Several years ago I had the privelege of being in a seminar with many great teachers who've impacted me tremendously. One of those teachers was Ram Dass. I'd been reading his works since I was a teenager and he has inspired me more than possibly any other person or teacher throughout my lifetime.
I'd never seen Ram Dass live, and by this time he'd had a stroke and was not traveling, so was live streaming from Maui.
I had not seen or heard him speak since he'd had the stroke and at first it wa a bit of a shock. His speech was slow and halting, but after a few minutes it was clear that his mind was still lucid, and what he had to say on this occasion had the greatest personal impact of anything I'd experienced.
There had just been another mass shooting, and the hosts of the event, Trudy Goodman and Jack Kornfield, were asking each teacher for words of wisdom during troubled times.
Ram Dass chose to share a mantra of his - one I had heard many times over in the past several decades. It was one he'd received from his teacher, Neem Karoli Baba. The mantra was, "Love Everyone".
He spoke it haltingly at first, as if it were hard to get the words out. It brought tears to my eyes to see how challenging it was for him to speak, but as he repeated the mantra over and over, the tears turned to weeping, not from sorrow but because of the visceral sensation of this mantra entering my heart space. I'd never experienced anything like this and I vowed in that moment to take it on as not just my own mantra, but my intention as well. It's been challenging at times, and I still have a way to go, but I can honestly say that the impact of that moment was to make me a much more loving person, both to myself and others - known and unknown.
The other night I felt inspired to create a weekly series - Letters to The Beloved. Each letter I write will be written to someone I know personally who has helped me to expand my capacity to love and to see The Beloved in everyone. Though I will keep the names of those I know anonymous, the first will be to Ram Dass, in gratitude for the inspiration he's given me thoguhout the years. Stay tuned.
Comentarios