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.
If you think you’re enlightened go spend a week with your family.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being around family can reveal aspects of ourselves we may not be aware of, including our flaws and challenges.
The quote by Ram Dass suggests that true enlightenment isn't simply a state of being, but is tested and revealed through our interactions with our family. Spending time with family can expose our unresolved issues and the ways we react in close relationships, highlighting that the journey of personal growth and enlightenment often involves confronting the realities of our own behavior and dynamics within familial bonds.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about personal development, one might reference this quote to emphasize the importance of family in understanding oneself.
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.
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I knew that no matter what door you knock on in a Cretan village, it will be opened for you. A meal will be served in your honor, and you will sleep between the best sheets in the house. In Crete, the stranger is still the unknown god. Before him, all doors and all hearts are opened.
There is nothing wrong with avoiding people who hurt you.