Ram Dass
Spiritual Explorer
Who am I? Can we pinpoint exactly who or what we are within our body, mind or spirit?
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Ram Dass in conversation with Great Mystery
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Using a Spiritual Practice to Stay Grounded
Most of us are enmeshed in the world, and we get lost very easily in the stuff of life. A daily practice is very useful to keep reminding you, to keep pulling you back and waking you up again, giving you a chance to see how you got lost the day before, and to keep putting what’s happening to you in the world back into a spiritual perspective.
For instance, I read a little passage in the morning when I wake up. I have books next to my bed, and I’ll just pick one up and start the day reading a passage from a holy book, or a little quote from a saint, and it will just start me remembering, reminding me what the game is all about.
You can tune to the spirit through a variety of practices. Look to each method to keep opening you in its own unique way. At the beginning, when you’re trying different methods, be generous with yourself. There will be a method that will fit your unique karma. If you come to a practice with a pure heart and a yearning to be free, it will reflect back the purity of your aspiration.
Spiritual practice isn’t a way to achieve anything or to get somewhere else. You’re already here. You do spiritual practices because you do spiritual practices—not to get to some other state, but to get in touch with who you already are, to clear the dust from the mirror, to come more fully into the present moment.
Whether you will be free and enlightened now or in ten thousand births from now is not the point. What else is there to do? You can’t stop doing them anyway. Once you awaken to the possibility of the universe within, it’s like a gravitational force.
Don’t get trapped in your expectations. Spiritual practices can themselves become obstacles if you become too attached to them. Use these methods as consciously as you can, knowing that, if they are truly working, eventually they will self-destruct.
ABOUT
Ram Dass (1931–2019), born Richard Alpert, lived one of the great spiritual journeys of the 20th century. A Harvard psychology professor whose early work with psychedelics led him into a profound search for meaning, he eventually travelled to India, where he met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. Returning to the West as Ram Dass, he became a beloved spiritual teacher whose 1971 book Be Here Now helped open Eastern wisdom to an entire generation. His teachings centered on loving awareness, service, presence, and the unfolding of consciousness. With warmth, humor, and a deep willingness to speak honestly about his own humanity, Ram Dass invited us to let go of the struggle to perfect ourselves and instead open the heart to what is.