Charleston Ram Dass Fellowship

07/19/2025

Your teacher is everywhere, waiting for you to be ready. That’s the model you can work on. So you don’t have to rush to India because it’s always right where you are. There are beings who can get high as any enlightened being ever got, sitting in the middle of Topeka, Kansas, or in the middle of New York, or in the middle of anywhere. It depends on your readiness, and that has to do with your karma or your readiness to get on with it all. - Ram Dass

07/05/2025

07/05/2025

Ram Dass was known as a teacher who sat beside the dying, the grieving, the depressed, the lonely, and the heartbroken. I’ve always wondered about his magic solution to help others, and if you’re like me, you may even wonder, what did he do to fix them?

The answer is he didn’t fix them, instead he listened, he was present, and he held space to let things simply be.

So often our world is focused on more success, more fame, more perfection, more growth, more advancement, and more, more, more, more! Even in yoga we can get caught wanting more progress, becoming more flexible, holding difficult poses even longer, but the goal of yoga is to create space where we were once stuck. To unveil the layers of protection we’ve built up around our hearts. To appreciate the body and become aware of the mind and the noise it makes. To make peace with who we are. We come to our yoga mats to feel; not to accomplish. When we shift our focus and become present, the heart can open. (Inspired by Rachel Brathen)

So what was Ram Dass’ secret solution? He didn’t push people to get better; he held space for them to be, just as they are. It’s as if his entire life was a graceful reminder: that we are not in this alone. After all, we are just walking each other home.

“The most important aspect of love is not in the giving or receiving, it’s in the being,” -Ram Dass.

07/05/2025

During our first gathering, the question came up about living in todays world vs living in the 70s or 80s; some of us felt called to live in an earlier time.

Michael (someone who had lived through the 70s) explained that there is no other time he would rather be living in than right now. He said that the rate at which human consciousness is expanding across the globe is unlike any time in human history. Those who are aware of such a shift are coming to unite faster than ever. He said that even though the 70/80s brought new ideas and an expansion of consciousness, this is the most fascinating and exciting time to be alive because so many people are becoming aware of what’s really happening.

Questions to consider:
•Why might today’s world be an ideal environment for spiritual development?

•Could such an increase in human consciousness be directly related to the rapid shifts occurring across the globe?

•If our external world is a reflection of our inward spiritual soul, then what can you do to help us come together as one united whole?
(First Meet up 8.28.24)