1
[Ram Dass] We are...
soul.
As souls...
we are not under...
time or space.
We are...
We are infinite.
[wind blowing]
[Ram Dass on recording]
Try following your breath.
And every time any thought arises...
notice it and then go back to the breath.
Each time your awareness
is drawn away from the breath,
to a thought or a sensation...
to a memory or a plan...
to a sensation in your leg
or a sound in the room,
notice that it has gone away
from the breath,
and bring it back to breath.
Now, you don't have to keep
your eyes closed to do this.
Try opening your eyes,
but keep the breath the focus.
Let it all be there.
Don't be busy not seeing
or not thinking...
[chime dings]
[birds chirping faintly]
[Ram Dass] My guru hangs out
at this place.
[breathing heavily]
It seems to be the holy ground...
holy ground.
I feel this place like that.
It's one step from India.
Maui is a refuge.
It's away from the hustle and bustle.
All my life, I've been...
going city to city to city
on speaking tours.
It's a good place to stop.
No more planes.
I'm going nowhere.
Going nowhere.
Up here in my study...
it's a bird's view.
It's a birds view.
They fly. They do pirouettes.
They do all kinds of things.
And I see. I hear.
[waves crashing]
I love the ocean.
I think of where the ocean goes.
Everywhere.
Everywhere.
The wind here is the trade winds.
And they keep it cool.
And their sound is in the trees.
[wind blowing]
Nature is my friend.
And that just gives me the ambiance.
In Maui...
I'm just doing a stage of my...
Sadhana, my spiritual work.
More and more love, more and more love,
more and more love.
Truth, love...
consciousness.
That's what God is to me.
It's just consciousness.
[metal cranking]
My life has been a dance
between power and love.
The first part...
until Harvard,
power, power, power, power.
[motorcycle engine rumbling]
Up until drugs...
I thought power was end-all and be-all...
because I was a little individual.
Then drugs and on...
[motorcycle engine rumbling]
[engine stops]
[wind howling]
...love, love, love, love.
My first mushroom trip...
it was so profound that I saw that...
radiance was inside.
And I said...
"I'm home. I'm home. I'm home."
My life was from roles...
to soul.
[metal cranking]
[typing]
[Ram Dass on recording] The great way
is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
I know nothin' about the future.
[Ram Dass] Before the stroke,
I had written a book that was called
How Can I Help?
And it was about helping.
I was gonna help, you know?
After the stroke...
I would have titled the book...
How Can You Help Me?
In this culture, dependency is a no-no.
The stroke showed me dependency.
And I have people that are dependable.
My stroke makes it hard to play the cello.
It's difficult to play golf.
Those are out there and I'm in here.
-[harmonium playing]
-[man vocalizing]
The stroke pushed me inside even more...
and it's so wonderful.
[laughs]
I don't wish you the stroke, but...
I wish you the grace from the stroke.
[caretaker singing "Sita Ram"]
My guru told me that the stroke
would be grace.
When I met Maharaj-ji...
it was unconditional love.
It was wonderful to be loved that way.
And I said, "I'm home. I'm home."
A guru is the doorway to God...
to consciousness, to the One, Ram.
[continues singing "Sita Ram"]
With psychedelics,
Maharaj-ji said you could go into the room
in which Christ and Buddha exist.
But you only stay... a few minutes.
A few minutes.
[continues singing "Sita Ram"]
[Ram Dass on recording]
Every time I would sit with Maharaj-ji,
time would stop.
It was like a moment expanded.
He lived in eternity.
[Ram Dass] Most of what we encounter
are thoughts.
[thunder rumbling]
I project not only the names, but values.
So that's around, judging everything.
Without those projections...
I can see everything.
[Ram Dass singing]
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...
Life is but a dream
Row, row your boat
[woman sings]
Gently down the stream
[Ram Dass singing]
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...
Life is but a dream.
The incarnation is a dream.
This incarnation suggests
there are other incarnations.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...
People don't seem to know
that they are a soul...
that their consciousness
goes way farther than the incarnation.
We pinch ourselves to know we're alive...
in this life.
The soul is in the heart level.
That's the entry point.
And then you mantra...
[chanting] I am loving awareness.
I am loving awareness.
I am loving awareness.
I am loving awareness.
I am loving awareness.
I am loving awareness.
I am loving awareness.
Identify with loving awareness,
and then go through the veil...
that consciousness veil.
Going through that veil
is part of...
spiritual practice...
and the main part of dying.
Merrily, merrily, merrily...
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...
Life is but a dream.
[chime dings]
Make friends with change.
[doctor] And stay breathing.
[Ram Dass] There's change
in the body, strength.
Memory.
Death is change.
Just another one.
Just another one.
If you're identified with your soul,
death is a snap.
The soul...
goes...
birth, death, birth, death.
Death is another step towards home.
Okay.
And how is this side, Ram Dass?
-It's... It's okay.
-It's okay.
-Oh, wait a minute.
-You're gonna retract that statement?
-Yeah. [chuckles]
-It was okay.
I give up.
[Ram Dass on recording] I realize
it's presumptuous to talk about death,
as if I know.
[audience laughing]
[Ram Dass] But I have a lot of hutzpah.
-That's Sanskrit for, uh...
-[audience laughing]
[Ram Dass] And something has happened
to me as a result of my meanderings
through the realms of consciousness
over the past 30 years...
that has changed my attitudes
towards death.
A lot of the fear that death generated
that led to denial
has gone from me.
Death does not have to be treated
as an enemy for you to delight in life.
Keeping death present
in your consciousness,
as one of the greatest mysteries,
and as the moment
of incredible transformation,
imbues this moment with added richness
and energy that otherwise
is used up in denial.
Death is not an error.
It is not a failure.
It is taking off a tight shoe.
I'm one of the strange people
that absolutely delights and enjoys
being with people as they're dying,
because I know
I'm going to have an opportunity
to be in the presence of truth.
So when I sit with somebody,
the first thing I have to do
is open myself to all my reactions
to their predicament.
All of it, all of the pain of it.
Grieve for the other person's loss.
And when they feel heard in the grief,
then we can start to meet
behind the grief.
And I'm faced with the paradox that I,
as a human, with a human emotional heart,
want to take away your suffering.
And at the same moment,
there's another part of me
that understands that suffering is grace,
that suffering is the sandpaper,
from the spiritual point of view,
that is awakening people.
And once you've started
to spiritually awaken,
you re-perceive your own suffering
and start to work with it
as a vehicle for awakening.
As my guru says, "God comes to the hungry
in the form of food."
[Ram Dass] My name...
is a name for Hanuman.
Hanuman... is a loving servant.
The Hanuman garden...
is where Hanuman hangs out.
Hanuman likes vegetation around him.
He's a child of nature...
and I contact him there.
I mistake his words...
by the quiet.
Ram said to Hanuman,
"What are you, monkey?"
And Hanuman answered,
"When I don't know who I am, I serve you.
When I know who I am,
I am you."
[indistinct chatter]
We've lived longer than we think.
You're traveling through lives.
What did you learn...
in this life?
Considerable joy.
Considerable joy.
[inaudible]
When you're in your soul
and you love something,
and the things become melding, melding...
So you love something
and you become one with it.
[sighs]
All of us... one.
All of us, one.
Yeah.
One consciousness.
One consciousness.
And that's the way in which the world...
could right itself.
Start with your peace,
your love,
your compassion,
and go from there.
And then...
love everything.
Everything.
Let's all...
walk each other...
home.
["Row, Row, Row Your Boat" playing
on piano]