His biggest teaching came through his stroke, years after the talks in this book, but even then he knew that suffering is grace: “We begin to notice that our suffering awakens us more than our pleasure. And spiritual matters are hard to talk about because they are… you can’t get the concepts across… and, uh,”-a long pause-“stories sort of knock on the door of spirit.” He said, “Stories break through into heart spaces. Once I asked him about his use of stories. Ram Dass, in a style that is part stand-up comic and part Harvard professor, uses stories from his own life to illustrate a truth, often learned though hilarious difficulty and resulting in a new humility. It was at those gatherings-in what collaborator Stephen Levine calls “the direct, charismatic, air medium of the oral tradition”-that many people heard the teachings that became Grist for the Mill, now newly updated, following closely on the heels of Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart. If we come with the certainty that we already know and that what we have is enough, then even though we hear the words, we will not receive the transmission…” “In a gathering like this, it is no longer sufficient just to talk about it. He, like millions of others over the years, was listening as fully as he could to Ram Dass: At last, across a sea of people, I saw him, his little head pressed up against a giant speaker. He could wander out into the middle of downtown San Francisco! I found the security guards and told them to watch for him, then I started moving around the room. After hugging an old friend, I turned to see that Owen was no longer next to me. The center floor was open, and people were setting up their meditation pillows and sleeping bags, knowing Ram Dass would go until morning. There were men and women in business suits, hippies in rainbow clothes, American Sikhs in turbans, and the spiritual gang in flowing white.
I was walking through, welcoming people and greeting old friends, my toddler son, Owen, holding my hand. The hall was full, as they always were in those days, and Ram Dass was getting ready to speak. It was 1973 and Ram Dass was giving a lecture at Winterland, the famed music venue in San Francisco.
Fellow seeker Mirabai Bush recalls firsthand the patience, humor, and grace of one of our most influential spiritual figures. Ram Dass has led a long and adventurous life, one of loving and being loved. Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window).Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window).Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window).Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window).
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