Search results for ""Author Ram Dass""

Sometimes illumination occurs spontaneously or, as Ram Dass experienced, in a heart-wrenching moment of opening. More commonly, it happens when we polish the mirror of the heart with daily practice—and see beyond the illusion of our transient thoughts and emotions to the vast and luminous landscape of our true nature. For five decades, Ram Dass has explored the depths of consciousness and love and brought them to life as service to others. With Polishing the Mirror, he gathers together his essential teachings for living in the eternal present, here and now. Readers will find within these pages a rich combination of perennial wisdom, humor, teaching stories, and detailed guidance on Ram Dass' own spiritual practices, including: Bhakti Yoga—opening our hearts to unconditional love • Practices for living, aging, dying, and embracing the natural flow of life • Karma Yoga—how selfless service can profoundly transform us • Working with fear and suffering as a path to grace and freedom • Step-by-step guidance in devotional chant, meditation and mantra practice, and much more For those new to Ram Dass' teachings, and for those to whom they are old friends, here is this vanguard spiritual explorer's complete guide to discovering who we are and why we are here, and how to become beacons of unconditional love.

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Professor Richard Alpert's star fell fast. To the dismay of his wealthy Boston family, he got fired from Harvard over experimental use of psychedelics with his psychology students. In 1967, he traveled to India to lick his wounds and find himself. And he did, at Neem Karoli Baba's ashram, in a direct encounter with unconditional, unlimited divine love. He returned to America as Baba Ram Dass, countercultural activist for expanded human consciousness. As a spiritual guide, at the bedside of the dying, and as a stroke survivor, he has always been ahead of his time, pulling the world along behind him. The author of over a dozen books, he now shares for the very first time the full story of how his life of service intersected with an era of profound cultural upheaval. From the details of his groundbreaking research in psychedelics to his bumpy path to becoming a spiritual icon, from his struggles with his sexual identity to what it was like to find out in his late 70s that he was a father and grandfather, Ram Dass traces the pivotal points of his life against the backdrop of a mind opened by drugs, and a heart opened by a guru. Ram Dass brought America yoga, the use of psychedelics in psychotherapy, and a revolution in how we relate to death and dying. He has opened the door to the most important and healthiest conversations about the heart and mind in our culture. With this book, he opens his heart and mind to us.

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More than thirty years ago, an entire generation sought a new way of life, looking for fulfillment and meaning in a way no one had before. Leaving his teaching job at Harvard, Ram Dass embodied the role of spiritual seeker, showing others how to find peace within themselves in one of the greatest spiritual classics of the twentieth century, the two-million-copy bestseller Be Here Now. As many of that generation enter the autumn of their years, the big questions of peace and of purpose have returned demanding answers. And once again, Ram Dass blazes a new trail, inviting all to join him on the next stage of the journey.

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As one of the most respected spiritual explorers of recent times, Ram Dass sparked a revolution with the publication of his 2-million-copy classic, Be Here Now. Since then, he has been a beacon for spiritual seekers worldwide, challenging us to find new sources of meaning and purpose in our lives.Be Love Now is a remarkable blend of autobiography and timeless spiritual insights. From his beginnings as a Harvard psychologist and psychedelic adventurer to his profound encounters with his Indian guru, Neem Karoli Baba, and moving beyond the reawakening brought on by his near-fatal illness, Ram Dass strikes a practical, humorous, soul-stirring chord in today's egotistical and lonely world. While offering us his rich life experiences, he also holds out a timeless, wonderfully universal adventure that will open our hearts and minds.

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BIRTH OF A PSYCHEDELIC CULTURE shines a bright light on the exploratory culture of the time and experiments undertaken by Professors Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) and, then-graduate student, Ralph Metzner. Based on a series of recent (2003 to 2005) conversations between the survivors of that distinguished trio, Metzner and Alpert, facilitated by psychiatrist/writer Gary Bravo, the book describes their initial experiments with mind-altering substances while at Harvard. It goes on to cover experiments they conducted after being dismissed from Harvard, their trips to India and their reflections looking back through time at all of the above. It is filled with intriguing photographs marking and illuminating the events brought to life through the text. Experiment advisors, supporters and participants who appear in the pages of this astonishing account include Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, Arthur Koestler, William Burroughs and many other well-known personalities from that time period. No understanding of the history of the sixties would be complete without some grasp of the work of Leary, Alpert and Metzner, the backlash to their experiments and the way in which drug use became absorbed into society thereafter. Nor can any diligent attempt to study the spectrum of the human mind exclude what we have learned from them about the impact of psychedelic drugs.

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We all sit on the edge of a mystery. We have only known this life, so dying scares us-and we are all dying. But what if dying were perfectly safe? What would it look like if you could approach dying with curiosity and love, in service of other beings? Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush began their friendship more than four decades ago at the foot of their guru, Neem Karoli Baba, also known as Maharaj-ji. After impacting millions of people through the years with their teachings, these friends reunited to share an extraordinary dialogue on the dying process-which became the foundation for Walking Each Other Home. In this book, published just a year before Ram Dass passed, readers will learn about: guidelines for being a "loving rock" for the dying, how to grieve fully and authentically, how to transform a fear of death, leaving a spiritual legacy, creating a sacred space for dying, and much more. "Everybody you have ever loved is a part of the fabric of your being now," says Ram Dass. The body may die, but the soul remains. Death is an invitation to a new kind of relationship, in the place where we are all One. Experience a profound exploration by two lifelong friends and spiritual luminaries on what it means to live and die consciously, remember who we really are, and illuminate the path we walk together.

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From Ram Dass, one of America's most beloved spiritual figures and bestselling author of Be Here Now and Be Love Now, comes this timeless classic about the experience of being and the risks and rewards of our spiritual path. Originally published in 1976, Grist for the Mill offers a deep spiritual journey of self-discovery, and a universal understanding of what it means to "be" and to grow as human beings. The book is fully revised with a new introduction. As Ram Dass puts it, "When the faith is strong enough it is sufficient just to be. It's a journey towards simplicity, towards quietness, towards a kind of joy that is not in time. It's 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."

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