In this recording from 1985, Ram Dass leads a meditation on the qualities of awareness, answers questions from the audience, and leads a rousing round of Jubilate Deo.
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He is so great. That first part, when he talks about how it is easier to stay in our deficiency models than to accept our own beauty and grace. I mean…how many of us can relate? It feels like some sort of epidemic. This disconnect from our own essential brilliance (which is not the aggrandized ego that tries to stand in its place.) We all come in as these incredible threads of love, with gifts this big ol’ world needs. But that essence of light that is love itself, and a very part of us, is typically not reflected by the people in our childhoods, where we might learn it, simply because they could not see their own. So the deficiency model just keeps getting passed on. And so instead of being able to bless the world with our beauty and gifts, we are like amoebas trying to get love and positive reflection, feeling insecure and trying to find ways to bolster our okayness. And a vicious cycle continues. I wonder, how will we really start to stand in that essential light, without the overlay of the super or aggrandized ego taking the reins.
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Thank you so much for this! Late reply, but it got me reflecting on my own journey now.
How do we start to stand in that essential light? At first nothing is really different, except for the perspective of where you’re standing. It’s like going from first person to third person where that person who you thought was deficient is now a concept based on relationships.
I witness a lot of the patterns and neuroses that the ego I is dealing with with love and compassion. I also see all of the people, places and things in relationship to my ego through love and compassion.
With this new awareness, I am now able to use the practice as a way of renunciation from the patterns which seemingly get in the way of bringing this love to other beings. I cannot express enough how grateful I am to be able to learn and grow through the practice which the Love Serve Remember foundation has blessed upon us. Thank you so much.
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