Being Ram Dass: A Celebration

Endless Ocean

From my birth in 1931 as Richard Alpert to Ram Dass as I am now, a spiritual seeker whose aging body is nearing death, this incarnation has been a journey of awakening. My life has been a succession of openings, accompanied by profound changes in point of view, in how I identify who I am, in how I see myself. At times, I feel like I’m on a spiral staircase, looking back at my former selves on the landings below, while above I am the witness, ensconced in my soul, watching myself go up the steps of the incarnation…. I see everything in my life as an orchestrated play, each person and situation and desire a crucial ingredient leading to awakening.

The sweep of years seems like a series of great adventures, none of them coincidences. They are populated by an extraordinary panorama of friends straight from central casting. These fellow actors in the dance of love are, as I am, working out their own karma and sliding in and out of the embrace of the One. My life is part of a unified field, an interconnected whole, of which you, reader, are a part. —from Being Ram Dass