Episode 100 of The Davidson Hang Reflections on A life Worth a Living -Being Ram Dass Top Ten Quotes

Davidson Hang Reflections and Lessons from a life worth living

I love reading biographies you can get the whole world of someone's life from reading their biographies and there are always so many juicy takeaways.

1. "Maharaj-ji told me to be like Gandhi. Now I realized that meant fully participating in the human condition. But what did that look like? Others were better trained to alleviate suffering, like nurses, doctors, and political activists. They manifested compassion or fought injustice in their own ways. As I pondered Maharaj-ji’s instructions, I realized my ability is to serve as a spiritual friend to help others see what lies at the root of suffering and help them to awaken. I could help people get free to serve others."
2. "Hold on to nothing." MAHARAJ-JI
3. "Contentment is a practice. It’s not a feeling of accomplishment from doing something. Contentment is just being complete in the moment. In the moment, there is just presence, no future or past, just happy to be here in the moment. Contentment is an attitude of the soul."
4. "Gandhi said, “When you surrender completely to God as the only Truth worth having, you find yourself in the service of all that exists. It becomes your joy and recreation. You never tire of serving others.” Billions of acts create suffering in the world—acts of ignorance, greed, violence. But in the same way, each act of caring—the billion tiny ways that we offer compassion, wisdom, and joy to one another—serves to preserve and heal our world. When I help someone change their perspective on their individual problems, I also change society. Meher Baba said, “Love is like a disease. Those who don’t have it catch it from those who do.” Love is transmitted from Maharaj-ji’s heart to my heart to your heart and to the next heart, one to another."
5. "Love the best you can at any moment. Don’t harsh yourself—it can be tricky for everyone having this dual citizenship, of the biographical and the divine. You’re not alone; we are in this together, connected, all one."
6. "As a teenager, I used to hide on the stairs to listen when Dad led Brandeis board meetings in our living room. I would overhear how they went about hiring and firing professors. I understood then that academia was clearly about who you knew, not what you knew. The power is wielded by money and big names, professors who get grants and have written the most books or papers. I didn’t have the books or brilliant research at Harvard, but I did know the power of connections. I was well-spoken and charismatic, and I was good at dropping a Freudian reference or two to impress my colleagues." It's interesting to see how Western society sees success especially working and interacting with so many business people and you notice there are tons who seem happy and those who have the money and you can tell they aren't as happy or content with life. It certainly makes you think and reflect a bit.
7. "We stayed in pilgrim rest houses called dharmsalas, some put up by the government, with concrete rooms and wooden beds. At first it was an adventure, and the spartan conditions didn’t bother me. But it was very hot, and as the days went by, I needed to distract myself from the blisters and bad food. I tried to entertain myself narrating my past exploits to Bhagavan Das. I thought he would be amused, but he was completely uninterested. When I told stories, he replied, “Just be here now.” I was thrown back into myself. Just be. Here. Now."
8. "Suddenly, sitting there, it occurs to me that if Maharaj-ji knows my thoughts about my mother, then he knows all my other thoughts too—including all the things I’m most ashamed of. My bisexual double life. My intellectual pretense. My anger at my mother. I can’t bear that he knows all this. These are things I keep carefully hidden. I’m convinced that if people were to know them, they wouldn’t love me. I’m sitting on the grass looking down, thinking about all these things I’m so ashamed of that I don’t want anyone to know. He’s sitting just above me, on his plank bed. I know he knows every one of these thoughts. He’s talking to other people as if nothing out of the ordinary is going on. Finally, I summon the courage to look up at him. He’s looking back down at me from only a few inches away—and all I see in his face is total love. I know he knows all these things I’m so ashamed of. He knows, but instead of criticism, all I feel is great love coming from him. He’s not judging me or mocking me or laughing at me. He’s just talking to people. I look up at him, and he looks down at me, and I realize he’s just loving me with pure unconditional love."
9. "In the West the idea of surrendering to a guru carries negative connotations. It implies giving up power to another human being. But that internal surrender is really about letting go of the things that keep you separate, your own fetters. You surrender to something greater than yourself, to a love beyond form."
10. "Maharaj-ji kept giving me these experiences with power until I saw it was love, not power, that matters."