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The brahmavihāras (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of brahma") are a series of four Buddhist virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as the four immeasurables (Sanskrit: apramāṇa, Pāli: appamaññā).^[1][2]

According to the Metta Sutta, Shākyamuni Buddha held that cultivation of the four immeasurables has the power to cause the practitioner to be reborn into a Brahma realm (Pāli: Brahmaloka).^[3] The meditator is instructed to radiate out to all beings in all directions the mental states of: 1) loving-kindness or benevolence, 2) compassion, 3) empathetic joy, and, 4) equanimity. The four immeasurables are also found in Patañjali's Yoga Sutras (1.33),^[4] a text composed long after the beginning of Buddhism and substantially influenced by Buddhism.^[5][6] These virtues are also highly regarded by Buddhists as powerful antidotes to negative mental states (non-virtues) such as avarice, anger and pride.

Etymology & translations[link]

• Pāli: cattāri brahmavihārā
• Sanskrit: 'चत्वारि ब्रह्मविहारा (IAST: catvāri brahmavihārāḥ)

Brahmavihāra means “Brahma abidings”, or "sublime attitudes."^[7] It may be parsed as "Brahma" and "vihāra"; which is often rendered into English as "sublime" or "divine abodes".

Apramāṇa, usually translated as "the immeasurables," means boundlessness, infinitude, a state that is illimitable.^[8] When developed to a high degree in meditation, these attitudes are said to make the mind "immeasurable" and like the mind of the loving brahmā (gods).^[9]

Other translations:

• English: four divine abodes, four divine emotions, four sublime attitudes.
• East Asia: 四無量心 (pinyin: Sì wúliàng xīn; Japanese: Shi muryō shin; Korean: 사무량심 Sa mulyang sim; Vietnamese: Tứ Vô Lượng Tâm; literally: "immeasurable states of mind, from apramāṇa-citta"), 四等(心) (pinyin: sì děng; literally: "four equalities/universals"), 四梵行 (pinyin: sì Fàn xíng; literally: "noble Brahma-acts/characteristics").^[10]
• Tibetan: ཚད་མེད་བཞི, Wylie: tshad med bzhi or Tibetan: ཚངས་གནས་བཞི་, Wylie: tshangs gnas bzhi.

Exegesis[link]

The four immeasurables are:

1. Loving-kindness (Pāli: metta, Sanskrit: maitri) towards all: the hope that a person will be well; "the wish that all sentient beings, without any exception, be happy."^[11]
2. Compassion (Pāli and Sanskrit: karuṇā): the hope that a person's sufferings will diminish; "the wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering."^[11]
3. Empathetic joy (Pāli and Sanskrit: mudita): joy in the accomplishments of a person—oneself or another; sympathetic joy; "the wholesome attitude of rejoicing in the happiness and virtues of all sentient beings."^[11]
4. Equanimity (Pāli: upekkhā, Sanskrit: upekṣā): learning to accept loss and gain, praise and blame, and success and failure, all with detachment, equally, for oneself and for others. Equanimity is "not to distinguish between friend, enemy or stranger, but regard every sentient being as equal. It is a clear-minded tranquil state of mind—not being overpowered by delusions, mental dullness or agitation."^[12]

Loving-kindness and compassion are both hopes for the future (leading, where possible, to action aimed at realizing those hopes). Joy and equanimity are attitudes to what has already happened, but also with regard to consequences for future action. While these four might be delineated as attitudes to the future or past, they contain the seed of the "present" within their core (as a living embodied practice). This is the essence of the spiritual laws of karma, self-responsibility, and right thoughts (samma sankkalpa, literally 'right commitments'). A dedicated intention that all beings are in the "here and now", tranquil, happy, in touch with their gifts and accomplishments, and feeling interconnected by that synergy to eschew suffering by abdication.^{[clarification needed]}

[edit] Brahmavihāra practice in the Visuddhimagga

The four immeasurables are explained in The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), written in the fifth century CE by the scholar and commentator Buddhaghoṣa. They are often practiced by taking each of the immeasurables in turn and applying it to oneself, wishing oneself well (omitted while training oneself in mudita),^{[clarification needed]} and then to others nearby, and so on to everybody in the world, and to everybody in all universes.

Legacy[link]

Although this form of these ideas has a Buddhist origin, the ideas themselves are in no way sectarian. The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement uses them in public meditation events in Sri Lanka bringing together Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. Rudyard Kipling's inspirational poem If refers to the idea of upekkhā in calling Triumph and Disaster impostors.

The four immeasurables in early Buddhism[link]

In the Tevijja Sutta: The Threefold Knowledge of the Majjhima Nikaya set of scriptures, Buddha Shākyamuni is asked the way to fellowship/companionship/communion with Brahma. He replies that he personally knows the world of Brahma and the way to it, and explains the meditative method for reaching it by using an analogy of the resonance of the conch shell of the aṣṭamaṅgala:

A monk suffuses the world in the four directions with a mind of benevolence, then above, and below, and all around – the whole world from all sides, completely, with a benevolent, all-embracing, great, boundless, peaceful and friendly mind … Just as a powerful conch-blower makes himself heard with no great effort in all four [cardinal] directions, so too is there no limit to the unfolding of [this] heart-liberating benevolence. This is a way to communion with Brahma.^[13]

The Buddha then says that the monk must follow this up with an equal suffusion of the entire world with mental projections of compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (regarding all beings with an eye of equality).

In the two Metta Suttas of the Aṅguttara Nikāya,^[14] the Buddha states that those who practice radiating the four immeasurables in this life and die "without losing it" are destined for rebirth in a heavenly realm in their next life. In addition, if such a person is a Buddhist disciple (Pāli: sāvaka) and thus realizes the three characteristics of the five aggregates, then after his heavenly life, this disciple will reach nibbāna. Even if one is not a disciple, one will still attain the heavenly life, after which, however, one may again be reborn in a hell realm, or as an animal or hungry ghost.^[15]

[edit] A Cavern of Treasures (mDzod-phug)

A Cavern of Treasures (Tibetan: མཛོད་ཕུག, Wylie: mdzod phug) is a Bonpo terma uncovered by Shenchen Luga (Tibetan: གཤེན་ཆེན་ཀླུ་དགའ, Wylie: gshen-chen klu-dga') in the early eleventh century. A segment of it enshrines a Bonpo evocation of the four immeasurables.^[16] Martin (n.d.: p. 21) identifies the importance of this scripture for studies of the Zhang-Zhung language.^[17]

Notes[link]

1. ^ Jon Wetlesen, Did Santideva Destroy the Bodhisattva Path? Jnl Buddhist Ethics, Vol. 9, 2002 (accessed March 2010)
2. ^ Bodhi, Bhikkhu. 'Abhidhammattha Sangaha: A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma. BPS Pariyatti Editions, 2000, p. 89.
3. ^ AN 4.125, Metta Sutta. See note 2 on the different kinds of Brahmas mentioned.
4. ^ Swami Jnāneshvara Bhārati. "Commentary on the Yoga Sutras". Swami Jnāneshvara Bhārati. http://www.swamij.com/yoga-sutras-13339.htm#1.33. Retrieved 2009-07-31. 
5. ^ Karel Werner, The Yogi and the Mystic. Routledge 1994, page 27.
6. ^ Barbara Stoler Miller, Yoga: Discipline of Freedom: the Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali; a Translation of the Text, with Commentary, Introduction, and Glossary of Keywords. University of California Press, 1996, page 9.
7. ^ Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
8. ^ Rhys Davids & Stede, 1921-25, Pali-English Dictionary, Pali Text Society.
9. ^ Peter Harvey, "An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics." Cambridge University Press, 2000, page 104.
10. ^ W.E. Soothill and Lewis Hodous, 1937, A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Buddhist Studies for Secondary Students, Unit 6: The Four Immeasurables
12. ^ A View on Buddhism, THE FOUR IMMEASURABLES: Love, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity
13. ^ Majjhimanikaya, tr. by Kurt Schmidt, Kristkeitz, Berlin, 1978, p.261, tr. by Tony Page.
14. ^ AN 4.125, AN 4.126
15. ^ AN 4.125: Metta Sutta: Loving-kindness, Ñanamoli's translation (accessed March 2010)
16. ^ Berzin, Alexander (2005). The Four Immeasurable Attitudes in Hinayana, Mahayana, and Bon. Berzin Archives. (accessed: Monday March 1, 2010)
17. ^ "For students of Tibetan culture in general, the mDzod phug is one of the most intriguing of all Bon scriptures, since it is the only lengthy bilingual work in Zhang-zhung and Tibetan. (Some of the shorter but still significant sources for Zhang-zhung are signalled in Orofino 1990.)" Martin, Dan (n.d.). Comparing Treasuries: Mental states and other mdzod phug lists and passages with parallels in Abhidharma works of Vasubandhu and Asanga, or in Prajnaparamita Sutras: A progress report. University of Jerusalem. (accessed: Monday March 1, 2010)

See also[link]

• Antidote (Buddhism)
• Karuṇā
• Metta
• Mudita
• Upekkha

Further reading[link]

• Buddhas Reden (Majjhimanikaya), Kristkreitz, Berlin, 1978, tr. by Kurt Schmidt
• Yamamoto, Kosho (tr.) & Page, Tony (revision) (2000). The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra. London, UK: Nirvana Publications.

External links[link]

• Berzin, Alexander (2005). The Four Immeasurable Attitudes in Hinayana, Mahayana, and Bon
• Brahma-Vihara Foundation
• The Four Sublime States by the Venerable Nyanaponika Thera.
• Online Metta Contemplation
• The Four Brahma Viharas
• The Four Immeasurables
• Safe Medicine!

Piya Tan Beng Sin (Chinese: 陈明信; born 20 August 1949 in Malacca, Malaysia), also known as Piya Tan or Piyasilo (monastic name), is a Peranakan full-time lay Buddhist writer-cum-teacher in Singapore. He actively teaches the Buddha's Dharma, meditation and Pali to various Buddhist groups and organisations, and also works as a meditation therapist and counsellor at The Minding Centre (TMC).^[1] He is the first full-time lay Dharma worker ("Dharmacari") in Singapore to be supported by donations from the Buddhist community.^[2]

Early life[link]

As a youth, Piya was a self-confessed bookworm who loved the great outdoors, especially climbing Gunung Ledang in Malaysia. On one such trip, while running after a butterfly to net it, he serendipitously stopped right at the edge of a cliff. During this near-death experience, the thought flashed across his mind that there are better things than catching butterflies. This was one of the major factors that led him to later become a monk. In his layman years before ordination, while Principal of the Seck Kia Eenh Dharma School (Malacca Buddhist Association), Malaysia, he prepared and implemented the Integrated Syllabus of Buddhist Studies, the most comprehensive Buddhist syllabus in Malaysia and Singapore then. As a monk, Piyasilo was best known for his national Dharma courses in Malaysia and Singapore and served as advisor or consultant to various tertiary Buddhist societies and Buddhist groups.^[3]

Ordination[link]

He was a Theravada Buddhist monk for over 20 years. In 1970, he became a novice (samanera, pabbajjaa) in Wat Anandametyarama, Singapore, under HE Somdet Phra Vanarat (Poon Punnasiri of Wat Phra Jetubon), and on 24 June 1972, received his Higher Ordination (upasampadaa) from Somdet Phra Vanarat at Wat Srakes Rajavaramahavihara, Bangkok, Thailand, who some months later became the 17th Supreme Patriarch of the Thai Buddhist Order.^[3]

During his first year in Thailand in 1972, he studied Thai. From 1973 to 1975, he successfully completed the Nak Tham series of ecclesiastical examination, attaining Nak Tham Ek (the highest grade). He went on to study at the Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University in 1975. In 1974, while at Wat Srakes (Wat Saket), he acted as Ajahn Brahmavamso's interpreter before the latter was ordained by HE Phra Brahmagunabhorn, the abbot of Wat Srakes.

During his years in Thailand, he became close friends with the country's foremost Buddhist thinker, Chaokhun Prayudh Payutto, and the Buddhist social activist, Sulaks Sivaraksa, who founded the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB). In due course, Piya introduced a number of his students to Buddhist social work. In 1970, Piya co-founded The Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia as Vice-President just before leaving for his monastic training in Thailand. During his tenure, he wrote the lyrics for The Anthem of Unity (music by Victor Wee). In due course, he founded the Friends of Buddhism Malaysia (1985) and the Friends of Buddhism Singapore (1986). During the same period, he started the 'Dharmafarers', a community of full-time lay Buddhist workers, the first of its kind in the two countries.^[4]

Singapore[link]

From 1982 to 1986, he was consultant and lecturer to the Buddhist Studies Team for Secondary Schools by the Ministry of Education. He was invited to join the team when available Buddhist textbooks were deemed by the Cambridge Examinations Syndicate as unsuitable for examination purposes. He presented his Integrated Syllabus to the Buddhist Studies Team, and working closely with the Project Director, Dr. Ang Beng Choo, they succeeded in making Buddhist Studies the most popular and successful of the Religious Studies subjects. The other important contribution Piya made to Singapore Buddhism in the 1980s was that he used his teachings and courses to successfully unify the Buddhist youth groups of Singapore into a fellowship network.

In 1990, Piyasilo left the Order to work as a layman. In 1994, in recognition of his Buddhist work (said to be "of PhD equivalent"), Prof Lewis Lancaster of the University of California at Berkeley's Dept. of East Asian Studies, invited him to the University as a Visiting Scholar. While there, he taught meditation, and was also a guest of the Berkeley Zen Center, where he became a close friend of Alan Senauke, and worked closely with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.^[2]

In 1996, he married Ratna Lim, and they have two sons. In 2000, Piya and his family were invited by his ex-students to live and teach in Singapore, where he works as a full-time lay teacher.^[3] In Singapore, he is currently consultant and Dharma teacher to the following organizations:

• Singapore Buddhist Mission
• Poh Ern Shih Temple
• Poh Ming Tse Temple
• National University of Singapore Buddhist Society (NUSBS)
• Nanyang Technological University Buddhist Society (NTUBS)
• Various local polytechnics

In 2001, an ex-student of his named Lee Chin Soo started a website for Piya; DharmaNet where his works during the early 2000s in Singapore are recorded. During his early years as a Theravada monk, he was privileged to learn insight meditation (Vipassana) directly from the venerable Mahasi Sayadaw himself in 1979. As a lay teacher, he learned the forest meditation directly from Ajahn Brahmavamso. Using the two systems, he has run numerous meditation courses and retreats for students and adults including non-Buddhists, as well as various organizations and corporations such as the Defence Science Organization, Singapore Airlines, and Hewlett-Packard et cetera. He is also personal meditation mentor to various public figures, and spiritual mentor to various young Buddhists. In Singapore, he runs Dharma, Sutta, Pali and meditation classes like the Introduction to Pali series, the Sutta Study Group at NUS Buddhist Society (since Feb 2003),^[5] the English Dharma Courses and the Sutta Discovery classes at The Buddhist Fellowship (BF) and The Singapore Buddhist Mission.

In 2006, he started The Minding Centre, a Dharma and right livelihood activity centre, where he teaches the Suttas he has translated and runs the Piya's Meditation Courses, a blend of the Forest & Insight methods for the public. Piya is a regular teacher at the Brahm Education Centre (BEC) where he has been running the popular Meditation for Beginners classes since Jan 2004,^[6] and other courses. He lives with his family at Pali House, where he works full-time on the Sutta translation project.

Sutta translation work[link]

The Sutta Discovery Series, an annotated translation of the early Pali Suttas (the 4 Nikayas), incorporates some of the best elements of Western academic standards with the excellence of the Buddhist spiritual traditions. The approach blends both scriptural understanding and meditation practice. The Sutta Discovery translations have been endorsed and used by various monks, such as Ajahn Sujato of Australia, Bhante Aggacitta of Malaysia and Ven S Pemaratana of Sri Lanka.

Despite being "digitally challenged", he launched the Dharmafarer website single-handedly in late 2006, where his annotated Sutta translations and works are made freely available online.^[7] Despite his heavy teaching and work schedule, he continue to conduct the free weekly Sutta classes at NUSBS, the Buddhist Fellowship and the TMC where he proof-reads and studies his Sutta translations with a group of serious Buddhists learners tirelessly to this day.

Education[link]

List of works[link]

As Piyasilo, he had a special interest in the sociology of religion, and wrote many ground-breaking and educational books on Buddhism such as Total Buddhist Work (1983) and social surveys (such as Buddhist Currents and Charisma in Buddhism, 1992), and spoke at various international and inter-religious forums. In 1984, Apple Computer declared him "Apple User of the Year," effectively making him one of the first monks to "computerize" (See picture on the right). He is well-known for his futuristic visions of Buddhism, especially in terms of the full-time lay Buddhist ministry.

As supported by donations, most of Piya's works were published in limited prints only. A few numbers can still be found by selected booksellers^[8] and in the libraries of The Buddhist Library, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies^[9] and the University of Washington.

Books[link]

1. 1983 - The Total Buddhist Work [Buddhist missiology]
2. 1984 - Basic Buddhist Meditation Practice (2nd ed.)
3. 1986a - Dhammapada Stories
4. 1986b - The Great Disciples of the Buddha
5. 1987 - Reprinted Life of the Buddha (Rockhill)
6. 1987c - Padmasambhava – the Man and the Myth
7. 1987d - Life of the Buddha
8. 1987e - Jataka Stories (2nd ed.)
9. 1988 - Reprinted Buddha’s Discourses for Beginners(Mahachulalongkorn, Bangkok, 1985)
10. 1988b - Buddhist Law [the Vinaya]
11. 1988c - Buddhist Economics [Right Livelihood]
12. 1988e - Campus Buddhist Growth (ltd. ed.) [Campus missiology]
13. 1988f - Metta Sutta (Pali, translation, footnotes on Pali, commentarial endnotes)
14. 1988g - Buddhist Culture (Buddhism and society)
15. 1989a - Mandala of the Five Buddhas [On the 5 archetypal Buddhas]
16. 1989b - Kosa Kata Buddhis (English-Malay Buddhist dictionary)
17. 1989c - Pedoman Bahasa Malaysia Buddhis (guidelines for Buddhist translation into Malay)
18. 1989d - Translating Buddhist Sutras [report on translation problems]
19. 1989e - Book of Discourses, Vol. 1 (Sutta Nipata translation) [600+ pages unpublished manuscript]
20. 1989f - The Chapter of the Snake (Sutta Nipata, Uraga Vagga translation)
21. 1989h - Prolegomena to Buddhist Studies (General Guide 2) [A survey of early Buddhism and its scriptural traditions: unpublished manuscript]
22. 1990 - Nichiren: the New Buddhism of Modern Japan (2nd repr)
23. 1990a - Kamus Buddhist Caturbahasa [Sanskrit-Pali-English-Malay glossary]
24. 1990b - Love & Marriage: A Buddhist Perspective (et al.)
25. 1990c - Buddhist Prayer
26. 1990d - The Puja Book vol. 1 [traditional chants]; vol. 2 [Buddhist rites]: interpaginal. English/Pali. [Vols. 3-4 uncompleted.]
27. 1990e - Buddhist Psychology
28. 1990f - A Guide to Buddhist Studies (General Guide 1) [Abbreviations, conventions, and bibliographies: incomplete manuscript]
29. 1991a - The Origin and Meaning of Avalokitesvara [1988a] 2nd ed.
30. 1991b - The Buddha’s Teachings [1987a] 2nd ed. [Introduction to Buddhist doctrines]
31. 1991c - Introduction to Buddhism [Bangkok 1973] 3rd ed.
32. 1991d - Values, Character and Humanity [occasional paper]
33. 1991e - The Buddhist Way Towards a Better Environment [occasional paper]
34. 1991f - Socially Engaged Holy Life [Bangkok INEB keynote address]
35. 1991g - Charisma in Buddhism [a sociological survey with case studies] ISBN 983-9030-10-8
36. 1991h Puja (for Daily Practice, etc.) [booklet]
37. 1991i - Buddhist Prayer: Meaning, Aspiration and Wisdom
38. 1991j - Dictionary of Buddhist Terms [incomplete manuscript]
39. 1991k - Dictionary of Buddhist Quotations [incomplete manuscript]
40. 1992a - Buddhist Currents: A brief social analysis of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Siam. ISBN 983-9030-04-3
41. 1992b - New Directions in Buddhism today. ISBN 983-9030-03-5
42. 2001 - Divine Qualities of Spiritual Dialogue The Singapore Bahai Studies Review Vol 6: pp. 109–127. [Paper delivered at the Dialogue Among Civilisations Conference, National University of Singapore, 2001]

[edit] Free Booklets Series - Buddhism For The Millions

The following were published in limited prints only (supported by donations):

1. The Four Spiritual Laws: the Buddhist answer to evangelism
2. Be a Winner! (Daily application of the 4 Spiritual Powers)
3. Puja Card (Tiratana Vandana & Basic Puja)
4. A Buddhist Revival (Dharmafarer guide and prospectus)
5. Mandala (Buddhist economics in practice in Malaysia and Singapore) brochure
6. Buddhist Handbook (with Chinese or Malay translation)
7. Is This Our Only Life? (The Buddhist doctrine of rebirth)
8. Basic Buddhist Meditation Practice
9. What Not to Look For in a Religion (Kesaputtiya Sutta) (Apologetics)
10. Objections to Buddhism (Comments on contemporary Buddhism)
11. Say No! to the Evangelists (Answering the Evangelists)
12. Rafts of Dharma (Buddhist leadership growth)
13. On Being Your True Self (Inspirational)
14. Who Should Recite Mantras? (Apologetics)
15. Lesson of the Four-faced “Buddha” (Buddhist adaptation of Brahma)
16. On Being a Mitra (Full-time lay Buddhist ministry)
17. Why People Fail? (motivational)
18. Is this the Dharma Ending Age? (Eschatology)
19. Five Precepts, Five Virtues (Hermeneutics)

Web Essays[link]

1. Piya Tan (2006, 2010). "Bad friendship: avoiding unwholesome teacher-pupil relationships". http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/64.17-Bad-friendship.-piya.pdf. Retrieved 22 March 2012. 
2. Piya Tan (2007). "Group Karma? An early Buddhist perspective". http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/39.1-Group-karma-piya.pdf. Retrieved 5 September 2010. 

See also[link]

Singapore portal

• Lee Choon Seng
• Teresa Hsu Chih
• Venerable Ho Yuen Hoe

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sep 2011: BBC interview with Piya Tan (at 2:39)
• Singapore Buddhist Web Links

Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert on April 6, 1931) is an American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the seminal^[2][3] 1971 book Be Here Now. He is known for his personal and professional associations with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, for his travels to India and his relationship with the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba, and for founding the charitable organizations Seva Foundation and Hanuman Foundation. He continues to teach via his website.

Biography[link]

Youth and education[link]

Alpert was born to a Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts. His father, George Alpert, was a lawyer in Boston, president of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, one of the founders of Brandeis University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as well as a major fundraiser for Jewish causes. While Richard did have a bar mitzvah, he was "disappointed by its essential hollowness".^[4] He considered himself an atheist^[5] and did not profess any religion during his early life, describing himself as “inured to religion. I didn’t have one whiff of God until I took psychedelics.”^[6]

Alpert attended the Williston Northampton School, graduating in 1948 as a part of the Cum Laude Association.^[7] He then went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University, a master's degree from Wesleyan University, and a doctorate (in psychology) from Stanford University.

Harvard professorship and the Leary-Alpert research[link]

After returning from a visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, Alpert accepted a permanent position at Harvard, where he worked with the Social Relations Department, the Psychology Department, the Graduate School of Education, and the Health Service, where he was a therapist. Perhaps most notable was the work he did with his close friend and associate Timothy Leary. Leary and Alpert were formally dismissed from the university in 1963. According to Harvard President Nathan M. Pusey, Leary was dismissed for leaving Cambridge and his classes without permission or notice, and Alpert for allegedly giving psilocybin to an undergraduate.^[8]

Spiritual search and name change[link]

In 1967 Alpert traveled to India, where he traveled with the American spiritual seeker Bhagavan Das, and ultimately met the man who would become his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, whom Alpert called "Maharaj-ji". It was Maharaj-ji who gave him the name "Ram Dass", which means "servant of God",^[9] referring to the incarnation of God as Ram or Lord Rama. Alpert also corresponded with the Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba and mentioned Baba in several of his books.

Later life[link]

In February 1997, Ram Dass had a stroke that left him with expressive aphasia, which he interprets as an act of grace. He no longer travels, but continues to teach through live webcasts^[10] and at retreats in Hawaii.^[11] When asked if he could sum up his life's message, he replied, "I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people ... to me, that's what the emerging game is all about." Ram Dass was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in August 1991.^[12]

Ram Dass is a vegetarian.^[13] In the 1990s, he became more forthcoming about his bisexuality^[14] while avoiding labels and asserting that bisexuality "isn't gay, and it's not not-gay, and it's not anything—it's just awareness."^[15] At 78, Ram Dass learned that he had fathered a son as a 24-year-old, at Stanford during a brief affair with a history major Karen Saum, and that he was now a grandfather. The fact came into light when his son Peter Reichard, a 53-year-old banker in North Carolina, took a DNA test after learning about his mother's doubt concerning Peter's heritage. ^[16][17]

Foundations[link]

The Love Serve Remember Foundation was organized to preserve and continue the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass, and to work with Ram Dass on his writings and other future plans. The Hanuman Foundation is a nonprofit educational and service organization founded by Ram Dass in 1974, focused on the spiritual well-being of society through education, media and community service programs. The Seva Foundation is an international health organization founded by Ram Dass in 1978 along with public health leader Larry Brilliant and humanitarian activist Wavy Gravy. Ram Dass also serves on the faculty of the Metta Institute where he provides training on mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

Works[link]

Books[link]

• Identification and Child Rearing (with R. Sears and L. Rau) (1962) Stanford University Press
• The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner) (1964) ISBN 0-8065-1652-6
• LSD (with Sidney Cohen) (1966) ISBN 0-453-00120-3
• Remember, Be Here Now (1971) ISBN 0-517-54305-2
• Doing Your Own Being (1973)
• The Only Dance There Is (1974) ISBN 0-385-08413-7
• Grist for the Mill (with Steven Levine) (1977) ISBN 0-89087-499-9
• Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook (1978) ISBN 0-553-28572-6
• Miracle of Love: Stories about Neem Karoli Baba (1978) ISBN 0-525-47611-3
• How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service (with Paul Gorman) (1985) ISBN 0-394-72947-1
• Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service (with Mirabai Bush) (1991) ISBN 0-517-57635-X
• Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying (2000) ISBN 1-57322-871-0
• Paths to God: Living The Bhagavad Gita (2004) ISBN 1-4000-5403-6
• Be Love Now (with Rameshwar Das) (2010) ISBN 1-84604-291-7

Recordings[link]

• The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Timothy Leary & Ralph Metzner) (1966) (reissued on CD in 2003 by Folkways)
• Here We All Are, a 3-LP set recorded live in Vancouver, BC in the summer of 1969.
• Love Serve Remember (1973), a six-album set of teachings, data, and spiritual songs (ZBS Foundation) (released in MP3 format, 2008)

Films[link]

• Ram Dass Fierce Grace, a 2001 biographical documentary about Ram Dass directed by Micky Lemle.
• Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember, a 2010 short film directed by V Owen Bush, included in the "Be Here Now Enhanced Edition" eBook.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ram Dass

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ram Dass

• Official website. This site also includes information about the "Love Serve Remember Foundation".
• Ram Dass Tapes Library
• The Living/Dying Project (an outgrowth of the Hanuman foundation, which was created by Ram Dass)
• Ram Dass, Fierce Grace at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Ram Dass in libraries (WorldCat catalog)