BE HERE NOW.
LEARN TO LOVE EVERYONE.
BE PREPARED TO GO HOME.
These three short directives summarize Ram Dass’ life work.
Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) and Timothy Leary were two of the most important figures from the counter-cultural movements of the 60s and 70s. Between 1960 and 1962, while working as professors at Harvard University, Dass and Leary gave their students psychedelics in order to explore how these substances could enhance their ability to come into a deeper relationship with their being. Their work had a profound impact on bringing this conversation into academic circles and popular culture.
The spiritual and mind expanding experiences Alpert had using psychedelics took him on a quest for continued and deepening spiritual growth. He traveled through India in the late 60’s and became a disciple of Hindu Guru Neem Karoli Baba, who gave him the name Ram Dass meaning “Servant of God.”
His best-selling book Be Here Now, a manual for conscious being, was published in 1971. This book and its teachings influenced millions of lives and helped popularize Eastern spiritually in the West. Also during this time, Dass founded several charitable service organizations including the Seva and Hanuman Foundations. He has since written over a dozen spiritually oriented books.
For over two decades, Dass has been writing about and teaching us that “the appreciation of death and the spiritual journey after death is the prerequisite for living life joyfully now. Death does not have to be treated as an enemy for you to delight in life… I encourage you to make peace with death, to see it as the culminating adventure of this adventure called life. It is not an error. It is not a failure. It is taking off a tight shoe which you have worn well.” He believes that a more intimate and healthy relationship with death and dying will bring positive transformation to individuals and our society as a whole.
When asked if he could sum up his life’s message, he replied, “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.”
Dass, now in his 80’s, is approaching the end of this life. The 2016 film Ram Dass, Going Home is an intimate look at how he continues his practice of being here now. The film also looks back on his life as he continues to contemplate “death…is another step towards home.”
Whether you watch Ram Dass, Going Home, watch one of his YouTube talks (like the one we’ve included here from his 1992 lecture on Facing Death), or read one of his many books, his journey will bring you into an experience of peace and joy.
– Written by Douglas Sutton
“If I understand it right, a relationship, a real relationship between two human beings, whether it’s the bank clerk or your patient, or your wife, or your children, should heal you and you should be enriched by it, not depleted.” — Ram Dass