RAM DASS THE TEACHER: A PERSONAL APPRECIATION
I was born in 1945 almost exactly at the end of World War II. My first interest was left-wing politics; then I had a mystical experience on LSD in 1970. Since that time, I have searched for ways to combine inner realization with action in the world. Over the years, no one has influenced my outlook more than Ram Dass (1931–2019). A big reason is that he explained and exemplified the path of service so well. He helped dying people and prisoners in the US, and the poor and blind in various countries, while donating large sums to charitable causes.
Although he was a university professor, Ram Dass learned to tame his mind, helping his soul unfold rather than alienating him from it. I followed him to loosen my mind’s hold by valuing the intuitive heart, the seat of wisdom. Ram Dass had taken about 400 LSD trips. I had far fewer experiences on psychedelics, yet I, too, had my mind blown by the drug. More importantly, he said that the only way to keep an elevated state of consciousness was to meditate, a lesson I eventually took to heart.
Countercultural Icon
Ram Dass and Alan Watts were the two most effective promoters of Eastern philosophy in the US in the 1960s and early 1970s. They were both fabulous speakers with super-sharp minds and quick wit. I felt closer to Ram Dass because he dissected the social pathologies that made living in the US so difficult for me: nationalism, militarism, consumerism, inequality, intolerant religions, and environmental destruction. He didn’t hesitate to call out these evils while carefully distinguishing the perpetrators from the structures that made these evils possible. Instead of rousing my anger, he reminded me not to blame those pursuing obscene wealth. They had bought into the culture’s mythologies and were not content.
The spiritual teachers who targeted the cultural mainstream rarely spoke the way Ram Dass did. They emphasized that devotees could live their normal lives; their goal was to change how one perceived the world, not change the world. Unlike Watts and Ram Dass, such teachers did not single out social conditioning as the source of egocentrism. Nor did they warn about the traps that the present-day society was setting for the unwary and naive. Ram Dass talked about how we all undergo “somebody training,” that is, learning to carry out the roles society deems proper. But to be free, we had to reverse such training and learn to become nobody. This required seeing through the myths that bind us.
I don’t want to give the impression that Ram Dass wanted to tear everything down. Being human meant taking on natural roles, such as being a son. In his case, he took care of his father before he died, viewing it not as an imposition or sacrifice but as deeply fulfilling.
Another instance was co-founding the Seva Foundation, dedicated to relieving suffering on a large scale. When Chairman of the Board, he met Nepal’s Health Minister. Looking into each other’s eyes, they both recognized they were actors. Playing their roles with skill and enthusiasm, they worked together to reduce blindness in Nepal.
The Two Truths
After I had mystical experiences on psychedelics in 1970, I realized that a political revolution would not lead to genuine social change. People would also have to change, which meant gaining inner freedom. Was politics, therefore, irrelevant? I also heard some spiritual teachers say that this universe is perfect, just as it is. Of course, it had never looked that way to me. I needed someone to explain how the manifest world could be perfect. One explanation was that it reflects the state of consciousness of all its inhabitants, so it could not be otherwise. Through experience, I also realized that my own suffering often contained lessons. After learning the lessons, what had once caused me to suffer might no longer visit me.
Still, it wasn’t easy to accept that other people’s suffering always had to be the way it was. I thought something should be done to lessen the suffering of innocent children. In the early 2000s, I began listening to talks by Ram Dass, and he confronted what I had been wondering about for so long. He said that all is perfect on one level, but stinks on a different level. The spiritual person lives with the paradox of recognizing the perfection of the way things are while doing everything to relieve suffering. The higher consciousness is attuned to God and the divine law and knows that God did not make an error by allowing suffering; at the same time, the living person acts to remove that suffering, thereby carrying out one’s role in the divine play.
In a letter to the parents of Rachel, a young girl who had been raped and murdered, Ram Dass wrote: “Rachel finished her work on earth, and left the stage in a manner that leaves those of us left behind with a cry of agony in our hearts, as the fragile thread of our faith is dealt with so violently. Is anyone strong enough to stay conscious through such teaching as you are receiving?” He told them that although our rational minds can never make sense of such an event, our hearts, if open to God, will come to an intuitive understanding. I have tried to keep my heart open to God, but such intuitive understanding has not come easily.
On the other hand, like Ram Dass, I know that suffering can transform people. My health issues have made me more compassionate toward others. It has become easier to see others as myself, to experience the higher consciousness where I no longer feel like an ego or separate self. When Ram Dass attended to the dying, he observed that suffering cracked open people with the hardest ego shells. The power of suffering was truly awesome. Yet, he would never wish such suffering on that person. In my case, I know the suffering may be very good for me; still, I sometimes fear it.
Spiritual Activism
Activists with noble intentions failed to achieve many of their goals as American society moved toward the right and Ronald Reagan became president. In the early 1990s, figures like Václav Havel, Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama were visible, and people embraced worthy causes like the environment and racial and gender equality. However, Ram Dass noticed that many activists were getting burned out. This led him to discuss the relation between spiritual practice and social action.
Social action requires self-awareness and inner awakening. This means, as the Bhagavad Gita says, not to be attached to the fruits of action. After all, the initiator of compassionate action has no control over whether it will achieve the desired effect. Many activists, after setbacks, burn out and lapse into cynicism or despair. Only those who have transformed themselves can keep going and stay the course. The important thing is to act impeccably and leave the result in God’s hands.
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A peaceful mind, the willingness to listen, and the ability to witness one’s own actions contribute to effective social action. Sometimes I wish I had these qualities when I was younger so I could have been more effective. But as Ram Dass emphasized, we all have our own path through life, and should not try to imitate others. There are no universal standards by which I can judge my life a failure. I just keep going.
Human and Divine
Ram Dass emphasized both our humanity and divinity. In fact, a major obstacle to his own awakening was a belief that the world is fallen and that he had to escape from it somehow. A disembodied spirit, channeled through a friend, told him this earth is a school and he needed to take the curriculum. In other words, it was okay to be his highly imperfect self while continuing his earthly role as a spiritual teacher.
Ram Dass also said that when he met up with an old colleague from his academic days, the person told him he hadn’t changed at all. How could Ram Dass, whom I admired so much, still have all these imperfections after doing intensive spiritual practices? He explained that there was a difference between now and then, even though all his neuroses had not left him. Now, when these tendencies appeared, he greeted them like old friends rather than despising himself for remaining impure.
This teaching helped me ease up on myself. I understood that falling short of perfection is not a reason to hate myself. I was using spirituality to condemn who I was. My childhood experience led me to feel I was inherently bad. Yet how could this be true if I experienced the divine within? Like Ram Dass, my psychedelic experience taught me what the rational mind could not deny. I was not a separate self but simultaneously the One and the many.
A Different Kind of Spiritual Teacher
Spiritual teachers from India in the early and mid-20th century were usually considered by their disciples to be fully realized and incarnations of the divine. Paramahansa Yogananda exemplified this type of Master. On the manifest plane, an unbridgeable gap existed between Master and disciple, and Yogananda instructed that, after his passing, his teachings must be preserved in their exact form.
Although Ram Dass revered his own teacher, Neem Karoli Baba, he did not attempt to establish a lineage by taking disciples and passing down a set of teachings. He called himself a “Sufi, Christian, Buddhist, Hinjew.” References to his Master were occasional. Over time, he focused mainly on his own experiences to help others in the same predicaments. He called the sessions with his audiences “hanging out.” As he liked to say, “We’re all just walking each other home.”
Listening to Ram Dass’s talks on CD or online was similar to listening to Alan Watts. It was enjoyable, even entertaining, as Watts described his own presentations. The resistance I sometimes felt toward the more conventional teachers evaporated. It wasn’t like a parent-child relationship. Ram Dass was more like an older brother. By sharing his weaknesses and accepting them without shame, he set an example. He had a weakness for hot tubs and sweets; he was judgmental and angry; he liked sports cars; and he took his “holiness” too seriously.
Ram Dass also demystified many Westerners’ quest for enlightenment. Rather than giving it an aura of sanctity, he called it a game. The problem was that they hadn’t figured out how the game worked. It is based on laws. If you lash out at an evil doer in the name of good, the law of reaction takes effect. The evil doer becomes more obdurate, and you have introduced more evil into the world.
So Very Human
His actions sometimes contradicted his teachings. When he was falling behind on writing How Can I Help? (1985) and facing a deadline, the printer ran out of ink. So he rushed into town by car. On the way, he didn’t stop for a person on crutches who was hitchhiking. He justified it by telling himself it would take so much time to get the person into the car and to take him wherever he wanted to go. Yet this action directly opposed what he was writing in his book.
In a talk, he made fun of himself for such behavior. The audience laughed. Then he mentioned that about the same time, a young man working on the house where he was staying wanted to talk to him. He had read his books and listened to his talks. But Ram Dass felt he couldn’t take the time because he had to finish the book. Two days later, the man killed himself.
Don’t attach oneself to the fruits of action; be open to what life brings, no matter how unexpected. We should not ignore the process in the haste to achieve results. This is a lifelong lesson, since I often feel compelled to quickly achieve a goal, as if I were imposing my will on life, rather than attuning myself to it.
I remember Ram Dass’s experience with Neem Karoli Baba when he thought his omniscient teacher was reading his innermost thoughts, totally embarrassing him. Instead, his teacher looked at him with infinite love and for the first time, Ram Dass felt unconditionally loved. I could relate to how he felt. I have always desired that same love.
Ram Dass experienced a stroke in 1997 that left him unable to speak. Although he regained some ability to communicate verbally, he lost the fluency that had distinguished him. Still, he saw his stroke as a gift that enabled him to understand the meaning of suffering and death more deeply. I am facing a similar challenge, living a far more restricted life. Once again, Ram Dass inspires me by his example.
