albert Camus “Absurdist” philosophy.

Weeks turned to months, months turned into almost over a year, and the emptiness turned into an abyss. It was around this time that I was introduced to psychedelic hallucinogens like LSD and ketamine. I experimented with these substances with close friends, expanding my mind and slowly regaining my faith in something greater than myself.

Enter Be Here Now. The first time I read through Be Here Now, I was overcome with intensive emotions of unconditional love, and fulfillment—a feeling I had not felt in what seemed like forever. I read it, and I reread it, and the more I practiced the teachings in Be Here Now, the less I felt of the abyss that had so long been suffocating the life out of me. As the months progressed, I felt my Self, my true Self, emerging from the depths of my heart. Hallucinogens fell to the wayside of meditation, and to the love I began to see in every sentient being throughout the universe. I began delving into the works of Aldous Huxley and Hermann Hesse, but never did I forget the catalyst which in some ways, saved my life. My love for Ram Dass continued to exponentially grow, as did my relationships with my family and friends.

It was in the summer of this year (2011) that I actually got the amazing opportunity to sit down with Ram Dass himself, and meet Ramesh and Ram Dass’ assistant, Dassima. Walking up to the front door of his house with my father, and my best friend, I remember feeling so nervous, so full of anxiety. I had spent all week preparing questions to ask him, unsure of how to actually interact with someone that I felt I owed so much to. Sitting on his couch I began to sense the apprehension eroding away. Suddenly, all of the questions I had, all of the things I had planned to say, just … vanished. All of a sudden, I was just listening to this wonderful man just talk. I looked over and saw my Dad staring back at me, overflowing with love towards me. The interchange between Ram Dass and the three of us continued for a little over an hour, and all the time my heart was exploding with love. Leaving, I felt a small sliver of my ego die.

My relationship with Ram Dass holds a special place within me, and every passing day my love for him, his followers, and everyone that surrounds me strengthens into an unbreakable rope weaving the fibers of my life into an interconnected blanket of loving awareness. I only hope that I can pass on what Ram Dass has given me to everyone who is now in my life, and to all those who will enter throughout my future.

Thank you, to all of you, you have all made such a difference in my life.

Original Article

Leaving aside physical suffering and mental torture, there was another kind of deeper and more painful suffering which Babaji could not neglect. Many times it was to rescue the helpless that he had to run away like a vagabond. Sometimes unimaginable calamities come to people — someone has died, someone has been thrown out of another’s heart, or a severe shock or disappointment from one’s near or dear ones has unhinged them totally. Pain of the body or the mind can often be tolerated, but pain of the heart becomes killing. Faced with such a disaster or disappointment, they are stranded; there is no one to whom they can look for support.

Very few of us are so devoted to God that we truly believe that the help we need will come from there. We need some tangible response to our cries. Our cries reached Baba and made him rush to us — seen or unseen by others. He came and talked to us, not quoting from scriptures, but in his own sweet way. He consoled us with pats on the head, whispered words of cheer accompanied by his infectious smile, trying to bring a smile to our face. We do not know how many tears of men, women and children he wiped away with his sweet words, compassionate touches, and soothing smiles. Only Babaji knows…

His goodness to his devotees also expressed itself in the way he would fulfill their fond expectations, trying to save them from disappointment. This was revealed during the opening ceremony of the temple in Panki, Kanpur. Babaji was at Allahabad for his winter stay. Devotees coming from Kanpur requested him to bless the occasion by his presence, which he did not agree to do. They went back feeling disappointed and sad that all their efforts had failed. On the day of the inauguration, Babaji finished his toilet, and changing his clothes early, went back to his room. It was seven o’clock. He told me that he was not feeling well, covered himself with a blanket and asked me to bolt the doors, not allowing anybody to disturb him or enter his room. Hours passed, and the people waiting outside for darshan started speculating about his trouble. At twelve he opened his eyes, asked me about the time and said, “Oh, it has been five hours that I have been asleep, but such a nice sleep that I feel refreshed.” The doors were opened, and people rushed in and had their darshan. Life began again as usual.

The next day, Babaji was sitting in the hall surrounded by his devotees when a person came with a basket of ladoos — prasad from the inauguration ceremony of the Panki temple the day before. Being handed a basket, I was told that Babaji had been there in the morning, but at twelve he suddenly disappeared. “We searched for him, but he was not there, so we brought the prasad for him.”

Mr. Jagati, an old devotee, asked, “What are you talking about? Babaji was here lying on his bed feeling unwell, and we were waiting for him outside. The door was opened at twelve and we all saw him. So how could he be at Panki when he was in his room all the time?” While they were all trying to convince each other, Babaji was sitting silently with his smile. This incident reveals so much about his invisible movements to fulfill the wishes and expectations of his devotees.

Excerpt from By His Grace by Dada Mukerjee

Original Article

Question: The problem seems to be that when you are in a relationship, in the beginning everything is happening, but when you marry that person it changes. I’ve been in several relationships, major relationships, I’ve been married and divorced twice and I’m searching for something special. Something I’m told is called a “soul mate”. Do you believe in such a relationship or person and what would that mean? How would I know that?

Ram Dass: Got it! Keep looking! I’ll give you the farthest out answer first of all and then we’ll come back to something that everybody can handle. In the farthest out answer, we have all been around so many times that every one of us has been everything with everybody else. So when I look at you, you and I have been in so many relationships together. It’s just that we don’t remember them. Do you know how many times we have been born and died? Remember Buddha’s story: If you take a mountain six miles long and six miles wide and six miles high, that’s the distance a bullock walks in a day. And a bird flies over the mountain once every hundred years with a silk scarf in its beak and brushes the tip of the mountain. In the length of time it takes the scarf to wear away the mountain, that’s how long you have been doing this. Just think about that. Once every hundred years the scarf goes over; a scarf and a mountain. It goes on and on and on. In India there are Yugas and Kalpas of hundreds of thousands of years and then they start the cycles all over again. And we’ve been through all of them again and again.

[caption id=”attachment_251” align=”alignright” width=”219” caption=”Ram Dass, Maui, 2010”]

Now, behind all of this is the One. And that is all there is. All of us here are one in drag, appearing to be many. So we are all “soul mate”. There is only one of it. It’s not mates, because it’s not even two. It’s only one. There’s only one of us. So what you’re really doing is constantly marrying yourself at the deepest level of God marrying God. Now you come down into soul. And each soul has a unique karmic predicament (you could call it a psychic DNA code) that in a way guides which way its life will go. And it is entirely possible that souls when they take birth into parents that are part of their Karma will at some point meet a being and they have agreed in advance to come down and do this together and meet. And that’s what we usually call soul mates.

What you have found from your past marriages is that what you are attracted to in a person isn’t what you ultimately live with. After the honeymoon is over — it’s after the desire systems that were dormant in the relationship that have the attraction in it pass and all of it passes — then you are left with the work to do. And it’s the same work. When you trade in one partner for another, you still have the same work. You’re going to have to do it sooner or later when the pizzazz is over. And it just keeps going over. And you can’t milk the romanticism of relationship too long as you become more conscious. It’s more interesting than that. It really is. And people want to romanticize their lives all the time. It’s part of the culture. But the awakening process starts to show you the emptiness of that forum. And you start to go for something deeper. You start to go to meet another human being in truth. And truth is scary. Truth has bad breath at times; truth is boring; truth burns the food; truth is all the stuff. Truth has anger; truth has all of it. And you stay in it and you keep working with it and your keep opening to it and you keep deepening it. Every time you trade in a partner, you realize that there’s no good or bad about it. I’m not talking good or bad about this.

But you begin to see how you keep coming to the same place in relationships, and then you tend to stop because it gets too heavy - because your identity gets threatened too much. For the relationship to move to the next level of truth requires an opening and a vulnerability that you’re not quite ready to make. And so you entrench, you retrench, you pull back and then you start to judge and push away and then you move to the next one. And then you have the rush of the openness and then the same thing starts to happen. And so you keep saying “Where am I going to find the one when this doesn’t happen?” And it will only happen when it doesn’t happen in you. When you start to take and watch the stuff and get quiet enough inside yourself, so you can take that process as it’s happening and start to work with it. And keep coming back to living truth in yourself or the other person even though it’s scary and hard.

~Ram Dass

Original Article

There is a tombstone in Ashby, Massachusetts that reads, “Remember friend, as you pass by, as you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you must be. Prepare yourself to follow me.”

Something has happened to me as a result of meandering through many realms of consciousness over the past fifty years that has changed my attitude toward death. A lot of the fear about death has gone from me. I am someone who actually delights in being with people as they are dying. It is such incredible grace for me. In the morning, if I know I am going to be with such a person, I get absolutely thrilled because I know I am going to have an opportunity to be in the presence of Truth.

It is now becoming acceptable in our culture for people to die. For many decades, death was kept behind closed doors. But now we are allowing it to come out into the open. Having grown up in this culture, the first few months I spent in India in the 1960’s were quite an experience. There, when someone dies, the body is placed on a pallet, wrapped in a sheet, and carried through the streets to the burning grounds while a mantra is chanted. Death is out in the open for everyone to see. The body is right there. It isn’t in a box. It isn’t hidden. And because India is a culture of extended families, most people are dying at home. So most people, as they grow up, have been in the presence of someone dying. They haven’t walked away from it and hidden from it as we have in the West.

I was certainly one of the people in this culture who hid from death. But over the past few decades I have changed dramatically. The initial change came as a result of my experiences with psychedelic chemicals. I came into contact with a part of my being that I had not identified with in my adult life. I was a Western psychologist, a professor at Harvard, and a philosophical materialist. What I experienced through psychedelics was extremely confusing, because there was nothing in my background that prepared me to deal with another component of my being. Once I started to experience myself as a “Being of Consciousness” – rather than as a psychologist, or as a conglomerate of social roles, the experience profoundly changed the nature of my life. It changed who I thought I was.

Prior to my first experience with psychedelics, I had identified with that which dies – the ego. The ego is who I think I am. Now, I identify much more with who I really am – the Soul. As long as you identify with that which dies, there is always fear of death. What our ego fears is the cessation of its own existence. Although I didn’t know what form it would take after death - I realized that the essence of my Being – and the essence of my awareness – is beyond death.

~ Ram Dass

Original Article

I became aware of Ram Dass in the early 1970s through Be Here Now. An avid member of Dick Alpert’s explorers club, I had the opportunity to see Ram Dass talk in NY and Philadelphia and also had some friends at that time who studied with Ram Dass, so I was shown certain meditations and practices that Ram Dass was teaching at that time. I did have the opportunity to sit with Ram Dass for a personal interview and that was major for me.

By the end of the 1970s I had committed myself fully to spiritual practice and was living on an ashram convinced that enlightenment was imminent. That didn’t work out so well. One day I woke up realizing I owned no shoes, so I returned to NY to pursue my livelihood. Over the next twenty years I did Gurdjeiff work, practiced Sufism, and then Zen Buddhism. I had some remarkable teachers and met many fine people, but in the end I stopped practice and focused on business development and family life. My day-to-day life became my spiritual practice.

And then to my surprise along came Ram Dass, with Baba in tow, or should I say Baba with Ram Dass in tow. Not sure. At my first heart-to-heart interview, Ram Dass asked me what my sadhana was, and I told him it was paying attention moment to moment. He then gave me “I am Loving Awareness.” After another heart-to-heart interview, I realized I never left, only went away for a while. Happy to be home, which is right here, right now—always has been Loving Awareness. Namaste.

Excerpt from Remarkable Encounters with Ram Dass Enhanced Ebook – now available on iBooks, Kindle and Nook.

Original Article

In 1972 Babaji once complained that there was something wrong with his heart. It was painful and he could not sleep at night. Of course, there was no question of his sleep—he would be awake all night whether ill or not. Someone suggested that he be taken to Dr. Joshi, the Civil Surgeon, at Nainital. Babaji just looked at me and said, “Joshi is coming this morning.” He was a devotee and some¬times came to Kainchi and had actually said he would be coming on that day.

When Dr. Joshi heard the story, he said Maharajji should come to have a test at Ramsay Hospital in Nainital. The next day the devotees took Babaji to the clinic where the electrocardiogram machine was kept. All the talk was about the machine, where it was made, how it was made, and Babaji wanted to see how it worked. There was no talk of disease or illness. The test was made and nothing was wrong.

Before Maharajji took his mahasamadhi there was such a drama created in Kainchi. For two days all the devotees were confused and upset because it seemed that Babaji had had a heart attack, but the doctor had come and said he was all right. On the ninth of September when Babaji said he would leave, Inder at first refused to take him to the train station because Baba had not been well. However, Babaji insisted and it was done. On the day that he took his samadhi, he visited his devotee in Agra, the doctor, who examined him and found everything—heart, pulse, everything- perfect. How is it to be explained?

Excerpt from By His Grace

by Dada Mukerjee

Original Article