Ram Dass teaching, Hawaii

Dr. Richard Alpert (born April 5, 1931), also known as Baba Ram Dass, is a contemporary spiritual teacher and noted bisexual. Image File history File links RD_photo_v1_05. ... Image File history File links RD_photo_v1_05. ... April 5 is the 95th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (96th in leap years). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ...

Youth and college

Alpert was born to a prominent Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts. His father, George Alpert, was an influential lawyer in Boston, a railroad executive, and one of the founders of Brandeis University. Richard is the youngest of three boys. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University, his Masters Degree from Wesleyan University, and his doctorate from Stanford University. This article describes some ethnic, historic, and cultural aspects of the Jewish identity; for a consideration of the Jewish religion, refer to the article Judaism. ...   Nickname: The Garden City Settled: 1639 â€“ Incorporated: 1688 Zip Code(s): 02446, 02458, 02459, 02460, 02461, 02462, 02464, 02465, 02467, 02468, 02495 â€“ Area Code(s): 617 / 857 Official website: http://www. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... Brandeis University is a private university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. ... Bachelor of Arts (B.A., BA or A.B.), from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus is an undergraduate bachelors degree awarded for either a course or a program in the liberal arts or the sciences, or both. ... It has been suggested that Professional degree be merged into this article or section. ... Tufts University is a private university located in Medford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate course of one or two years in duration. ... Wesleyan University, founded in 1831, is a private, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. ... Stanford redirects here. ...

Ram Dass lecturing at a festival in New Zealand, 1981.

Image File history File linksMetadata Ram_Das_lecture_at_the_3_day_Nambassa_Music_&_Alternatives_festival,_New_Zealand_1981. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Ram_Das_lecture_at_the_3_day_Nambassa_Music_&_Alternatives_festival,_New_Zealand_1981. ...

Harvard professor

After returning from a visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, Alpert accepted a permanent position at Harvard, where he worked closely with Dr. Timothy Leary. It was there that the two first conducted experiments on the effects of psilocybin on human subjects. The pair was dismissed from the university in 1963 - Leary for his conduct in general, and Alpert for continuing to fraternize with, and give psilocybin to, undergraduates. They relocated and continued their experiments unsupervised from a private mansion in Millbrook, New York, which was owned by the family of one of their friends. Famous poets, musicians, and intellectuals of the time, like Allen Ginsberg, the Grateful Dead, and Ken Kesey came from across the country to be a part of what was going on there. Although they remained life-long friends, the two eventually began to part ways spiritually and philosophically as Leary continued to spread his mantra of "turn on, tune in, drop out", while Alpert increasingly found his purpose in the Hindu ideology of serving others. The University of California, Berkeley (also known as UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, and by other names, see below) is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University of California system. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... For the American baseball player use Tim Leary (baseball player) Timothy Francis Leary, Ph. ... Psilocybin (also known as psilocybine), is a psychedelic alkaloid of the tryptamine family. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, USA. The population was 1,429 at the 2000 census. ... Irwin Allen Ginsberg (IPA: ) (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American Beat poet born in Newark, New Jersey. ... The Grateful Dead were an American psychedelia-influenced rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. ... Kenneth Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American author, best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and as a (counter) cultural figure who, some consider, was a link between the beat generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. ... Hinduism (Sanskrit: , , also known as , ) is a religion that originated on the Indian subcontinent. ...

From Dr. Richard Alpert to Baba Ram Dass

In 1967 Alpert travelled to India, where he met the American spiritual seeker Bhagavan Das, who introduced Alpert to his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, or as he is better known in the West, Maharaj-ji. Maharaj-ji gave Alpert the name Ram Dass, which means "servant of Rama" (God), and guided him to receive teaching from Hari Dass Baba, who taught in silence using only a chalkboard. For a time, Alpert was in correspondence with Meher Baba however he remained focused on the teaching of Hari Dass Baba. Among other things, Hari Dass Baba trained Ram Dass in raja yoga and ahimsa (non-violence). It was these life-changing experiences in India that inspired Ram Dass to write the contemporary spiritual classic Be Here Now, in which he teaches the harmony of all people and religions. 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Sri Bhagavan Das Bhagavan Das (born Kermit Michael Riggs in Laguna Beach, California in 1945, also known as Anagorika Dharma Sara within the Buddhist tradition), is a Western Yogi who lived for many years in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. ... Neem Karoli Baba, born Lakshmi Narayan Sharma, is also known as Maharajji and Neeb Karori Baba. ... Lord Sri Rama (center) with wife Sita, brother Lakshmana and devotee Hanuman. ... Baba Hari Dass Baba Hari Dass (1923) born near Almora, India, is a silent monk who was classically trained in traditional Ashtanga Yoga. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Raja Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga is one of the four major Yogic paths of Hinduism, the others being Karma yoga, Jnana yoga and Bhakti yoga. ... Ahimsa is a religious concept which advocates non-violence and a respect for all life. ... Be Here Now is the title of a book on spirituality published by Ram Dass in 1971. ...

Back in the West to spread the message

After his return to the United States in 1969, Alpert founded several organizations dedicated to expanding spiritual awareness and promoting spiritual growth. Since then he has embraced a wide variety of spiritual traditions and practices, including guru kripa (grace of the guru); bhakti yoga focused on the Hindu spiritual figure Hanuman; meditation in various schools of Buddhism including Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, and Zen; karma yoga; and Sufi and Jewish studies. In February 1997, he suffered a stroke which left him with expressive aphasia, however, he understands his stroke as an act of grace and continues to travel giving lectures, as his health permits. When asked if he could sum up his life's message Ram Dass replied, "I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people. . . To me, that's what the emerging game is all about." 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ... Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ... Bhakti yoga is the Hindu term for the spiritual practice of fostering of loving devotion to God, called bhakti. ... Hanuman tearing his chest open to reveal that Rama and Sita are literally in his heart In the Hindu faith, Hanuman (Sanskrit: हनुमत् Hanumat; nominative singular हनुमान् Hanumān), known also as Anjaneya, is one of the most important personalities in the epic, the Ramayana. ... A large statue in Bangalore depicting Shiva meditating The term Meditation describes a variety of practices with a variety of goals. ... Buddhism (also known as Buddha Dharma, Pali: बुद्ध धम्म, the teachings of the awakened one) is a dharmic, non-theistic religion, a way of life, a practical philosophy, and a life-enhancing system of applied psychology. ... Theravada (Pāli: theravāda; Sanskrit: sthaviravāda; literally, the Way of the Elders) is the oldest surviving Buddhist school, and for many centuries has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka (about 70% of the population[1]) and continental Southeast Asia (parts of southwest China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia... Relief image of the bodhisattva Kuan Yin from Mt. ... Tibetan Buddhism is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the Himalayan region (including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim), Mongolia, Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia (Russia), and northeastern China (Manchuria: Heilongjiang, Jilin). ... Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism that places great importance on moment-by-moment awareness and seeing deeply into the nature of things by direct experience. ... Karma yoga, or the discipline of action is based on the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. ... Sufism (Arabic تصوف taṣawwuf) is a system of esoteric philosophy commonly associated with Islam. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A stroke, also known as cerebrovascular accident (CVA),[1] is an acute neurologic injury in which the blood supply to a part of the brain is interrupted. ... Expressive aphasia, known as Brocas aphasia in clinical neuropsychology and agrammatic aphasia in cognitive neuropsychology, is an aphasia caused by damage to Brocas area in the brain. ...

Works

Books

• Identification and Child Rearing (with R. Sears and L. Rau) (1962) Stanford University Press
• The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner) (1964) ISBN 0-8065-1652-6
• LSD (with Sidney Cohen) (1966) ISBN 0-453-00120-3
• Be Here Now (1971) ISBN 0-517-54305-2
• Doing Your Own Being (1973)
• The Only Dance There Is (1974) ISBN 0-385-08413-7
• Grist for the Mill (with Steven Levine) (1977) ISBN 0-89087-499-9
• Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook (1978) ISBN 0-553-28572-6
• Miracle of Love: Stories about Neem Karoli Baba (1979) ISBN 0-525-47611-3
• How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service (with Paul Gorman) (1985) ISBN 0-394-72947-1
• Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service (with Mirabai Bush) (1991) ISBN 0-517-57635-X
• Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying (2000) ISBN 1-57322-871-0
• Paths to God: Living The Bhagavad Gita (2004) ISBN 1-4000-5403-6

The Bardo Thodol, sometimes called the Tibetan Book of the Dead, is a funerary text that describes the experiences of the soul after death during the interval known as bardo between death and rebirth. ... Be Here Now is the title of a book on spirituality published by Ram Dass in 1971. ... Bhagavad Gīta भगवद्गीता, composed ca the fifth - second centuries BC, is part of the epic poem Mahabharata, located in the Bhisma-Parva chapters 23–40. ...

Films

• Ram Dass, Fierce Grace (a 2001 biographical documentary about Ram Dass by Lemle Productions)

External links

• Official Ram Dass Website
• Ram Dass Tapes Library
• The Living/Dying Project (an outgrowth of the Hanuman foundation, which was created by Ram Dass)
• Ram Dass co-founded the Seva Foundation
• Review of Ram Dass, Fierce Grace on Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
• An interview with Ram Dass in which he gives clear answers to a vast array of spiritual questions
• Talking with Ram Dass about being gay, being soul friends, and just being ... Ram Dass
• The Spiritual Teachings of Ram Dass from explorefaith.org
• Biography of Ram Dass on Erowid