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Grist for the mill
One review states: - Be a connoisseur of your neuroses. - With bare attention consume your impurities. - Take whatever comes down the pike. - Everything is grist for the mill. - Not "this" or "that" but "whatever". - Keep giving up your story line. - All of life is a meditation cushion. It's all meditation. - You are the fire and fire doesn't burn itself. - Leave behind every model you have had of who you think you are. - You are going to suffer if you cling to anything in form. - Disappear into the void - the Crisp Trip. - Stop romanticizing your story. - Going to G-d is going into that which is beyond form. - We created our separateness for sport. - What we are looking for is who is looking. - In despair we give up all our hope and all our models. - Stay in form but be with G-d. Breathe in the breath of G-d. - Sit there watching the pain and suffering. - The only thing that dies is another set of thoughts of who we were in this lifetime. - Our entire life drama is food for our awakening. - Be like two mirrors facing each other with nothing in between. - The human intellect is very trivial in the greater design of things. - Cut the puppet strings. - Peel yourself like an onion. - Be a lighthouse sending peace and love to all those who are suffering.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
487 people are currently reading
2101 people want to read
About the author
Ram Dass
215 books2,279 followersRam Dass (Richard Alpert), was one of America's most beloved spiritual figures, making his mark on the world giving teachings and promoting loving service, harmonious business practices, and conscious care for the dying. His spirit has been a guiding light for four generations, carrying millions along on the journey, helping free them from their bonds as he has worked his way through his own.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
October 25, 2007
Changed my world view, reminds me how I am connected to every living thing in the World...this gem reaches down into my core and plays my soul's strings like a harp. Ram Dass is a gift.
September 15, 2013
Truly one of the great spiritual voices of the past 50 years, Ram Dass, shares some of his life experiences, anecdotes and beliefs in this enlightening and powerful book. Very little is mentioned from his years as a Harvard professor or his earlier life as Dr. Richard Alpert, the primary focus of the book is the transmission of his experiences to assist the reader in their journey towards awareness/enlightenment. The information that is shared with the reader is merely meant to be a tool, the road on which we travel, as we develop our own inner awareness. Ram Dass has a very compassionate and empowering style that seems largely devoid of ego: he truly seems to have selfless intention in sharing this information.
If you are sincerely interested in becoming more enlightened/aware this book would very likely contain information that will benefit you on your journey. Certainly there are the enlightened few, those that have mastered this journey, and I imagine that those individuals would already be familiar with some, much, or even all of the information contained in this book; however, I also believe that if you are here reading this review then chances are you have yet to reach perfect “being –ness” and thus could benefit from these words. Although this book has not been in print for many years, used copies can be found quite readily.
If you are sincerely interested in becoming more enlightened/aware this book would very likely contain information that will benefit you on your journey. Certainly there are the enlightened few, those that have mastered this journey, and I imagine that those individuals would already be familiar with some, much, or even all of the information contained in this book; however, I also believe that if you are here reading this review then chances are you have yet to reach perfect “being –ness” and thus could benefit from these words. Although this book has not been in print for many years, used copies can be found quite readily.
October 19, 2008
One of my favorite 4 Ram Dass books....the other three being Be Here Now, the Only Dance There Is, and Journey of Awakening.
May 25, 2022
have been studying the writings/teachings of ram dass for the past few months since experiencing one of the worst chronic illness experiences of my life - i came to find ram dass through exploring the ideas of grace and transmuting suffering. i have always felt a strong drawing towards his way of expressing specific ideas, mainly how to engage fully in the dance of life while also navigating our way along the spiritual path. i found myself in tears reading his writings on dying, that really felt like a consciousness shift for myself.
in particular, i have found his discussion of finding one's particular dharma according to the life you're living at the moment most helpful in orienting myself on this path - you CAN be a 'neurotic' messy being and, if you offer that to God fully, find your way there.
“If we follow our heart, there is nothing to fear. As long as our actions are based on our pure seeking for God, we are safe. And any time we are unsure or frightened about our situation, there’s a beautiful and very powerful mantra—“The power of God is within me. The grace of God surrounds me”—which we can repeat to ourselves. It will protect us. Grace will surround us like a gentle force field. Through an open heart, one hears the universe.”
however, reading this was one of the first times i really saw ram dass not just as a spiritual guide but as a fully-formed, human man who came from a specific background and was raised in a specific historical moment. i really struggled to reconcile his teachings overall and the very hard line he sets down on abortion in the early pages of the book - specifically, referring to it as a type of killing with 'relatively light karma' attached. it is definitely beyond the remit of this review to get into the spiritual argument about that, but that passage stood in sharp contrast to the tone of the rest of the book. it was a short passage but one that danced on the border of dealing in control of another's will and fundamentally, the right to choose one's path. i understand his position changed over the years about this viewpoint certainly suggested to me a separateness that 'awakening to oneness' is meant to overcome. for the first time i could see ram dass as a man who was born in a very different historical time, when the common wisdom on women's rights and capabilities as humans was very different.
as well, i think he never fully addresses the questions of political inequality, though the inklings he sets down on the contradictions between accepting what comes and being active in service to others are certainly good starting points for anyone approaching the question from spiritual position.
overall, this was a more challenging view of ram dass for me but a worthwhile one and I'm very glad to have read it. i recommend it to everyone else on this path... so that's everyone really.
in particular, i have found his discussion of finding one's particular dharma according to the life you're living at the moment most helpful in orienting myself on this path - you CAN be a 'neurotic' messy being and, if you offer that to God fully, find your way there.
“If we follow our heart, there is nothing to fear. As long as our actions are based on our pure seeking for God, we are safe. And any time we are unsure or frightened about our situation, there’s a beautiful and very powerful mantra—“The power of God is within me. The grace of God surrounds me”—which we can repeat to ourselves. It will protect us. Grace will surround us like a gentle force field. Through an open heart, one hears the universe.”
however, reading this was one of the first times i really saw ram dass not just as a spiritual guide but as a fully-formed, human man who came from a specific background and was raised in a specific historical moment. i really struggled to reconcile his teachings overall and the very hard line he sets down on abortion in the early pages of the book - specifically, referring to it as a type of killing with 'relatively light karma' attached. it is definitely beyond the remit of this review to get into the spiritual argument about that, but that passage stood in sharp contrast to the tone of the rest of the book. it was a short passage but one that danced on the border of dealing in control of another's will and fundamentally, the right to choose one's path. i understand his position changed over the years about this viewpoint certainly suggested to me a separateness that 'awakening to oneness' is meant to overcome. for the first time i could see ram dass as a man who was born in a very different historical time, when the common wisdom on women's rights and capabilities as humans was very different.
as well, i think he never fully addresses the questions of political inequality, though the inklings he sets down on the contradictions between accepting what comes and being active in service to others are certainly good starting points for anyone approaching the question from spiritual position.
overall, this was a more challenging view of ram dass for me but a worthwhile one and I'm very glad to have read it. i recommend it to everyone else on this path... so that's everyone really.
unfinished
May 23, 2020Gonna pass on this one. It's a lot of rambling nonsense that doesn't really mean anything, which I could suffer through for a book club, but he lost me when he said marriage should only be for increasing your closeness to god and that only unenlightened people have abortions (direct quote: "unconscious people who don't understand get abortions"). What the fuck, man.
March 7, 2014
I won this on good reads.
This book is an update of lectures given around the early 70's. For me it was a return to the roots of my spiritual quest. Basically, advice on connecting to the oneness. Well worth reading.
This book is an update of lectures given around the early 70's. For me it was a return to the roots of my spiritual quest. Basically, advice on connecting to the oneness. Well worth reading.
June 20, 2020
"I'd rather now just talk about how it is when you are free to play with God for the rest of your life..." (59) I think Ram Dass is better listened to than read. He was an important translater of Eastern thought through Western eyes back in the 60s-70s, and his messages are still relevant and important. He's not my number one, but I liked hearing his voice and angle. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book.
Personally relevant:
"This trip is based on.. a very simple concept. Totaly honesty with yourself, total honesty. If you make a mistake, admit it and get on with it. Don't cover your errors. The whole spiritual journey is a continuous falling on your face. And you get up and brush yourself off, and you get on with it. If you were perfect you wouldn't even go on a journey." (32) The universe is made up of experiences that are designed to burn out your reactivity (93), and "...what we owe each other is to get cooked." (63)
"Ulimately you understand... that the only reason you stay in form is to alleviate suffering to bring others to the light. 57
Socially relevant:
"There are a thousand and one ways in which man is injust to fellow man. Which will you work to change? Which is your particular dharmic path? And as you work to alleviate suffering will you be careful that the way in which you do it doesn't create more suffering in the long run? Be conscious.." (95)
"Most Western acticists want freedoms they can see and measure, the external freedoms. But somebody who is seeing clearly, I think, can recognize that even when you get all the external freedoms, which may people in society actually have, you are still not free. That's what spiritaulity addresses itself to, the matter ot inner, or internal freedom." (106)
"It seems a lot of revolutionary tactics in this country have won the battle but lost the war (108)... that's why the nature of the consciousness of the revolutionary determines whether the revolution ultimately liberates or entraps those it was meant to aid. (109) Everytime you're busy struggling against something, you're reinforcing its reality."
World view encapsulated:
"The end of suffering is full awareness. And person can only help another become aware when that person is aware. (96) Just do whatever you're doing in a way that increases the connection of humanity, the awareness of the interrelatedness of tall things (106) Phoniness is the worst part of spiritual life. People trying to be something. (111) As you work on yourself through your daily life, more and more you see your own reactions to hing around you as sort of mechanical rip-offs. (115) Fill your mind with the stuff the liberates you, and clean up your own game."
"I can't think of anything nicer than to be an indsturment of the flow of the universe." (120)
Personally relevant:
"This trip is based on.. a very simple concept. Totaly honesty with yourself, total honesty. If you make a mistake, admit it and get on with it. Don't cover your errors. The whole spiritual journey is a continuous falling on your face. And you get up and brush yourself off, and you get on with it. If you were perfect you wouldn't even go on a journey." (32) The universe is made up of experiences that are designed to burn out your reactivity (93), and "...what we owe each other is to get cooked." (63)
"Ulimately you understand... that the only reason you stay in form is to alleviate suffering to bring others to the light. 57
Socially relevant:
"There are a thousand and one ways in which man is injust to fellow man. Which will you work to change? Which is your particular dharmic path? And as you work to alleviate suffering will you be careful that the way in which you do it doesn't create more suffering in the long run? Be conscious.." (95)
"Most Western acticists want freedoms they can see and measure, the external freedoms. But somebody who is seeing clearly, I think, can recognize that even when you get all the external freedoms, which may people in society actually have, you are still not free. That's what spiritaulity addresses itself to, the matter ot inner, or internal freedom." (106)
"It seems a lot of revolutionary tactics in this country have won the battle but lost the war (108)... that's why the nature of the consciousness of the revolutionary determines whether the revolution ultimately liberates or entraps those it was meant to aid. (109) Everytime you're busy struggling against something, you're reinforcing its reality."
World view encapsulated:
"The end of suffering is full awareness. And person can only help another become aware when that person is aware. (96) Just do whatever you're doing in a way that increases the connection of humanity, the awareness of the interrelatedness of tall things (106) Phoniness is the worst part of spiritual life. People trying to be something. (111) As you work on yourself through your daily life, more and more you see your own reactions to hing around you as sort of mechanical rip-offs. (115) Fill your mind with the stuff the liberates you, and clean up your own game."
"I can't think of anything nicer than to be an indsturment of the flow of the universe." (120)
December 17, 2008
All about 'Awakening' in this lifetime. Very powerful for getting out of the world that society pushes...bigger, faster, better...and how to dive deep into the much deeper and more satisfying spiritual world that is always available to each of us in this very moment.
September 13, 2007
You have to love Ram Dass.
December 20, 2020
what a good way to end the year :)
July 10, 2023
Great read at some of the deeper ideas at play in the spiritual world from Ram Dass perspective, including the challenges and lessons he learned in the earlier parts of his journey as well as some of the pitfalls and rough patches he was able to overcome.
Great Q&A section and several surrounding topics such as role of spirituality and human connections in death and shared ultimate goals with organized religions.
Be Here Now is essential reading before this one, but both contain great ideas and lessons.
Great Q&A section and several surrounding topics such as role of spirituality and human connections in death and shared ultimate goals with organized religions.
Be Here Now is essential reading before this one, but both contain great ideas and lessons.
April 5, 2024
When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
There comes a time in your life when after you have gone through many experiences, many trips and many tragedies; things begin to draw you towards a preparation to receive a transmission from a master teacher. Ram Dass is that master teacher. It just so happens I decided to walk into a local crystal shop looking for incense sticks to burn for my recently deceased grandmother, I came across this book on the shelf. Along with many others, I grabbed it looking for a nice light read. It was during this time I had broke my wrist in a rock climbing accident and had to teach myself to slow down.
Now I had heard of Ram Dass in the past, his exploits with LSD and Tim Leary along with his Netflix special coming home as well as his live conversation with Terence McKenna. But I never gave him much attention due to my distrust with any organised spiritual systems. I always considered myself an spiritual rebel and wanted to get there without the guide of a teacher or a guru.
Not knowing what to expect I found myself frantically turning and re-turning page after page. His words came alive and I found myself laughing and crying, my heart began to open as I was receiving more and more wisdom, his words became my medicine for my soul.
There are many points in life you might consider paradigm shifting, for me it was psychedelics, hatha yoga or a weekend away at a music festival. Moments that open the heart and floods of love and compassion comes pouring out, more than I knew what to do with. But because I lacked the models to make sense and integrate these peak experiences, I kept on coming down, and I was left wondering what the hell happened to me. Ram Dass provides those models with such humour and grace that I like to call it gentle wisdom. And the more I tuned into the transmission of the teacher, the lighter I became. The more I lived life dharmically, that is more attuned to the laws and rhythms of the universe, the more intimate I became with my relationship with suffering. ‘Suffering is grace’, as Ram Dass would say, and when looked at from this perspective, you’ll find that suffering is merely showing you where you’re still hiding behind. The clinging to mind and thoughts forms attachments preventing you from living authentically from your core Self.
Often I am reminded of the quote by Rumi, ‘The heart has to break a thousand times before it finally opens.’ And that is exactly what happens when you don’t turn away from suffering, but instead face it open eyes. Watch what happens. The stillness that comes when you willingly and consciously confront life with all its beauty and all its horror. Your actions become aligned with your heart and your natural capacity for compassion and kindness starts to flow out of you without resistance. This is our innate humanness.
I could talk all day about Ram Dass and his teachings, what he has done for me and what he continually does for me, but my words won’t do it justice. My life has become the message. To those who aren’t initiated but are interested, Grist for the Mill is a wonderful starting place. Your soul will know when you’re ready. The master is waiting. Until then, namaste.
Hare Rama, Hare Krishna 🕉☯️🍄☸️
There comes a time in your life when after you have gone through many experiences, many trips and many tragedies; things begin to draw you towards a preparation to receive a transmission from a master teacher. Ram Dass is that master teacher. It just so happens I decided to walk into a local crystal shop looking for incense sticks to burn for my recently deceased grandmother, I came across this book on the shelf. Along with many others, I grabbed it looking for a nice light read. It was during this time I had broke my wrist in a rock climbing accident and had to teach myself to slow down.
Now I had heard of Ram Dass in the past, his exploits with LSD and Tim Leary along with his Netflix special coming home as well as his live conversation with Terence McKenna. But I never gave him much attention due to my distrust with any organised spiritual systems. I always considered myself an spiritual rebel and wanted to get there without the guide of a teacher or a guru.
Not knowing what to expect I found myself frantically turning and re-turning page after page. His words came alive and I found myself laughing and crying, my heart began to open as I was receiving more and more wisdom, his words became my medicine for my soul.
There are many points in life you might consider paradigm shifting, for me it was psychedelics, hatha yoga or a weekend away at a music festival. Moments that open the heart and floods of love and compassion comes pouring out, more than I knew what to do with. But because I lacked the models to make sense and integrate these peak experiences, I kept on coming down, and I was left wondering what the hell happened to me. Ram Dass provides those models with such humour and grace that I like to call it gentle wisdom. And the more I tuned into the transmission of the teacher, the lighter I became. The more I lived life dharmically, that is more attuned to the laws and rhythms of the universe, the more intimate I became with my relationship with suffering. ‘Suffering is grace’, as Ram Dass would say, and when looked at from this perspective, you’ll find that suffering is merely showing you where you’re still hiding behind. The clinging to mind and thoughts forms attachments preventing you from living authentically from your core Self.
Often I am reminded of the quote by Rumi, ‘The heart has to break a thousand times before it finally opens.’ And that is exactly what happens when you don’t turn away from suffering, but instead face it open eyes. Watch what happens. The stillness that comes when you willingly and consciously confront life with all its beauty and all its horror. Your actions become aligned with your heart and your natural capacity for compassion and kindness starts to flow out of you without resistance. This is our innate humanness.
I could talk all day about Ram Dass and his teachings, what he has done for me and what he continually does for me, but my words won’t do it justice. My life has become the message. To those who aren’t initiated but are interested, Grist for the Mill is a wonderful starting place. Your soul will know when you’re ready. The master is waiting. Until then, namaste.
Hare Rama, Hare Krishna 🕉☯️🍄☸️
February 4, 2022
”You have all the time in the world, but don’t waste a moment.”
Every page of this masterpiece is imbued with the wisdom only a rare being like Ram Dass could put to words. He draws us in with his humble, hippy vernacular and immediately proves that he knows exactly what we’re going through and what we’re looking for. He’s been there and done that a million times over, and he’s come out the other side. This book is truly a guidebook for liberation, and it has become part of my personal scripture shelf. What follows are my cliff notes, followed by a few personal contentions.
Every experience is fuel for our awakening.
”Everything that’s happening to you is part of your work on yourself.”
”The universe is made up of experiences that are designed to burn out our reactivity…”
”Our whole incarnation is the teaching.”
”Only when we are lost in our ego do we damn our suffering. When we are souls yearning to be free, we use our suffering, and we use our pleasure. We use it all to get to God, to get liberated.”
”It’s where our heads are at in every act we perform that determines whether that act liberates or entraps us and everybody around us.”
Liberation from suffering is a transformation of identity.
”The “we” that we thought we were turns out to be a conditioned, mechanical process of body and thought, and the “we” who we really are goes back into the Void, the flow, the Dharma itself.”
”Enlightenment is not an achievement; enlightenment is a transformation of being. And the achiever goes as well as the achievement.”
”Our thinking mind becomes our servant rather than our master.”
”[We] go beyond polarity, beyond pleasure and pain, and awaken out of the illusion of our separateness.”
”[It’s total orgasm,] that moment of perfect flow, in which all separateness has disappeared, is the moment when we are home again, when we know where we belong, when we have returned into the One, when all of the tension that is created by the separateness has, for a moment, dissipated.”
”Moment to moment, it’s a new mind. No personal history. We just keep giving up our storylines.”
Desperation is required.
”We realize that everything we think we can do to create perfection isn’t going to be enough, that who we are and who we think we are is where the problem lies. It leads to a deep despair that seems to be a necessary condition for us to awaken at that moment.”
”It requires a desire to become free of the kinds of clinging and attachment that keep distorting and narrowing our vision.”
”Just at the moment when the despair is greatest, when we reach up, the grace descends, and we experience the [insight] that it all isn’t in fact the way we thought it was.”
”We recognize the bizarre phenomenon that suffering is grace.”
Reason can’t take us there.
”It’s a journey out of time, leaving behind every model we have had of who we think we are.”
”Only when we transcend our logical analytic mind can we even enter the gate.”
”The rational model is a finite subsystem and the law of the universe is infinite.”
”This knowledge can only be known by transforming ourselves into the knowledge itself.”
”All concepts, all models, all molds, all programs in our heads, are limiting conditions.”
We learn to submit to the flow of Being.
”[We become] part of the process, in the same way as a tree or a brook or wheat is part of the process.”
”We have to listen to hear what our trip through is, moment by moment, choice by choice. Is this one getting me closer or isn’t it?”
”We are bringing our external world genuinely and honestly into harmony with our inner perceptions.”
”We work for the perfect balance of the different planes.”
”We start to develop the capacity to look up and to look down at the same moment. To look in and to look out.”
”Consume the emotions into the flow, the flow of all forms of life, until you are just flowing in and out.”
And love is part of it. Because love is awareness.
”The natural state of the mind is pure love, which is not other than pure awareness.”
”What is common to all of our forms is choiceless awareness, is pure love, is flow and harmony in the universe, the absence of clinging, spaciousness.”
Critiques (based on my personal point of view)
Ram Dass places a lot of emphasis on the perfect, self-determined design of the cosmos. But if we know anything about our divine nature, we know it’s creative. And if we know anything about the quantum floor of our reality, we know it is dynamic. Why would we assume that the tapestry of the cosmos is complete, that the artist is just touring the work? Wouldn’t an artist be adding details along the way, expanding the canvas, layering meaning and complexity, getting “lost” in the flow? Maybe that’s what we are—extensions of the divine artist flowing through the work. Our lives are brush strokes of the One, and we live at the end of the paintbrush, witnessing the act of creation from the tapestry level, where the paint meets the fibers.
He also speaks at length about karma. Karma is a very prominent subject in Hinduism and Buddhism — both of Ram Dass’ primary vehicles to truth. So karma is part of his lineage, part of his tradition. And just as with any tradition, it contains wisdom passed down through the generations, but I think it also contains the baggage of countless misunderstandings. Millennia of misunderstandings.
Causality is the natural law for this reality, yes. But many believers in karma do not think of it as mere causality, they think it has something to do with making life fair. They think it means “evil” will be punished. But this concept ignores the relativity of everything. Evil, like good, is just a relativistic label. What is good for predator is evil for prey, and we are both. Here on the stormy surface of consciousness, our scattered identities will not find fairness. It is only upon integration that we realize we're all one. From my perspective, any expansion of karma beyond mere causality is just an example of confirmation bias — we believe in karma because we want to believe life is fair.
But life doesn’t cater to our simian preference for fairness. It is shaking us, screaming, “Wake up!” And we just lie here, asleep, complaining that the dream is shaking.
Every page of this masterpiece is imbued with the wisdom only a rare being like Ram Dass could put to words. He draws us in with his humble, hippy vernacular and immediately proves that he knows exactly what we’re going through and what we’re looking for. He’s been there and done that a million times over, and he’s come out the other side. This book is truly a guidebook for liberation, and it has become part of my personal scripture shelf. What follows are my cliff notes, followed by a few personal contentions.
Every experience is fuel for our awakening.
”Everything that’s happening to you is part of your work on yourself.”
”The universe is made up of experiences that are designed to burn out our reactivity…”
”Our whole incarnation is the teaching.”
”Only when we are lost in our ego do we damn our suffering. When we are souls yearning to be free, we use our suffering, and we use our pleasure. We use it all to get to God, to get liberated.”
”It’s where our heads are at in every act we perform that determines whether that act liberates or entraps us and everybody around us.”
Liberation from suffering is a transformation of identity.
”The “we” that we thought we were turns out to be a conditioned, mechanical process of body and thought, and the “we” who we really are goes back into the Void, the flow, the Dharma itself.”
”Enlightenment is not an achievement; enlightenment is a transformation of being. And the achiever goes as well as the achievement.”
”Our thinking mind becomes our servant rather than our master.”
”[We] go beyond polarity, beyond pleasure and pain, and awaken out of the illusion of our separateness.”
”[It’s total orgasm,] that moment of perfect flow, in which all separateness has disappeared, is the moment when we are home again, when we know where we belong, when we have returned into the One, when all of the tension that is created by the separateness has, for a moment, dissipated.”
”Moment to moment, it’s a new mind. No personal history. We just keep giving up our storylines.”
Desperation is required.
”We realize that everything we think we can do to create perfection isn’t going to be enough, that who we are and who we think we are is where the problem lies. It leads to a deep despair that seems to be a necessary condition for us to awaken at that moment.”
”It requires a desire to become free of the kinds of clinging and attachment that keep distorting and narrowing our vision.”
”Just at the moment when the despair is greatest, when we reach up, the grace descends, and we experience the [insight] that it all isn’t in fact the way we thought it was.”
”We recognize the bizarre phenomenon that suffering is grace.”
Reason can’t take us there.
”It’s a journey out of time, leaving behind every model we have had of who we think we are.”
”Only when we transcend our logical analytic mind can we even enter the gate.”
”The rational model is a finite subsystem and the law of the universe is infinite.”
”This knowledge can only be known by transforming ourselves into the knowledge itself.”
”All concepts, all models, all molds, all programs in our heads, are limiting conditions.”
We learn to submit to the flow of Being.
”[We become] part of the process, in the same way as a tree or a brook or wheat is part of the process.”
”We have to listen to hear what our trip through is, moment by moment, choice by choice. Is this one getting me closer or isn’t it?”
”We are bringing our external world genuinely and honestly into harmony with our inner perceptions.”
”We work for the perfect balance of the different planes.”
”We start to develop the capacity to look up and to look down at the same moment. To look in and to look out.”
”Consume the emotions into the flow, the flow of all forms of life, until you are just flowing in and out.”
And love is part of it. Because love is awareness.
”The natural state of the mind is pure love, which is not other than pure awareness.”
”What is common to all of our forms is choiceless awareness, is pure love, is flow and harmony in the universe, the absence of clinging, spaciousness.”
Critiques (based on my personal point of view)
Ram Dass places a lot of emphasis on the perfect, self-determined design of the cosmos. But if we know anything about our divine nature, we know it’s creative. And if we know anything about the quantum floor of our reality, we know it is dynamic. Why would we assume that the tapestry of the cosmos is complete, that the artist is just touring the work? Wouldn’t an artist be adding details along the way, expanding the canvas, layering meaning and complexity, getting “lost” in the flow? Maybe that’s what we are—extensions of the divine artist flowing through the work. Our lives are brush strokes of the One, and we live at the end of the paintbrush, witnessing the act of creation from the tapestry level, where the paint meets the fibers.
He also speaks at length about karma. Karma is a very prominent subject in Hinduism and Buddhism — both of Ram Dass’ primary vehicles to truth. So karma is part of his lineage, part of his tradition. And just as with any tradition, it contains wisdom passed down through the generations, but I think it also contains the baggage of countless misunderstandings. Millennia of misunderstandings.
Causality is the natural law for this reality, yes. But many believers in karma do not think of it as mere causality, they think it has something to do with making life fair. They think it means “evil” will be punished. But this concept ignores the relativity of everything. Evil, like good, is just a relativistic label. What is good for predator is evil for prey, and we are both. Here on the stormy surface of consciousness, our scattered identities will not find fairness. It is only upon integration that we realize we're all one. From my perspective, any expansion of karma beyond mere causality is just an example of confirmation bias — we believe in karma because we want to believe life is fair.
But life doesn’t cater to our simian preference for fairness. It is shaking us, screaming, “Wake up!” And we just lie here, asleep, complaining that the dream is shaking.
September 30, 2020
Not for newbies like me. I'm here because Duncan Trussell, a comedian I like, said "Grist for the Mill" was one of his favorite books, but I think this is a book for people already indoctrinated into whatever lifestyle Ram Dass is talking about. I think it's Buddhism? I don't know. I feel like I turned on the TV in the middle of an old movie in a different language. I read the whole thing, but don't know what it is I read. There were, however, a couple of moments where I thought I got it, hence the two stars. Maybe someday I'll return to this, older and wiser, and really eat up what he's dishing out.
March 3, 2021
Little let down by this one. I thought this pales in comparison to ‘Polishing the Mirror.’ This very much reminded me of ‘Be Here Now’ in that it is so all over the place and vague. I’ll always be an RD guy but this was a minor let down.
February 11, 2017
SO AWESOME SO FAR. Deep thoughts and lots of in-your-face GET YOUR LIFE INTO A BETTER POSITION thought reinforcements. GREAT stuff!
April 12, 2014
Another great book by Ram Dass
September 9, 2016
Listened to this while painting walls. Nice focus and thoughts.
July 31, 2013
Excellent read.
December 8, 2013
This one deserves 6 stars. Just wonderful.
August 3, 2021
https://rogueliterarysociety.com/f/gr...
...we gather to remind one another who we are. What we’re looking for is who is looking; it’s happening all around us, and we are what’s happening. So that next time we sit waiting for something to begin, we realize that there is nothing that needs to begin, for the beginning, the middle, and the end are already who we are…though we gather as a group and listen to one another, each of us is in a unique predicament, and that we must listen to our own hearts to hear what we need; we can’t imitate anybody else’s journey…
After a few decades of avoiding Ram Dass, staying out of touch with him, I came back. He was always a wise man, interesting, and he generally made sense. Of late, I have again begun practicing some of his methods and have reconsidered many of his concepts and beliefs. One of them, letting go, was something I became intimately aware of beginning in 1986 when I was wrestling with the ravages of my own personal demons being fed by my disease with alcohol. Thirty-five years later I am still sober and work daily at getting at what makes me tick. It is hard and hellish, this personal road, and sometimes lonely, but definitely worth the journey.
...When we don’t get so lost in our melodramas, we stop creating more karma for ourselves. Letting go is the act of purification…
Ain’t it the truth. For years I struggled living and existing in a world of lazy workers, bad drivers, selfish retailers, greedy executives, shitty products, disposable houses, and dishonest politicians. For a short period of a few months I took a prescribed antidepressant to help keep my hateful feelings at bay. The problem I found with this medicine was that my mind never stopped its hating and severe judgments against the world I inhabited. I quit ingesting a drug that made me feel better but failed to quiet my mind. I knew I had to again change my thinking, accept things as they are, and change what I could on the outside. A year or so ago I did begin using CBD and THC to help in my physical pain and personal journey. There are days I forget to use them.
...The only preparation for death, it turns out, is the moment-to-moment life process. When you live in the present now, and then this present, when the moment of death comes, you are not living in the future or in the past. The freaky thing about death is the anticipatory fear of it. But you can’t tell someone else to live in the present moment unless you yourself are…
My thirty-nine year old step-daughter recently died from a terrible cancer she fought and suffered with for almost five years. She, along with her devoted husband, were fortunate to have made a trip to Hawaii to have a face to face encounter with Ram Dass. Not too long ago, you know, Ram Dass died, and I know his passing took its toll on this young woman as well. But the teachings, examples, and the spirit of Ram Dass lives on.
...The offering up or the cleaning is called purification.It exists in every religion. In Raja Yoga these are the yamas, or it’s the various vows we take in Buddhism, or the abstinences and commandments in Christianity and Judaism. These are done out of what is called “discriminative awareness.” That is, we understand that we are entities passing through a life in which the entire life drama is a curriculum for our awakening. We see that the life experience is a vehicle for coming to God, for becoming conscious, for becoming liberated. And we understand that ultimately that’s what we’re doing here…
It is my current understanding that we are all on personal journeys, some of us more evolved than others, some in fact Neanderthal which still scares the hell out of me. Our political climate is unsettling, the earth’s climate is in crisis, and innocent creatures of the land, air, and sea are facing extreme dangers. What better time to revisit and get reacquainted with one of our greatest contemporary teachers. This is a book to be held and revisited from time to time. And no time better than the present.
...every time we’re busy struggling against something, we’re reinforcing its reality...
...we gather to remind one another who we are. What we’re looking for is who is looking; it’s happening all around us, and we are what’s happening. So that next time we sit waiting for something to begin, we realize that there is nothing that needs to begin, for the beginning, the middle, and the end are already who we are…though we gather as a group and listen to one another, each of us is in a unique predicament, and that we must listen to our own hearts to hear what we need; we can’t imitate anybody else’s journey…
After a few decades of avoiding Ram Dass, staying out of touch with him, I came back. He was always a wise man, interesting, and he generally made sense. Of late, I have again begun practicing some of his methods and have reconsidered many of his concepts and beliefs. One of them, letting go, was something I became intimately aware of beginning in 1986 when I was wrestling with the ravages of my own personal demons being fed by my disease with alcohol. Thirty-five years later I am still sober and work daily at getting at what makes me tick. It is hard and hellish, this personal road, and sometimes lonely, but definitely worth the journey.
...When we don’t get so lost in our melodramas, we stop creating more karma for ourselves. Letting go is the act of purification…
Ain’t it the truth. For years I struggled living and existing in a world of lazy workers, bad drivers, selfish retailers, greedy executives, shitty products, disposable houses, and dishonest politicians. For a short period of a few months I took a prescribed antidepressant to help keep my hateful feelings at bay. The problem I found with this medicine was that my mind never stopped its hating and severe judgments against the world I inhabited. I quit ingesting a drug that made me feel better but failed to quiet my mind. I knew I had to again change my thinking, accept things as they are, and change what I could on the outside. A year or so ago I did begin using CBD and THC to help in my physical pain and personal journey. There are days I forget to use them.
...The only preparation for death, it turns out, is the moment-to-moment life process. When you live in the present now, and then this present, when the moment of death comes, you are not living in the future or in the past. The freaky thing about death is the anticipatory fear of it. But you can’t tell someone else to live in the present moment unless you yourself are…
My thirty-nine year old step-daughter recently died from a terrible cancer she fought and suffered with for almost five years. She, along with her devoted husband, were fortunate to have made a trip to Hawaii to have a face to face encounter with Ram Dass. Not too long ago, you know, Ram Dass died, and I know his passing took its toll on this young woman as well. But the teachings, examples, and the spirit of Ram Dass lives on.
...The offering up or the cleaning is called purification.It exists in every religion. In Raja Yoga these are the yamas, or it’s the various vows we take in Buddhism, or the abstinences and commandments in Christianity and Judaism. These are done out of what is called “discriminative awareness.” That is, we understand that we are entities passing through a life in which the entire life drama is a curriculum for our awakening. We see that the life experience is a vehicle for coming to God, for becoming conscious, for becoming liberated. And we understand that ultimately that’s what we’re doing here…
It is my current understanding that we are all on personal journeys, some of us more evolved than others, some in fact Neanderthal which still scares the hell out of me. Our political climate is unsettling, the earth’s climate is in crisis, and innocent creatures of the land, air, and sea are facing extreme dangers. What better time to revisit and get reacquainted with one of our greatest contemporary teachers. This is a book to be held and revisited from time to time. And no time better than the present.
...every time we’re busy struggling against something, we’re reinforcing its reality...
April 25, 2021
Books really do come to you at the right time. A very good friend gave me this and it took me a while to pick it up. I had some demons to take care of and some behavioural changes that needed to be worked out, unknowingly of course. Those things happened, I picked up this book as I wanted to get in contact with my friend having completed it, and wow!
Coming to this book, I think you need to open and ready to receive it's message. There is an element of having prior wisdom, acceptance that things aren't as they seem 'in your head' and that there must be something else out there. We're not alone. You're not alone.
If you're curious about spirituality, religion, the meaning of life etc etc, I would highly recommend this book. Ram Dass writes in a very welcoming and relatable way. There is a lot of religious references which I have been picking up along the way, but in the most part, he comes across like a friend you might have met once. Or wish you had.
10/10.
Coming to this book, I think you need to open and ready to receive it's message. There is an element of having prior wisdom, acceptance that things aren't as they seem 'in your head' and that there must be something else out there. We're not alone. You're not alone.
If you're curious about spirituality, religion, the meaning of life etc etc, I would highly recommend this book. Ram Dass writes in a very welcoming and relatable way. There is a lot of religious references which I have been picking up along the way, but in the most part, he comes across like a friend you might have met once. Or wish you had.
10/10.
February 3, 2021
Breathtakingly profound, and perfectly simple and concise. Ram Dass illustrates the core concepts of his spiritual practice and theories on reality, love, God, and life with some charming anecdotes sprinkled throughout along with practical instructions for a beginner practitioner.
This was my first encounter with Ram Dass, and doubtless it will not be my last. Few have the ability to express existential musings in such a clear, digestible manner, much less with the degree of playfulness Ram Dass brings to the conversations. This small but potent book contains surprise humor tucked within its pages, alongside humble confessions, and thankfully lacking the stuffy pretense of so many New Age authors that take themselves too seriously. I imagine I will be returning to this book often, as it seems the type that resonates differently with age and experience.
This was my first encounter with Ram Dass, and doubtless it will not be my last. Few have the ability to express existential musings in such a clear, digestible manner, much less with the degree of playfulness Ram Dass brings to the conversations. This small but potent book contains surprise humor tucked within its pages, alongside humble confessions, and thankfully lacking the stuffy pretense of so many New Age authors that take themselves too seriously. I imagine I will be returning to this book often, as it seems the type that resonates differently with age and experience.
March 7, 2025
I wanted to read a book by Ram Dass since his audio teachings are so impactful, and often with a book you get a concentrated, structured teaching. This book, however, feels more like a recorded lecture, where Ram Dass meanders around subjects a bit and is simply a vessel for multiple truths being written one after another. It's not a difficult book to follow (at least compared to parts of Be Here Now, but that book is just as much artform as it is a narrative).
Ultimately Grist for the Mill was full of wise reflections, and therefore can be useful for opening to a random spot and reading for inspiration. It doesn't need to be read cover-to-cover, but I've had it in my Kindle for several years and not bitten off the time needed to read it. It did take a while to digest, but any deep book should contain a lot to chew on.
Ultimately Grist for the Mill was full of wise reflections, and therefore can be useful for opening to a random spot and reading for inspiration. It doesn't need to be read cover-to-cover, but I've had it in my Kindle for several years and not bitten off the time needed to read it. It did take a while to digest, but any deep book should contain a lot to chew on.
June 15, 2025
Ram Dass is a '7' on the enneagram. I think that explains how I struggle to take him totally seriously as a spiritual teacher. How can someone be a teacher when they are more interested in talking about their experiences?
He is really smart but can't help himself from trying out new experiences. Hopeless romantic vibe. It's like he is giving this very clear, articulate, important teaching and then he gets distracted and is jumping on a bus to visit some country or do some other fun activity.
This chaotic mix of intellectualism and mostly self-aware extreme curiosity is what makes him so popular. There's nothing really 'heavy' or official about him. And maybe that's what has made him such a popular western spiritual teacher.
He is really smart but can't help himself from trying out new experiences. Hopeless romantic vibe. It's like he is giving this very clear, articulate, important teaching and then he gets distracted and is jumping on a bus to visit some country or do some other fun activity.
This chaotic mix of intellectualism and mostly self-aware extreme curiosity is what makes him so popular. There's nothing really 'heavy' or official about him. And maybe that's what has made him such a popular western spiritual teacher.
April 6, 2020
This was fun. I’m a beginner to meditation and have good sense of the Yoga Sutra and the path to enlightenment. Ram is super advanced and has experienced many different realities / consciousness over his lifetime and provided some great insights and observations about his awareness and what he has learned. He cover topics like: the journey, rules of the game, levels of reality, lineage, dying, methods and God. I really enjoyed reading his perspective and being able to learn from his accumulated wisdom. I’ll have to read this again in a short time to reaffirm the concepts into my everyday practice. He closes the book with “all I really want to do is become free.”
April 8, 2021
A review of a book about deepening one's spirituality is bound to say as much, or more, about the reviewer than the book. Let me just say thatI found a ton of useful information in this book and marked a lot of it in yellow, so reviewing it will be easy and hopefully keep me in tune with my goals.
I began reading this book almost a year ago and barely understood a word. A week or so ago I picked it up again and found it to be rich in lucid advice and stories. If you are already interested in Eastern religions you already realize that simply reading a book won't get you where you want to go, but it can throw a lot of light on the way. This book burned brightly for me.
I began reading this book almost a year ago and barely understood a word. A week or so ago I picked it up again and found it to be rich in lucid advice and stories. If you are already interested in Eastern religions you already realize that simply reading a book won't get you where you want to go, but it can throw a lot of light on the way. This book burned brightly for me.
November 5, 2024
A great summing up of his previous titles, such as Paths to God, this book by Ram Dass, written with Stephen Levine, is a must-read. In an author's note from 1976, Ram Dass says, "What is contained in this book certainly didnot originate with me. It is part of a river that flows through me from my Guru, teachers, parents, past incarnations and life experience." Ram Dass has a gift for teaching and for revealing his own experience on the spiritual path in order to light the way for his readers. His easy prose style, assisted in this book by co-author Stephen Levine, is like a spoonful of honey to ease the acquisition of enlightenment for all who read him.
December 28, 2022
This was my first dive into the spirituality and philosophy of Ram Dass. I think most of the text is adapted from transcriptions from speeches that he gave throughout his life. The idea that it's all grist for the mill is repeated throughout the book. As I understand it, the idea is that all your life experiences are grist for the mill of your spiritual journey. One of my favorite quotes from the book is something about how you can become enlightened by any life experience, e.g., eating pizza, buying groceries, whatever.
February 2, 2018
This is 5 stars *if* you are into Ram Dass and his style of sharing knowledge. This book came across my path while I was going through emotional ground that was brand new to me, and Ram Dass helped me to make sense of it all. I especially appreciate how he weaves his personal anecdotes with ancient teachings, and at the same time relates it to someone who is anywhere along a similar path. It's one that doesn't necessarily need to be read all at once.
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