Conscious Choice Seattle: Ram Dass: National Treasure

March 2004 | Dr. Cat

Ram Dass: National Treasure

You Can Help Honor America's Longtime Spiritual Teacher

BY DR. CAT SAUNDERS

Treat everyone you meet like God in drag.
—Ram Dass, One Liners

On December 5, 1985, I had a dream that changed my life. In the dream, a handsome, white-haired, moustached man with a dazzling grin came to be with me. When I woke up, I drew his face in my drawing journal because it seemed important.

Later that day, I had a massage appointment with someone I hadn’t seen in months. When I walked into her home office I almost passed out, because there on her refrigerator was a picture of the man in my dream!

Actually it was Ram Dass, but it wasn’t the Ram Dass I remembered. Last time I’d seen him in the mid-1970s, he looked like a classic hippie with flowing shirts and a wild beard bushy enough to house squirrels.

In contrast, the man in the 1985 photograph was clean-shaven with a neatly trimmed moustache and short white hair. He wore a simple T-shirt with SEVA written on it, because he was doing a fundraising tour for the Seva Foundation (see www.seva.org).

As I stared at the photograph, my mind worked furiously to re-sort my outdated images of Ram Dass. In the midst of my disorientation, I suddenly felt as if I was being tricked—in a good way.

I journeyed shamanically to see if my hunch was correct. It was. My shamanic teachers said they wanted me to pay attention to Ram Dass because he’s a good example of being spiritual while being in a body.

For the next ten years, I kept a photograph of Ram Dass on my altar. I used his image to inspire me and help me open my heart. I paid attention to his real-life adventures, I listened to his wonderful audiotapes, and I wrote him long letters.

At some point, I asked to interview him. I kept asking for years, and one day out of the blue, he called and said he could do it on a certain date at Breitenbush in Oregon. Could I come?

That experience was a total gift. The interview, entitled “Suffering as Grace,” was published in 1990 by The Sun (reprinted at www.drcat.org/articles_interviews/html/sufferingasgrace.html ).

Years later, in February 1997, Ram Dass had a massive stroke that left him paralyzed on the right side. Suddenly, the man with the golden tongue could scarcely speak, and the globetrotting spiritual teacher couldn’t walk.

Mickey Lemle’s exquisite documentary “Fierce Grace” captures the essence of Ram Dass, including his post-stroke efforts to restore speech and increase mobility. The film shows how Ram Dass is even more extraordinary since he was “stroked by the guru,” as he calls it.

One scene in “Fierce Grace” says it all. Ram Dass is sitting in his wheelchair amidst a group of blissed-out people as they sing and sway while my favorite chant-master, Krishna Das, performs “Hare Krishna."

When the camera pans in on Ram Dass, the successive play of emotions across his face conveys the beauty of his soul: his devotion, his compassion, his courage, his tenderness, his brilliance, his humility, his playfulness, his gutsiness, his strength, his multi-level focus—and so much more.

To honor this spiritual warrior, this ringleader of radicals, this pioneer of the heart, I’ve decided to award him “National Treasure” status for the United States. Nothing gives me the authority to do this, other than love. And love is good enough.

If you agree that Ram Dass deserves this special designation, I have an invitation for you.

Do you have a personal story about Ram Dass? Write it down and send it to me (my postal address follows; sorry, no e-mails). If you want to draw a picture of how you feel about Ram Dass, that would be great. Or if you want to send a card saying something simple like “yeah, baby, you da man!” please feel free.

Be sure to mark “National Treasure” in big letters on the outside of your envelope, so I’ll know it’s for Ram Dass.

Sometime around his 73rd birthday on April 6, I’ll pack up whatever I’ve received and send it to him. It’s okay if someone tells him about this “National Treasure” award, because whatever you send him will still be a surprise.

It’s always good to be here now. In this case, I invite you to act now, too. You count!

Mail your Ram Dass “National Treasure” goodies c/o Cat Saunders, P.O. Box 31161, Seattle, WA 98103. To order the video “Fierce Grace,” Ram Dass books and audiotapes, or other Ram Dassian treats, please visit www.ramdasstapes.org.

Cat Saunders, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist and the author of Dr. Cat’s Helping Handbook. Contact Cat by calling (206) 329-0125 or visiting www.drcat.org. See Cat in action at Seattle’s Discover U (www.discoveru.org) on Saturday afternoon, May 8, for her class “The Five-Minute Switch System: Making Addiction Work for You!”

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