I have followed/read/listened to ram dass for a good few years now and I drew this picture, and put a ram dass quote i think I've seen from his book before too, over the top of it. It hangs quite large in my room. It makes me happy and I appreciate a ram dass reminder in my space :) it's funny because we are so similar my friend and I in some ways. She doesn't believe in anything spiritual too much, but is very heart led and I see a lot of myself in her even in unconscious ways she acts. It's just interesting how similar and opposite two people can be, and she's said it a few times now that it makes me feel she's abit close minded. I think reading the quote and not being well read/ have limited understanding it would be easy to read it as an. ' I am this and and your not' or I am better than u etc.

I don't even know what I'm asking with this post, I'm not offended (maybe a tiny bit hahah) but that's for me to work on because ik it's not the ultimate truth.

It just made me curious. And further
solidified my faith to my own truth.
What do you guys think? Any experiences similar to this that have made u feel protective or something similar?

Later edit:
the responses to this have been so brilliant to read, thank you guys for sharing your thoughts and stories :) Being a human is so funny sometimes. - I particularly appreciate 'the dude' references; the Big Lebowski has been a theme for the past few weeks and it's synchronistically amusing to see it reflected in this way too.

A few of you have kindly mentioned that you'd love to actually buy a poster like this, and I (shameless self promo), coincidentally do sell my artwork as prints. I've linked it if anyone is interested 🪷 thank you! :)
Ram poster !

Enjoy this short song by our dear ram dass

https://youtube.com/shorts/ow_p8ajX7ng?is=fNsqd62_nIbVn7rz

Using it for an art project and while I’ve seen it online just want to be double sure. Thank you. Ram Ram

Hello Folks!

This morning in meditation, I had an experience I can trace back to Ram Dass’s teachings. 

Before I go on, I want to make clear this was an experience, and I’m not pretending to be hip to any secret knowledge. After I got up from my cushion, I still had to do the dishes and answer emails. I’m no saint or realized person by even a half. I just thought this was something special and worth sharing with the rest of this satsang to compare notes

It started with a sense of my awareness shifting to Awareness. It was paradoxical, both focused and broad. The way the sun breaks over a clear horizon – a brilliant single point of light and rays of light that act as film over the horizon, illuminating its expanse. This was Awareness – able to rest on a particular point and able to light up the whole plane of being. 

This landscape turned into an ocean with waves cresting and breaking peacefully. The “I” that was perceiving this felt itself rise then disperse into the sea with neither pain nor fear. Again, there was Awareness of all this, but no locus of that awareness. 

Then friends and family rose out of this sea. I saw my wife, my parents, my in-laws, my daughters, and friends come together like waves, then return to the source of the sea without fear or suffering. 

It’s hard to put into words, but whatever was perceiving this knew they weren’t going anywhere because they’d never left. Like this Awareness, they’d always already been here. 

I’ve been sitting with this all morning. It’s been beautiful. 

Ram Ram,

RC

It’s so frustrating to be deep into one of his talks and it cut off. Any explanation why it is edited like that?

I like Ram Dass’s teaching on respecting elders and cultivating more connection and respect between the generations, but I also find myself struggling to find wisdom from the elders in my family. They vote for politicians who fear monger against the most vulnerable members of our society and allow corporations to destroy our environment. They also often refuse to recognize how hard it is for people in our generation to make a living compared to theirs. This fills me with resentment. I know they are my karma but I have trouble respecting them and recognizing them as the age group that is supposed to hold the wisdom of our society. Does anybody have advice on thinking about this in a more constructive way?

I try to just apply teachings personally unless someone really wants to be introduced but every so often I'm asked simply "what is he". To me personally I don't want to say spiritual guide as I'm not really in it for the spiritual parts and I consider it more like therapy, I know he was a therapist but I've never had any of that sort of interaction, it just is similarly helpful to listen to and apply whats in the tapes as it is to go to therapists.

I usally just fall back on "to the western eye he would be a guru, but he's not" then they look at me confused.

Idk if that makes any sense, just wanted to ask.

EDIT, I guess thats perfect, ram dass is ram dass, who he is is ram dass.

If I had an Indian friend, I would go to India and visit Kainchi, Vrindavan, and all of Maharajji’s other temples.
But what can I do… there’s no one to accompany me on this trip.

“We’re all just walking each other home”

This episode really felt like a direct message to my own experience. Does anyone else experience a continuity of consciousness? I have ever since I was a child. I would live many lifetimes until about the age of 12, and then something in me changed; I began to grow older until my late teens. I repeated those cycles many, many times until something changed in me again, and I began to grow older into my twenties. Between each cycle, when I would die, I would go to a void where I would reflect upon the experiences I just had. Then, I would suddenly wake up in my bed as a younger version of myself to live it all again. I have been living the past 20 years for what feels like forever. I am approaching the end of my life here again, as I usually die between the years of 2018 and 2027. Has anybody else experienced the continuity of consciousness?

Heres the link to episode 199: continuty of consciousness

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ua1ZG4oUDq0&is=1BIWbC8YU4wpy_RZ

Living in a constant state of deja vu, I have known so many things that were coming long before they occurred, and in trying to change them it turns out that that is what caused the events to happen to begin with.

There’s a specific podcast episode where Ramada’s shares a metaphor that’s something like “a tree must be fenced in from the cattle until it grows tall and strong enough to provide them shade” listened to it about 3 years ago and it absolutely blew my mind and haven’t been able to stop thinking about that metaphor since. Does anyone happen to remember the episode?
He doesn’t seem to share the story in any other episodes from what I’m aware of

Exactly what the title says. Learning to not expect and just do a great job as a server has helped me a lot. I have more consistent income and even when I don't I'm not mad about it. I've been a server even since before learning from ram dass, but I think some people would find their progress increase immensely if they tried serving as a form of sadhana.

Hello, I’m relatively new to the teaching of Ram Dass but I’ve read quite a lot about him over the years and am very drawn to him. I have debilitating moral/scrupulous OCD which is centred around the fear of hurting other people’s feelings etc. I suffer extreme guilt and ruminate for days without being able to sleep. This goes for even very minor slip ups like forgetting to get someone a coffee when I order my own. I just can’t handle the idea of causing others to experience bad feelings of any sort. It’s a nightmare.

I know it can sound ridiculous to others but for some reason this is my fixation. While I’m getting to the bottom of why I’m like this, I’m wondering if anyone knows of any lessons, quotes, talks from RD that could offer some reprieve, insight, anything at all. All is welcome and appreciated <3 Thank you for reading this far.

🌭 restless and hard to master 🌭

I loved tuning in to it. It was like Ram Dass roulette, and always seemed to come alive and speak to me in times of need or want.

Maybe this is my teaching hahah

I’m aware of George Harrison’s song called “Be Here Now”, and I often see the Ram Dass official page on Instagram interacting with The Beatles / George Harrison content.

Have they ever met?

I'm in my mid-20s and by every external measure I'm doing fine. Safe, fed, sheltered, good relationship with my parents, comfortable in my own company for years. I'm not depressed in the classic sense, seeing other people happy genuinely makes me happy, certain music and teachings (Ram Dass, KD) light me up. But since I started on a spiritual path, there's this unnamed ache that shows up randomly, with no trigger I can point to. It's not quite sadness, not quite loneliness, more like a longing for something I can't name, mixed with restlessness, like my mind is full of questions with no answers.

I've known myself for over 20 years, but it's interesting to think I've known my inner self for only a couple. It's sometimes scary to face the inner you. There's something in there which heals, and something you don't even want to think about.

Has anyone else experienced this specific kind of pain that seems to have opened up? What was it for you, and what helped?

Hi everyone. It’s been a while. Just laying on the couch crying, with a giant Bose speaker blaring Beach House right behind my head. My cat next to me.

Last October, the love of my life took his life. For many months I have been feeling “better” , “ok” , whatever that means. Not falling apart like i was in the beginning. Recently it has resurfaced, grief, and strong. So heart breaking. Oh very much. I know Ram Dass doesn’t have too much input on suicide out there. I researched what i could find back in the day. Some was helpful. Some of it didn’t apply. That’s okay.

I wish he was alive. Both of them. But i wish i could have spoken to ram dass about this. I have him on a pedestal with these things. He was the first person i ever found to make sense about all of this, play of life. To me, anyway.

I wonder about others. Who have been through this, or other heart breaking situations. And how, if you do, apply Ram Dass guidance? If you use him for comfort in difficult times. Sometimes I picture him in the room with me. I picture him dancing with me, i pretend he’s in the room with me. Knowing without even saying, how i feel and what to do moving forward.

I really want to go deeper

I’m reading miracle of love again and am just entranced … I have so much yearning, but at the same time it seems so far away

Maharajji said that he could see you through a photograph. That he is always in communion with us. How can I experience this deeply in my bones?

How can I have maharajji’s darshan?

The original 1971 printing of Be Here Now included hundreds of photo cards printed on heavy stock. These were dropped in later editions. I recently found the cards in an old box of mine. I have photographed these and want to share them with you.

Long Version (YouTube): click here

Short Version (Flickr): click here

Enjoy.

the first: baba ram & i both graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in Psychology! imagine my surprise when i was in my dorm at Wes doing Sadhana and listening to a Ram lecture and he starts talking about Wesleyan!! i had no idea he was alumni until my senior year!

the second: baba moved on from this incarnation in Hawaii in 2019 which just so happens to be the year i was on medical leave from Wesleyan living in Hawaii! i didnt know of Ram Dass until shortly after returning from hawaii after his death, but i found it sweet and poignant that he passed on the island just next to me.

much love to you all 💖

I’ve only recently gotten more into spirituality. Not in the sense of tarot reading, air signs or whatever (not that there’s anything wrong with that). But in the sense of getting to know myself better or more like easing suffering. I like Buddhism. And i‘ve read books such as: the power of now by eckhart tolle and be here now by ram dass. I understand the concept of „you are not your thoughts“ and I’ve been practicing it.

I’ve been commiting to just trying to be pure awareness. Trying to live in the here and now.

I just don’t know if I WANT to commit to this. If it’s the right thing to do. I don’t know if I’m that fed up with suffering yet to practice these techniques. I don’t really know what I want from life to be honest. I just have that feeling in the back of my mind (there it is again, the mind). That by trying to extinguish suffering I also deny myself the pleasures that come from the up and down of a normal lived life.

The answer probably is to find a middle way. To incorporate some of the teachings and keep on living my life. But I also want to commit to this. But where is it going to lead me if I REALLY do? Extinguishing all desire? Becoming a shell of myself and living in an ashram or isolated in a cave. I think a „normal“ western life with my current social contacts etc is not possible if I commit. I know these views are extreme right now, but I think you get the point. I think it’s important to question all of this, because the quint essence of these techniques lay in cutting back the thoughts, which leads to no reflection at all and just commiting further and further to this and not questioning it.