From "Ram Dass Is Ready to Die" (NYT), where I learned that old lectures by Ram Dass — most famous for a 1971 book called "Be Here Now" — will be available in a podcast called "Here and Now." Ram Dass, a contemporary of Timothy Leary's, is quite old now, 89, and he is speech impaired (after a stroke).
The interviewer asks him if he worries "that all these individuals turning inward rather than outward are doing it as a way of avoiding political engagement?" He says:
Social action and spiritual work are not mutually exclusive. The witness witnesses the politics or the many games we play. In the long run, this is beneficial to individuals and the culture.Yes, that feels like an explanation of what I've been doing here these last 15 years.
The interviewer pushes him about Trump. What would he say to Trump? Answer: "Identify with your soul." The interviewer snarks: "That would take some work." Answer: "No." The interviewer continues: "No? Am I being unfairly judgmental?" Answer:
On my puja table [altar] is Donald Trump. When I look at his picture, I say to him, “I know you from your karma, and I don’t know you for your soul.” And I am compassionate about that soul because he has heavy karma.And let me give you the part that explains the title of the article. The interviewer says, "You’ve said that you’re ready to die. When did you know?" Answer:
When I arrived at my soul. Soul doesn’t have fear of dying. Ego has very pronounced fear of dying. The ego, this incarnation, is life and dying. The soul is infinite.... The soul witnesses the ego and witnesses thoughts. “Be here now” gives people an opportunity to reidentify outside of their thinking-mind ego and into that thing that’s called the soul. It is the perspective from which we could live a life without being caught so much in fear. To reidentify there is to change your whole life.But what about political engagement?!
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Where did they teach you to talk like this? In some Panama city sailor "wanna hump-hump" bar? Or is this getaway day and your last shot at his whiskey? Sell crazy someplace else. We're all stocked up here.
As Good as It Gets (1997)
I'm still puzzling over yesterday's sermon from a very liberal preacher.
The Gospel preached Christian humility and service, so the pastor's task was to square the circle. How can everybody (except straight white men) be uppity and activist whilst still remaining humble and serviceable?
As best as I can understand, the answer is that climate change is exactly the same civil rights crisis as Rev. King on the bridge in Selma, and that Swedish girl is our model of a proper combination of uppity-ness and humility.
Nobody should consent to sit on the back of the bus. That's demeaning. Busses should only have front seats.
Or something like that.
Why is there so much navel gazing these days? Has social media turned us all into giant egos?
The interviewer pushes him about Trump.
So much for the here and now.
Ego couldn’t help itself.
And I am compassionate about that soul because he has heavy karma.
I'd like to hear more about what he means by "heavy karma." Too bad the interviewer sucks and isn't interested in exploring ideas.
I'd like to hear more about what he means by "heavy karma." Too bad the interviewer sucks and isn't interested in exploring ideas.
Any indication of compassion for Trump ends the line of questioning.
“I know you from your karma, and I don’t know you for your soul.”
I know you for your bullshit.
Soul has an ordinary use, when language isn't on holiday as it is in deep thought. It refers to relations to others, not to a thing. Its thing status is a language trick to put it in sentences. Like belief or intention, tokens in accounts.
So abstract relations to others away from others, and you get deep-thought's soul.
If you have heavy karma and have an emergency, you have to dump fuel.
Ever notice “Be Here Now” never sits on the bookshelf properly?
Everything against Trump, nothing outside of Trump.
Maybe Ram Dass didn’t get the memo.
Wittgenstein, one of my favorite lines
"52. If I am inclined to suppose that a mouse has come into being by spontaneous generation out of grey rags and dust, I shall do well to examine those rags very closely to see how a mouse may have hidden in them, how it may have got there and so on. But if I am convinced that a mouse cannot come into being from these things, then this investigation will perhaps be superfluous."
He goes on with the point, the opposite of what you'd expect
"But first we must learn to understand what it is that opposes such an examination of details in philosophy."
Namely look first at what's causing this feeling that investigation is superfluous in philosophy; namely that its very words are unproblematic. The feeling is what's keeping you trapped in the fly bottle.
If you identify with the ego plane,
"e-Go Plane"
But what about political engagement?!
The Founding Fathers recognized it’s all ego.
That’s why, for the good of the country, they worked to make it unnecessary.
Neuroscientist say that fear of death resides in the conscious mind supporting part of the brain. The part that appreciates consequences and is capable of higher logic, logic beyond association. Association is how lower animals do logic. “Orange man bad.” is associative logic.
Surrender of the self, of the “ego plane” to live in the subconscious is fine if everything in your life is taken care of by others. That’s probably why Buddhist monks traditionally live by begging. Using one’s “ego plane” to make a living, as one who must make their living by producing things of value, will destroy that “peace” that comes from shutting down the conscious mind.
It may be that the sense of falsification comes from the way I understand the phrase "have a body". It is really a mythological way of saying that I am flesh. But I am not satisfied with this myth, for it implies that I also have something other than a body, call it a soul. Now I have three things to put together: a body, a soul, and me. (So there are four things to be placed: I plus those three.) But I no more have a soul than I have a body. That is what I say here and now. People who say they have a soul sometimes militantly take its possession as a point of pride, for instance William Ernest Henley and G. B. Shaw. Take the phrase "have a soul" as a mythological way of saying that I am spirit. If the body individuates flesh and spirit, singles me out, what does the soul do? It binds me to others.
Stanley Cavell _The Claim of Reason_ p.411
"Namely look first at what's causing this feeling that investigation is superfluous in philosophy;”
Well, in politics we call that thing that keeps us from examining more deeply TDS.
"what does the soul do? It binds me to others.”
As Mickey Kaus says, “Always delete the kicker.”
Years ago in an Adam Smith book, he tells of Ram Dass being confronted by one of the Krishna Consciousness people. “I’m an incarnation of God, you impudent young pup,” Ram Dass said.
"But what about political engagement?!"
Well, what about it? If need be, he could always fake cruel neutrality.
On my puja table [altar] is Donald Trump. When I look at his picture, I say to him, “I know you from your karma, and I don’t know you for your soul.” And I am compassionate about that soul because he has heavy karma.
I’m not tired of winning.
Ram Dass, née Richard Alpert, was there at the beginning of thePsilocybin Project followed by the great LSD experiments beginning at Harvard and moving to the Be Ins in the Golden Gate. Rich boy, of course. Handy for Leary.
"Social action and spiritual work are not mutually exclusive. The witness witnesses the politics or the many games we play. In the long run, this is beneficial to individuals and the culture."
Yes that's why we have American football.
Richard Alpert.
Snake oil salesman slash Harvard psychologist. Faked "research" by drugging screwed-up students. Participated in child sexual abuse at Millbrook House. They dosed their own young children and the children of their friends with LSD and marijuana and half the kids had offed themselves before they turned 30.
I'd like to see his karma.
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head honey, we will do your thinking for you."
"Namely look first at what's causing this feeling that investigation is superfluous in philosophy;”
How can you tell the difference between the office of a philosopher and a theoretical physicist? They both have a desk and a chair, paper and pencil. The philosopher doesn’t need a wastebasket.
Mark me down as one of those who believes we all have immortal souls. Prove that I don't, prove that I do, you can't.
Also: God is.
Anyone with me on this?
Also, I'm Catholic.
Next case.
Ram Dass: A German talking about his Dodge truck. Sort of.
I am Laslo.
Sounds sorta of interesting, but also sort of Fake. Like someone took stuff from other more serious religions and mish-mashed it together - tossed in some psychobabble - and is serving it to middle class Americans.
This is the "middle game" time as in chess of checkers where the expected or unexpected opening plays have been made. Now possible outcomes have multiplied and there are consequences in all directions. Trump is making changes in all directions with all countries, with all alliances, with the military and how wars are fought, with energy, with taxes, with the intelligence agencies, with the media. The Dems are trying to stand pat, to use the themes of the past, racism, socialism, Nato, Russia, the EU, the UN -all these are treated as if they were what they were in the past. But they are all being changed by Trump. Increasingly, as they go out to meet their allies, real allies, other leftys, they meet questions - what are we to do about X which Trump has done. And the Dems have no answer. They aren't thinking about X. They are thinking about a soft coup and then impeachment. But what would they do about Trump's changes, A to Z? Back to NAFTA, TPP? Make NATO pay? Shut down fracking? Send manufacturing back to China? Take over the economy and thus enter into head-on, unavoidable conflict with China? Take the embassy out of Jerusalem? Tell Poland to take a hike? The changes are all moving and the Dems are standing still or, worse, they're doing the legal speed limit in the passing lane. But - road rage is of the ego.
Interesting only one Ram Dass tag. I thought I'd read about him before at Althouse. Must have been someone similar. From reading Wikipedia he's an interesting fellow. Jewish-Hindu bi-sexual and knew Timothy Leary.
This and the tree bathing post seem to be positing? The same theme.
Take time to smell the roses.
Be still.
Get out of your head.
Listen.
Your God will talk to you.
"Interesting only one Ram Dass tag. I thought I'd read about him before at Althouse. Must have been someone similar. From reading Wikipedia he's an interesting fellow. Jewish-Hindu bi-sexual and knew Timothy Leary."
I just forgot to go back and apply what was a new tag retroactively.
There. I've done it now. Thanks for the prompt. There's one other post!
His father used to introduce him as “my son, Rum Dum.”
I attended a talk by Ram Dass in SF back in 1969. He definitely had a presence that you could feel. Can't say the same for other gurus of the time.
I understand that Mr. Alpert's brother, William, used to refer to him as "Rammed Ass."
Yeah yeah, spiritual soulful dillwad. Some people never figure out that journeys to the east lead nowhere much.
Narr
Cultural Appropriator!
Someone who is viewing things from the point of view of the infinite immortal soul is very different from someone who is viewing things from the point of view of the limited mortal ego. The latter is in a hurry to accomplish something before he dies. The former realizes that nothing is permanent, that everything is transient and temporary; anything that is done will be undone and then redone and then undone again, a thousand times over a thousand cycles. This means that that politics, where nothing lasts more than a few years before being undone in reaction, is a waste of time from a soul point of view. All that you do is like one of those beautiful pieces of art drawn in sand, soon to be swept away by the winds of change, and it and you will both be forgotten in time.
Wittgenstein
What inclines even me to believe in Christ's Resurrection? It is as though I play with the thought. - If he did not rise from the dead, then he decomposed in the grave like any other man. _He is dead and decomposed._ In that case he is a teacher like any other and can no longer _help_ ; and once more we are orphaned and alone. So we have to content ourselves with wisdom and speculation. We are in a sort of hell where we can do nothing but dream, roofed in, as it were, and cut off from heaven. But if I am to be REALLY saved, - what I need is _certainty_ - not wisdom, dreams or speculation - and this certainty is faith. And faith is faith in what is needed by my _heart_, my _soul_, not my speculative intelligence. For it is my soul with its passions, as it were with its flesh and blood, that has to be saved, not my abstract mind. Perhaps we can say : Only _love_ can believe the Resurrection. Or : It is _love_ that believes the Resurrection. We might say : Redeeming love believes even in the Resurrection ; holds fast even to the Resurrection. What combats doubt is, as it were, _redemption_. Holding fast to _this_ must be holding fast to that belief. So what that means is : first you must be redeemed and hold on to your redemption (keep hold of your redemption) - then you will see that you are holding fast to this belief. So this can come about only if you no longer rest your weight on the earth but suspend yourself from heaven. Then _everything_ will be different and it will be `no wonder' if you can do things that you cannot do now. (A man who is suspended looks the same as one who is standing, but the interplay of forces within him is nevertheless quite different, so that he can act quite differently than can a standing man.)
_Culture and Value_ p.32-33 (1937)
Modern western life is anathema to any kind of spiritual development, which is why flakes like Ram Dass make such good livings. This is not news.
Just shorten it to, "Is life anathema to the effort needed for the kind of spiritual development you espouse?" and the answer is yes.
Hindus retreat from the world in old age. They know that "enlightenment" or "salvation" or "nirvana" or whatever you want to call it is incompatible with living in the social world.
But they don't put down that mundane world and its responsibilities - it too is a step on the way to redemption or deliverance or salvation or nirvana.
Skyhook vs crane.
Narr
I'm a Cranite
I thought that Herb Alpert understood life better than Richard. See the trumpet solo in the song “The lonely Bull.”
I say, I say. That’s a joke son. A joke.
"Modern western life is anathema to any kind of spiritual development..."
You just need a bigger truck.
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