Ram Dass Books

Ram Dass has lived a captivating life ripe with experience and deep transmissions from some of the most awake beings of this century. May these tales help you to unravel the great mystery and provide you a path to revelation and joy.

He has woven his life experiences with these timeless teachings to create a tapestry of stories filled with humor, poignancy and profound insight that provide a common ground for so many people to clearly see their own imperfect human tendencies. The Changing Lenses anthology gathers together some of these classic and rare teaching stories.

Be Here Now compiles in words the journey of Ram Dass through his academic career and his spiritual path to greatness. It describes one man’s transformation upon his acceptance of the principles of Yoga and gives a modern restatement of the importance of the spiritual side of man’s nature. Illustrated.

In March 1961, Professor Richard Alpert – later renamed Ram Dass – held appointments in four departments at Harvard University. He published books, drove a Mercedes and regularly vacationed in the Caribbean. By most societal standards, he had achieved great success... And yet he couldn’t escape the feeling that something was missing. After several interesting LSD experiments later, he set out on his spiritual journey.

Alpert headed to India where his guru renamed him Baba Ram Dass – “servant of God.” He was introduced to mindful breathing exercises, hatha yoga, and Eastern philosophy. If he found himself reminiscing or planning, he was reminded to “Be Here Now.” He started upon the path of enlightenment and has been journeying along with it ever since.

With over 150 pages of metaphysical illustrations, practical advice on how to implement a yogic regiment, and a chapter dedicated to quotes and book recommendations, Be Here Now is sure to enrich your emotional, physical, and spiritual life.

Available 1/6/21: Another great work from Ram Dass, a collection of his teachings in a beautiful book.

Cookbook for Awakening Features 40 high-quality color pages of Ram Dass teachings, quotes, archival photographs, handwritten letters, and meaningful imagery from the past 40 years of his journey.

From the publishers: "After spending years curating over five decades of Ram Dass wisdom, Love Serve Remember Foundation is pleased to unveil "Cookbook for Awakening", a scrapbook of essential teachings on topics to help you become more awake in your life – and to inhabit “be here now” in a truly authentic way.

We found the most potent teachings from Ram Dass' talks on awareness, meditation, relationships, unconditional love, and service and compassion, and created a visual meditation that reflects his journey over these many decades - from his life as a cultural icon to his historic meeting with Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji) and the subsequent teaching in the West and the writing of his transformational book, “Be Here Now”.

This is a tool to expand our minds and our hearts. Take it with you on your journeys, and as “Be Here Now” has attracted so many of you to the spiritual path, we hope this book will inspire a new generation of seekers into an awakening of the spirit."

The Only Dance There Is: Talks at the Menninger Foundation, 1970, and Spring Grove Hospital, 1972 (Doubleday Anchor Original) Paperback – April 5, 1974 by Ram Dass

This book is based on talks by Ram Dass at the Menninger Foundation in 1970 and at the Spring Grove Hospital in Maryland in 1972. The text grew out of the interaction between Ram Dass and the spiritual seekers in attendance at these talks.

The result of this unique exchange is a useful guide for understanding the nature of consciousness--useful both to other spiritual seekers and to formally trained psychologists. It is also a celebration of the Dance of Life--which, in the words of Ram Dass, is the "only dance there is."

Ram Dass’s long-awaited Be Love Now is the transformational teaching of a forty year journey to the heart. The author of the two-million-copy classic  Be Here Now and its influential sequel Still Here, Dass is joined once more by Rameshwar Das—a collaborator from the Love Serve Remember audio recordings—to offer this intimate and inspiring exploration of the human soul.

 Ram Dass’s Be Love Now will serve as a lodestar for anyone seeking to enhance their spiritual awareness and improve their capacity to serve—and love—the world around them.

An excerpt from Be Love Now:

"I use my personal explorations of consciousness as a teaching tool, as examples of how to tread the path and avoid its pitfalls. I think I do this with more wisdom and compassion as I go along. I'm still here, being a test model for the boomer generation. We all have a ways to go!

"Since I stopped traveling after my stroke, my inner work has become more reflective. I've taken up contentment as a theme. Contentment is a good model for an aging person like myself. Bringing a soul perspective to aging is one thing that I can contribute now.

"As I identify more with my soul, I feel more detached from the drama of my incarnation. As I become more aware as a soul, I am less an actor in the drama. The soul is awareness.

"The shift from the ego to the soul happens through love. You realize that love comes from your soul and the other emotions come from your ego. When Maharaj-ji said, 'Love everybody,' that's a way into the soul, where soul awareness and love come together.

"That's also the place where karma yoga, selfless service, and surrender and devotion come together. According to karma yoga, it's not even my incarnation; it's just another incarnation to be offered to the Beloved. I don't know how the incarnation comes out — that, too, is up to him. He's writing the script.

"The ultimate nexus of full consciousness and compassionate presence is Maharaj-ji's state, sahaja Samadhi, all planes simultaneously, one foot in the world and one in the void, the divine absorption of Samadhi and the ocean of human compassion constantly converging in the moment."

Journey of Awakening, A Meditator's Guidebook by Ram Dass.

Ram Dass is an American psychologist and spiritual teacher who has studied and practiced meditation for many years. Here he shares his understanding and explores the many paths of meditation--from mantra, prayer, singing, visualizations, and " just sitting" to movement meditations such as tai chi--and suggests how you can find methods suitable for you. He illuminates the stages and benefits of meditative practice and provides wise and often humorous advice on overcoming difficulties along the way.

Published book reviews state: "Everyone has experienced a moment of pure awareness. A moment without thinking 'I am aware' or 'that is a tree.' Such moments bring a sense of rightness, of clarity, of being at one. Such moments are the essence of meditation," writes Ram Dass, who has spent many years as a bridge builder between East and West. He is a trained psychologist and a devotee of Neem Caroli Baba.