r/ramdass

Can someone please explain to me exactly what loving awareness is? Ideally, in very basic terms. Thank you💚

I had an experience recently after visiting Neem Karoli Baba's ashram, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar.

While returning from Ranikhet, we stopped once more for darshan. My husband got out of the car to go inside, but I stayed back because I wasn't sure if I should go. As I sat there, I saw a man walking by who had the exact face of Maharaj Ji. I kept staring because it felt so uncanny.

A little later, I saw another man, and again, he looked exactly like Maharaj Ji. At that point, I genuinely started questioning whether I was imagining things, so I tried to shrug it off.

I'm not claiming that I saw anything supernatural, and I understand that our minds can sometimes make associations, especially after a spiritual experience. But the experience felt very real and has stayed with me ever since.

Has anyone else had a similar experience after visiting Kainchi Dham or after a strong spiritual experience? I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts.

I started reading online that traveling is supposed to help you discover yourself. They call it “self-discovery.” People even recommend places to go India, Tibet, the Amazon…

I picked India because it was the cheapest.

The first few days were great. Everything was new, everything was different. It’s a completely different culture.

But then came the part where I actually started getting to know myself.

By the third day, I couldn’t stand the guy.

I started looking back on my life and thought, Could I possibly be a bigger dickhead? I haven’t written a book. I haven’t had a kid. I haven’t planted a tree. Basically, I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing.

Hell, I don’t even have any friends.

Although, I guess that explains why I’m traveling alone.

Nobody can stand me. I can’t stand myself?!

So no, I don’t recommend traveling for self-discovery.

Most of the time, all you discover is why you’ve been avoiding spending too much time alone with yourself.

I don’t even know what to say anymore. I’ve lost hope in my life, ive lost hope in humanity. I seriously hate being alive. I hate it so fucking much i cry so deeply every single motherfucking day of my wretched life. I truly feel like I’m living a nightmare and it just never ever ever stops.

Every single moderator of every single manifesting subreddit removes my posts without even the respect of a fucking explanation. These people are egotistical gate keeping psychopaths who aren’t even experts at manifesting but have somehow overtaking ALL of the manifesting subs to play god so they can feel important.

I’m SO FUCKING SICK AND TIRED OF EXPERIENCING CRUELTY AT THE HANDS OF WICKED WRETCHED HUMANS. IT HAS BEEN MY ENTIRE FUCKING LIFE AND I AM FUCKING SICK OF IT.

I AM AN INNOCENT HUMAN SOUL BORN AGAINST MY WILL AND CONSENT INTO THE MOST WRETCHED WICKED HELL IMAGINEABLE AND I CANT TAKE THIS HORROR AND TORTURE ANYMORE.

I NEED MONEY. I CANNOT BE FORCED TO EXPERIENCE SUCH WRETCHED DISGUSTING POVERTY AGAINST MY WILL AND CONSENT. IT IS SO FUCKING HORRIBLE IT MAKES EVERY SECOND OF MY LIFE AN UNBEARABLE WRETCHED NIGHTMARE.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE HELP ME. PLEASE.

My entire life truly has been a torturous nightmare and just never stops. I was born into poverty into a small terrible family and I have suffered my entire life as a result.

I find humanity so beyond cruel. Wicked, wretched, evil beyond words. I don’t even want to be around people anymore.

I have no idea how to make money. I have no idea how to find a single person on this planet I can trust that won’t try to screw me over or exploit me in some way.

I just feel horrible all the time. All the time. Stress, poverty, depression, alienation, it just never ends. I wake up so lost and confused and overwhelmed with dread every single day of my life.

This isn’t something a therapist or medication can solve. Only money. Only love. But I have been deprived of both literally my entire life and im just at my wits end.

I’m sick of being a working class slave. Im sick of being treated like shit and disrespected by society. I’m sick and tired of having NOTHING I want in my life, not 1 single thing, while everybody around me gets everything they want.

It’s evil. It’s cruel. It makes me feel that god does not exist, that evil rules this world, and that something must be seriously wrong with my because why in gods name is my life so fucking horrible all the time. It’s just not fair.

Ive visualized money counting it smelling it spending it make it investing it.

I affirmed til the cows come home.

I’ve tried to live in the end.

Ive tried reality transurfing. Joseph Murphy. Abraham hicks, every author in the manifesting space.

Nothing has worked. Nothing has helped me manifest 1 single thing.

People come on here talking about making millions of dollars and I can barely breathe. Every. Single. Day. Of. My. Life. Every single day of my life is a nightmare and nobody helps me.

All people do is brag, push me down, gaslight me, and torture me. It’s really really hard to even get through each day in extreme poverty let alone feel good about myself let alone genuinely assume anything good will ever happen to me when my entire life has a been a literal hell.

I don’t know what to do. I try walking away and forgetting about manifesting all the time but regular life is so god damn depressing I always end up coming back.

I’m really at my wits end. I can’t stand experiencing this horror, this grotesque inequality, this grotesque cruelty and disrespect. It’s just too much to bare. Life itself is just unbearable when you’re poor and alone.its just literally unbearable. It’s not fair.I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t take it anymore. I haven’t been able to take it for decades now abd still nothing changes or gets better no matter what I do say think feel try to assume or anything. It all just feels like a wicked wretched hell outside of my control that I just want to hide from so very deeply. I’m tired of feeling pain and cruelty. It’s not fair.

Do we ever owe people an explanation? I have some annoying people (friends and family) who demand explanation like hell, for stuff I'm doing in my life. Almost like an attack. I don't do this to them, so I don't understand why they do it. One friend of mine doesn't understand personal boundaries and I'm thinking of ending this long friendship that has turned into disharmony. And another who is a lot more capable then me , and has everything in his life, still demands things from me as if I'll have answers for him. Why I know not but can only guess. I don't like these behaviors. Both were my best friends at one time and used to be very happy people. But now what can I give them? Why do they ask for me all the time? I don't even have a job or a proper life. I believe we don't owe them this. What's strange is why people don't leave us alone. Do they just want to energy vampire off of us or what? Even if you drop the whole energy vampire concept, the spiritual mechanics of how people interfere a lot in your life still feels that way. What to do?

I've been listening to Ram Dass for a long time and have a sense of his life and spiritual evolution as he tells it.

I've noticed at different talks he has described his Psychology background slightly different. For instance, he says he was a social psychologist, also that he was a psychoanalyst for a time, and for the first time I've just heard him say he was a child developmental psychologist.

I'm curious if anybody has any insights on this because these are related but quite separate disciplines.

It was the 60's, so maybe psychologists could experiment with their roles a little more, who knows?

I’ve found myself at rock bottom. I feel disconnected from everything, I’m spiritually empty and ready to just give up on life. Can you please send me your best Ram Dass (or anyone) talks for getting out of rock bottom? I’m trying to find the light again but my spirit is weak.

One of the biggest obstacles I deal with on an everyday basis is self control of my anger. I feel so defeated at times. I do my daily reading, meditation, exercise and I’m normally very optimistic about my days. Then something happens that triggers me and I let my ego win again. It’s an automatic defense mechanism and I’m struggling with it. I’m trying to see myself in everyone and embrace the Self around me, but this anger keeps holding me back, because I keep seeing me vs them. For those who overcame this, how do you deal with it in a yogic manner without losing self control?

My beautiful best friend introduced me to Ram Dass, and I've become really intrigued by his perspective on life. I resonate with so much of what he says.

One thing I've noticed, though, is that many of his talks (especially on YouTube) seem to focus on how to be with someone who is suffering, or how witnessing another person's suffering can become part of your own spiritual growth.

But what about the person who is actually suffering?

I want to understand - knowing that no one can ever truly know another person's experience - what my father might be going through as he lives with heart failure.

For example:

• Is it best to simply sit with him in a positive, hopeful way? I've tried saying things like, "Just take it one day at a time, Dad," hoping it makes life feel a little lighter.
• Or is it better to meet him where he is and speak the language of his pain? There have been moments where we've just sat together and cried. Afterwards I felt guilty, wondering whether I'd made things heavier, even though I know none of this is anyone's fault.

What am I actually meant to do to make his suffering feel less lonely? How do you help someone feel that they're not carrying this burden by themselves, without trying to fix it or minimise it?

For context, I'm a 27F from Australia. My parents are divorced and both live alone, that is are single across different states in the country. My dad and I now live in different states, and because he doesn't have a partner, I am essentially his lifeline where he has amazing neighbours so has interactions i.e. isn't completely alone.

I'm not really looking for advice on how I can cope with this. I'm trying to understand how to better care for someone I love who is suffering.

I want to understand what my father may be experiencing emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually as he lives with heart failure while waiting for an uncertain procedure date in the Australian public health system. He also had a double lung transplant in 2020 and has been diagnosed with Scleroderma in 2014.

Ram Dass speaks so beautifully about being with suffering, but I feel like most of what I've found is directed towards the observer rather than the person living through the illness.

Has Ram Dass ever spoken about this? Or are there other teachers, books, or perspectives that explore what it's actually like to be the one who is suffering, and how we can truly accompany them in a way that eases their loneliness?

🙏

Im thinking of a scene..

Ram Dass spoke about a friend who was a yoga student. The student outgrew the teacher quickly and withdrew to a cave to practice alone. Ram Dass then spoke of a letter he had received from the students mother.

Any guess which episode?