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 spiritual journey is not about acquiring something outside yourself, rather, you are penetrating deep layers and veils to return to the deepest truth of your own being.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The spiritual journey is an inward exploration to uncover your true self rather than seeking external validation or possessions.
This quote by Ram Dass highlights the essence of a spiritual journey as a profound inward exploration. It suggests that true understanding and enlightenment come not from external achievements or acquisitions, but rather from delving deep within oneself to uncover the layers that hide the 'truth' of who we really are. This process involves introspection, self-discovery, and often transcending ego-based perceptions that distract from our authentic essence.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about personal growth, one might say, 'As Ram Dass taught, the spiritual journey is about returning to the truth of your own being.'
More from Ram Dass
All quotes βThe 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.
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The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Evil is tolerable if purged of coarseness.
I wander though China. Without ever having boarded a plane. My travels take place here in the Tokoyo subways, in the backseat of a taxi... all of a sudden this city will start to go. In a flash, the buildings will crumble. Over the Tokyo streets will fall my China, like ash, leaching into everything it touches. Slowly, gradually, until nothing remains. No, this isn't a place for me.
Christ represents originally: 1) men before God; 2) God for men; 3) men to man. Similarly, money represents originally, in accordance with the idea of money: 1) private property for private property; 2) society for private property; 3) private property for society. But Christ is alienated God and alienated man. God has value only insofar as he represents Christ, and man has value only insofar as he represents Christ. It is the same with money.
When we gaze at a star in the Milky Way which is 50,000 light-years away from our sun, we are looking back 50,000 years in time." "The idea is much too big for my little head." "The only way we can look out into space, then, is to look back in time. We can never know what the universe is like now. We only know what it was like then. When we look up at a star that is thousands of light-years away, we are really traveling thousands of years back in the history of space.
Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure.