Ram Dass Quotes

My work as a human being is to quiet my mind, open my heart and do what I can to relieve the suffering with as much wisdom, skill, whatever I got.

As one individual changes, the system changes.

We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not.

The humor is that finally when you have the power to move the mountain, you are the person who placed it there-so there the mountain stays.

Turn your melodrama into a mellow drama.

You've been somebody long enough. You spent the first half of your life becoming somebody. Now you can work on becoming nobody, which is really somebody. For when you become nobody there is no tension, no pretense, no one trying to be anyone or anything. The natural state of the mind shines through unobstructed - and the natural state of the mind is pure love.

Who you think you are will always be frightened of change. But it doesn't make any difference to who you truly are.

I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn't create more suffering. I help people as a work on myself and I work on myself to help people.

I've got to love the souls of people. Because I can't love every incarnation. To love their souls, I have to identify with my own soul.

So you work on yourself as a gift to other human beings. Then you use every situation you have with other human beings as a vehicle to work on yourself by seeing where you get stuck-where you push, where you grab, where you judge, where you do all the stuff.

Counseling has to do with intuition, with work on oneself, with the quietness of one's mind and the openness of one's heart.

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

We're all just walking each other home.

I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people... To me, that's what the emerging game is all about.

When the faith is strong enough, it is sufficient just to be. Its a journey towards simplicity, towards quietness, towards a kind of joy that is not in time. Its a journey that has taken us from primary identification with our body and our psyche, on to an identification with God, and ultimately beyond identification.

A Tibetan Lama said to me, "The best place to stand, Ram Dass, is halfway between hope and hopelessness." So I can write a scenario for the 21st century in either direction. One is that it all goes to hell and that it's truly the dark age.

Truth is scary. Truth has bad breath at times

There are no accidents whatsoever in the universe.

We're being trained through our incarnations--trained to seek love, trained to seek light, trained to see the grace in suffering.

Souls love. That’s what souls do. Egos don’t, but souls do. Become a soul, look around, and you’ll be amazed-all the beings around you are souls. Be one, see one.

I have written and spoken my thoughts over many years. Now I'm on new ground and spirit. I want to bring these together. Things like karma yoga, bhakti yoga, conscious dying, conscious aging. Consciousness.

Our journey is about being more deeply involved in life, and yet less attached to it.

I've firmly come to the conclusion that there are no 'themes' for me anymore. I can't be told who to hate, who to fight, who to subdue - I only see an 'us' in my heart.

I think it's darkness before the dawn, because the next evolution is going to be a consciousness evolution instead of a communication revolution.

The greatest thing you can do for another being is to provide the unconditional love that comes from making contact with that place in them that is beyond conditions, which is just pure consciousness, pure essence. That is, once we acknowledge each other as existing, just being here, just being, then each of us is free to change optimally. If I can just love you because here we are, then you are free to grow as you need to grow.

External silence can be the doorway to inner silence.

As we grow in our consciousness.. there will be more compassion and more love. And then... the barriers between people.. between religions.. and between nations will begin to fall.

From a Hindu perspective, you are born as what you need to deal with, and if you just try and push it away, whatever it is, it's got you.

If you think you are enlightened; go home for Thanksgiving.

Those particular thoughts that are painful - love them. I love them to death!

Accidents are just from where you're looking; to the ego, it looks like it's miracles and accidents.

In mystical traditions, it is one's own readiness that makes experiences exoteric or esoteric. The secret isn't that you're not being told. The secret is that you're not able to hear.

The World is perfect as it is, including my desire to change it

The next message you need is always right where you are.

Coming into the place of Soul-awareness is coming home.

As you look at many people's lives, you see that their suffering is in a way gratifying, for they are comfortable in it. They make their lives a living hell, but a familiar one.

The spiritual journey is not about acquiring something outside yourself, rather, you are penetrating deep layers and veils to return to the deepest truth of your own being.

A being whose awareness is totally free, who does not cling to anything, is liberated.

When you know how to listen everyone is the guru

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

Don’t compare your path with anybody else’s. Your path is unique to you.

I remember my first visit with my guru. He had shown that he read my mind. So I looked at the grass and I thought, My god, hes going to know all the things I dont want people to know. I was really embarrassed. Then I looked up and he was looking directly at me with unconditional love.

I can do nothing for you but work on myself...you can do nothing for me but work on yourself!

There's much more in any given moment than we usually perceive, and that we ourselves are much more than we usually perceive. When you know that, part of you can stand outside the drama of your life.

What we're seeing "out there" is the projection of where we're at--the projection of the clingings of our minds.

Suffering lets us see where are attachments are - and that helps us get free.

Do what you can on this plane to relieve suffering by constantly working on yourself to be an instrument for the cessation of suffering. To me, that's what the emerging game is all about.

So somebody comes along and gets to me. They get me angry or uptight or they awaken some desire in me, wow am I delighted. They got me. And that’s my work on myself. If I am angry with you because your behavior doesn’t fill my model of how you should be, that’s my problem for having models. No expectations, no upset. If you are a liar and a cheat, that’s your Karma. If I’m cheated, that’s my work on myself.