Top 357 Quotes & Sayings by Ram Dass - Page 3

The reality we live in is selected by our conceptual definitions. You and I may be in the same physical space, but each of us will see it as entirely different.

So you work on yourself as a gift to other human beings. Then you use every situation you have with other human beings as a vehicle to work on yourself by seeing where you get stuck-where you push, where you grab, where you judge, where you do all the stuff.

The pain of the world will sear and break our hearts because we can no longer keep them closed. We've seen too much now. To some degree or other, we have surrendered into service and are willing to pay the price of compassion. But with it comes the joy of a single, caring act. With it comes the honor of participating in a generous process in which one rises each day and does what one can. With it comes the simple, singular grace of being an instrument of Love, in whatever form, to whatever end.

This is the pathless path. Where the journey leads is to the deepest truth in you. It is really just returning to where you were initially before you got lost.

You are joy, wisdom, peace, compassion, and love

Look at the people you don't love and see them as an exercise for you to open your heart.

Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.

Witness your thoughts. Your thoughts are attachments.

As we grow in our consciousness.. there will be more compassion and more love. And then... the barriers between people.. between religions.. and between nations will begin to fall.

If you keep examining your mind, you'll come to see that thoughts of who you are and how it all is are creating the reality you're experiencing.

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

The most exquisite paradox; as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all.

Maharajji told me, 'Give up anger and I'll help you.' I found that love freed me back into the ocean of love and my righteous anger didn't do that. And I would rather be free than right.

The point isn't to deny our Egos, but to extricate ourselves from our exclusive preoccupation with them.

True compassion arises out of the plane of consciousness where I AM you.

Behind everyone's learned behaviors and odd eccentricities lurks a soul, ready to make contact if only coaxed out through a crack in the ego.

The soul is not part of the incarnation. It comes into the incarnation. And the soul is not afraid of death because it has done it so many times.

As you look at many people's lives, you see that their suffering is in a way gratifying, for they are comfortable in it. They make their lives a living hell, but a familiar one.

After one arrives at the summit, after going through the total transformation of being...there is yet one more step to the completion of that journey: the return to the valley below, to the everyday world. Who it is that returns is not who began the climb in the first place. The being that comes back is quietness itself, is compassion and wisdom, is the truth of the ages. Whatever humble or elevated position that being holds within the community, he or she becomes a light for others on the way a statement of the freedom that comes from having touched the top of the mountain.

Aging has its own beauty. It is a beautiful stage for doing inner work. You have a chance to not be so dependent on social approval. You can be a little more eccentric. You can be more alone. And you can examine loneliness and boredom instead of being afraid of them. There is such an art and a possibility of aging.

We're fascinated by the words--but where we meet is in the silence behind them.

The next message you need is always right where you are.

In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.

You can't build joy on a feeling of self-loathing.

When you are completely identified with your thinking mind you are totally separate from everything else in the universe.

We reap in age what we have sown, in our values, all along the way.

Don't think about the past. Just be here now.

At the moment when there's nothing more to lose, the Ego breaks open - and then we see who we are behind who we thought we were.

Old age spiritualizes people naturally

My work as a human being is to quiet my mind, open my heart and do what I can to relieve the suffering with as much wisdom, skill, whatever I got.

Let the clock and the earth do their own thing... Let the comings and goings of life continue... But YOU stay HERE and NOW. This exercise is to bring you to the Eternal Present where it all is.

The way we regard death is critical to the way we experience life. When your fear of death changes, the way you live your life changes.

Nature is really important because it's a manifestation of love that hasn't been run through human minds.

You give up not meditating. It's called meditation action. There's no way out of it. Meditation means to be constantly extricating yourself from the clinging of mind.

The God within is your Spiritual Heart. Your Soul. And in that individual Soul, rests God- rests the One. Go into your soul and your heart-space which can be Awareness, Love, Compassion, etc…and just BE your heart-space. BE your Soul so that you can LOVE unconditionally.

The World is perfect as it is, including my desire to change it

The witness is always in the here and now and it lives in each instant of living. To be in the witness is to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without clinging, without opinions.

If we are to help heal the world, we need to remember that it is a sacred place. Our actions need to be positive statements, reminders that even in the worst times there is a world worth struggling for.

In communications empathy knowing respect spirituality tolerance understanding. Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying.

These are planes of consciousness, and I think human beings exist on two planes of consciousness, the soul and the ego.

Who you think you are will always be frightened of change. But it doesn't make any difference to who you truly are.

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.

You and I are the force for transformation in the world. We are the consciousness that will define the nature of the reality we are moving into.

We kill each other over which name to call the Nameless.

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

The humor is that finally when you have the power to move the mountain, you are the person who placed it there-so there the mountain stays.

You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing.

I can do nothing for you but work on myself...you can do nothing for me but work on yourself!

This society is not 'user-friendly' for older people.

A being whose awareness is totally free, who does not cling to anything, is liberated.

I think the game is to bear the unbearable with a giggle. With your heart breaking. And then do what you do.

Our culture's zeal for longevity reveals our incredible collective fear of death.

We're receiving information from all the planes of our consciousness all the time, but we don't acknowledge their existence; we treat the information as static, as noise.

I've firmly come to the conclusion that there are no 'themes' for me anymore. I can't be told who to hate, who to fight, who to subdue - I only see an 'us' in my heart.

Be patient. You'll know when it's time for you to wake up and move ahead.

If you rest in the silence inside, all those you meet will have their spiritual hearts resuscitated.

Love is the most transformative medicine For Love slowly transforms you Into what psychedelics only get you to glimpse.

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.

The soul is not ruled by time and space. The soul is infinite. It blends with the One in infinity.

Dying is the most important moment that exists in any incarnation