Ram Dass Quotes

108 Sourced Quotes

I'd get to a point with my colleagues when I couldn't explain any further, because it came down to "To him who has had the experience no explanation is necessary, to him who has not, none is possible.".

Ram Dass
The shadow is the greatest teacher for how to come to the light.

Ram Dass
Caring is a reflex. Someone slips, your arm goes out. A car is in the ditch, you join others and push... You live, you help.

Ram Dass
Whenever anybody that I trusted brought along some new chemical, I would open my mouth and off I'd go.

Ram Dass
During these travels he's starting to train me in a most interesting way. We'd be sitting somewhere and I'd say,
"Did I ever tell you about the time that Tim and I..."
And he'd say, "Don't think about the past. Just be here now."
Silence.
And I'd say, "How long do you think we're going to be on this trip?"
And he'd say, "Don't think about the future. Just be here now."
I'd say, "You know, I really feel crumby, my hips are hurting..."
"Emotions are like waves. Watch them disappear in the distance on the vast calm ocean."

Ram Dass
I learned more in the six or seven hours of this experience than I had learned in all my years as a psychologist.

Ram Dass
We've gotten lost in our Ego and have forgotten that our Soul's only motive is to merge with the Beloved.

Ram Dass
Let's trade in all our judging for appreciating. Let's lay down our righteousness and just be together.

Ram Dass
Our interactions with one another reflect a dance between love and fear.

Ram Dass
Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it.

Ram Dass
Cosmic humor, especially about your own predicament, is an important part of your journey.

Ram Dass
Only when I know who I am will I know what is possible.

Ram Dass
There are three stages in this journey that I have been on. The first. the social science stage; the second, the psychedelic stage; and the third, the yogi stage.

Ram Dass
You and I are the force for transformation in the world. We are the consciousness that will define the nature of the reality we are moving into.

Ram Dass
In India when we meet and part we often say, "Namaste," which means: I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides; 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.. "Namaste."

Ram Dass
Early in the journey you wonder how long the journey will take and whether you will make it in this lifetime. Later you will see that where you are going is HERE and you will arrive NOW...so you stop asking.

Ram Dass
His [Bhagwan Dass'] teaching seemed to be no teaching because he always taught from within … that is, his lessons aroused in me just affirmation … as if I knew it all already.

Ram Dass
All spiritual practices are illusions created by illusionists to escape illusion.

Ram Dass
It was as if the whole western mind-training of individual differences had been made background instead of figure, so that you'd look at another human being and say, "Here we are." You'd see differences more as clothing, rather than as core stuff.

Ram Dass
When the heart is open, it's easier for the mind to be turned toward God.

Ram Dass
I had plenty of LSD, but why take it. I knew what it was going to do, what it was going to tell me. It was going to show me that garden again and then I was going to be cast out and that was it.

Ram Dass
If you see yourself as God and then you come back from this state and somebody says, "Hey, Sam, empty the garbage!" it catches you back into the model of "I'm Sam who empties the garbage." You can't maintain these new kinds of structures. It takes a while to realize that God can empty garbage.

Ram Dass
Our culture's zeal for longevity reveals our incredible collective fear of death.

Ram Dass
I thought at that moment, "Wow, I've got it made. I'm just a new beautiful being — I'm just an inner self — all I'll ever need to do is look inside and I'll know what to do and I can always trust it, and here I'll be forever."
But two or three days later I was talking about the whole thing in the past tense. I was talking about how I "experienced" this thing, because I was back being that anxiety-neurotic, in a slightly milder form, but still, my old personality was sneaking back up on me.

Ram Dass
You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing. You don't have to do anything to earn it. Your shortcomings, your lack of self-esteem, physical perfection, or social and economic success- none of that matters. No one can take this love away from you, and it will always be here.

Ram Dass
It's only when caterpillarness is done that one becomes a butterfly. That again is part of this paradox. You cannot rip away caterpillarness. The whole trip occurs in an unfolding process of which we have no control.

Ram Dass
A feeling of aversion or attachment toward something is your clue that there's work to be done.

Ram Dass
By acting compassionately, by helping to restore justice and to encourage peace, we are acknowledging that we are all part of one another.

Ram Dass
We're fascinated by the words—but where we meet is in the silence behind them.

Ram Dass
If you want to be surrounded by Souls, become identified with your Soul. It takes one to know one!

Ram Dass