Ram Dass

This book is enhanced with content such as audio or video, resulting in a large file that may take longer to download than expected. The enhanced edition of Be Here Now includes: Two guided video meditations, 30 minutes in length * Twenty minute video retrospective of Ram Dass' spiritual journey *The first chapter of Ram Dass' new book, Be Love Now

Be Here Now

Timothy Leary

Ralph Metzner

Richard Alpert

We are in the midst of a powerful psychedelic renaissance. After four decades of hibernation, the promise of the psychoactive '60s--that deeper self-awareness, achieved through reality-bending substances and practices, will lead to greater external harmony--is again gaining a major following. The signs are everywhere, from the influence of today's preeminent psychedelic thinker Daniel Pinchbeck, to the renewed interest in the legacy of Terence McKenna, and to the upsurge of collective, inclusive (and overtly tripped-out) cultural phenomena like the spectacle of Burning Man. The Psychedelic Experience, created in the movement's early years by the prophetic shaman-professors Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), is a foundational text that serves as a model and a guide for all subsequent mind-expanding inquiries. In this wholly unique book, the authors provide an interpretation of an ancient sacred manuscript, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, from a psychedelic perspective. This volume describes their discoveries in broadening spiritual consciousness through a combination of Tibetan meditation techniques and psychotropic substances. As sacred as the text it reflects, The Psychedelic Experience is a guidebook to the wilderness of mind and an indispensable resource from the founding fathers of psychedelia. This edition includes an all-new introduction by Daniel Pinchbeck, author of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl and Breaking Open the Head. "It is a book for the living as well as for the dying." --Lama Govinda

A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead

The Psychedelic Experience

The noted spiritualist offers humorous and insightful guidance for exploring the joy, pain, and opportunities of the later phases of life.

Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying

Still Here

Mirabai Bush

We all sit on the edge of a mystery. We have only known this life, so dying scares us—and we are all dying. But what if dying were perfectly safe? What would it look like if you could approach dying with curiosity and love, in service of other beings? What if dying were the ultimate spiritual practice? Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush began their friendship more than four decades ago at the foot of their guru, Neem Karoli Baba, also known as Maharaj-ji. He transmitted to them a simple philosophy: love everyone, tell the truth, and give up attachment to material things. After impacting millions of people through the years with these teachings, they have reunited once more with Walking Each Other Home to enlighten and engage readers on the spiritual opportunities within the dying process. They generously share intimate personal experiences and timeless practices, told with courage, humor, and heart, gently exploring every aspect of this journey. And, at 86 years old, Ram Dass reminds us, “This time we have a real deadline.” In Walking Each Other Home, readers will learn about: guidelines for being a “loving rock” for the dying, how to grieve fully and authentically, how to transform a fear of death, leaving a spiritual legacy, creating a sacred space for dying, and much more. “Everybody you have ever loved is a part of the fabric of your being now,” says Ram Dass. The body may die, but the soul remains. Death is an invitation to a new kind of relationship, in the place where we are all One. Join these two lifelong friends and spiritual luminaries as they explore what it means to live and die consciously, remember who we really are, and illuminate the path we walk together.

Conversations on Loving and Dying

Walking Each Other Home

Collects wisdom, humor, teaching stories, and instruction on the author's spiritual acts, including yoga, devotional chant, and mantra practices.

how to live from your spiritual heart

Polishing the mirror

Becoming Nobody

Henry is generally well-behaved, but he is occasionally arrogant and vain. Henry is at heart a hard worker, but his frequent bouts of illness hinder his work.

Living the Bhagavad Gita

Paths to God

Stephen Levine

Grist for the Mill

Daniel Goleman

Discusses meditation benefits and techniques, and offers a directory of retreat facilities and centers

A Meditator's Guidebook

Journey of Awakening

Rameshwar Das

Set against a backdrop of nine decades of sweeping cultural change, Being Ram Dass shares this modern day luminary's journey from psychologist to renegade Harvard psychedelics researcher to beloved spiritual icon. 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. Here, Ram Dass shares his life's odyssey in intimate detail: 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 as a yogi and psychologist whose perspective changed millions. Populated by a cast of luminaries ranging from Timothy Leary to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Allen Ginsberg to Sharon Salzberg, Aldous Huxley to Alan Watts—this intimate memoir chronicles Ram Dass's experience of the cultural and spiritual transformations 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 this beloved teacher to all of us.

Being Ram Dass

Stories about Neem Karoli Baba

Miracle of Love

Paul Gorman

Compiles the experiences of American volunteers to provide inspiration for the thousands of Americans who serve their neighbors or communities

Stories and Reflections on Service

How Can I Help?

The spiritual leader provides insight into the nature of consciousness, reincarnation, desires, and attachment

Talks Given at the Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kansas, 1970, and at Spring Grove Hospital, Spring Grove, Maryland, 1972

The Only Dance There is

A. H. Almaas

Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality

Nondual Love

Remember Be Here Now

As one of the most respected spiritual explorers of recent times, Ram Dass sparked a revolution with the publication of his 2-million-copy classic, Be Here Now. Since then, he has been a beacon for spiritual seekers worldwide, challenging us to find new sources of meaning and purpose in our lives. Be Love Now is a remarkable blend of autobiography and timeless spiritual insights. From his beginnings as a Harvard psychologist and psychedelic adventurer to his profound encounters with his Indian guru, Neem Karoli Baba, and moving beyond the reawakening brought on by his near-fatal illness, Ram Dass strikes a practical, humorous, soul-stirring chord in today's egotistical and lonely world. While offering us his rich life experiences, he also holds out a timeless, wonderfully universal adventure that will open our hearts and minds.

The Path of the Heart

Be Love Now

No understanding of the history of the sixties could be complete without a grasp of the work of Leary, Alpert, and Metzner, the cultural resistance to their experiments, and the way in which psychoactive drug use became a part of contemporary society. Next Generation Independent Book Awards Finalist,Birth of a Psychedelic Culture explores these experiments and their cultural milieu through never before seen photographs, personal accounts of authors Ralph Metzner and Ram Dass, and conversations with luminaries such as Aldous Huxley, Charles Mingus, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and others that appeared on the scene.

Conversations about Leary, the Harvard Experiments, Millbrook and the Sixties

Birth of a Psychedelic Culture

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. Here, Ram Dass shares his life's odyssey in intimate detail: 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 as a yogi and psychologist whose perspective changed millions. Populated by a cast of luminaries ranging from Timothy Leary to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Allen Ginsberg to Sharon Salzberg, Aldous Huxley to Alan Watts—this intimate memoir chronicles Ram Dass's experience of the cultural and spiritual transformations 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 this beloved teacher to all of us.

Discover how giving of yourself can lead to some of the most joyous moments in your life—in a book that “deserves a special place on that shelf reserved for truly practical wisdom" (Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People). Not a day goes by without our being called upon to help one another--at home, at work, on the street, on the phone…. We do what we can. Yet so much comes up to complicate this natural response: "Will I have what it takes?" "How much is enough?" "How can I deal with suffering?" "And what really helps, anyway?" In this practical helper's companion, the authors explore a path through these confusions, and provide support and inspiration for us in our efforts as members of the helping professions, as volunteers, as community activists, or simply as friends and family trying to meet each other's needs. Here too are deeply moving personal accounts: A housewife brings zoo animals to lift the spirits of nursing home residents; a nun tends the wounded on the first night of the Nicaraguan revolution; a police officer talks a desperate father out of leaping from a roof with his child; a nurse allows an infant to spend its last moments of life in her arms rather than on a hospital machine. From many such stories and the authors' reflections, we can find strength, clarity, and wisdom for those times when we are called on to care for one another.

Words of Wisdom is a distillation of the last five decades of Ram Dass’s life containing the most powerful quotes from his most resonant core teachings. Ram Dass always had a knack for heart-to-heart transmission. Far before he had a vocabulary to describe his spiritual experiences, he was Richard Alpert, a Harvard professor and early experimenter with psychedelics. After these early soul-expanding journeys, he spoke and wrote about his transcendent experiences with the innate, intuitive understanding of a true inner-voyager. Even before Alpert realized that psychedelics weren't the final answer to enlightenment, he was more interested in cultivating a shared heart space with his patients and friends than he was in the clinical, scientific side of psychedelia. Words of Wisdom is a distillation of hundreds of lectures and many hours of audio and video recordings from the last five decades—his core essential teachings. This anthology celebrates the spark that helped to ignite the flame of grace and Loving Awareness in so many hearts. By the end of his life, Ram Dass was a true conduit for soul connection. This anthology celebrates the spark that helped to ignite the flame of grace and Loving Awareness in so many hearts. By the end of his life, Ram Dass was a true conduit for soul connection. Through five decades of teaching in both the institutional and public realms, Dass has served as a leader in spirituality, psychology, and psychedelia, fusing these elements to embody a purposeful intention of love and joy.

Ram Dass

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