Ram Dass – Pam Grout

Feliz Navidad and Happy Adam Day

December 23, 2019 36 Comments

“Dancing and prancing in Jingle Bell Square.” –Bobby Helms

Happy Adam Day! Which, as I learned this morning at Satsang, is today since Adam came before Eve.

And if you’ll humor me, here’s another.

What is the favorite music of Santa’s elves? See answer below.

Just wanted to wish everyone a beautiful, mystical holiday and remind you that the deadline to apply for 2020’s 222 award is December 31.

Lastly, in honor of Ram Dass who is “Being Here Now” with my beloved Taz, here are a few of my favorite Ram Dass quotes:

“When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru.”

“The quieter you become, the more you hear.”

“Dying is absolutely safe.”

“We’re all just walking each other home.”

And a story that has given me much comfort as I’m invited into a different kind of relationship with my daughter:

After Timothy Leary died, Ram Dass, his colleague at Harvard in the 60’s, was asked how he felt about the loss of his long-time associate?

Ram Dass answered, “What loss? He’s still with me.”

May we all be together this holiday season. And know that loss is not possible in the Kingdom! Love you all!

Answer: Favorite elf music? Wrap.

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

Love, only love

February 10, 2019 103 Comments

“The seeker of love escapes the chains of birth and death.”—Rumi
taz from willem 2

Long time, eh? Especially for a writer like me who believes in exercising her creativity on a daily basis.

Words have seemed a bit clumsy lately. How can I possibly summarize the journey of the past few months?

If anything, I’ve learned death isn’t the end of a relationship. Rather, it’s an invitation for a different type of relationship.

After Timothy Leary died, Ram Dass, his colleague at Harvard in the 60’s, was asked how he felt about the loss of his long-time associate?

Ram Dass answered, “What loss? He’s still with me.”

A different interviewer asked Julia Roberts, whose father died of throat cancer when she was 11 or 12, if she regretted never having had an adult relationship with him. She said, “Are you kidding? He’s with me ALL the time.”

Tasman still feels very present, living within me, changing me, walking through the world with me.

Whenever I veer off the path, when I choose to resist this new reality (which causes me to stiffen, suffer and basically hurt myself), she sends a sign. Like at a coffee shop the other day. An unknown college student sat down at the adjoining bookstore’s baby grand and played one of Taz’s old contest songs. Readers from around the world continue to send pictures of 222. Dear friends continue to offer up support and unconditional love.

I’m constantly reminded I have but one choice–to bow to the mystery, to recognize that whatever’s happening here is more profound than I–at least while in this body–can begin to understand.

I haven’t abandoned my beliefs in joy and gratitude. It’s just that now a gauntlet has been thrown for me to enlarge my reality, to view life from an elevated context, to truly smoke what I’ve been selling the past six years in my books and workshops.

I plan to head back out into the world soon. I recently turned in the manuscript for the Course in Miracles book. Look for ACIM for Badasses in early 2020. I’m giving a workshop in California in a couple weeks and I’ll be making the official announcement of the first recipient of the 222 Foundation on, you guessed it, February 22.

I continue to be inspired by the magical gift of my daughter. And I’m grateful I get to carry forward the beautiful world I experience through her eyes.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.

A whole new instruction manual

March 12, 2018 12 Comments

“None but ourselves can free our minds.”—Bob Marley marley

Not long after he returned from India, spiritual guru Ram Dass was speaking to a group in New York. He was decked out in a flowing white robe and beads. A woman in the audience stood up and asked, “Why are you dressed like that? Aren’t you Jewish?’

Without missing a beat, he answered: “Only on my parent’s side.”

All of us are SO MUCH MORE than the genetic makeup of our bodies, the heredity of our families. We are literally God in drag.

ACIM Lesson 71 (Only God’s plan for salvation will work) tells us that trying to be anything else is crazy ridiculous.

The ego’s plan (if only this were different, I’d be okay) is like following a map of Peoria to navigate the streets of London. Or like using a do-it-yourself bookshelf manual to fix your vacuum cleaner. God’s plan is to know that everything IS OKAY! To celebrate that fact with full frontal abandon.

This lesson also has one of my all-time favorite passages, one I use nearly as much as my “Something extraordinarly epic is going to happen to me today.”

What would you have me do?

Where would you have me go?

What would you have me say, and to whom?

The answers I get from this practice are the only instruction manual I could ever need.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side