Ram Dass

“Suffering is the sandpaper of our incarnation. It does its work of shaping us.”

“Suffering is part of our training program for becoming wise.”

“It's all real and it's all illusory:that's Awareness!”

“Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true.”

“Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it.”

“When we're identified with Awareness, we're no longer living in a world of polarities. Everything is present at the same time.”

“The Ego is an exquisite instrument. Enjoy it, use it--just don't get lost in it.”

“We're fascinated by the words--but where we meet is in the silence behind them.”

“As one individual changes, the system changes.”

“Inspiration is God making contact with itself.”

“Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying.”

“The question we need to ask ourselves is whether there is any place we can stand in ourselves where we can look at all that's happening around us without freaking out, where we can be quiet enough to hear our predicament, and where we can begin to find ways of acting that are at least not contributing to further destabilization.”

“Our whole spiritual transformation brings us to the point where we realize that in our own being, we are enough.”

“A moment comes when "other" is no longer other.”

“In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.”

“What you meet in another being is the projection of your own level of evolution.”

“In our relationships, how much can we allow them to become new, and how much do we cling to what they used to be yesterday?”

“Let's trade in all our judging for appreciating. Let's lay down our righteousness and just be together.”

“Our interactions with one another reflect a dance between love and fear.”

“The game is not about becoming somebody, it's about becoming nobody.”

“It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.”

“The most exquisite paradox… as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can't have it. The minute you don't want power, you'll have more than you ever dreamed possible.”

“We're here to awaken from the illusion of separateness”

“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.”

“When you are already in Detroit, you don't have to take a bus to get there.”

“We're all just walking each other home.”

“If you think you're free, there's no escape possible.”