Being Ram Dass [图书] Goodreads
作者: Ram Dass / Rameshwar Das St. Martin's Essentials / Sounds True 2021 - 1
“Ram Dass lived a full life and then some. His final statement is thorough and, yes, enlightening.” ― Kirkus Reviews

Perhaps no other teacher has sparked the fires of as many spiritual seekers in the West as Ram Dass. If you’ve ever embraced the phrase “be here now,” practiced meditation or yoga, tried psychedelics, or supported anyone in a hospice, prison, or homeless center―then the story of Ram Dass is also part of your story.

From his birth in 1931 to his luminous later years, Ram Dass saw his life as just one incarnation of many. This memoir puts us in the passenger seat with the one-time Harvard psychologist and lifelong risk-taker Richard Alpert, who loved to take friends on wild rides on his Harley and test nearly every boundary―inner or outer―that came his way.

Being Ram Dass shares his life’s odyssey in intimate how he struggled with issues of self-identity and sexuality in his youth, pioneered psychedelic research, and opened the doorways to Eastern spiritual practices. In 1967 he trekked to India and met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. He returned with a perspective on spirituality and psychology that changed millions.

Featuring 64 pages of color photographs, this intimate memoir chronicles the cultural and spiritual transformations Ram Dass experienced that resonate with us to this day, a journey from the mind to the heart, from the ego to the soul.

Before, after, and along these waypoints, readers will encounter many other adventures and revelations―each ringing with the potential to awaken the universal, loving divine that links us to this beloved teacher and all of us to each other.

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Ram Dass 是西方有名的非二元灵性导师,2019年去世。本书2021年出版,算是给其生平画个句号。他的教导是爱与奉献,也就是奉爱瑜伽,师承是印度教上师 Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji)。

Ram Dass俗名Richard Albert,生于波士顿的上层富裕犹太家庭,有两个哥哥,父亲有钱有地位。儿时是家里的开心果,被妈妈喂得圆滚滚。上大学的时候违背父亲意志去读了心理学,病在斯坦福获得博士学位,研究方向涉及学业动机,同时做心理咨询。毕业后在斯坦福教了一年课后,去了哈佛做教授,可谓意气风发。

在哈佛,他结交Timothy Leary 并开始研究致幻蘑菇和LSD对意识的影响。他自己也服用这些致幻剂,并宣传致幻剂的用处。他开始这些因研究成名。因为致幻剂被认为有害,造成他被哈佛开除。他和Leary则成了反文化斗士,在嬉皮运动时期引领潮流。LSD带来的灵性体验,总有一些未尽之处。于是他像许多嬉皮士一样,去印度朝圣,并遇到了他的上师,并结束了作为Richard Albert的生活。

他踏上了印度的土地,去寻找灵性的答案。他遇到了Maharaj-ji。Maharaj-ji 启发他开悟的方式,类似于禅宗:给了头脑以无法用理性处理的一段信息,直接让头脑宕机,得见实相。在体验无条件的爱之后,他皈依Maharaj-ji,修习瑜伽。并得赐名Ram Dass,意思是“神的仆人”。

在印度学习半年后,Maharaj-ji让他返家,两年之后再回印度,并准许他写一本书。这就是美国灵修届非常有名的《Be Here Now》。

皈依Maharaj-ji之后,他在美国四处宣讲。但同时自己仍旧同自己的权力欲和双性恋生活中。然而这一切皆在Maharaj-ji之中。Ram Dass一辈子服务大众的方式,可以说是法布施。他的生活,就是修炼。他的主要项目,是叫人认识死亡与老去。在写年老与灵心的书时,他得了脑出血,失去语言能力和行动能力,反而给该书添加了真实的体验。

Maharaj-ji 的教导,浓缩起来是两点:“Love people;tell truth”。Ram Dass 做到了。RamDass 留给人们的,则是“Love everyone, Serve everyone, remember God”。Maharaj-ji原是奉爱瑜伽传统,是将一生奉献给神的。虽然Ram Dass说他仍是这个传统,但他行的其实是业力瑜伽或者行动瑜伽。二者的结合点,是像服务神一样服务世人。