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.
Ram DassRead
In India, there's a way of seeing life as a cosmic play. It's called Lila. I can watch my life, and I can see my guru playing with me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Lila suggests that life is a playful cosmic activity, allowing us to observe our existence as if we are part of a larger game.
The quote by Ram Dass reflects the Indian philosophical concept of Lila, which implies that life is not merely a series of serious events but a cosmic play where we are participants and observers. This perspective encourages individuals to adopt a more relaxed and joyous attitude towards life's challenges, seeing them as part of a greater unfolding narrative that involves divine playfulness and spiritual guidance.
Themes
LilaCosmic PlayLifeSpiritualityGuru
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about mindfulness, I could illustrate how adopting the perspective of Lila can help us appreciate the beauty in everyday struggles.
More from Ram Dass
All quotes βThe gift you offer another person is just your being.
Ram DassRead
Let the natural flow of the universe, course through your being, and harmonize your soul.
Ram DassRead
You can be still and still moving. Content even in your discontent.
Ram DassRead
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.
Ram DassRead
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.
Ram DassRead
Similar quotes
The paradoxes of today are the prejudices of tomorrow, since the most benighted and the most deplorable prejudices have had their moment of novelty when fashion lent them its fragile grace.
Marcel ProustRead
Why are we so attached to the severities of the past? Why are we so proud of having endured our fathers and our mothers, the fireless days and the meatless days, the cold winters and the sharp tongues? It's not as if we had a choice.
Hilary MantelRead
Southerners love a good tale. They are born reciters, great memory retainers, diary keepers, letter exchangers . . . great talkers.
Eudora WeltyRead
Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us- by that God we both adore- Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore- Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore." Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
My space chums think my unique hookup with humanity could be evolution's awkward attempt to jump-start itself up again. They're thinking just maybe, going crazy could be the evolutionary process trying to hurry up mind expansion. Maybe my mind didn't snap. Maybe it was just trying to stretch itself into a new shape. The cerebral cortex trying to grow a thumb of sorts.
Lily TomlinRead
As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.
Marcus AureliusRead