Ram Dass

The teaching

Taught from his own books, above all Be Here Now (1971), Grist for the Mill (1977) and How Can I Help? (1985).

Be here now

Ram Dass's teaching is in the title of his book. Awakening happens only in the present moment, and the mind, forever replaying the past and rehearsing the future, keeps a person out of it. The practice is to come back, again and again, to here and now, not as an idea but in the breath, the body and the people in front of one. From there he teaches the witness: a quiet awareness that can watch thoughts, feelings and roles come and go without being caught in them, and without judging them.

Love, serve, remember

He gives his teacher's instruction as the heart of the way: love everyone, serve everyone, remember God. Love is the path of devotion, bhakti, which he learned through Neem Karoli Baba and through Hanuman, the monkey god whose whole being is service to Ram; to see the beloved in everyone is its fulfilment. Service is the path of action, karma yoga, done without seeking reward. Remembrance is the repeating of the name of God, Ram, through the day, until the name repeats itself.

Soul, ego and roles

He teaches three levels of identity. The ego is the self of roles, son, professor, patient, the one who worries how it is doing. The soul is the witness behind the roles, which takes birth and passes through a life as an actor plays a part. Beyond the soul is awareness itself, one with all. Roles are to be played fully and well, as a part on a stage, without forgetting who is playing them.

Grist for the mill

Everything, he teaches, is grist for the mill: pleasure and pain, success and failure, desire and boredom, the parts of life that seem spiritual and the parts that do not. Nothing has to be shut out or escaped. Each experience belongs to the curriculum of awakening, and the question is not how to be rid of it but how to use it to see more truly.

Coming down

His own path began with drugs, and his teaching about them is mostly about their limit. They opened doors, he said, but every visit ended: one always came down, and the question that took him to India was how to stay. He found the answer in practice, devotion and service, not in chemicals. The house adds what his story needs: those drugs are unlawful in most places and carry real risks to mind and body, and nothing here is a guide to them.

How can I help?

Helping, he teaches with Paul Gorman, goes wrong when it comes from a role. The helper who needs to be the helper keeps the other in the role of the helped, and both are trapped; the helper who acts from duty or guilt burns out. True help begins in presence: a quiet mind, listening, and the knowledge that the one being helped is not other than oneself. Then helping becomes a meeting, and the helper receives as much as they give.

Conscious dying

Much of his later work was with the dying. To sit with the dying is to be fully present and unafraid, so that they are not alone with their fear; to help them let go rather than hold on; and to treat death as a passage and not a failure. In Still Here he turned the same teaching on ageing and on his own stroke, which he called fierce grace: a loss that taught him to receive help, to slow down and to live from the soul rather than the role.

The cookbook

The last part of Be Here Now is a cookbook for a sacred life, a gathering of practices from many traditions: repeating a mantra, meditation, gentle breath practices, postures, a simple diet, devotional singing, the string of prayer beads, the bond of guru and disciple, and preparation for dying. He offers them as recipes to try, keeping what works and leaving the rest, with the ordinary cautions of any teacher: nothing forced, the breath never strained, and a guide for anything strong.