Ram Dass Here and Now Ep. 164 – The Path of Awakening

Ram Dass is a spiritual teacher and former psychologist who I stumbled across a couple of years ago. He passed away at the end of 2019, but many of his lectures dating back to the 1970s have been posted online. I wanted to reflect on one of his lectures – “Ram Dass Here and Now: Ep. 164 – The Path of Awakening”. If you want to give a listen, the lecture begins at 14:10.

Ram Dass says you are on the “Path of Awakening” when you have a transcendent moment and acknowledge it as a real experience. The situation that gave you this feeling does not matter. Whether it’s from meditation, a near-death experience, surfing, being an astronaut looking at Earth from space, the important thing is that you acknowledge the moment is a real experience. You are recognizing that “you are more than you think you are and the universe is different than the conceptual structure you have it to be.”

He goes on to talk about the people who have had that experience, but feel like they have lost it. They can’t recreate the feeling. He says that these people feel like they have “lost their high” and don’t think they can get back to that one special moment. To him, what matters is that they acknowledge that moment as real. It doesn’t matter that it might have happened 5 minutes ago or 20 years. 

He gives a great analogy to these people who believe they have fallen off the path. He says that you can’t go back to sleep after you’ve started on the path. He compares these people to people who wake up before their alarm and are trying to go back to sleep. They can try as hard as they can, but they are already awake.  

The most impactful lesson to me of this lecture comes when Ram Dass says a woman came up to him seeking advice. She said, “Oh Ram Dass, if it wasn’t for the distraction of my kids then I could do some real spiritual work.” She was thinking about how much time she could spend meditating if she didn’t have to worry about her kids. Ram Dass told her she wasn’t looking at her situation correctly. Her kids were her spiritual work. She should fully devote herself to her kids and that is where she can have her spiritual teachings. There is a false narrative that the only way to be spiritual is to read holy scriptures and meditate/pray, but this isn’t true. We all have opportunities to live a more fulfilled life if we can commit to it. 

Ram Dass believes we are all on our own path and we need to use what’s in front of us for our spiritual advancement. I’ve personally had the thought before that if I believe there is another “level” to life, why shouldn’t I drop everything and become a monk? That seems like the surest route to enlightenment. 

Ram Dass says “The art isn’t to imitate someone else’s route, but to listen to our own route.” I shouldn’t try to copy Ram Dass just because I think that is the right thing to do, but make the most of what’s in front of me. I honestly hope that every interaction I have with another person leaves them walking away thinking it was a positive one. Whether that might be a meeting at work, interacting with a cashier, or hanging out with friends, it’s my responsibility to make the most of the moment. I’m not trying to spew spiritual teachings every interaction, but rather be there for that person and give them what they need at that moment. It’s hard for me to think that would lead to an unfilled life.

Ram Dass pulls a final teaching from the Bhagavad Gita, which is one of the holy scriptures of Hinduism. A key teaching from the scripture is “Be not attached to the fruit of your actions.” This is a very powerful teaching if you can fully subscribe to it. I’m still working on not being attached to the results of my actions. Your life would be upgraded a couple of levels if you can live by this teaching. If you are able to dedicate yourself to something where you aren’t looking ahead to the benefits of it, then you’ve unlocked something in life. I’m still in the process of figuring out what that is for myself and once I truly believe it, then I hope that this teaching will spread to the rest of my life. 

Peace and Love.