Ram Dass - Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

RAM DASS , one of Americas most beloved spiritual figures, has made his mark on the world by teaching the path of the heart and promoting service in the areas of social consciousness and care for the dying. Ram Dass first went to India in 1967. He was still Dr. Richard Alpert, an eminent Harvard psychologist and psychedelic pioneer with Dr. Timothy Leary. In India, he met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, affectionately known as Maharaj-ji, who gave Ram Dass his name, which means servant of God.

Upon his return from India, Ram Dass became a pivotal influence in our culture with the publication of Be Here Now in 1970. In fact, those words have become a catchphrase in peoples lives for the past forty years. He followed with Still Here in 2004 and completed his trilogy with Be Love Now in 2011. He released a new book with coauthor Rameshwar Das entitled Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart in 2013.

Ram Dasss spirit has been a guiding light for four generations, carrying millions along the journey, helping to free them from their bonds as he works his way through his own. He now makes his home in Maui, teaches worldwide through his website RamDass.org, and continues the work of Neem Karoli Baba through his Love Serve Remember Foundation.

After living two years in India in the seventies with Ram Dass, Neem Karoli Baba, and Buddhist teachers, MIRABAI BUSH returned home to become a leader in exploring the use of contemplative practices in American institutions and professions with the goal of a more just, compassionate, and reflective society. She has taught with Ram Dass in many settings.

Mirabai cofounded Illuminations, Inc., based on principles of right livelihood, foreshadowing the movement for socially responsible business. Her experience led, many years later, to co-creating Googles popular training Search Inside Yourself: Mindfulness-Based Emotional Intelligence.

Mirabai directed the Seva Foundation Guatemala Project in Mayan community development and sustainable agriculture for ten years, which, through quiet reflection and informed dialogue, engaged intuitive intelligence and professional experience in decision making.

As founding director of The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Mirabai led a diverse network of leaders from almost every sector of American life to systematically explore the potential contribution of contemplative practices on American civic life. The practicesmeditation, yoga, contemplative prayer, deep listening, Lectio Divina, and otherswere drawn from diverse wisdom traditions and adapted in programs specifically designed for the sectors of law, business, journalism, environment, social justice activism, biotech sciences, youth leadership, government, and philanthropy. In higher education, the center now supports a network of 8,000 faculty and administrators in developing contemplative pedagogy and epistemologyan integrated way of knowing that calls on the whole person rather than critical faculties alone.

Mirabai lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband E. J. Lynch. She is mother of filmmaker V. Owen Bush and grandmother of Dahlia Bush.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

RAM DASS

Special thanks to those who taught me and inspired me about death and dying: Stephen Levine, Elisabeth Kbler-Ross, Dale Borglum, Frank Ostaseski, Roshi Joan Halifax, Frances Vaughan, Angeles Arrien, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and Bodhi and Leilah Be.

MIRABAI BUSH

Loving thanks to those who gave material support for me to fly back and forth so many times to Maui and spend the hours it took to craft our long and rambling conversations into this slim book: Bob Shapiro, Frank Peabody, Gina Sharpe, Bokara Legendre, Bo Shao, and Oleg Gorelik.

The first readers helped by offering both encouragement and critical comment: Helen Tworkov, who was writing about dying with Mingyur Rinpoche; Danny Goleman; Owen Bush. I first read some of it aloud at a retreat for the Sevettes, the founding women of Seva Foundation, whose wise opinions are always important to me, and you were incredibly helpful: Sunanda, Girija, Jahanara, Suzanne, Pat, Bev, and Pauline.

My fellow board members of Love Serve Remember, who help further Maharaj-jis treasured teachings, thank you: Raghu, Ramesh, Gopal, Gagan.

Dassi Ma, Lakshman Moss, Lucian Davis, and Govinda Cobb, who were Ram Dasss caretakers during the time of these conversations, helped him be healthy and comfortable, well fed, and always loved.

Thanks to Tami Simon, longtime friend, through whose vision Sounds True has flourished. And to all those at Sounds True who worked to transform these Maui conversations into a book: Jade Lascelles, Kira Roark, Wendy Gardner, Jeff Mack, Jennifer Miles, Beth Skelley, Jennifer Brown, and Vesela Simic.

Bows to all my teachers, including Gelek Rimpoche, who died this year, and to my niece Lisa Khannawe shared the many emotions and awakenings of the death of my sister Barbara.

And deepest thanks to my extended Western Mass family, who support and sustain me, especially my husband E. J. Lynch, my son V. Owen Bush, and my divine granddaughter, Dahlia Bush.

ALSO BY RAM DASS

Be Here Now

The Only Dance There Is

Grist for the Mill (with Stephen Levine)

Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying

Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita

Be Love Now (with Rameshwar Das)

Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart (with Rameshwar Das)

ALSO BY MIRABAI BUSH

Contemplation Nation: How Ancient Practices Are Changing the Way We Live (as editor)

Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning (with Daniel Barbezat)

ALSO BY RAM DASS AND MIRABAI BUSH

Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

BOOKS

Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.

Blackman, Sushila, ed. Graceful Exits: How Great Beings Die. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2005.

Chdrn, Pema. When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 2016.

Das, Krishna. Chants of a Lifetime: Searching for a Heart of Gold. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2010.

Ellison, Koshin Paley, and Matt Weingast, eds. Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End-of-Life Care. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2016.

Fischer, Norman. Sailing Home: Using the Wisdom of Homers Odyssey to Navigate Lifes Perils and Pitfalls. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2011.

Fremantle, Francesca. Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2001.

Gawande, Atul. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. New York: Picador/Macmillan, 2015.

Gehlek Rimpoche. Good Life, Good Death: Tibetan Wisdom on Reincarnation. New York: Riverhead/Penguin, 2001.

Halifax, Joan. Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2008.

Holecek, Andrew. Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. Boulder, CO: Snow Lion/Shambhala Publications, 2013.

Huxley, Aldous. Island. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2009.

Kalanithi, Paul.