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Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart
Sometimes illumination occurs spontaneously or, as Ram Dass experienced, in a heart-wrenching moment of opening. More commonly, it happens when we polish the mirror of the heart with daily practice—and see beyond the illusion of our transient thoughts and emotions to the vast and luminous landscape of our true nature.
For five decades, Ram Dass has explored the depths of consciousness and love and brought them to life as service to others. With Polishing the Mirror, he gathers together his essential teachings for living in the eternal present, here and now.
Readers will find within these pages a rich combination of perennial wisdom, humor, teaching stories, and detailed guidance on Ram Dass' own spiritual practices, including:
•Bhakti Yoga—opening our hearts to unconditional love
• Practices for living, aging, dying, and embracing the natural flow of life
• Karma Yoga—how selfless service can profoundly transform us
• Working with fear and suffering as a path to grace and freedom
• Step-by-step guidance in devotional chant, meditation and mantra practice, and much more
For those new to Ram Dass' teachings, and for those to whom they are old friends, here is this vanguard spiritual explorer's complete guide to discovering who we are and why we are here, and how to become beacons of unconditional love.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2013
496 people are currently reading
4,108 people want to read
About the author
Ram Dass
191books2,190followersRam Dass (Richard Alpert), was one of America's most beloved spiritual figures, making his mark on the world giving teachings and promoting loving service, harmonious business practices, and conscious care for the dying. His spirit has been a guiding light for four generations, carrying millions along on the journey, helping free them from their bonds as he has worked his way through his own.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 150 reviews
May 13, 2023
I realize my feed is jampacked with romance of all shapes and sizes (I love, love) but occasionally I enjoy reading something a little different.
I wasn’t expecting this book to have so many beautiful quotes from other religions. It was honestly quite refreshing. (Hindu, Muslim, Quaker, Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity…just to name a few) It was yet another sign we are more alike, than different.
How do we find the soul that’s underneath the physical form and defenses we’ve spent our entire lives creating?
The spiritual journey is not about acquiring something outside yourself. Rather, you are penetrating the layers and veils to return to the deepest truth of your own being.
I especially appreciated the guided meditation examples. I struggle to stay focused when meditating, and I think some of his tips might work.
I wasn’t expecting this book to have so many beautiful quotes from other religions. It was honestly quite refreshing. (Hindu, Muslim, Quaker, Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity…just to name a few) It was yet another sign we are more alike, than different.
How do we find the soul that’s underneath the physical form and defenses we’ve spent our entire lives creating?
The spiritual journey is not about acquiring something outside yourself. Rather, you are penetrating the layers and veils to return to the deepest truth of your own being.
I especially appreciated the guided meditation examples. I struggle to stay focused when meditating, and I think some of his tips might work.
July 28, 2016
LOVED this book. I can see myself referring to many of its passages over and over again. I especially resonated with the following quote on page 72:
"How do you get on with it? You give up the things that don't get you to God. What do you give up? It's not just material stuff. It's also the ways you identify yourself, how you feel about yourself. For instance, give up your unworthiness. Don't analyze it--just give it up. Keep giving up your guilt, your anger, and your preoccupation with your own melodrama. It's just a melodrama, a soap opera. Don't you already know how it comes out?
"You took this birth because you have work to do that involves suffering and the kinds of suffering you find yourself in. This is your curriculum for this birth. Where you are now with all your neuroses and problems is just the right place. This is it, and it's perfect. Live life fully and richly as a partner with God and accept what comes with openness and love."
Ram Dass is a powerful teacher and lives up to his name ("Servant of God") and I'm thankful that he is continuing to write books and share the lessons he has learned to new generations.
"How do you get on with it? You give up the things that don't get you to God. What do you give up? It's not just material stuff. It's also the ways you identify yourself, how you feel about yourself. For instance, give up your unworthiness. Don't analyze it--just give it up. Keep giving up your guilt, your anger, and your preoccupation with your own melodrama. It's just a melodrama, a soap opera. Don't you already know how it comes out?
"You took this birth because you have work to do that involves suffering and the kinds of suffering you find yourself in. This is your curriculum for this birth. Where you are now with all your neuroses and problems is just the right place. This is it, and it's perfect. Live life fully and richly as a partner with God and accept what comes with openness and love."
Ram Dass is a powerful teacher and lives up to his name ("Servant of God") and I'm thankful that he is continuing to write books and share the lessons he has learned to new generations.
August 7, 2017
I remember picking up Ram Das' book, Be Here Now, about 40 years ago. This one continues in that vein, and includes tips for later years... as he's aging.
I don’t know anything, so I remember you, Son of the Wind;
grant me strength, intelligence, and wisdom,
and remove my impurities and sorrows.
- Invocation to Hanuman Chalisa. Translation by Krishna Das, from Flow of Grace
Along this shift in the locus of our inner identity, there is a process of external reflection, as we see our inner being reflected and projected onto every experience of the outer work. With patient spiritual practice, we can bring our external experience into ever-closer alignment with our inner being. This is yoga - not just yoga of the body, but yoga of the mind (jnana), of the heart (bhakti) and of selfless action (karma yoga).
As the veils of illusion begin to become more transparent, as we recognize the limitation of identifying solely with thoughts and experiences, with ‘objective’ reality, we begin to reflect a purer state of being. As the layers become more transparent, the light shines through us, and we begin to dwell in a less content-laden, ever-clearer state of awareness. Awareness in the heart flowers into love, compassion and wisdom.
Polishing the mirror, this process of reflecting on ourselves by witnessing and by bringing our external life into harmony with our true being, resolves when we identify fully with our soul.
This book is a travel guide for the path to now-here, how to find that precious sense of inner peace and spiritual reunion.
Only you can know for yourself if polishing the mirror is working. You’ll know if you become quieter inside, more loving and compassionate, more peaceful and present, more content with your life.
May we treat ourselves with compassion and patience, and not take ourselves too seriously. After all, there’s nothing to accomplish. We are just allowing ourselves to be. - In Love, Rameshwar Das
Introduction
Being Here Now
BEING HERE NOW sounds simple but these 3 words contain inner work for a lifetime.
Love is opening to merge with another being, whether with another person or with God (in the end they’re the same). Love is the doorway to oneness with all things, to being in harmony with the entire universe. This return to oneness, to a simplicity of just being, of unconditional love, is what we all long for. This unified state is the real yoga, or union.
Each of us has our own path to follow, our own karma (selfless action). You can’t imitate someone else’s trip. Listen to your heart to hear what you yourself need, take what you can from these practices, and leave the rest.
Bhagavan Das (a 23-yr-old surfer from Laguna Beach) would say: Don’t think about the past; just be here now. Don’t think about the future; just be here now.
Although he was compassionate, he didn’t involve himself in dealing with my emotions.
Simple truth: Love everybody, serve everybody, and remember God.
é
I honor the place in you
Where the entire universe resides.
I honor the place in you
Of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place in you
Where if you are in that place in you and
I am in that place in me,
There is only one of us.
Ram Dass
Maui August 2013
_____________
Yoga sutras being with: Yoga citta vritti nirodh = unified consciousness with cessation of thoughts.
Quieting the mind allows the natural depth of the spirit to manifest.
Meditation, the practice of quieting and concentrating and purifying the mind, aligning it with the spirit, is a foundation of yoga.
Meditation stems from the truth that who you really are is more than who you think you are.
The more you desire to know who you truly are and why you are here, the more you are drawn to that truth. As you are pulled inward, you leave behind the clinging attachment that keeps distorting and narrowing your vision.
Your mind can take you into the spirit, but it can also keep you deeply attached to your ego, to who you think you are. There are other ways of knowing. The thinking mind is only part of our being. The reality of oneness is greater than what is available to you through your sense and your thoughts.
A more skillful use of the intellect is contemplation. It is also a form of jnana yoga, the path of knowledge and wisdom. For example, take a holy book and work with 1 thought throughout the day. If we reflect on love, equanimity, kindness or compassion, we begin to take on those qualities. Sri Ramakrishna said: If you meditate on your ideal, you will acquire its nature.
If you’re reading this, you already recognize you’re on a spiritual journey. When you awaken to your predicament - that you are trapped in illusion - you see through the veils. Everything you thought was real, you see as maya (illusion).
Motivations and desires affect our perceptions. We don’t necessarily seem things as they are. We see them as we are.
Gurdjieff taught that if you think you’re free and don’t know you are in prison, you can’t escape.
Unless we understand how we are conditioned by our desires, we remain stuck in the reality they create.
In the West, we get rewarded for rational knowledge and learning. But when you see the assumptions you’ve been working under are not valid, then you can possibly change your mind. Einstein said: A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive.
In the Vedic lore of India, the ancient sages say there are 3 ways to acquire spiritual knowledge:
1) Through your own experience
2) From somebody you know who knows, and they tell you
3) Study or learn from books with your logical mind.
Other ways of knowing = intuition
What you seek is already within you.
Cool out so we don’t create heavy karma for ourselves.
Where the journey leads is to the deepest truth in you. The spiritual journey is not about acquiring something outside yourself, but penetrating the veils to return to the deepest truth within.
Instead of filling your mind with daily news, fill it with stuff that helps you become more conscious, that liberates you. Go within to your spiritual heart, and watch the drama that is your entire life. Then watch with unbearable compassion for yourself and all beings.
At first you may be distracted and remember to witness only now and then. Later, you start to remember sooner. Just notice. You don’t have to change anything. Things will change naturally. After some practice, it gets more subtle, and then, you are always here and now, residing in each instant of living.
Relax, be light, dance through it all, trusting, quieting, flowing… Your witnessing lives in the flow of your love and the quietness of your mind. Keep your eye on the mark.
Allow life to become simpler and more harmonious. Less and less you grab at this and push away that. You listen to hear how it is rather than impose a structure. You are just being. Sit simply, live simply, just be where you are, with whomever you’re with when you’re with them.
Aldous Huxley: The body is always in time, the spirit is always timeless.
All of life becomes a meditative act. Not just sitting on your meditation pillow. You follow the breath. You don’t stop your mind. You let it flow. But keep coming back to one thought. You spiritualize your life. Convert it all by maintaining a frame of reference with the dual capacity of centering you and increasing the power of one-pointedness. Maharaj-ji: Bring your mind to one point and wait for grace.
Because of the purity of your seeking, many high beings are present, and with them comes the spiritual substance out of which all form derives. Breathe in the energy of the universe. Breath out all the separateness. Let breath be transformative.
Look toward people toward whom you have felt less than loving. Look to their souls and surround them with light, with love and peace. Let go of anger and judgment.
We may sing to the Beloved, we may pray, or just dwell in the sweetness of remembering God. Once you have set out on the river of love, all you have to do is let it carry you to the ocean.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along. - Rumi
Many of us are afraid to let go of our judging minds to fall into love, to be absorbed into the liquid flow of the universe. To enter the space of conscious love, you become love -- not someone seeking or loving someone, just being love.
Love’s truth is that love is in all of us, and that we are one in love.
Love is a state of being. It isn’t possessive. We can only become it.
As you grow in devotion and focus more on the Beloved, you tune in to a deeper place within yourself. The emotional qualities give way to where you see everyone and everything as Beloved.
The guru is a mirror that reflects your higher Self, and allows you to see that place of love and pure being in yourself. The guru finds you. Teachers point to the way. The guru is the way.
Observe: the process of stepping back takes you out of being submerged in your experiences and thoughts and input, and into self-awareness. With self-awareness comes the subtle joy of being here, alive, enjoying the moment.
Your first job is to work on yourself. The greatest thing you can do for another human being is to get your own house in order and find your true spiritual heart. The quickest way to get through your stuff is to listen to that place inside. Honor your own path, and trust there is a place that knows best. Intuition.
The deeper impulse of every human relationship is to evoke the love and oneness that unites us.
Don’t be dependent on the other person to reflect love back to you.
That’s part of the illusion of separateness. The reality is that love is a state of being that comes from within.
The only thing you really ever have to offer another person is your own state of being. When not entrapped by another person’s appearance or behavior, you see behind all that to a deeper level of their being. Shift your focus to see their soul. That soul quality is love.
If you don’t appreciate me, that’s your problem. If I need your love or approval, that’s my problem. The power other people have to shake you out of equanimity and love has to do with your own attachments and clinging of your mind.
Use relationships as a vehicle to freedom -- learn to listen. Quiet mind and open heart. Listen. Become an antenna to the nature of another person. Then add truth.
Money and truth have nothing to do with one another.
Tao Te Ching: Truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing.
Work with the desire until you are no longer attached to it.
As your spiritual practice gets stronger, you are able to see your emotional stuff before it gets so overloaded and invested with adrenalin. You no longer let it get that intense. If feelings are out of control, the best thing is to sit quietly. Let them pass.
Bhagavan Das: Emotions are like waves. Watch them disappear in the distance on the vast calm ocean.
The capacity to dwell in the witness makes all the emotional stuff and stresses of life much lighter. The art is to cultivate the other planes of consciousness, then you no longer have to push the stuff away because it falls into perspective. You just shift your focus and are no longer identified with the way you were thinking.
Look how deliciously human I am.
At the root of almost every problem is a feeling of inadequacy or not-enoughness. That wisdom leads to compassion and love for yourself and others.
When you hunger for love, that is the longing to come home, to be at peace, to feel at one with the universe, where lover and Beloved merge. It’s a place to be fully in the moment, to feel completely fulfilled, to just be in love.
Love everyone and tell the truth.
Fear is a protective mechanism. It makes you want to hold on to familiar structure in love. When you identify with your soul, there is no fear. The soul doesn’t identify with the ending of the incarnation, which we think of as death. Love is the antidote for fear.
Satsang is a community of truth seekers.
Goethe: The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
Much of the suffering of aging comes from the memories of who we used to be.
As we age, we live more economically. Patterns of life change. My energy becomes less reliable. Ah! another new moment…
In India: You’ve earned the respect due an elder. You’re someone whose wisdom we can rely on and whom we will listen.
Wisdom is learning to live in harmony with the world. With the deep understanding that we are all in the same boat. Now isn’t preparation for later.
Rilke: Love and death are magnificent gifts, which many of us leave unopened.
Lamas read aloud from The Tibetan Book of the Dead to their monks when they are dying and in the days following death.
Here and now is it!
Maharaj-ji: The body passes away. Everything is impermanent except the love of God. The body dies, but not the soul. This world is all attachment. You get worried because you are attached.
When the South Indian saint, Ramana Maharshi, was dying his devotees cried: Don’t leave us.
He replied: Don’t be silly, where can I go?
Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.
- Lao-Tzu
The love you shared with that person is still here. Allow them to merge into your soul… in love.
You feel enriched by everybody you have loved, instead of deprived by the loss of their form.
They continue to live in your heart.
Death is only a moment. A moment of transition.
If you identify with your own soul, you can communicate with other souls, even though they are on a different plane.
Meher Baba: The divine Beloved is always with you, in you, and around you. Know that you are not separate.
Aldous Huxley: So now you can let go, my darling… Let go… Let go of this poor old body. You don’t need it anymore. Let it fall away from you. Leave it lying there like a pile of worn-out clothes… Go on, my darling, go on into the Light, into the peace, into the peace of the Clear Light.
One dies as one lives.
Give Me your mind and your heart and you will come to Me. Always think of me, always love me, and I will guide your heart and your actions.
Much of my sense of contentment comes from my relationship with Maharaj-ji and the constant remembrance of his presence in my life. Being in relationship with him is like having an infinitely deep pool of love and wisdom that always mirrors my deepest being.
And you are ever again the wave
sweeping through all things
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours
He is constantly here, moment by moment, I’m just hanging out with this being of consciousness, of love, oflight, of presence.
Maharaj-ji said:
The worst punishment is to throw someone out of your heart.
You should not disturb anyone’s heart
Even if a person hurts you, give him love.
The joy you get from being completely in the moment brings contentment. Contentment as a practice is difference from satisfaction. It’s not a feeling of accomplishment from doing something. Contentment is just being complete in the moment.
What am I doing here?
What is it that blocks my contentment?
How did the rose ever open its heart
And give to this world all of its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light against its being,
Otherwise we all remain too frightened.
- Hafiz, How did the Rose?
Graduate from a deprivation to an abundance model. It’s abundant because you are it: you are radiating love wherever you go. As you become love, when you walk down the street, everyone is the most beautiful person all over again. You look and appreciate. You may meet another’s eyes. And you both recognize the love, but you don’t have to do anything about it.
The art form of relationship is to realize that every relationship you’re in -- everything at every moment -- is a vehicle for awakening love. And it’s up to you. The Beloved is everywhere.
Remember, it’s always right here.
Don’t go outside your house to see flowers.
My friend, don’t bother with that excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers.
One flower has a thousand petals.
That will do for a place to sit.
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it,
before gardens and after gardens.
- Kabir, “A Place to Sit”
We are on an inevitable course of awakening. You enter your spiritual practice because in your soul there is really nothing else you would rather do.
In Sanskrit, there is a state of weariness with worldly desire where only the desire for spiritual fulfilment is left: vairagya.
In the end, you become receptive, become soft, become open, become attuned, quiet. You become the ocean of love.
The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. It can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. - Mechthild of Magdeburg
In the end, all our other desires merge in the immense longing to have no barrier between us and our real Beloved. - Eknath Easwaran
May the Blessings of God
Rest upon you
May his Peace
Abide with you
May his Presence
Illuminate your heart
Now and forever more.
- Sufi prayer
We’re all on this path, spiritual family and friends. It’s just one big family. We’re all relatives until we realize we’re all the same and there’s only one of us -- one loving awareness.
I don’t know anything, so I remember you, Son of the Wind;
grant me strength, intelligence, and wisdom,
and remove my impurities and sorrows.
- Invocation to Hanuman Chalisa. Translation by Krishna Das, from Flow of Grace
Along this shift in the locus of our inner identity, there is a process of external reflection, as we see our inner being reflected and projected onto every experience of the outer work. With patient spiritual practice, we can bring our external experience into ever-closer alignment with our inner being. This is yoga - not just yoga of the body, but yoga of the mind (jnana), of the heart (bhakti) and of selfless action (karma yoga).
As the veils of illusion begin to become more transparent, as we recognize the limitation of identifying solely with thoughts and experiences, with ‘objective’ reality, we begin to reflect a purer state of being. As the layers become more transparent, the light shines through us, and we begin to dwell in a less content-laden, ever-clearer state of awareness. Awareness in the heart flowers into love, compassion and wisdom.
Polishing the mirror, this process of reflecting on ourselves by witnessing and by bringing our external life into harmony with our true being, resolves when we identify fully with our soul.
This book is a travel guide for the path to now-here, how to find that precious sense of inner peace and spiritual reunion.
Only you can know for yourself if polishing the mirror is working. You’ll know if you become quieter inside, more loving and compassionate, more peaceful and present, more content with your life.
May we treat ourselves with compassion and patience, and not take ourselves too seriously. After all, there’s nothing to accomplish. We are just allowing ourselves to be. - In Love, Rameshwar Das
Introduction
Being Here Now
BEING HERE NOW sounds simple but these 3 words contain inner work for a lifetime.
Love is opening to merge with another being, whether with another person or with God (in the end they’re the same). Love is the doorway to oneness with all things, to being in harmony with the entire universe. This return to oneness, to a simplicity of just being, of unconditional love, is what we all long for. This unified state is the real yoga, or union.
Each of us has our own path to follow, our own karma (selfless action). You can’t imitate someone else’s trip. Listen to your heart to hear what you yourself need, take what you can from these practices, and leave the rest.
Bhagavan Das (a 23-yr-old surfer from Laguna Beach) would say: Don’t think about the past; just be here now. Don’t think about the future; just be here now.
Although he was compassionate, he didn’t involve himself in dealing with my emotions.
Simple truth: Love everybody, serve everybody, and remember God.
é
I honor the place in you
Where the entire universe resides.
I honor the place in you
Of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place in you
Where if you are in that place in you and
I am in that place in me,
There is only one of us.
Ram Dass
Maui August 2013
_____________
Yoga sutras being with: Yoga citta vritti nirodh = unified consciousness with cessation of thoughts.
Quieting the mind allows the natural depth of the spirit to manifest.
Meditation, the practice of quieting and concentrating and purifying the mind, aligning it with the spirit, is a foundation of yoga.
Meditation stems from the truth that who you really are is more than who you think you are.
The more you desire to know who you truly are and why you are here, the more you are drawn to that truth. As you are pulled inward, you leave behind the clinging attachment that keeps distorting and narrowing your vision.
Your mind can take you into the spirit, but it can also keep you deeply attached to your ego, to who you think you are. There are other ways of knowing. The thinking mind is only part of our being. The reality of oneness is greater than what is available to you through your sense and your thoughts.
A more skillful use of the intellect is contemplation. It is also a form of jnana yoga, the path of knowledge and wisdom. For example, take a holy book and work with 1 thought throughout the day. If we reflect on love, equanimity, kindness or compassion, we begin to take on those qualities. Sri Ramakrishna said: If you meditate on your ideal, you will acquire its nature.
If you’re reading this, you already recognize you’re on a spiritual journey. When you awaken to your predicament - that you are trapped in illusion - you see through the veils. Everything you thought was real, you see as maya (illusion).
Motivations and desires affect our perceptions. We don’t necessarily seem things as they are. We see them as we are.
Gurdjieff taught that if you think you’re free and don’t know you are in prison, you can’t escape.
Unless we understand how we are conditioned by our desires, we remain stuck in the reality they create.
In the West, we get rewarded for rational knowledge and learning. But when you see the assumptions you’ve been working under are not valid, then you can possibly change your mind. Einstein said: A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive.
In the Vedic lore of India, the ancient sages say there are 3 ways to acquire spiritual knowledge:
1) Through your own experience
2) From somebody you know who knows, and they tell you
3) Study or learn from books with your logical mind.
Other ways of knowing = intuition
What you seek is already within you.
Cool out so we don’t create heavy karma for ourselves.
Where the journey leads is to the deepest truth in you. The spiritual journey is not about acquiring something outside yourself, but penetrating the veils to return to the deepest truth within.
Instead of filling your mind with daily news, fill it with stuff that helps you become more conscious, that liberates you. Go within to your spiritual heart, and watch the drama that is your entire life. Then watch with unbearable compassion for yourself and all beings.
At first you may be distracted and remember to witness only now and then. Later, you start to remember sooner. Just notice. You don’t have to change anything. Things will change naturally. After some practice, it gets more subtle, and then, you are always here and now, residing in each instant of living.
Relax, be light, dance through it all, trusting, quieting, flowing… Your witnessing lives in the flow of your love and the quietness of your mind. Keep your eye on the mark.
Allow life to become simpler and more harmonious. Less and less you grab at this and push away that. You listen to hear how it is rather than impose a structure. You are just being. Sit simply, live simply, just be where you are, with whomever you’re with when you’re with them.
Aldous Huxley: The body is always in time, the spirit is always timeless.
All of life becomes a meditative act. Not just sitting on your meditation pillow. You follow the breath. You don’t stop your mind. You let it flow. But keep coming back to one thought. You spiritualize your life. Convert it all by maintaining a frame of reference with the dual capacity of centering you and increasing the power of one-pointedness. Maharaj-ji: Bring your mind to one point and wait for grace.
Because of the purity of your seeking, many high beings are present, and with them comes the spiritual substance out of which all form derives. Breathe in the energy of the universe. Breath out all the separateness. Let breath be transformative.
Look toward people toward whom you have felt less than loving. Look to their souls and surround them with light, with love and peace. Let go of anger and judgment.
We may sing to the Beloved, we may pray, or just dwell in the sweetness of remembering God. Once you have set out on the river of love, all you have to do is let it carry you to the ocean.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They are in each other all along. - Rumi
Many of us are afraid to let go of our judging minds to fall into love, to be absorbed into the liquid flow of the universe. To enter the space of conscious love, you become love -- not someone seeking or loving someone, just being love.
Love’s truth is that love is in all of us, and that we are one in love.
Love is a state of being. It isn’t possessive. We can only become it.
As you grow in devotion and focus more on the Beloved, you tune in to a deeper place within yourself. The emotional qualities give way to where you see everyone and everything as Beloved.
The guru is a mirror that reflects your higher Self, and allows you to see that place of love and pure being in yourself. The guru finds you. Teachers point to the way. The guru is the way.
Observe: the process of stepping back takes you out of being submerged in your experiences and thoughts and input, and into self-awareness. With self-awareness comes the subtle joy of being here, alive, enjoying the moment.
Your first job is to work on yourself. The greatest thing you can do for another human being is to get your own house in order and find your true spiritual heart. The quickest way to get through your stuff is to listen to that place inside. Honor your own path, and trust there is a place that knows best. Intuition.
The deeper impulse of every human relationship is to evoke the love and oneness that unites us.
Don’t be dependent on the other person to reflect love back to you.
That’s part of the illusion of separateness. The reality is that love is a state of being that comes from within.
The only thing you really ever have to offer another person is your own state of being. When not entrapped by another person’s appearance or behavior, you see behind all that to a deeper level of their being. Shift your focus to see their soul. That soul quality is love.
If you don’t appreciate me, that’s your problem. If I need your love or approval, that’s my problem. The power other people have to shake you out of equanimity and love has to do with your own attachments and clinging of your mind.
Use relationships as a vehicle to freedom -- learn to listen. Quiet mind and open heart. Listen. Become an antenna to the nature of another person. Then add truth.
Money and truth have nothing to do with one another.
Tao Te Ching: Truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing.
Work with the desire until you are no longer attached to it.
As your spiritual practice gets stronger, you are able to see your emotional stuff before it gets so overloaded and invested with adrenalin. You no longer let it get that intense. If feelings are out of control, the best thing is to sit quietly. Let them pass.
Bhagavan Das: Emotions are like waves. Watch them disappear in the distance on the vast calm ocean.
The capacity to dwell in the witness makes all the emotional stuff and stresses of life much lighter. The art is to cultivate the other planes of consciousness, then you no longer have to push the stuff away because it falls into perspective. You just shift your focus and are no longer identified with the way you were thinking.
Look how deliciously human I am.
At the root of almost every problem is a feeling of inadequacy or not-enoughness. That wisdom leads to compassion and love for yourself and others.
When you hunger for love, that is the longing to come home, to be at peace, to feel at one with the universe, where lover and Beloved merge. It’s a place to be fully in the moment, to feel completely fulfilled, to just be in love.
Love everyone and tell the truth.
Fear is a protective mechanism. It makes you want to hold on to familiar structure in love. When you identify with your soul, there is no fear. The soul doesn’t identify with the ending of the incarnation, which we think of as death. Love is the antidote for fear.
Satsang is a community of truth seekers.
Goethe: The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
Much of the suffering of aging comes from the memories of who we used to be.
As we age, we live more economically. Patterns of life change. My energy becomes less reliable. Ah! another new moment…
In India: You’ve earned the respect due an elder. You’re someone whose wisdom we can rely on and whom we will listen.
Wisdom is learning to live in harmony with the world. With the deep understanding that we are all in the same boat. Now isn’t preparation for later.
Rilke: Love and death are magnificent gifts, which many of us leave unopened.
Lamas read aloud from The Tibetan Book of the Dead to their monks when they are dying and in the days following death.
Here and now is it!
Maharaj-ji: The body passes away. Everything is impermanent except the love of God. The body dies, but not the soul. This world is all attachment. You get worried because you are attached.
When the South Indian saint, Ramana Maharshi, was dying his devotees cried: Don’t leave us.
He replied: Don’t be silly, where can I go?
Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.
- Lao-Tzu
The love you shared with that person is still here. Allow them to merge into your soul… in love.
You feel enriched by everybody you have loved, instead of deprived by the loss of their form.
They continue to live in your heart.
Death is only a moment. A moment of transition.
If you identify with your own soul, you can communicate with other souls, even though they are on a different plane.
Meher Baba: The divine Beloved is always with you, in you, and around you. Know that you are not separate.
Aldous Huxley: So now you can let go, my darling… Let go… Let go of this poor old body. You don’t need it anymore. Let it fall away from you. Leave it lying there like a pile of worn-out clothes… Go on, my darling, go on into the Light, into the peace, into the peace of the Clear Light.
One dies as one lives.
Give Me your mind and your heart and you will come to Me. Always think of me, always love me, and I will guide your heart and your actions.
Much of my sense of contentment comes from my relationship with Maharaj-ji and the constant remembrance of his presence in my life. Being in relationship with him is like having an infinitely deep pool of love and wisdom that always mirrors my deepest being.
And you are ever again the wave
sweeping through all things
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours
He is constantly here, moment by moment, I’m just hanging out with this being of consciousness, of love, oflight, of presence.
Maharaj-ji said:
The worst punishment is to throw someone out of your heart.
You should not disturb anyone’s heart
Even if a person hurts you, give him love.
The joy you get from being completely in the moment brings contentment. Contentment as a practice is difference from satisfaction. It’s not a feeling of accomplishment from doing something. Contentment is just being complete in the moment.
What am I doing here?
What is it that blocks my contentment?
How did the rose ever open its heart
And give to this world all of its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light against its being,
Otherwise we all remain too frightened.
- Hafiz, How did the Rose?
Graduate from a deprivation to an abundance model. It’s abundant because you are it: you are radiating love wherever you go. As you become love, when you walk down the street, everyone is the most beautiful person all over again. You look and appreciate. You may meet another’s eyes. And you both recognize the love, but you don’t have to do anything about it.
The art form of relationship is to realize that every relationship you’re in -- everything at every moment -- is a vehicle for awakening love. And it’s up to you. The Beloved is everywhere.
Remember, it’s always right here.
Don’t go outside your house to see flowers.
My friend, don’t bother with that excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers.
One flower has a thousand petals.
That will do for a place to sit.
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it,
before gardens and after gardens.
- Kabir, “A Place to Sit”
We are on an inevitable course of awakening. You enter your spiritual practice because in your soul there is really nothing else you would rather do.
In Sanskrit, there is a state of weariness with worldly desire where only the desire for spiritual fulfilment is left: vairagya.
In the end, you become receptive, become soft, become open, become attuned, quiet. You become the ocean of love.
The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. It can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. - Mechthild of Magdeburg
In the end, all our other desires merge in the immense longing to have no barrier between us and our real Beloved. - Eknath Easwaran
May the Blessings of God
Rest upon you
May his Peace
Abide with you
May his Presence
Illuminate your heart
Now and forever more.
- Sufi prayer
We’re all on this path, spiritual family and friends. It’s just one big family. We’re all relatives until we realize we’re all the same and there’s only one of us -- one loving awareness.
September 6, 2013
As a teenager, I thought the book Be Here Now was the most important thing I had ever come across, and I believe I had a poster of Ram Dass on my bedroom wall. That was a long time ago, so when a friend sent me a brand new book by Ram Dass, I wondered if it would speak to me. To my surprise and delight, it was just the book I needed at this moment in my life. How great is that?
Being a book nerd, I read the acknowledgments, and learned that this was originally going to be an e-book, but they changed their mind and decided to make print copies, too. I am so glad, because if someone had sent me this as an e-book, it would have gone on the list with all the other e-books that I keep acquiring but not reading (I think I've got about five of those going right now, and that's not counting the classics that I am planning to read someday...). So glad that the gift of the printed book made me pay attention, because that is what life is all about, right? Be Here Now!
Being a book nerd, I read the acknowledgments, and learned that this was originally going to be an e-book, but they changed their mind and decided to make print copies, too. I am so glad, because if someone had sent me this as an e-book, it would have gone on the list with all the other e-books that I keep acquiring but not reading (I think I've got about five of those going right now, and that's not counting the classics that I am planning to read someday...). So glad that the gift of the printed book made me pay attention, because that is what life is all about, right? Be Here Now!
April 8, 2021
Pretty good. Stopped paying attention toward the end but that's probably a personal issue
August 20, 2014
I watched Fierce Grace on Netflix and wanted to know more about the wisdom teachings of Ram Dass. This book was a great place to start and I enjoyed this so much that I think I'm also going to have to delve into Be Here Now.
There were multiple places in this text where his words felt very true and it was as if I was remembering something that I had somehow forgotten. Isn't it funny when a book affects you like that?
In the chapter entitled Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, he had a whole section about grieving that brought me to tears. I lost a beloved family member this year and I'm still working through the grieving process. Here are the words that brought me some much needed healing:
"When you and another person enter into love together, you enter into a unitive moment that transcends death. Recognize that you feel enriched by everybody you have loved, instead of deprived by the loss of their form. You'll realize they continue to live in your heart. Everybody you have ever loved is part of the fabric of your being. And that is where grief gets transformed into a living, loving space, a spiritual transcendence of the pain."
Thank you for the reminders, Ram Dass. May all beings be free from suffering.
There were multiple places in this text where his words felt very true and it was as if I was remembering something that I had somehow forgotten. Isn't it funny when a book affects you like that?
In the chapter entitled Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, he had a whole section about grieving that brought me to tears. I lost a beloved family member this year and I'm still working through the grieving process. Here are the words that brought me some much needed healing:
"When you and another person enter into love together, you enter into a unitive moment that transcends death. Recognize that you feel enriched by everybody you have loved, instead of deprived by the loss of their form. You'll realize they continue to live in your heart. Everybody you have ever loved is part of the fabric of your being. And that is where grief gets transformed into a living, loving space, a spiritual transcendence of the pain."
Thank you for the reminders, Ram Dass. May all beings be free from suffering.
May 3, 2016
I received this book, for free, in exchange for an honest review.
This is a good book that I learned a few things from. It feels less filled with love/wisdom than but is a better book than most books in this category. Thus far this has been my second favorite Ram Dass book, but the gap between this and is appreciable.
In this book Ram Dass tends to focus on a few topics throughout the course of the book so it feels a bit slow/repetitive/boring to me. That being said, I tend to like my books dense and others will probably appreciate the amount of detail. This book feels more spiritually infused than many similar books (including some of Ram Dass's other books) and I enjoyed reading it.
This is a good book that I learned a few things from. It feels less filled with love/wisdom than but is a better book than most books in this category. Thus far this has been my second favorite Ram Dass book, but the gap between this and is appreciable.
In this book Ram Dass tends to focus on a few topics throughout the course of the book so it feels a bit slow/repetitive/boring to me. That being said, I tend to like my books dense and others will probably appreciate the amount of detail. This book feels more spiritually infused than many similar books (including some of Ram Dass's other books) and I enjoyed reading it.
September 10, 2013
Fantastic book, full of love and wisdom. HIghly recommend it!
April 3, 2025
Den perfekta uppföljaren till Be Here Now, och min favoritbok inom non-fiction någonsin. Den har en helt magisk egenskap av att medans man läser få en i det tillståndet som fick en att söka upp boken från början - att vara här, nu. Blir lugn, tacksam och närvarande varje gång jag öppnar den. Har hundörat mer än en tiondel av boken då den gång på gång visade nya dörrar framåt och beskrev känslor jag inte haft ord för innan. Ram Dass texter i kombination med min tid runt buddhismen i Sydostasien har verkligen väckt min nyfikenhet och spiritualitet.
Favoritpassager:
This is your curriculum for this birth. Where you are now with all your neuroses and problems is just the right place. This is it, and it’s perfect. Live life fully and richly as a partner with God and accept what comes with openness and love.
—Ĕ
You use a boat to cross a river, but once you’re on the other side, it’s of no further use. At the level of pure being, there’s nothing to do, but at the level of your ego, you want to do something. So do it. There’s nothing to do, and yet you have to do it. You have to make the effort to practice, to do sadhana, but you also need to understand that the person who is making the effort never gets enlightened anyway. Understand that your ego who says, ”Ooh, I can awaken”, is ego that is going to die or disappear or dissolve in the process.
Favoritpassager:
This is your curriculum for this birth. Where you are now with all your neuroses and problems is just the right place. This is it, and it’s perfect. Live life fully and richly as a partner with God and accept what comes with openness and love.
—Ĕ
You use a boat to cross a river, but once you’re on the other side, it’s of no further use. At the level of pure being, there’s nothing to do, but at the level of your ego, you want to do something. So do it. There’s nothing to do, and yet you have to do it. You have to make the effort to practice, to do sadhana, but you also need to understand that the person who is making the effort never gets enlightened anyway. Understand that your ego who says, ”Ooh, I can awaken”, is ego that is going to die or disappear or dissolve in the process.
June 12, 2020
I decided to introduce myself to Ram Dass with this book since I have some basic knowledge about spiritual living, so I felt like Be Here Now (his most popular book) was going to be more redudant for me.
Indeed my knowledge in spiritualy grew deeper by reading this book. There are some key ideas in it that will change how you perceive your life and will make some things a lot clearer. However, if you are looking to get introduced to meditation and spiritual living, you might want to start with another book like Be Here Now, since this book isn't very practical, it's more "conceptual".
I wish I could tell you that this book has elightened me and that now I see everything clearly but what it actually did is gave me some insight into some spiritual questions that I had just to leave me with even more questions in the end. But putting in practice some of the knowledge acquired, I have to say that this book is perfect. It did exactly what it was supposed to do for me. No use in wishing it to be something it's not.
"Why 4 stars, though?" you might ask. Although the message is perfect, I feel like the structure of the book isn't. It starts very good explaining different abstract concepts and then joining them to explaining something that is more complex and it's perfectly logical. But then, Ram Dass seems to just start to throw random concepts and the book kind of looses its path. However, it's all relevant.
Indeed my knowledge in spiritualy grew deeper by reading this book. There are some key ideas in it that will change how you perceive your life and will make some things a lot clearer. However, if you are looking to get introduced to meditation and spiritual living, you might want to start with another book like Be Here Now, since this book isn't very practical, it's more "conceptual".
I wish I could tell you that this book has elightened me and that now I see everything clearly but what it actually did is gave me some insight into some spiritual questions that I had just to leave me with even more questions in the end. But putting in practice some of the knowledge acquired, I have to say that this book is perfect. It did exactly what it was supposed to do for me. No use in wishing it to be something it's not.
"Why 4 stars, though?" you might ask. Although the message is perfect, I feel like the structure of the book isn't. It starts very good explaining different abstract concepts and then joining them to explaining something that is more complex and it's perfectly logical. But then, Ram Dass seems to just start to throw random concepts and the book kind of looses its path. However, it's all relevant.
July 24, 2018
If you've listened to Ram Dass' lectures then I doubt you'll find much new in here. Ram Dass clearly knows what he's talking about but he fleshes it out with flowery language, guru-worship, and profound truths enclosed in repetitive clichés. As a reminder of what you already know, this book might be useful. But for anyone looking to explore new spiritual/meditative ground, you could probably do better with an Alan Watts or Krishnamurti book.
April 29, 2014
I really enjoyed getting inside Ram Dass' spirit. And he makes Hinduism accessible and easy to understand. Now, I want to go to India.
May 12, 2016
Fantastic! I hope I get to reread this at multiple checkpoints throughout my lifetime.
March 12, 2017
Could not put down this book, finished it in one day, I think this is the fastest book I have read. I loved every chapter.
September 3, 2018
Wow! Great book! Big peace! Good writer! Tranquil exercises on the now and the forever as well. Life lessons in your corner.
April 13, 2025
From this book, I have confidence that Ram Dass, really said what he meant. There are no quick fixes as Dass encourages toward the end of the book to go slow, be eclectic in what you try out, then go deeper, and then expands. While I follow the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and its structured approach to levels of practice, even the Guru at the Kurukulla Center says to try these practices out, do not take my word for it and I acan compare it to how though Dass gives off confidence in his own experiences and advanced spirituality, like that guru, I can tell he was real deal, because his message is to challenge you to explore and not get fixated/narrow-minded.
And that yes it is good that you want to become enlightened but as he says as your practices develop, that ego need of your body trying to become enlightened will diminish to a more loving and expansive view of not seeing yourself as separate from others. This is why I like this quote so much below, in how just yes, you want to have goals and progress but that impatience are grandiose expectation can just lead to more ego-clinging. The encouragement of seeking other perspectives outside of your current path is super healthy to even if it leads you down a different road.
“When you chant you don’t have to imagine anything, have any fantastic experiences,visualize anything,or make anything happen. You’re simply asked to sing, and when you notice that you’re not paying attention, come back. That’s all you have to do. There are no expectations you have to meet, which means there’s no disappointment. Don’t expect a flaming chariot to come down from the sky and carry you away whenever you chant. It ain’t gonna happen. “Page: 142
I would also say what I enjoyed and a lesson I can take with me whether in playing piano, work or other wise is to go slow and be patient with progress, and this message from is a good check on myself to enjoy the process rather than thinking the outcome is when I will finally be happy. He’s not saying sit on your bum and let life happen to you, in my opinion, he is saying that the spiritual road is a gradual process and that being forceful towards your thoughts, (like oh I hate feeling envious, I should not feel this I should be happy) as opposed to not identifying with them will help sow the seeds of more wholesome mind states.
Yet, something I argue is that sometimes there needs to be self-defense and compassionate anger towards the injustices of the world, that like countries fighting off Imperialism, there is a time for compassionate self-defense.
And that yes it is good that you want to become enlightened but as he says as your practices develop, that ego need of your body trying to become enlightened will diminish to a more loving and expansive view of not seeing yourself as separate from others. This is why I like this quote so much below, in how just yes, you want to have goals and progress but that impatience are grandiose expectation can just lead to more ego-clinging. The encouragement of seeking other perspectives outside of your current path is super healthy to even if it leads you down a different road.
“When you chant you don’t have to imagine anything, have any fantastic experiences,visualize anything,or make anything happen. You’re simply asked to sing, and when you notice that you’re not paying attention, come back. That’s all you have to do. There are no expectations you have to meet, which means there’s no disappointment. Don’t expect a flaming chariot to come down from the sky and carry you away whenever you chant. It ain’t gonna happen. “Page: 142
I would also say what I enjoyed and a lesson I can take with me whether in playing piano, work or other wise is to go slow and be patient with progress, and this message from is a good check on myself to enjoy the process rather than thinking the outcome is when I will finally be happy. He’s not saying sit on your bum and let life happen to you, in my opinion, he is saying that the spiritual road is a gradual process and that being forceful towards your thoughts, (like oh I hate feeling envious, I should not feel this I should be happy) as opposed to not identifying with them will help sow the seeds of more wholesome mind states.
Yet, something I argue is that sometimes there needs to be self-defense and compassionate anger towards the injustices of the world, that like countries fighting off Imperialism, there is a time for compassionate self-defense.
February 10, 2022
Absolutely gorgeous book. This is written after Ram Das’ stoke and rehabilitation and has a lot of focus on death and dying. It’s extremely comforting and grounding and one I will go back to again and again.
January 6, 2023
A reminder of why we are here.
Ram Dass uses language so well to depict some beautifully big but equally simple concepts alluding to the heart. This was beautiful to read - particularly the way ageing and death is spoken about.
Ram Dass uses language so well to depict some beautifully big but equally simple concepts alluding to the heart. This was beautiful to read - particularly the way ageing and death is spoken about.
April 3, 2025
Just, wow. I am a more conscious, mindful, present being because of this book. It helped me through a lot of different aspects of my life that I was struggling with understanding. I will definitely re-read this time and time again.
March 15, 2025
Another wonderful book by Ram Das on opening to change, the challenges and opportunities at different stages of life and working with death to enrich our lives.
January 19, 2019
I heard a very interesting interview with Ram Dass that inspired me to get this book from our library. I really enjoyed learning about who he was as the book starts with a bit of history. I've not read any of his other books which look to be many. I don't think you need to read his other books to get an overview of who he is and what is history is. There are some moments that were a bit trippy and 60s for me but then that's who he is. He talks about many spiritual lessons that he has learned from following his guru. He does speak of God, Jesus and other holy teachings. His guru did too. So it wasn't too much of a turn off to me when he talks about just wanting to meditate on his guru. The book talks about how to manage anger, greed, relationships of all kinds, love of your parents, love for your neighbor, love for your life. He also writes about growing old gracefully and with love for life. He is in his 90s so I think that's a blessing to have him write about this perspective of his. There were times when I felt like the story was a bit all over the place. But, in general, the book is full of nuggets of wisdom that would be good to read several times during your life.
July 2, 2017
Easy and pleasant to read!
Ram Dass writes this exceptionally well . He invites readers to embark on a heart opening spiritual journey from ones personal experience and motivations.
Ram Dass writes this exceptionally well . He invites readers to embark on a heart opening spiritual journey from ones personal experience and motivations.
Read
August 4, 2018Well designed thoughts carry you down a path of life into death. Understanding pops up here and there making you feel like enlightenment may be trying to reach out to you. Let it grab ahold.
August 12, 2022
Home is where the heart IS like inside you
When you remember what is most important you’re most happy
Can’t imitate someone else’s journey, take what works for you. Try different things like trying on clothes
I wanted to be free not high
I am loving awareness
Namaste is to honor the universe that is held in each of us
Yoga is Union.
Who you truly are is far greater than who you think you are. Mediation can help you connect with spirit, who you truly are. This desire for truth is amazing and will bring forth miracles
Attachment to the mellowdrama of the ego is what prevents you from being here now
“Me and material world” is ego view. Projected illusion of subject and object
Contemplation is more useful use of intellect, path of knowledge and wisdom. Use mind to reflect on itself
Take a thought and reflect on it in am, think on it throughout the day
Meditate on ideal you’ll acquire that nature. Ie meditate on nature of god
When you want to approach God go in ward
As you become aware of what gets you to God and what doesn’t you will naturally Let go of what doesn’t. That’s purification
You just need to witness , relax be light dance through it all
Eventually balance will shift and you allow life to become simpler and more harmonious. Less and less you grab at this and push away that. You listen to hear how it is rather than imposing a structure
Devotion is easy and natural and has no rules in how to meditate. Only thing it requires is implicit faith. “It is like learning to swim: A person can’t enter water unless he can swim and swimming is impossible without entering water. “
Hanging with my guru - having with incredible being of love consciousness of presence. Way of opening myself to those qualities. Process of surrendering to place of unconditional love
When I don’t know who I am, I serve you. When I know who I am, you and I are one
Making a spiritual practice of your karma, using it to go to God, is what brings karma into dharma, life into harmony with the spirit. The intent and manner of doing something are more important than the act itself. When you bring all of your life into harmony you act in accord with dharma. You’re doing Gods will
To use your daily life and work as a conscious spiral path means relinquishing your attachment to the fruits of the actions, to how they come out. You do your work as an offering, out of love for God your work then becomes an expression of devotion.
Aka living your life as is but without attachment
Or selfless service of others
When raising a kid, you cannot be attached to who they turn out to be because it’s not up to you! You do your best but they’re their own unique soul
No need to change your karma, only your attachment to it
Attachment is almost like judgement. You can’t wish your loved ones to be different, only love them and then maybe they change but it’s not up to you. We can only change our own disposition
Just keep working on yourself until you are radiating love for each of the beings in your life, when you’re radiating love them everybody else is free to give up their stuff when they’re ready to give it up.
Actions arising from awareness not from wanting or not wanting create no karma. Detachment from the outcome.
Hold no opinions for or against anything. If you attach to even a little of right and wrong, it causes mind confusion. When the mind exists in the undisturbed way, there is no objection to anything in the world then things cease to be in the old way.
To become free of attachment, become the neutral observer of your own life. No judging.
“Whether I can actually live so everybody is my family And we are all one depends on how trapped I am in my separateness and whether I see others as us or them” How you see others is how you see yourself. Don’t take your melodrama so seriously. We are souls not egos. Appreciate experience but don’t get caught in them
Art of spiritual growth is how quickly you recognize attachments and how quickly you release them. If you can admit that you can’t see or hear clearly because of attachment then the full wisdom of things will begin to shine through. As long as you have some desire about how you think it ought to be, you can’t hear how it is.
You’re listening and experiencing and letting that intuitive part of you merge with the other person and you’re feeling their pain or joy or hope or fear in yourself. Practice this with others. Practice with people you don’t like to grow your compassion.
Embrace conflict with compassion and understanding.
Use every situation you have with other people as a vehicle to work on yourself. See where yoh get stuck where you push where you grab where you judge where you do all the other stuff.
The problem with interpersonal love is that you are dependent on the other person to reflect love back to you. That’s part of the illusion of separateness. The reality is that live is a state Of being that comes from within.
The only thing you really have to offer is your own state of being. When you’re not entrapped by another person’s appearance or behavior you can see the little bit of their soul which is love.
If you don’t appreciate me that’s your problem. If I need your love or approval then it’s my problem. Then my needs are giving you power over me. But its not your power it’s the power of my desire system. My attachment.
Judging separates and separation closes the heart. Every time you push something away it remains there and the pile under the rug gets very big. Lows can be more interesting than highs bc it shows the with to do.
Just say thank you for teaching, don’t judge another being. When somebody provokes your anger the only reason to get angry is because you’re holding on to how you think it’s supposed to be and denying how it is. Then you see it’s the expectations of your own mind that are creating your own hell. When you get frustrated because something isn’t the way you thought it would be examine the way you thought not just the thing that frustrates you. You’ll see that a lot of your emotional suffering is created by your models of how you think the universe should be in your inability to allow it to be as it is
Focusing on always being right can get lonely. Our predicament is that are you gonna want to be right in the world for people who don’t understand how right we are. If you got emotionally attached to a model of how the world ought to be that exclude how human beings are there’s something wrong with where you’re standing. Just allowing your humanity and that of others to be as it is is the beginning of compassion.
When you experience where you were caught in your supper ass feeling cut off and vulnerable. What is the energy is the energy of beer because it goes in the face behind separateness. When you have faith there’s no fear only love.
As long as you age if I was your thoughts and feelings as long as you think those thoughts and feelings are you they will be a source of suffering. You may try to maintain psychological security by holding onto things as they are but you never know. Use the uncertainty and negative feelings about aging is a wake up call. Have compassion for yourself and allow yourself to open it open to the changes and all the rest will follow.
Forgetting is great because remembering is fun but it’s hard to extricate oneself from the changes of aging when it’s your personality. Can you enjoy Change and also cultivate equanimity clarity loving awareness…?
When you experience your and sure about your situation there’s a beautiful very powerful mantra you can say “the power of God is within me. The grace of God surrounds me.”
Making peace with your feelings about death is the prerequisite for living life joyfully here now. In my own consciousness I wash how long it takes when an expectation is that they filled before I come back again to be in the present moment.How long before I can let go of not getting what I want to just be with what is
Consider the resistance to the pain is more painful than the pain itself. Simply relax into it
Our bodies die, not our souls. And is just another moment. Live fully and consciously and with love. Continue with spiritual practices and be there for loved ones. Read about deaths of great saints lamas and yogis. Try to remain aware. Let death be a reminder to live fully. Let your truest self show, not your ego
And when you’re grieving, feel fully. When suffering try to change your pov to find the grace
4 noble truth s : existence of this plane involves suffering, it is from attachment to mindset (aversion or affection), attach to self image, 4th is 8 fold oath to be free of suffering
Western life is always about achievement wanting desiring doing more getting more. I always felt as if I was in the wrong place at the wrong time bc there must be something better. Forever collecting the next achievement. But it’s about contentment which you can’t collect
Spiritual daily practice. Start by reading a holy passage, meditate. Make a private holy space. Maybe candles incense pictures of gurus, those im praying for. Keep mediation in mind. Keep a journal of ways I lose it through the day. Judgement free. But it will help me identify where I’m clinging.
Meditate with breath, focus on air by nostrils or rising and falling of stomach. Or by focusing on a being of pure love. Or with a mantra
Silence, blessing food, Kirtan aka chanting or like singing in church
Pilgrimages to holy or spiritual places. Or to your heart
Retreats to get away from distractions
Words from realized beings
Listening to yourself
When you remember what is most important you’re most happy
Can’t imitate someone else’s journey, take what works for you. Try different things like trying on clothes
I wanted to be free not high
I am loving awareness
Namaste is to honor the universe that is held in each of us
Yoga is Union.
Who you truly are is far greater than who you think you are. Mediation can help you connect with spirit, who you truly are. This desire for truth is amazing and will bring forth miracles
Attachment to the mellowdrama of the ego is what prevents you from being here now
“Me and material world” is ego view. Projected illusion of subject and object
Contemplation is more useful use of intellect, path of knowledge and wisdom. Use mind to reflect on itself
Take a thought and reflect on it in am, think on it throughout the day
Meditate on ideal you’ll acquire that nature. Ie meditate on nature of god
When you want to approach God go in ward
As you become aware of what gets you to God and what doesn’t you will naturally Let go of what doesn’t. That’s purification
You just need to witness , relax be light dance through it all
Eventually balance will shift and you allow life to become simpler and more harmonious. Less and less you grab at this and push away that. You listen to hear how it is rather than imposing a structure
Devotion is easy and natural and has no rules in how to meditate. Only thing it requires is implicit faith. “It is like learning to swim: A person can’t enter water unless he can swim and swimming is impossible without entering water. “
Hanging with my guru - having with incredible being of love consciousness of presence. Way of opening myself to those qualities. Process of surrendering to place of unconditional love
When I don’t know who I am, I serve you. When I know who I am, you and I are one
Making a spiritual practice of your karma, using it to go to God, is what brings karma into dharma, life into harmony with the spirit. The intent and manner of doing something are more important than the act itself. When you bring all of your life into harmony you act in accord with dharma. You’re doing Gods will
To use your daily life and work as a conscious spiral path means relinquishing your attachment to the fruits of the actions, to how they come out. You do your work as an offering, out of love for God your work then becomes an expression of devotion.
Aka living your life as is but without attachment
Or selfless service of others
When raising a kid, you cannot be attached to who they turn out to be because it’s not up to you! You do your best but they’re their own unique soul
No need to change your karma, only your attachment to it
Attachment is almost like judgement. You can’t wish your loved ones to be different, only love them and then maybe they change but it’s not up to you. We can only change our own disposition
Just keep working on yourself until you are radiating love for each of the beings in your life, when you’re radiating love them everybody else is free to give up their stuff when they’re ready to give it up.
Actions arising from awareness not from wanting or not wanting create no karma. Detachment from the outcome.
Hold no opinions for or against anything. If you attach to even a little of right and wrong, it causes mind confusion. When the mind exists in the undisturbed way, there is no objection to anything in the world then things cease to be in the old way.
To become free of attachment, become the neutral observer of your own life. No judging.
“Whether I can actually live so everybody is my family And we are all one depends on how trapped I am in my separateness and whether I see others as us or them” How you see others is how you see yourself. Don’t take your melodrama so seriously. We are souls not egos. Appreciate experience but don’t get caught in them
Art of spiritual growth is how quickly you recognize attachments and how quickly you release them. If you can admit that you can’t see or hear clearly because of attachment then the full wisdom of things will begin to shine through. As long as you have some desire about how you think it ought to be, you can’t hear how it is.
You’re listening and experiencing and letting that intuitive part of you merge with the other person and you’re feeling their pain or joy or hope or fear in yourself. Practice this with others. Practice with people you don’t like to grow your compassion.
Embrace conflict with compassion and understanding.
Use every situation you have with other people as a vehicle to work on yourself. See where yoh get stuck where you push where you grab where you judge where you do all the other stuff.
The problem with interpersonal love is that you are dependent on the other person to reflect love back to you. That’s part of the illusion of separateness. The reality is that live is a state Of being that comes from within.
The only thing you really have to offer is your own state of being. When you’re not entrapped by another person’s appearance or behavior you can see the little bit of their soul which is love.
If you don’t appreciate me that’s your problem. If I need your love or approval then it’s my problem. Then my needs are giving you power over me. But its not your power it’s the power of my desire system. My attachment.
Judging separates and separation closes the heart. Every time you push something away it remains there and the pile under the rug gets very big. Lows can be more interesting than highs bc it shows the with to do.
Just say thank you for teaching, don’t judge another being. When somebody provokes your anger the only reason to get angry is because you’re holding on to how you think it’s supposed to be and denying how it is. Then you see it’s the expectations of your own mind that are creating your own hell. When you get frustrated because something isn’t the way you thought it would be examine the way you thought not just the thing that frustrates you. You’ll see that a lot of your emotional suffering is created by your models of how you think the universe should be in your inability to allow it to be as it is
Focusing on always being right can get lonely. Our predicament is that are you gonna want to be right in the world for people who don’t understand how right we are. If you got emotionally attached to a model of how the world ought to be that exclude how human beings are there’s something wrong with where you’re standing. Just allowing your humanity and that of others to be as it is is the beginning of compassion.
When you experience where you were caught in your supper ass feeling cut off and vulnerable. What is the energy is the energy of beer because it goes in the face behind separateness. When you have faith there’s no fear only love.
As long as you age if I was your thoughts and feelings as long as you think those thoughts and feelings are you they will be a source of suffering. You may try to maintain psychological security by holding onto things as they are but you never know. Use the uncertainty and negative feelings about aging is a wake up call. Have compassion for yourself and allow yourself to open it open to the changes and all the rest will follow.
Forgetting is great because remembering is fun but it’s hard to extricate oneself from the changes of aging when it’s your personality. Can you enjoy Change and also cultivate equanimity clarity loving awareness…?
When you experience your and sure about your situation there’s a beautiful very powerful mantra you can say “the power of God is within me. The grace of God surrounds me.”
Making peace with your feelings about death is the prerequisite for living life joyfully here now. In my own consciousness I wash how long it takes when an expectation is that they filled before I come back again to be in the present moment.How long before I can let go of not getting what I want to just be with what is
Consider the resistance to the pain is more painful than the pain itself. Simply relax into it
Our bodies die, not our souls. And is just another moment. Live fully and consciously and with love. Continue with spiritual practices and be there for loved ones. Read about deaths of great saints lamas and yogis. Try to remain aware. Let death be a reminder to live fully. Let your truest self show, not your ego
And when you’re grieving, feel fully. When suffering try to change your pov to find the grace
4 noble truth s : existence of this plane involves suffering, it is from attachment to mindset (aversion or affection), attach to self image, 4th is 8 fold oath to be free of suffering
Western life is always about achievement wanting desiring doing more getting more. I always felt as if I was in the wrong place at the wrong time bc there must be something better. Forever collecting the next achievement. But it’s about contentment which you can’t collect
Spiritual daily practice. Start by reading a holy passage, meditate. Make a private holy space. Maybe candles incense pictures of gurus, those im praying for. Keep mediation in mind. Keep a journal of ways I lose it through the day. Judgement free. But it will help me identify where I’m clinging.
Meditate with breath, focus on air by nostrils or rising and falling of stomach. Or by focusing on a being of pure love. Or with a mantra
Silence, blessing food, Kirtan aka chanting or like singing in church
Pilgrimages to holy or spiritual places. Or to your heart
Retreats to get away from distractions
Words from realized beings
Listening to yourself
March 24, 2024
My awareness of Ram Dass began early in my twenties through reading Allen Ginsburg, Aldous Huxley, and other authors like Timothy Leary. I heard he was a guru, leading people through psychedelic journeys. A few years back, my wife and I went to an Esalen retreat on the cliffs of Big Sur where he and other spiritual teachers previously spent time. There, my interest in his person and his teachings deepened. I first heard of this book about five years ago, and something about it spoke to me. I knew I'd read it. Eventually I bought it. It sat on the shelf with other books, some read and some not read, for years. Now I have read it.
In the years between, I started a meditation practice. I have sought out different teachers, both in person and others through books and podcasts. Different teachers, different teachings, different circles. I am glad I had some of that time before I came to this book. So now, at this stage of my journey, the book acts as a confirmation for many of the spiritual truths that I have discovered. It brings a "spirit of the law" interpretation that makes these truths more accessible. And it provides some very practical lessons about refining the practices of approaching these lessons.
I would recommend this book to anyone on a spiritual journey, of any kind. It is broad, and particular. It dives deep, and is simple. It's a reflection of where you are at, much like a mirror.
I'll keep polishing my mirror, and I'll definitely return to this book for further inspiration doing that.
In the years between, I started a meditation practice. I have sought out different teachers, both in person and others through books and podcasts. Different teachers, different teachings, different circles. I am glad I had some of that time before I came to this book. So now, at this stage of my journey, the book acts as a confirmation for many of the spiritual truths that I have discovered. It brings a "spirit of the law" interpretation that makes these truths more accessible. And it provides some very practical lessons about refining the practices of approaching these lessons.
I would recommend this book to anyone on a spiritual journey, of any kind. It is broad, and particular. It dives deep, and is simple. It's a reflection of where you are at, much like a mirror.
I'll keep polishing my mirror, and I'll definitely return to this book for further inspiration doing that.
June 5, 2024
I am new to Buddhism, and as an atheist, it somehow intrigues me. I came to be aware of Ram Dass through the music of Jon Hopkins and East Forest with their song 'Sit Around the Fire'.
I felt disappointed with the book. First of all, it lacks structure: it does not take you on a journey. Reading the epilogue, the reason for this became clear, but still, as a reader, I was looking forward to more than extracts of writings collected together.
The overuse of Sanskrit words seemingly at random without adequate explanations (or a glossary for that matter) also contributed to a frustrating read.
And then there is the little matter of the over-mention of "God" throughout the book. Now I am not gonna go on about this or answer the criticism that I fail to understand its meaning in Buddhism. For me, it is distracting as I certainly do not believe that there is such a thing as a God. The word, at least in the West, means a certain thing, and to use the same word to perhaps mean something else is distracting beyond reason.
For all these reasons, it took me an awful long time to plough through this book, every page nearly a struggle. I shall keep listening to his recordings, and I have started reading "Why Buddhism is True" by Robert Wright: this sanitised version of Buddhism, I feel, is more likely to sit well with me than the mumbo-jumbo style of Ram Dass (although, sometimes, snippets of that works well for me too).
I felt disappointed with the book. First of all, it lacks structure: it does not take you on a journey. Reading the epilogue, the reason for this became clear, but still, as a reader, I was looking forward to more than extracts of writings collected together.
The overuse of Sanskrit words seemingly at random without adequate explanations (or a glossary for that matter) also contributed to a frustrating read.
And then there is the little matter of the over-mention of "God" throughout the book. Now I am not gonna go on about this or answer the criticism that I fail to understand its meaning in Buddhism. For me, it is distracting as I certainly do not believe that there is such a thing as a God. The word, at least in the West, means a certain thing, and to use the same word to perhaps mean something else is distracting beyond reason.
For all these reasons, it took me an awful long time to plough through this book, every page nearly a struggle. I shall keep listening to his recordings, and I have started reading "Why Buddhism is True" by Robert Wright: this sanitised version of Buddhism, I feel, is more likely to sit well with me than the mumbo-jumbo style of Ram Dass (although, sometimes, snippets of that works well for me too).
February 13, 2019
Ram Dass is reflective of where he is in his 80's and where he has been during the aging process and looking at his life journey as a whole and in the now.
Some of my favorite moments:
Love is opening to merge with another being - whether with another person or with God (in the end they are all the same).
The path of the heart is neither hard nor easy but it takes time and intention.
You'll see that being right is actually a tight little box that is very constraining and not much fun to live in.
I saw the pain in wishing or thinking of home when I was in another place. To accept the "now" I accepted that whereever I was at was "home" and the people arround you are either your guests or family in the house. If your in nature think of how you would treat it - would leave garbage on the floor...appreciate it - whereever you are with love for where ever you are at.
Spiritual practice is a not a away of getting anywhere - its to dust off the mirrow and see the reflection better of who you are.
Allow yourself any number of spiritual practice whenever you need them - new and old . Think of yourself as sleeping through as nalarm clock once you get used to it - you have to get new alarm clocks every now and then to wake yourself up in your practice.
Some of my favorite moments:
Love is opening to merge with another being - whether with another person or with God (in the end they are all the same).
The path of the heart is neither hard nor easy but it takes time and intention.
You'll see that being right is actually a tight little box that is very constraining and not much fun to live in.
I saw the pain in wishing or thinking of home when I was in another place. To accept the "now" I accepted that whereever I was at was "home" and the people arround you are either your guests or family in the house. If your in nature think of how you would treat it - would leave garbage on the floor...appreciate it - whereever you are with love for where ever you are at.
Spiritual practice is a not a away of getting anywhere - its to dust off the mirrow and see the reflection better of who you are.
Allow yourself any number of spiritual practice whenever you need them - new and old . Think of yourself as sleeping through as nalarm clock once you get used to it - you have to get new alarm clocks every now and then to wake yourself up in your practice.
November 9, 2017
I loved this book so much that I read it twice in a row, and I didn't want it to end. From what I gather it incorporates a lot of material from his previous books in a concise way. Spiritual people who are not interested in religion will find this book full of wisdom and insight. Having said that, people of any religion can learn something here and find it enjoyable. Ram Dass has a unique way of communicating that feels truly genuine. This book brings people together instead of driving them apart.
I feel like I have a better understanding now of some key Eastern philosophical concepts and vocabulary, and it's striking how familiar it all feels. Religions are not so different, after all. The teachings about how our ego and our attachments limit us were truly profound. The chapters on aging and death were very moving and gave me new perspective.
After reading, I feel a curious sense of joy... somewhat like I've been flying through the clouds and just rose above them into the sunshine where things are clear and not so complicated or muddy. And you can see the clouds below for what they are.
I feel like I have a better understanding now of some key Eastern philosophical concepts and vocabulary, and it's striking how familiar it all feels. Religions are not so different, after all. The teachings about how our ego and our attachments limit us were truly profound. The chapters on aging and death were very moving and gave me new perspective.
After reading, I feel a curious sense of joy... somewhat like I've been flying through the clouds and just rose above them into the sunshine where things are clear and not so complicated or muddy. And you can see the clouds below for what they are.
July 16, 2018
This book should be required reading for anyone on a spiritual quest. It doesn't take itself too seriously (After all, Ram Dass was Richard Alpert, Timothy Leary's colleague and psychedelic sidekick.) and writes in plain language what it really means to "Be Here Now." I highlighted and underlined so many passages, I finally just put my pen down and tried to read with the mindset that Ram Dass espouses, which is to Love everybody and tell the truth. Every word, when received with loving awareness, is truth. From the last page,
"The good news is that awakening is built into the system. It just takes its own time. . . . Sometimes it's like having a tire with a big leak in it. You pump it all up, and then you turn around a moment later and greed, lust, and fear have all returned, and it's flat again. You wonder what happened. . . . I'm learning to listen more carefully to who people are and where they are in their spiritual evolution. I'm learning to really honor people, and myself, for who we are in the moment, to understand the appropriateness of a practice and that our karma and our awakening are unfolding perfectly."
"The good news is that awakening is built into the system. It just takes its own time. . . . Sometimes it's like having a tire with a big leak in it. You pump it all up, and then you turn around a moment later and greed, lust, and fear have all returned, and it's flat again. You wonder what happened. . . . I'm learning to listen more carefully to who people are and where they are in their spiritual evolution. I'm learning to really honor people, and myself, for who we are in the moment, to understand the appropriateness of a practice and that our karma and our awakening are unfolding perfectly."
October 23, 2022
I found this book uneven, not in the quality of the writing, which is conversational and approachable for such a weighty topic, but in its relevancy to my interests. The best parts were Ram Dass's pithy maxims on a mindful life, e.g. "Time is a box formed of thoughts of the past and future.", and the section on relationships: "If you don't appreciate me, that's your problem. If I need your love or your approval, then it's my problem... The power other people have to shake you out of your equanimity and love and consciousness has to do with you your own attachments and clinging of the mind."
What I didn't need were the gushing about his guru, the excerpts from spiritual texts, or all the Christian references which were presumably included to make it more accessible to a Western audience. The sections on dying and cultivating spiritual practices weren't particularly helpful either, but in the author's defense, the Practicing, Practicing chapter actually starts with an admonition that it might not be necessary if you already have incorporated mindfulness into your daily life.
What I didn't need were the gushing about his guru, the excerpts from spiritual texts, or all the Christian references which were presumably included to make it more accessible to a Western audience. The sections on dying and cultivating spiritual practices weren't particularly helpful either, but in the author's defense, the Practicing, Practicing chapter actually starts with an admonition that it might not be necessary if you already have incorporated mindfulness into your daily life.
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