Interview With Ram Dass

A few days ago, I published my first post about Baba Ram Dass in a quote from his book, Be Here Now.

Just today, I came across an interview with Ram Dass in his home in Maui, Hawaii.

Ram Dass with Interviewers, David Ulrich and Laura Dunn, Parabola article photo

Here is what the interviewers had to say about him:

To say that we were deeply moved and touched to our core would be an understatement. There are no words that can accurately reflect having darshan with a genuine spiritual teacher, a highly public explorer of consciousness since the early 1960s. Ram Dass exemplifies the qualities of being that many of us seek and hope to find: peace, love, compassion, inner expansion, and joy. He embodies the luminosity and clarity of one who has traversed the inner path with grace, diligence, and heart….

After taking our leave of Ram Dass, we were high, intoxicated with his loving presence. Yet, basking in the light and inner fire of a master does not alone lead to enlightenment. What contact with Ram Dass engendered was an increased commitment to our own inner work, a heightened sense of our wish and our feeling of a need to awaken, to become more inwardly alive and conscious, inclusive of the heart, head and body. Contact with a semi-realized being, one who has not shirked from the challenges of the inner path, who has traversed the Way with dignity and an unshakable commitment, helps us by exemplifying and demonstrating what is possible for us. [Read More…]

Ram Dass’s main message is going from the head to the heart:

I feel sadhana [spiritual practice] comes from the real self. Sadhana goes from here [points to his head] which is the ego, to this [hand on his heart], which is the real self. And this is the soul. In the depth of the soul is the atman, the oversoul. And that oversoul is really love and compassion, peace, joy, and wisdom. [He says these words carefully, with reverence].  But that isn’t just knowledge; it’s much more. If you want to get to know a tree, the head would merely say, “That’s a tree.” If you go into the heart, you meld with the tree. If you meld, and I meld, we’re meld ing into something, into oneness. And this is bhakti [devotion] —giving from here to here, the head to the heart. This is loving awareness, that’s the soul. And you go down to the heart. You say, “I am loving awareness.” In the middle of the chest: “I am loving awareness. I am loving awareness, I am loving awareness,” and you get moving down.

Ram Dass is one of the most beloved spiritual teachers of our generation. His open heart and handling of grace are examples for us all.

Please share your feelings and thoughts about Ram Dass.