Ram Dass Died

[Earl Grey]

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/ram-dass-lsd-george-harrison-dead-obituary-930550/

 

 

[Walker]

 

1 hour ago, Earl Grey said:

 

 

Whaddya frowning for? Beat a drum! If Ram Dass isn't doing just fine wherever he is now, then we're all just as good as fucked!

 

Be Here Now was one of the first things I read when I started looking for ways to change my life. The other was a copy of Red Pine's Diamond Sutra translation, that I got a friend to steal for me from the bookstore he worked in. I couldn't make heads of tails of the Diamond Sutra, but Be Here Now had cool pictures, was totally unlike anything I'd ever seen before and yet similar in a way to all the comics I grew up on, and it resonated with my then-frequently-extremely inebriated, always stressed-out mind. Shit, reflecting on these old memories, I can feel the temperature of the underheated house I lived in back then, recall the stale smell of the living room, see the poorly lit spaces I occupied as I poured over the book, often late at night after shifts coming down from that manic work high waiting tables in an understaffed fancy restaurant or alone on late mornings in an empty, silent house. I never returned to Be Here Now after I finished it and my path was nothing like Alpert's, but the book changed my life. Moreover, as soon as I was done with it it ended up in the hands of a roommate of mine, a wild-ass felon who stabbed and shot at people and was otherwise totally O.C. for years. To my surprise he read it cover to cover and instead of mocking me for reading such a weird tome, it affected him deeply. I suggested Autobiography of a Yogi to him six months later when he'd skipped town to avoid a beef, and when he was reading it at his security guard job in another state a coworker of his strolled by, noticed the book, and said, "hey, never knew you were into that stuff-why don't you come with me to learn to meditate at the local SRF?" He spent a year or two meditating there and went his own way eventually, but he's been on straight and narrow for years, is a downright jolly and pleasant person to be around nowadays, and is even a mentor to some younger men he coaches in muay thai and Crossfit. I haven't thought about all this in years, but Be Here Now really was what kicked off those changes in my friend. Ram Dass did some wonderful, wonderful things during his not-short not-long time in this world. I am deeply grateful to have received a bit of influence from him, and to have seen that influence touch my friend's life, too. May his passing be a blessed one! May the teachings and students he's left behind continue to touch countless beings!

 

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!

[Earl Grey]

12 minutes ago, Walker said:

 

 

Whaddya frowning for? Beat a drum! If Ram Dass isn't doing just fine wherever he is now, then we're all just as good as fucked!

 

Be Here Now was one of the first things I read when I started looking for ways to change my life. The other was a copy of Red Pine's Diamond Sutra translation, that I got a friend to steal for me from the bookstore he worked in. I couldn't make heads of tails of the Diamond Sutra, but Be Here Now had cool pictures, was totally unlike anything I'd ever seen before and yet similar in a way to all the comics I grew up on, and it resonated with my then-frequently-extremely inebriated, always stressed-out mind. Shit, reflecting on these old memories, I can feel the temperature of the underheated house I lived in back then, recall the stale smell of the living room, see the poorly lit spaces I occupied as I poured over the book, often late at night after shifts coming down from that manic work high waiting tables in an understaffed fancy restaurant or alone on late mornings in an empty, silent house. I never returned to Be Here Now after I finished it and my path was nothing like Alpert's, but the book changed my life. Moreover, as soon as I was done with it it ended up in the hands of a roommate of mine, a wild-ass felon who stabbed and shot at people and was otherwise totally O.C. for years. To my surprise he read it cover to cover and instead of mocking me for reading such a weird tome, it affected him deeply. I suggested Autobiography of a Yogi to him six months later when he'd skipped town to avoid a beef, and when he was reading it at his security guard job in another state a coworker of his strolled by, noticed the book, and said, "hey, never knew you were into that stuff-why don't you come with me to learn to meditate at the local SRF?" He spent a year or two meditating there and went his own way eventually, but he's been on straight and narrow for years, is a downright jolly and pleasant person to be around nowadays, and is even a mentor to some younger men he coaches in muay thai and Crossfit. I haven't thought about all this in years, but Be Here Now really was what kicked off those changes in my friend. Ram Dass did some wonderful, wonderful things during his not-short not-long time in this world. I am deeply grateful to have received a bit of influence from him, and to have seen that influence touch my friend's life, too. May his passing be a blessed one! May the teachings and students he's left behind continue to touch countless beings!

 

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!

 

Hey, you're right. He had his death hotline and laughed about it as being part of the journey. I'm just sad that someone who was very influential to me and who appeared with Jack Kornfield and on Duncan Trussel podcasts that I would wake up to a world without him, just like every year, I say goodbye to people like Bowie, Prince, Aretha, and so on...and to me I'm still living with a lot of grief since Kurt Cobain died, but at least I'm not like those old women who insisted in the 90s that Elvis was still alive! 

 

Hai...

 

My parents grew up listening to it and taking acid, and I inherited my dad's worn copy as well as bought my own. Both remain in my possession, and I independently returned to him on my own. The more I listen to his recordings, the more I feel I reconnect with my parents before they separated. 

 

Baba, we love you and thank you for the wisdom. 

Edited December 27, 2019 by Earl Grey

[sagebrush]

my response immediate was shed a tear. it just happened that way. my response was not beat a drum. my response is passed now.

I can faintly recall an audio recording where I heard him giving a lecture. I listened over and over.

various tapes were offered for free in a basket at massage school by the owner of the school. that was my fist introduction to ram dass

 

 

[Apech]

Loved Be Here Now - RIP Ram Dass.

[ralis]

2 hours ago, Earl Grey said:

 

Hey, you're right. He had his death hotline and laughed about it as being part of the journey. I'm just sad that someone who was very influential to me and who appeared with Jack Kornfield and on Duncan Trussel podcasts that I would wake up to a world without him, just like every year, I say goodbye to people like Bowie, Prince, Aretha, and so on...and to me I'm still living with a lot of grief since Kurt Cobain died, but at least I'm not like those old women who insisted in the 90s that Elvis was still alive! 

 

Hai...

 

My parents grew up listening to it and taking acid, and I inherited my dad's worn copy as well as bought my own. Both remain in my possession, and I independently returned to him on my own. The more I listen to his recordings, the more I feel I reconnect with my parents before they separated. 

 

Baba, we love you and thank you for the wisdom. 

 

Ram Dass was a fixture around Santa Fe and Taos New Mexico for decades. He founded the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram in Taos which we have visited many times. The Maha Shivaratri in February is always the most fun to attend and participate in. 

 

Certainly glad he founded this place!

 

https://nkbashram.org/

 

 

[Fu_doggy]

I love Ram Dass.  While Be Here Now is his best known work, his book Paths to God; Living the Bhagavad Gita is also excellent.  

 

May he RIP.