Ram Dass Quotes - Page 12

It is possible that in the 21st Century the Earth will not be inhabited by humans. One of the great mystics of India, a very simple man up in the mountains, somebody once asked him about the future. He said there will come a time when you'll walk five miles and you may see a light and you'll be so happy to know another being exists.

Remember, Be Here Now.

By going into third world countries and serving, by actually feeding and helping people, I've been led to focus a little more on how people here try to be happy by ignoring other people who are unhappy.

The richness of a moment comes when it's both full and empty at the same time. The truth is, we live simultaneously in time and timelessness.

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.

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.

Cosmic humor, especially about your own predicament, is an important part of your journey.

Science and religion both teach that we are all interconnected, and thus interdependent. And at the very core, we are all One. But how do we live as if we know this?

Truth is scary. Truth has bad breath at times

The root of compassion is not empathy; that is kindness. Kindness is great, but it is not the ultimate compassion. Ultimate compassion relieves the suffering that comes from separateness. The suffering that comes from separateness is relieved only when you are fully present with another person, not when you are separately present.

You're afraid, you will just keep making the fear. If you want to change it, you change from your soul.

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.

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.

The soul is love, joy. Joy. Peace. Wisdom.

If you could stand back far enough and watch the whole process you'd see you are a totally determined being.

When our hearts open, when we know that we are in fact the world, when we experience the pain of others in our own blood and muscle, we are feeling compassion.

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

I experience each moment like baklava: rich in this layer, and this layer, and this layer.

You look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is.

I take the assumption that every religion has been rooted in some mystical or transcendent experience. From that assumption, I just look at all the different systems as metaphors or doorways to God.

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.

Suffering brings me so close to God.

I have always said that often the religion you were born with becomes more important to you as you see the universality of truth.

I hang out with my guru in my heart. And I love everything in the universe. That's all I do all day.

My guru said that when he suffers, it brings him closer to God. I have found this, too.