Ram Dass Quotes

I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion
and where it isn't, that's where my work lies.

As one individual changes, the system changes.

The next message you need is always right where you are.

Our culture's zeal for longevity reveals our incredible collective fear of death.

woman once came to Gandhi with her young son. "Mahatma-ji, tell my son to stop eating sugar. It's not good for him." Gandhi told her to return with her son in a week's time. When they returned, Gandhi said to the boy, "Stop eating sugar." The woman was perplexed and asked Gandhi why he couldn't have told the boy that a week earlier. Gandhi replied, "Because at that time I had not given up sugar." What

Potent Quotes "Whatever you do, or eat, or give, or offer in adoration, let it be an offering to me; and whatever you suffer, suffer it for me. Thus you shall be free from the bonds of Karma which yield fruits that are evil and good; and with your soul one in renunciation you shall be free and come to me." - Bhagavad Gita

Every religion is the product of the conceptual mind attempting to describe the mystery.

The root of compassion is not empathy; that is kindness. Kindness is great, but it is not the ultimate compassion. Ultimate compassion relieves the suffering that comes from separateness. The suffering that comes from separateness is relieved only when you are fully present with another person, not when you are separately present.

It is possible that in the 21st Century the Earth will not be inhabited by humans. One of the great mystics of India, a very simple man up in the mountains, somebody once asked him about the future. He said there will come a time when you'll walk five miles and you may see a light and you'll be so happy to know another being exists.

So we won't take ourselves too seriously. Because taking something serious doesn't make it go away any faster. In fact, it keeps making it a little bit worse.

Our whole spiritual transformation brings us to the point where we realize that in our own being, we are enough.

Counseling has to do with intuition, with work on oneself, with the quietness of one's mind and the openness of one's heart.

This society is not 'user-friendly' for older people.

I can do nothing for you but work on myself ... you can do nothing for me but work on yourself!

The universe is made up of experiences that are designed to burn out your attachment, your clinging, to pleasure, to pain, to fear, to all of it. And as long as there is a place where you're vulnerable, the universe will find a way to confront you with it.

We've been proceeding so long on the plane of consciousness, we don't realize we are spiritual beings. Our minds, our senses, and the society around us all say, "Come on, you're getting into fantasy."

Love is the most transformative medicine For Love slowly transforms you Into what psychedelics only get you to glimpse.

The God within is your Spiritual Heart. Your Soul. And in that individual Soul, rests God- rests the One. Go into your soul and your heart-space which can be Awareness, Love, Compassion, etc ... and just BE your heart-space. BE your Soul so that you can LOVE unconditionally.

When you are in the presence of unconditional love, that is the optimum environment for your heart to open, because you feel safe, because you realize nobody wants anything from you. The minute that heart opens, you are once again letting in the flow. And that flow is where you experience God.

The ego is frightened by death, because ego is part of the incarnation and ends with it. That is why we learn to identify with our soul, as the soul continues after death. For the soul, death is just another moment.

Free yourself from the illusion of good and bad days. Labeling time makes us nostalgic of the past and demanding of the future. There is only here and now. Let it be.

It's very hard to grow, because it's difficult to let go of the models of ourselves in which we've invested so heavily.

Whoever clings to mind sees not The truth of what's Beyond the mind. Whoever strives to practice Dharma Finds not the truth of Beyond-practice. To know what is Beyond both mind and practice, One should cut cleanly through the root of mind And stare naked. One should thus break away From all distinctions and remain at ease.

In the depth of the soul is the atman, the oversoul. And that oversoul is really love and compassion, peace, joy, and wisdom.

The satsang is - within the mass culture - like little mushrooms here and there, and somebody, maybe a Christian and a Hindu and a Buddhist, come together; doesn't matter, because those are paths. They're paths to the One. But those satsangs are what the world needs. And as I say - heart to heart - that's what satsang is.

Our rational minds can never understand what has happened, but our hearts.. if we can keep them open to God, will find their own intuitive way.

The world is won by those who let it go.

Our thinking minds deprive us of the happiness that comes when we are living fully in the moment.

There is message to the community that a non-governmental process is underway to bring about social change, it's a public one, and people like Margaret Thatcher, George Bush, and Mikhail Gorbachev are throwing their weight behind it. In a world where there's a lot of cynicism and despair, this has a candle-lighting effect.

When you know how to listen everyone is the guru

I take the dust from the lotus feet of the guru to cleanse the mirror of my mind." So begins a sacred ode to Hanuman.

It's only when caterpillarness is done that one becomes a butterfly. That again is part of this paradox. You cannot rip away caterpillarness. The whole trip occurs in an unfolding process of which we have no control.

To him who has had the experience no explanation is necessary, to him who has not, none is possible.

I experience each moment like baklava: rich in this layer, and this layer, and this layer.

I sit with people who are dying. I'm one of those unusual types that enjoys being with someone when they're dying because I know I am going to be in the presence of Truth.

The art of life is to stay wide open and be vulnerable, yet at the same time to sit with the mystery and the awe and with the unbearable pain - to just be with it all.

Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying.

It wasn't until after I'd been around Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley and Alan Watts, that I started to reflect about issues like the evolution of consciousness.

Maharajji would quote Kabir: It is easy to dye your cloth, but it is hard to dye your heart.

Words engage our minds, but in the silence we hear the Presence of God.

Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.

This getting straight not only applies to people but to things as well, such as favorite music, disliked foods, special treats, avoided places, all your toys, etc. Everything must be rerun through your compassion machine.

The way you come to fully appreciate the infusion of the Spirit is to more and more come fully into the moment, where this moment is enough.

From a Hindu perspective, you are born as what you need to deal with, and if you just try and push it away, whatever it is, it's got you.

As we acquire a certain degree of equanimity in self-image, we are that much more likely to feel empathy for those around us. We know what it's like to be a "self" moving through the world of "others." When someone feels particularly isolated or in pain, we don't need a great deal of information in order to come to his or her aid.

Each of us finds his unique vehicle for sharing with others his bit of wisdom.

Knowledge all by itself, without deep wisdom, ends up becoming despair.

Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God.

I don't think too much about the future. Not because I'm hiding my head in the sand but because I figured out that whatever the future was going to be, the thing I had to do was to quiet my mind and open my heart and do what I could to end suffering.

Caring is a reflex ... You live, you help.

Suffering only shows where you are attached. That is why, to those on the path, suffering is grace.

The point isn't to deny our Egos, but to extricate ourselves from our exclusive preoccupation with them.

When someone we love dies, we get so busy mourning what died that we ignore what didn't.

I take the assumption that every religion has been rooted in some mystical or transcendent experience. From that assumption, I just look at all the different systems as metaphors or doorways to God.

Prolong not the past Invite not the future Do not alter your innate wakefulness Fear not appearances There in nothing more than this

Real happiness lies in that which never comes nor goes, but simply is.

A Oneness of all. An evolution in consciousness of us all that isn't about the egos.

I love everybody and they, in turn, love everybody, and that's spreading love heart to heart to heart. That's my approach of my work.

The spiritual journey is not about acquiring something outside yourself, rather, you are penetrating deep layers and veils to return to the deepest truth of your own being.

You look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is ...

The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can't be organized or regulated. It isn't true that everybody should follow any one path. Listen to your own truth.

you see it." Gurdjieff, a great spiritual teacher who taught in Europe and America in the early decades of the twentieth century, noted that if you think you're free and you don't know you are in prison, you can't escape. Gurdjieff saw us as being in a prison of our own habits of mind. Unless we understand how we are conditioned by our desires, we remain stuck in the reality they create, like a television program with an ad that keeps repeating over and over, implanting a subliminal message while we watch the show. BEYOND THOUGHT In the West we get rewarded for rational knowledge and learning. But only when you see that the assumptions you've been working under are not valid,

When the faith is strong enough, it is sufficient just to be. It's a journey towards simplicity, towards quietness, towards a kind of joy that is not in time. It's a journey that has taken us from primary identification with our body and our psyche, on to an identification with God, and ultimately beyond identification.

A relationship starting out as one that awakens love can only remain a living vehicle for love to the extent that it is continually made new or reconsecrated.

Compassion and pity are very different. Whereas compassion reflects the yearning of the heart to merge and take on some of the suffering, pity is a controlled set of thoughts designed to assure separateness. Compassion is the spontaneous response of love; pity, the involuntary reflex of fear.

Thoughts are going by like a river; awareness simply is.

You can't build joy on a feeling of self-loathing.

I think the question is, how do we live with change? Change in our friends, change in our lovers? Change in me and change in my body, from the stroke. Things have changed this plane of consciousness. We've tried to keep things the same. It causes suffering. This suffering is another step in your spiritual life, in your spiritual journey.

As you dissolve into love, your ego fades. You're not thinking about loving; you're just being love, radiating like the sun.

Meditation means to be constantly extricating yourself from the clinging of mind.
By letting go of even the thought 'I,' and 'me' what is left?
There is nowhere to stand and no one to stand there.
No separation anywhere.
Pure awareness.
Neither this, nor that.
Just clarity and being.

The final awakening is the embracing of the darkness into the light. That means embracing our humanity as well as our divinity. What we go from is being born into our humanity, sleep walking for a long time, until we awaken and start to taste our divinity. And then want to finally get free.
We see as long as we grab at our divinity and push away our humanity we aren't free. If you want to be free, you can't push away anything. You have to embrace it all. It's all God.

If you want to be surrounded by Souls, become identified with your Soul.
It takes one to know one!

What the word God means is the mystery really. It's the mystery that we face as humans the mystery of existence, of suffering and of death.

When we see the Beloved in each person, it's like walking through a garden, watching flowers bloom all around us.

You have all the time in the world, but don't waste a moment.

All acts of healing are ultimately our selves healing our Self.
-Ram Dass

Most of us are convinced that we are our egos, which is who we think we are. The ego is part of our incarnation. It dies with the body, which is why we are so afraid of death. Death scares the hell out of who you think you are, especially if you think you are this body.

Pain is the mind. It's the thoughts of the mind. Then I get rid of the thoughts, and I get in my witness, which is down in my spiritual heart. The witness that witnesses being. Then those particular thoughts that are painful - love them. I love them to death!

If I'm going to die, the best way to prepare is to quiet my mind and open my heart. If I'm going to live, the best way to prepare for it is to quiet my mind and open my heart.

Faith is what is left after all your beliefs have been blown to hell.

Do what you can on this plane to relieve suffering by constantly working on yourself to be an instrument for the cessation of suffering. To me, that's what the emerging game is all about.

Now is now. Are you going to be here or not?

My work as a human being is to quiet my mind, open my heart and do what I can to relieve the suffering with as much wisdom, skill, whatever I got.

As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can't see how it is.

After meditating for some years, I began to see the patterns of my own behavior. As you quiet your mind, you begin to see the nature of your own resistance more clearly, struggles, inner dialogues, the way in which you procrastinate and develop passive resistance against life. As you cultivate the witness, things change. You don't have to change them. Things just change.

The healing begins when we can start to feel more gratitude that our child came into our life than despair and outrage that our child died. The gratitude is what heals the despair.

Pain is the mind. It's the mind. It's the thoughts of the mind.

Creativity springs from the yearning to be the fullness of who you are.

You can be still and still moving. Content even in your discontent.

Be patient. You'll know when it's time for you to wake up and move ahead.

True compassion arises out of the plane of consciousness where I AM you.

When I look at my life, I see that I wanted to be free of the physical plane, the psychological plane, and when I got free of those I didn't want to go anywhere near them.

If a pickpocket meets a saint, he sees only his pockets." Then he'd get up and leave. Or he'd write, "If you wear shoeleather, the whole earth is covered with leather." These were his ways of teaching me about how motivation affects perception.

Your problem is you're ... too busy holding onto your unworthiness.

At the moment when there's nothing more to lose, the Ego breaks open - and then we see who we are behind who we thought we were.

In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.

Who in all his works sees God, in truth he goes to God.

Relationships only work in a spiritual sense when you and I really see that we are one.

But you know, you really don't have to worry about whether everybody else is doing it or not. You just begin to get your own house in order. Recognizing your complete interrelatedness with all of it and with your own spiritual source changes the meaning of each act, and therefore both the reason and the way it's done.

Without remaining open to change , we can not remain open to life