I’ve been sitting with this early ‘80’s Ram Dass talk for a few hours this morning, unsure how to share it - and wondering whether to share it at all.
When the world feels as unstable as it does right now, the instinct seems to be reaching for something that helps us cope - and an invitation to “love it as it is” can sound bypassy, like it lets us off the hook from doing the real work of standing up and working for a more just society, from helping our neighbors who are struggling.
But when I went back to what Ram Dass is actually saying in this 1981 teaching, I realized he’s doing the opposite of bypassing. He doesn’t gloss over the suffering from those times, in fact he is brutally specific. From global starvation, nuclear threats, to The Moral Majority and the Cold War, of humans dehumanizing each other. He isn’t asking anyone to look away, and that’s not something Ram Dass would have done anyway.
What he’s asking instead is a bit of a thought experiment: Where would we have to be standing to love and serve the world as it is, despite the deep flaws? And who is “we” anyway?
For him, everything in life was Grist for the Mill. An opportunity to become more human, not less.
He’s asking what kind of perspective could possibly hold all of this without breaking down. I think these types of inquiries are incredibly important as we keep our eyes open to what’s happening around us, while we try to stay engaged without burning out or losing our joy. There is so much to hold at once, and there is so much paradox to live with.
So we are here on earth in human bodies - how do we “love it as it is” - “eat it as it is” - and still remain here and now, in service in a world of paradox and polarity?
— Rachael, Creative Director, LSRF // RamDass.org
Ram Dass: We used to live in a small community in New Hampshire, and my father was a member of a group called The Mountain Boys. We didn’t live there all year round, we were sort of summer residents, and these were mostly local people. And they would go off to the mountain and drink a little bit, have a barbecue and tell dirty stories and play poker.
And over the years, there were a number of expressions that would become sort of oft repeated expressions. And one of the members was a man, an Italian restaurateur, and they waited for his turn to cook, because he would come and he would make extraordinary spaghetti. And at one point, one of the men said, “Angelo, this is good, but do you have any more sauce?” And Angelo, who had a very husky voice, said, “Eat it like it is.” And that became like a family expression. So anytime you would complain about anything, somebody in the family would say, “Eat it like it is.”
There’s a fellow that wrote a book called The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment. His name was Thaddeus Golas. And he had a line in it that says, “Love it as it is.” Now, where would you have to stand on the earth today, to love it as it is? I mean, it really looks like a mess, doesn’t it?
Every fundamentalist belief system is about to die in honor of its beliefs. One group led by Gaddafi and Khomeini, and one group led by Brezhnev, and one group led by Begin, and one group led by the Moral Majority, and on and on it goes. One group undoubtedly led by Big Business. Prison conditions are abominable. There is somebody starving to death every two seconds. Every two seconds, somebody is starving, not dying a nice natural death in bed, starving to death. There you go. 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3. There you go. 2, 2, 3, 4, 2. There you go. 1, 2, 3. There you go. Every two seconds.
Amnesty International catalogs the inhumanity of human to human, out of political righteousness. The water becomes more unfit to drink, the air, more unfit to breathe. The potential for nuclear holocaust becomes greater. The signs point to Armageddon. It looks like it’s really hit the fan.
Where could you stand that you could eat it like it is? Or you could love it as it is?
Where could you possibly stand?
Where could you allow that it is what it is?
What perspective, what vector view would you need to have?
Who would you be if you were seeing it that way?
Like, if you take this auditorium, this whatever, this wrestling arena, this dog show place, this space in which all these “whats” are gathered. Who are we? Who are we? What are you, Austinites? Austinonians? Austinites. Earthlings? Earthlings. Like, who am I talking to at this moment?
And you say, well, you’re talking to us.
Who’s “us”? Which “us” do you think you are? Which “us” are you busy being?
Well, we’re members of the planet. Okay.
Well, we’re men and women and children. Okay.
Well, we’re mostly Texans. Okay.
Well, we are people that are concerned. Okay.
Well, we are people who had nothing else to do tonight. Okay.
We were curious. Okay.
All of these are definitions of who you think you are. Who we think we are.
This audio teaching comes from our online course, Centered in the Storm - a 10-day offering exploring polarity, suffering and resilience in difficult times, available on Ram Dass’s Inner Academy. Published by the Love Serve Remember Foundation, the nonprofit caretaker of Ram Dass’s teachings since 2010. Learn more at RamDass.org.
