For those who don’t know Ram Dass is a spiritual leader, I love his messages, I love his talks that he gives, they’ve helped me and a friend a lot and we used to often talk about Ram Dass’ ideas.
I am going through a difficult time at the moment with a family member, who basically disapproves of what I am trying to do. I am not trying to become rich, I want to do what I love and make a decent living and be happy. I was listening to a Q&A that Ram Dass did and someone was asking about funmentalism. You know, people fighting each other over fundamentalist ideas. He said something that I wanted to share because it brought me some clarity.
First thing he said was that we need to look beyond the agenda and not forget that we are fellow human beings who share this reality and ressources, nature, etc. That applies to a general approach we should have about these ideological fights we have.
But this is what helped me, he said that we shouldn’t ignore the opposing side because they bother us. Just to take an example to illustrate the right wing people ignore the left wing ideas and vice versa. And regarding the family member that I mentioned in the beginning of this text, when I spoke to my friends and other family members they all said: “ignore her”. The thing is I try and I cannot, I don’t feel free which brings me back to Ram Dass. He said ignoring the other side won’t free you. As a matter of fact the keys to your liberation are probably on the other side. And we shouldn’t forget that when someone is angry in most cases it means they’ve been hurt and are actually scared that it will happen again, it’s a defense mechanism. I also associated it with another speech from the filmmaker Robert Rodriguez: “the keys to your success lie in the aches of your failure”.
It’s going to be a difficult conversation but I have to confront the family member on her fears, and if she still pretends not to listen, at least I would have tried my best.
Thank you for reading.
SKETCHMAN BORIS 