Ram Dass: How to keep Heart open in Hell

 

Remember: Be Here Now (Ram Dass)

(After Skool) It's all perfect by Ram Dass (formerly Prof. Richard Alpert, Ph.D., Harvard University)

RAM DASS ("God's Servant or Slave") was born Richard Alpert on April 6, 1931 and lived until December 22, 2019) [1]. He became a hippie and is also known as Baba ["Father"] Ram Dass. He was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga [2], academic psychologist, and writer of Be Here Now, his best-selling [3] 1971 book, which has been described by as "seminal" [4, 5, 6].

Ram Dass perfectly describes "ego death"

Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert)

With the help of his scandalous but loving sex guru Neem Karoli Baba, he helped popularize Eastern spirituality and yoga in the West [7]. He authored or co-authored a dozen more books on spirituality over the next four decades, including Grist for the Mill (1977), How Can I Help? (1985), and Polishing the Mirror (2013).

• Is Ram Dass still here now?  An excerpt from Being Ram Dass (Tricycle)
• The Legacy of Be Here Now (RamDass.org)

Aren't you supposed to be a Jew?

Once when he was teaching with his long hair, beard, and linen garments, someone in the crowd asked him why he dressed like a guru from India when he was really a Jew from the U.S. Without missing a beat, his retort was, "I'm only Jewish on my parents' side." Ha ha ha, exactly!

We are born into a faith, and it's usually rammed down our throats before we have a chance to do anything but swallow. And most of us won't question it. But some of us vomit it up, leave or examine, sometimes even come back to it later.

Harvard professors Dr. Timothy Leary and Dr. Richard Alpert (cool squares rounding out)

Ram Dass, The Guru who studied LSD and wrote The Hippie Bible

 

However, it seems the job and duty of any human to question it, test it, attempt to validate it, argue against it, learn from it, grow from it, reject it all together, or make peace with it. There's a world of spirituality out there to explore. We usually need a floor, a ground, by which to test things. And almost all major religions have a mystic component or sect. That's a place to start.

Parents, what am I to do but follow my heart?

But question we must, and explore we will, and find? That remains to be seen. We are on a spiritual quest. And maybe the whole rest of the world can't be. But if Americans can't, what the F are you calling yourself an "American" for? Life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness is all you were promised -- and you're not even going to pursue it? Truth means nothing? Just taking sides? Just being controlled by your government, schools, and parents, the "powers that be"? Pathetic. Human up, and get searching.

Hell: all the people Ram Dass hated

(My brother Comes) Love everyone and tell the Truth

Ram Dass' brothers and sisters with Baba

Ram Dass was personally and professionally associated with hippie Dr. Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s. Then known as Richard Alpert, he conducted research with Leary on the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs.

In addition, Alpert assisted Harvard Divinity School graduate student Walter Pahnke in his 1962 "Good Friday Experiment" with theology students, the first controlled, double-blind study of drugs and the mystical experience [8, 9].

While legal at the time (and not yet criminalized), their research was controversial and led to Dr. Leary's and Dr. Alpert's firing from Harvard in 1963.

In 1967, Alpert traveled to India and became "Ram Dass," a disciple of Hindu Guru Neem Karoli Baba, who gave him the name Ram Dass, meaning "Servant of Ram," but usually rendered simply as "Servant of God" for Western audiences.

Hi, I'm Neem Karoli Baba (Sculpture in Ram Dass Library) sculpted to look like sweet Budai

 

In the following years, he co-founded the charitable organizations Seva Foundation and Hanuman Foundation. From the 1970s to the 1990s, he traveled extensively, giving talks and retreats and holding fundraisers for charitable causes.

Remember: Be Here Now (Ram Dass)

In 1997, he had a stroke, which left him with paralysis and expressive aphasia which would be better characterized as "fluent, anomic-like with hesitations and word finding difficulties at the conversational level with grossly intact auditory comprehension for high level, low-context information" [10, 11].

He eventually grew to interpret this event as an act of grace, learning to speak again and continuing to teach and write books. After becoming seriously ill during a trip to India in 2004, he gave up traveling and moved to Maui, Hawaii, where he hosted annual retreats with other spiritual teachers until his death in 2019. More

Ksitigarbha: guardian of the dead, savior

(Buddha's Wisdom) Who is KSITIGARBHA? The bodhisattva who refused nirvana to enter hell

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva

Kṣitigarbha [Sanskrit क्षितिगर्भ, Chinese 地藏, Pinyin Dìzàng, Japanese 地蔵, Rōmaji Jizō, Korean 지장 (地藏), Romaja Jijang, Vietnamese Địa Tạng (地藏), Standard Tibetan ས་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ་, Wylie sa yi snying po] is a bodhisattva (being bent on supreme buddhahood) primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Mahayana Buddhist monk.

 

His name may be translated as "Earth Treasury," "Earth Store," "Earth Matrix," or "Earth Womb." 

Kṣitigarbha is known for a vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six worlds [a condensed grouping of the 31 Planes of Existence the historical Buddha outlined] between the final nirvana of the historical Gautama Buddha and the future rise of Maitreya Buddha, as well as a vow not to achieve buddhahood until all hells are emptied.

He is therefore often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings as well as the guardian of children and patron deity of deceased children and aborted fetuses in Japanese culture.

Usually depicted as a monk with either a halo or a crown bearing images of the Five Tathāgatas around his shaved head, he carries a staff to force open the gates of hell and a wish-fulfilling jewel to light up the darkness. More

Jigten Choto: Wrathful Kṣitigarbha

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva

STATUE: Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (Jizō Bosatsu, 地蔵菩薩) is a Japanese wood and bronze statue of about 1175 in the late Heian period, which is now in the permanent Asian collection at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

The statue depicts Jizō (Sanskrit Ksitigarbha), who in Japanese Buddhism is the bodhisattva of the earth and is considered a protector of children and travelers.

He is also a rescuer of beings in all hells and is considered a guardian of spirits for children who have died before their parents [1].

Description: Jizō is garbed in traditional Buddhist monk's attire, lacking ornate jewelry or adornments typically seen on images of bodhisattvas [2], many of which represent the historical Buddha before his great enlightenment, at which time he became the Buddha, and the Future Buddha Maitreya. More

Cartoon: Beavis 'n Butthead get old (sutra)

I didn't know we were going to get old.

Cartoon characters may age right in front of our eyes and eventually die, like The Simpson, Family Guy, and South Park, but we never will. That kind of mortality is only in animation and just for laughs. Can you imagine if radical impermanence applied to our lives? Why, our youth, beauty, and joys might evaporate right in front of our eyes, like good ol' Beavis and Butthead. Of course, the ancient sages of India warned of just such a thing in this story of the past by the Buddha:

• Odd that the supremely enlightened Buddha mentions the teachings of another teacher? No, Araka is the Bodhisatta (in a past life, i.e., the Buddha before enlightenment). He is recalling what a good teacher taught before "supreme" (samma-sam) awakening.

The Buddha on Teachings of the Sage Araka

(Paramount Plus) Mike Judge's Beavis & Butt-Head meditate with their nice hippie high school teacher | Season 2's funniest moments | Paramount+

Things are radically impermanent.

"Once long ago, meditators, there was a teacher named Araka, a leader of a school who was free of lust for sensual pleasures. He had hundreds of students and he taught them dhamma [his Doctrine] in this way:

"'Next to nothing, students (Brahmins), is this human life — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and distress. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a purified life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as a dewdrop on a blade of grass soon vanishes with the rising of the sun, in the same way, students, human life is like that dewdrop — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as when the weather-devas send rain in large droplets that hit and form a water bubble that soon vanishes, in the same way, students, human life is like that water bubble — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is born there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as a line drawn on water with a stick soon vanishes, in the same way, students, human life is like that line — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

Subject to aging, I should seek the ageless.

"'Just as a river flows down from the mountains, goes far in a swift current, and carries everything with it, so that there is not a second, not a moment, not an instant when it stands still, but instead it flows, and moves and rushes. In the same way, students, human life is like that river — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as a strong person might form spit on the tip of the tongue then spit it out with little effort, in the same way, students, human life is like that spit — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

Huh huh huh, you look old. Here's a cane.

"'Just as a shred of flesh tossed onto an iron pan that has been heated all day soon vanishes, in the same way, students, human life is like that shred of flesh — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as a doomed cow being led to a slaughterhouse stumbles with every step as it moves closer to slaughter and closer to death, in the same way, students, human life is like that doomed cow — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.'

Old Cornholio (new Beavis & Butt-Head)

"Now at that time, meditators, the average human life span was 60,000 years, with females marriageable at 500. And at that time there were [only] six afflictions: [touch of] cold, heat, hunger, thirst, [and the need for] defecation and urination. Yet even though humans were so long-lived, long-lasting, with so few afflictions, the Sage Araka taught dhamma to his disciples in this way:

"'Next to nothing, students, is human life — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.'

"At present, meditators, one speaking rightly might say, 'Next to nothing is human life — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.'

• 

  How many moons would we have seen? 36,500?

  At present, meditators, one who lives a long time is 100 years old or a little more. Living 100 years, one lives for 300 seasons: 100 seasons of cold, 100 seasons of heat, 100 seasons of rain.
• Living for 300 seasons, one lives for 1,200 months: 400 months of cold, 400 months of heat, 400 months of rain.
• Living for 1,200 months, one lives for 2,400 fortnights: 800 fortnights of cold, 800 fortnights of heat, 800 fortnights of rain.
• Living for 2,400 fortnights, one lives for 36,000 days: 12,000 days of cold, 12,000 days of heat, 12,000 days of rain.
• Living for 36,000 days, one eats 72,000 meals: 24,000 meals in the cold, 24,000 meals in the heat, 24,000 meals in the rain — counting the taking of mother's milk and obstacles to eating.
• Obstacles to eating? There are these: when one does not eat due to anger, when one does not eat due to distress, when one does not eat due to illness, when one does not eat due to an observance [Uposatha] day, when one does not eat due to poverty.

Turn, turn, turn, how the season turn.

"Meditators, reckoning the life of a human being who lives for 100 years, there is the lifespan, the seasons, the years, the months, the fortnights, the nights, the days, the meals, the obstacles to eating.

"Whatever a teacher would do in seeking the welfare of disciples, out of sympathy for them, have I done for you.

"Over there, there are the roots of trees; over there, empty dwellings. Practice meditative absorptions (the jhanas), meditators. Be not heedless, such that you might fall into regret later. This is our message."

• The Three Basic Facts of Existence: I. Impermanence (Anicca)
• Visiting Old Stuart | Beavis and Butt-Head
• (Comedy Central UK) More moronic Beavis and Butthead moments | Beavis and Butthead
• Mike Judge, Beavis & Butt-Head (MTV via Paramount+); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Arakenanusasani Sutta (AN 7.70, PTS: A iv 136) based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans), Wisdom Quarterly

Pantera: 'Broken'? Addiction recovery

(Loudwire - Clips) How rockstar Phil Anselmo of Pantera finally quit hard drugs. Walk amongst the dead on a trip to hell:

In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

Man, this is cool, this is the life 😭

From homeless drug addicts to high-functioning workaholics, the continuum of addiction cuts a wide and painful swath through our Western culture.

Blending first-person accounts, riveting case studies, cutting-edge research and passionate argument, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts takes a panoramic yet highly intimate look at this widespread and perplexing human ailment.

Countering prevailing theories of addiction as being a genetic disease or an individual moral failure, addiction specialist Dr. Gabor Maté, M.D., presents an eloquent case that addiction – all addiction – is in fact a case of human development gone askew.

• 

  (Dr. Gabor Maté, M.D.)

  No substance (not heroin, meth, crack) is addictive. If it were, everyone who took it would become addicted. They do not. We become addicted because we are predisposed by a history of early child trauma. Combined with substances or behaviors, drug use leads to addiction.

Dr. Maté, who for 12 years practiced medicine in Vancouver, Canada’s notorious Downtown Eastside – North America’s most concentrated area of drug use, begins by telling the stories of his patients who, in their destitution and uniformly tragic histories, represent one extreme of the addictive spectrum.

(Doug Stanhope) on drug abuse (unreleased standup comedy)

With trademark compassion and unflinching narrative eye, Dr. Maté brings to life their ill-fated and mostly misunderstood struggle for relief or escape -- through substance abuse -- from the pain that has tormented them since childhood.

Dr. Maté shows how the behavioral addictions of society’s more fortunate members – including himself – differ only in degree of severity from the drug habits of his Downtown Eastside patients.

In reality there is only one addiction process, its core objective being the self-soothing of deep-seated fears and discomforts.

(Mirror Mind) Phil Anselmo's best friend was drug addict Dimebag Darrell

Turning to the neurobiological roots of addiction, Dr. Maté presents an astonishing array of scientific evidence showing conclusively that:

• Addictive tendencies arise in the parts of our brains governing some of our most basic and life-sustaining needs and functions: incentive and motivation, physical and emotional pain relief, the regulation of stress, and the capacity to feel and receive love;
• These brain circuits develop, or don’t develop, largely under the influence of the nurturing environment in early life, and that therefore addiction represents a failure of these crucial systems to mature in the way nature intended; and
• The human brain continues to develop new circuitry throughout the lifespan, including well into adulthood, giving new hope for people mired in addictive patterns. Dr. Maté then examines the current mainstream. More

LA Chinatown Hungry Ghost Festival

Burning "hell money"!?!

A burnt offering to benefit the deceased

"Hell money" (Chinese 冥鈔, Pinyin míngchāo) is a modernized form of joss paper printed to resemble legal tender bank notes. The notes are not an official form of recognized currency or legal tender [except among greedy ghosts] as their sole intended purpose is to be offered as burnt offerings to the deceased as a solution to resolve their assumed monetary problems in the afterlife. This ritual has been practiced by modern Chinese and across East Asia since the late 19th century, and some Wicca-based pagan traditions in recent years have adopted this practice [1]. Early 20th century examples bore resemblance to minor commercial currency of the type issued by businesses across China until the mid-1940s [2]. The identification of this type of joss paper as "hell bank notes" or "hell money" is largely a Western construct, since these items are simply regarded as yet another form of joss paper (冥幣, 陰司紙, 紙錢, or 金紙) in East Asian cultures and have no special name or status. More: Hell money

FREE: The Los Angeles Hungry Ghost Festival: Sunday, Sept. 7, 4:00 pm

They're hungry. Will there be food?

This is the second annual festival. Through performance, ritual altars, and community celebration, we honor our departed ancestors and appease hungry ghosts. Building on last year’s success, this year’s festival features lion dance and Zodiac play by The East Wind Foundation for Youth, live music by Micah Huang and Annie Zhou, dance performances by The Sunset Light Dance Team, and martial arts demonstrations by Misako. Activities for youth include cultural crafts tables, face paint station, bouncy house, and a scavenger hunt. The festival is FREE and open to the public. More

• Sunday, Sept. 7th, 2025, 4:00-7:00 pm
• Alpine Recreation Center, Chinatown
• LA Chinatown Hungry Ghost Festival

The REAL Hungry Ghost Festival is on September 5 or 6, 2025. Here's why

Gods of Death across mythology and folklore | Watch

Are hungry ghosts evil demons? No, those are hellions. Ghosts are the departed.

The dearly departed are still here.

(The Blue Cats by Goody Feed) Many people often confuse the Hungry Ghost Festival with the start of the seventh month in the lunisolar calendar, but they’re not the same.

The seventh month, beginning on August 23, 2025, is known as Ghost Month. During this period, it is believed that the Gates of Hell and Heaven open, allowing restless spirits to enter the human world.

However, not all of these spirits are “hungry ghosts” (petas or pretas). The term usually refers to those who passed away tragically or without proper funerary rituals, while many others are thought to simply visit their loved ones.

Hungry Ghosts of Buddhism: How to Become One | Japanese Buddhist Lore

Hungry Ghost Festival: A Guide to exploring cultural riches

Addiction is entrance to Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Tradition holds that offerings are made to appease these spirits, but most people only make offerings on the first day of Ghost Month and then forget.

• The hungry ghost inside us | Dr. Gabor Mate | What really causes addiction
• Petavatthu: Ancient Hungry Ghost Stories
• Gods of Death across mythology and folklore

As the days pass, the neglected spirits are said to grow hungrier and angrier. By the 15th day, their hunger supposedly reaches its peak, which is why this day is considered the Hungry Ghost Festival.

This explains why offerings on the 15th day are so important. The Hungry Ghost Festival, then, is not the entire month but just that one crucial day.

For 2025, this falls on September 6, the 15th day of Ghost Month. Some groups, particularly Chinese Cantonese-speaking communities, choose to make offerings on the 14th instead.

Are WE in the Hungry Ghost Realm?

Due to karma, we are all reborn

Are ghosts real? Why fear ghosts? The Spirit World in Buddhism

This is partly because the number four sounds like “death” in Cantonese and Mandarin, making the 14th symbolically significant. Another explanation comes from old timekeeping systems where the hours from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am spanned two days, meaning some regarded the 14th as the proper day.

Business enquiries: business.thebluecats.com.sg. The Blue Cats' Instagram: singaporethebluecats

How can I transfer merit to benefit the dead?

The possibility of merit transfer became widely known by the story Mulian Rescues His Mother

.

There are many Buddhist hells.

Transferring a gift of merit (Sanskrit pariṇāmanā, Pali pattidāna or pattānumodanā) is a standard part of Theravada Buddhist spiritual discipline.

The Buddhist practitioner's merit, resulting from wholesome deeds, is transferred to deceased relatives (the grateful dead), to deities (devas), or to ALL sentient beings.

Such a "transfer" is done ritually and mentally, and it is believed that the recipient (the ghost, the deceased person) can often receive this merit, if that recipient rejoices in the meritorious acts of the person doing the transferring.

In Buddhism, merit transfer (sending beneficial karma) is seen as a much better alternative to mourning.

Pouring overflowing water in ceremony

Scholars have discussed how the doctrine of transfer of merit can be reconciled with the individual nature of karma in Buddhism.

[How can it work? Everyone's karma is one's own. The giver generates skillful karma by giving with the intention to give, which gives the recipient the chance to share in that good karma by rejoicing (pattanumo) over such kindness, compassion, and giving (dana).] More: Transfer of merit

• I met a real ghost at Hungry Ghost Festival Singapore
• The Hungry Ghost Festival, Malaysia (OlivetaroDay)
• Dr. Gabor Mate, MD | What really causes addiction?
• Explore 65 - Explore Singapore: How much do Singaporeans know? What are the observances (superstitions) around Ghost Month?
• The Realm of Hungry Ghosts with Dr. Tara Brach
• VIDEO: Is this the oldest known burial site that doesn’t belong to humans but to Homo naledi?
• Confucianism regards the social customs of China
• LA Chinatown Hungry Ghost Festival; The Blue Cats by Goody Feed, 9/26/25; Olive Taroday (photos); Dodo Explorers; ReligionForBreakfast; July T (Chinatown and Beyond) via Soul Rebel Radio KPFK Public Radio, 9/22/25 (7:00 pm); CC Liu, Crystal Q., Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

US not going to church, cellphones say

Americans exaggerate how often they actually go to church

I'm the most religious of all. - Touch it. - No.

(ReligionForBreakfast) New research using smartphone location data reveals a massive gap between how often Americans say they attend religious services and how often they actually do.

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:43 Problems with self-reported surveys
• 2:20 How the smartphone study worked
• 5:12 The results

[Cellphones are spying on me, my location, activities, and every single thing we say in private like wearing a wire for The Man even when we think the phones are off?] Are surveys wrong? Are memories fuzzy?

Here's what the data really shows about religion in America.

Why Buddhism accepts other religions (while others do not)

(Buddha's Wisdom) Why Buddhism accepts OTHER religions (while others do not)

(Buddha's Wisdom) 🔍 BUDDHISM: THE WORLD'S MOST ACCEPTING RELIGION? In a world of religious conflict and division, one spiritual tradition does something revolutionary. It welcomes them all.

Discover how the historical Buddha's radical approach to religious and spiritual acceptance changed history forever and why this solution might be exactly what our divided world needs today.

This is the story of how the Buddha's Dharma or "Doctrine" built bridges while others built walls. DISCOVER:

• Why the Buddha shocked religious leaders with his revolutionary approach
• How ancient temples prove Buddhism's unique acceptance of other faiths
• The surprising reason other religions couldn't follow the Buddha's path
• How Buddhist ideas strengthened other religious traditions [particularly what came to be known as Hinduism, derived from the Vedic and Brahminical religions of proto-India]
• Why modern scientists are fascinated by Buddhism's inclusive approach
• Why companies the world over implement "mindfulness" (sati) training courses

🎬 TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 The most accepting religion?
• 02:05 Pattern of history
• 04:26 The defense of faith
• 06:42 Buddha's revolutionary move
• 08:52 Mind-blowing success
• 11:57 The Buddhist secret
• 14:47 Challenge

👋 New to Buddha's Wisdom? Subscribe for fresh perspectives on ancient wisdom and modern living. Hit the notification bell to join growing community of truth-seekers. AI was used? Yes, it was. LINKS: Instagram: buddhaswizdom, Facebook: buddhaswizdom. Support: buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom.

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• Religion for Breakfast, March 27, 2025; Buddha's Wisdom, Jan. 8, 2025; Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly