In an evolutionary perspective, the rational mind takes a certain distance and no further, & we must be able to transcend it.

Compassion and pity are very different. Whereas compassion reflects the yearning of the heart to merge and take on some of the suffering, pity is a controlled set of thoughts designed to assure separateness. Compassion is the spontaneous response of love; pity, the involuntary reflex of fear.

We live life in the marketplace and then we go off to the cave or to the meditation mat to replenish ourselves.

Along with faith comes the requirement for dogged persistence. At first meditation may bring you mild highs or some relief from suffering. But there may come a time - just as there does in the development of any skill - when there will be a plateau. You may be bored, discouraged, or even negative and cynical. This is when you will need not only faith, but persistence.

I think that people will find a tremendous joy and fulfillment in service to other human beings, and that often this is what is missing in their lives.

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.

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.