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- Contents
- Ram Dass was born in 1933 as Richard Alpert, son of a wealthy lawyer who was the president of the New York, New Haven,and Hartford Railroad and founder of Brandeis University. After studying psychology and earning an M.A. from Weslyan and a Ph.D. from Stanford, he taught and conducted research at the Department of Social Relations and the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University from 1958 to 1963.
- While at Harvard, Ram Dass's explorations of human consciousness led him to conduct intensive research with LSD and other psychedelic elements, in collaboration with Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, and others. Because of the controversial nature of this research, Ram Dass and Leary were dismissed from Harvard in 1963.
- He continued this research with a private foundation through 1967, when he traveled to India. There he met his spiritual teacher, Neem Karoli Baba. Under his guru's guidance, he studied yoga and meditation and received the name Ram Dass, or "servant of God." Since 1968, he has pursued a variety of spiritual practices, including Hinduism, karma, yoga and Sufism.
- In 1974, Ram Dass created the Hanuman Foundation, which has developed many projects, including the "Prison-Ashram Project," designed to help inmates grow spiritually during incarceration, and the "Living Dying Project," which provides support for the conscious dying. The foundation is also the organizing vehicle for Ram Dass's lectures and workshops, which constantly keep him traveling the world.
- He is also a co-founder and board member of the Seva Foundation ("service," in Sanskrit), an international organization dedicated to relieving suffering in the world. Seva supports programs designed to help wipe out curable blindness in India and Nepal, restore the agricultural life of impoverished villagers in Guatemala, assist in primary health care for American Indians, and to bring attention to the issues of homelessness and environmental degradation in the United States, among others.
- Ram Dass has written a number of books on spiritual topics. His first, "Be Here Now" - published in 1971, with over one million copies sold and in its 34th printing - has become a classic spiritual guide. His other works include "How Can I Help?: Stories and Reflections on Service" (with Paul Gorman); and his seventh book, "Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service" (with Mirabai Bush).
- Ram Dass Health Update
- http://www.taosnet.com/lama/newsltr/nl-rd.html
As many of you know, on February 19, 1997, Ram Dass (a.k.a. Richard Alpert, Ph.D.)
suffered a massive cerebral hemorrahagic stroke in his left brain hemisphere. The stroke
left him with extensive right side paralysis, expressive aphasia, and a number of recurring
and threatening health problems. After having spent nearly four months in Bay area
hospitals, Ram Dass returned home in late May, where he has been undergoing intensive
rehabilitation and medical therapies, and receives 24-hour homecare assistance. He has
been confined to getting around in a wheelchair.
We are pleased to report that during the past four months, Ram Dass' condition has been
steadily improving. He is now speaking with greater ease and clarity. He is also
experiencing an increased return in his right leg and has been exercising regularly with a
walker, opening the possibility for limited assisted mobility in the near future.
A large portion of the cost of Ram Dass' ongoing care is not covered by his health
insurance. If you wish to make a tax-deductible contribution, send it to the
Hanuman Foundation
RD Fund
P. O. Box 478
Santa Fe, NM 87504
http://ramdasstapes.org/ramdass/rdbody.htm
Cards and gifts may be sent to: 524 San Anselmo Avenue
San Anselmo, CA 94960
We all send him deep peace, love, and healing energy.
- Being conscious is cutting through your own melodrama
- and being right here.
- Exist in no mind, be empty, here now,
- and trust that as a situation arises,
- out of you will come what is necessary to deal with that situation
- including the use of your intellect when appropriate.
- Your intellect need not be constantly held on to
- to keep reassuring you that you know where you’re at,
- out of fear of loss of control.
- Ultimately, when you stop identifying so much
- with your physical body
- and with your psychological entity,
- that anxiety starts to disintegrate.
- And your start to define yourself
- as in flow with the universe;
- and whatever comes along ~ death, life joy, sadness ~
- is grist for the mill of awakening,
- Not this versus that
- but
- whatever.
- ~
- Remember,
we are all affecting the world every moment,
whether we mean to or not.
Our actions and states of mind matter,
because we're so deeply interconnected with one another.
Working on our own consciousness
is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment,
and being love is the supreme creative act. - ~
- Remember,
- Be Here Now.
- ~
- As long as you have certain desires about
- how it ought to be you can't see how it is.
- ~
- [We need to] stop being limited by who we think we are.
- ~
- Be open to all teachers
- And all teachings,
- And listen with your heart.
- ~
- The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal.
- It can’t be organized or regulated.
- It isn’t true that everyone should follow one path.
- Listen to your own truth.
- ~
- It is important to expect nothing,
To take every experience,
Including the negative ones,
As merely steps on the path,
And to proceed. - ~
- At first you think that your sadhana
- Is a limited part of your life.
- In time you realize that
- Everything you do is part of your sadhana.
- ~
- The game is not about becoming somebody,
- it's really about becoming nobody.
- ~
- [It’s amazing] to see how you get stuck in roles and how the
life process,
the spiritual contact, turns off the minute you think you're somebody doing something.
My consciousness, my concepts of the universe have turned me off
because I know that the higher consciousness state is a state of unity.
The Only Dance There Is, p.8 - ~
- You must come to see every human being
- Including yourself, As an incarnation
- In a body or personality, going through a certain
- Life experience which is functional.
- ~
- What one person has to offer to another is their own being,
- nothing more, nothing less.
- ~
- The quieter you become the more you can hear
- ~
- If you think you're free, there's no escape possible.
- ~
- [When you awaken]
- You are no longer a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Christian or a Jew or a Moslem.
- You are love, you are truth.
- And love and truth have no form.
- They flow into forms.
- But the word is never the same as that which the word connotes.
- The word "God" is not God,
- the word "Mother" is not Mother,
- the word "Self" is not Self,
- the word "moment" is not the moment.
- All of these words are empty.
- We're playing at the level of intellect,
- feeding that thing in us that keeps wanting to understand.
- And here we are, all the words we've said are gone.
- Where did they go?
- Do you remember them all?
- Empty, empty.
- If you heard them, you are at this moment empty.
- You're ready for the next word.
- And the word will go through you.
- You don't have to know anything: that's what's so funny about it.
- You get so simple.
- You're empty.
- You know nothing.
- You simply are wisdom-
- not becoming anything,
- just being everything.
- ~
- You see ultimately that
- you just have to die into truth,
- you have to die into God,
- you have to die into love.
- ~
- The resistance to the unpleasant
Situation is the root of suffering. - ~
- There’s a very fine line between inner and outer work.
We would like, I’m sure, to have all of our actions
come out of enlightenment,
come out of calmness and quietness
and spaciousness and appreciation of what is,
but we’ve taken form.
We are in bodies and by that very nature,
we are lost, involved in action.
We can’t not act, so what we do is act
as consciously as we can, as compassionately
as we can from moment to moment.
The art of using the experiences of life
as a vehicle to awaken is to use them to bring you close
to that calm center and that quietness.
That includes the work you would do to alleviate
the suffering that is inherent in the use of nuclear weapons.
You don’t complete your inner work before you do your outer work.
Nor do you say, "Well, the hell with the inner work:
I’ll go do the outer work because it’s so important and pressing."
That’s not conscious either.
The conscious thing is the simultaneous doing of both.
- ~
- One works on oneself, always.
- That's the greatest gift you can give to community
- because the more you extricate your mind
- from that which defines separateness,
- that defines community.
- The first thing is to become community.
- ~
- In India when we meet and part we often say,
- "Namastè," which means…
- 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 within you where if you are in that place in you
- and I am in that place in me,
- there is only one of us.
- Namastè
- ~ Ram Dass
- You can write to Ram Dass at
524 San Anselmo Avenue, #203
San Anselmo, CA. 94960
You can send e-mail to Ram Dass at RDTapes@aol.com - See Ram Dass this March, 2000. Ram Dass is a part of the faculty of the Gathering 2000 in San Diego (LaJolla) sponsored by Inner Directions. Don't Miss this opportunity to see Ram Dass and a participate in a great conference.
- For more than 30 years, the name Ram Dass has been
synonymous with pioneering
contributions in spiritual, psychological, and social movements. His service work
included death and dying counseling, conflict resolution, transpersonal psychology, and
conscious aging.
A year ago, Ram Dass suffered a major stroke, which left him with significant motor
and speech disabilities. He continues to make a gradual recovery, but will require
considerable treatment and support for some time. Over the years, Ram Dass gave
away nearly all his money and consequently needs financial support for medical
treatment and living expenses. To this end, a fund has been established so that those
who feel moved can contribute. Gifts of any amount are welcome and can be sent to
Jai Laksham, The Hanuman Foundation, P.O. Box 478, Santa Fe, NM 87504.
-Roger Walsh
Links- Roger's Notes on Seeing Ram Dass the Last Time (not for the last time)
- Hanuman Foundation (The Official Ram Dass Site) http://ramdasstapes.org/
Lama Foundation http://www.taosnet.com/lama/index.html - SEVA Foundation http://www.seva.org/
- Steven Levine on Ram Dass
- http://www.eastwest.com/ew/AtStore/html/stephen_levine_and_ram_dass.html
- Interviews with Ram Dass
- Stroked by the Guru
- http://www.levity.com/mavericks/ram-int.htm
- http://www.myna.com/~davidck/ramdasna.htm
- http://www.reachingout.org/programs_1_main.html
- A magazine issue dedicated to Ram Dass
http://www.island.org/ISLANDVIEWS/VIEWS4/index.html - Ram Dass on Aldous Huxley
- http://www.island.org/ISLANDVIEWS/VIEWS4/bnwisland.html
- Information on Ram Dass sightings and health
Bulletin Board: http://www.cleverlink.com/wwwboard/messages/87.html
Unity Church: http://www.scruznet.com/~friends/UnityArden/RamDass.html
Bibliography- Ram Dass, Be Here Now , Lama Foundation (1971)
- Ram Dass, The Only Dance There Is, Anchor-Doubleday (1970, 1974)
- Ram Dass, Grist for the Mill (with Steven Levine), Celestial Arts (1977, 1988)
- Ram Dass, Journey of Awakening Bantam Books (1978, 1990)
- Ram Dass, Miracle of Love: Stories About Neem Karoli Baba E.P. Dutton (1979)(out of Print)
- Ram Dass (with Paul Gorman), How Can I Help:Stories and Reflections on Service
- Alfred A. Knopf, New York (1985)
- Ram Dass(with Mirabai Bush), Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service
- Bell Tower (1992, 1995)
- Richard Alpert, Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner,
- The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based Upon the Tibetan Book of the Dead,
- University Books, (1964, 1992)
- Richard Alpert, LSD
(with S. Cohen and L. Shiller), New American Library, (1966)
Richard Alpert, Identification and Child Rearing (with R. Sears and L. Rau), - Stanford University Press,
1962.
Between Heaven and Earth (1991)
Soma: The Divine Hallucinogen (1999)
- Audio/Video Tape Sources
- Hanuman Foundation http://ramdasstapes.org/
- Big Sur Tapes http://www.bigsurtapes.com/ext5b.html
- Sounds True Recordings http://www.soundstrue.com/
- AudioSource http://www.audiosource.com/
- Mystic Fire http://www.mysticfire.com/index.htm
- New Medicine Tapes http: www.ccnet.com/~newmed/ramdass.htm
- Namastè
A salutation which essentially means that I greet and acknowledge the God-Spirit that resides within you. Ram Dass describes it this way "I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light, and of peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are one." This greeting is usually done with a gesture of hands held close to the heart in prayer position. It is a wonderful way of expressing love. - Go to Roger's Notes:On Seeing Ram Dass
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