Quotes from Ram Dass

Working with the dying is like being a midwife for this great rite of passage of death. Just as a midwife helps a being take their first breath, you help a being take their last breath.

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, he's going to know all the things I don't want people to know.' I was really embarrassed. Then I looked up and he was looking directly at me with unconditional love.

I feel vulnerable because my mind - because of the stroke, my mind doesn't focus. And then I feel vulnerable because I don't understand the world around me.

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.

Information is just bits of data. Knowledge is putting them together. Wisdom is transcending them.

We're here to awaken from the illusion of separateness

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

The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering.

It's all real and it's all illusory: that's Awareness!

Our whole spiritual transformation brings us to the point where we realize that in our own being, we are enough.

When we see the Beloved in each person, it's like walking through a garden, watching flowers bloom all around us.

Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it!

It's very different because the Indians live as if they are their souls and Americans live as if they are their egos.

Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true.

Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God.

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

The question we need to ask ourselves is whether there is any place we can stand in ourselves where we can look at all that's happening around us without freaking out, where we can be quiet enough to hear our predicament, and where we can begin to find ways of acting that are at least not contributing to further destabilization.

In our relationships, how much can we allow them to become new, and how much do we cling to what they used to be yesterday?

The Ego is an exquisite instrument. Enjoy it, use it--just don't get lost in it.

Suffering is the sandpaper of our incarnation. It does its work of shaping us.

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

Just because you are seeing divine light, experiencing waves of bliss, or conversing with Gods and Goddesses is no reason to not know your zip code.

Emotions are like waves. Watch them disappear in the distance on the vast calm ocean.

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.