In this recording from 1995, Ram Dass explores the nature of time, especially as it relates to aging, and shares how his guru helped him see that being in the present moment is all there is.
“When I am finally quiet enough to just look at Maharaj-ji, there is a new dimension. He fills time. And the dimension of then and now, of coming and going, no longer is the template for measuring experience. No longer am I in my mind somebody who has just come from America or will soon go on, endlessly seeking something. For a moment, the moment is all there is. And it’s enough. It’s enough.” – Ram Dass
This episode of Here and Now is from a recording of a study group on aging hosted by Ram Dass in 1995.
- Ram Dass begins his exploration of time and aging by looking at the nature of time from both the domain of the ego and the domain of the soul
- He examines the perspectives on time we hold throughout our lives in this culture, from being fully in the moment as babies, reaching for the future as kids and young adults, thinking of time as money in middle age, and finally clinging to the past in our older years
- Ram Dass reads from a book on aging that he’s in the middle of writing, sharing a tale of why time seems to work differently in India and how his guru helped him see that being in the present moment is all there is
- Finally, he talks about working on letting go of his personal history and the struggles he had with boxes of memorabilia he’d collected over the years
“And they talk about gaining awareness is like snatching the pearl of awareness from the dragon time. That’s one of the mystical ways of talking about what awakening and enlightenment are. It’s freeing your awareness from being entrapped within time. Not that you don’t use time, but you’re not used by it.” – Ram Dass