Maharajji told me, 'Give up anger and I'll help you.' I found _x000D_ that love freed me back into the ocean of love and my righteous anger didn't do that. And I would rather be free than right.
The greatest thing you can do for another being is to provide the unconditional love that comes from making contact with that place in them that is beyond conditions, which is just pure consciousness, pure essence. That is, once we acknowledge each other as existing, just being here, just being, then each of us is free to change optimally. If I can just love you because here we are, then you are free to grow as you need to grow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Unconditional love allows people to grow by acknowledging their true essence beyond conditions.
This quote by Ram Dass emphasizes the profound impact of unconditional love on personal growth and relationships. By recognizing and connecting with the essence of another person—their true self—without judgment or conditions, we create a safe space for them to develop and evolve. This acknowledgment not only affirms their existence but liberates them from constraints, fostering a deeper, more meaningful connection that nurtures both individuals involved.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of compassion in relationships, you could use this quote to illustrate the necessity of unconditional love.
More from Ram Dass
All quotes →The gift you offer another person is just your being.
Let the natural flow of the universe, course through your being, and harmonize your soul.
You can be still and still moving. Content even in your discontent.
The heart surrenders everything to the moment. The mind judges and holds back. _x000D_ _x000D_ In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight. _x000D_ _x000D_ When we see the Beloved in each person, it's like walking through a garden, watching flowers bloom all around us.
When I look at relationships, my own and others, I see a wide range of reasons for people to be together and ways in which they are together. I see ways in which a relationship - which means something that exists between two or more people - for the most part reinforces people's separateness as individual entities.
Similar quotes
As I love nature, as I love singing birds, and gleaming stubble, and flowing rivers, and morning and evening, and summer and winter, I love thee, my Friend.
As Venus within Eros does not really aim at pleasure, so Eros does not aim at happiness. We may think he does, but when he is brought to the test it proves otherwise... For it is the very mark of Eros that when he is in us we had rather share unhappiness with the Beloved than be happy on any other terms.
It's so dreadful to have nothing to love - life is so empty - and there's nothing worse than emptiness.
I want to marry a [guy], so i can rest my soul with [him] till we both get old. This can't go on all the time-- all this franticness and jumping around. We've got to go someplace, find something.
It's just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn't it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.
Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself - what you're wearing, who you're around, what you're doing. Recreate and repeat.