Getting older isn’t easy. And living with the after effects of a stroke can obviously make it even harder. Faith in God, and in the Divine Order of things, is often the first thing to go
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Friday is Book & Movie Day on the blog, when we take a look at texts and films – old and new — that I highly recommend you not miss. This week’s recommendation: Fierce Grace: The Story of Ram Dass
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The other night I rented and watched for the first time a remarkable film about the spiritual visionary known as Ram Dass. This biographical documentary was made in 2001.
Get the movie. It will speak to you in wonderful ways.
First, a word about the man around whom the film swirls. From Wikipedia comes this about Ram Dass…
Dr. Richard Alpert (born April 6, 1931), also known as Baba Ram Dass, is a contemporary spiritual teacher, well-known for his association with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s, both having been dismissed from their professorships for experiments on the effects of psychedelic drugs on human subjects.
In 1967 Alpert traveled to India, where he eventually met the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba, better known in the West as Maharaj-ji, who soon became Alpert’s guru and gave him the name “Ram Dass”, which means “servant of God”. It was his life-changing experiences in India that inspired Ram Dass to write the contemporary spiritual classic, Be Here Now, in which he teaches the harmony of all people and religions.
In February 1997, he suffered a stroke which left him with expressive aphasia, however, he understands his stroke as an act of grace and continues to travel giving lectures, as his health permits. When asked if he could sum up his life’s message Ram Dass replied, “I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people… To me, that’s what the emerging game is all about.”
The film Fierce Grace chronicles Ram Dass’ experience of the stroke, and the personal growth work he has done around that experience. It is a remarkable movie for what it moves us as viewers to understand about life itself, and the journey upon which we are all embarked. In the film, Ram Dass acknowledges that “being stroked,” as he repeatedly calls it, created the most difficult test of his life. His faith in the God of his understanding, and in what he assumed to be his larger awarenesses about life, was severely tested. Actually, he says, it was lost. And then, re-found again.
This is a film that every person would benefit from seeing, but it would be especially beneficial to anyone who is now undergoing some sort of major challenge in their life — a health challenge of any other kind of challenge.
In the film Ram Dass says something about healing that I will always remember — and that I will use for the rest of my life when people ask me about the power of God (and the process of personal creation; i.e, we create our own reality) to bring about healing of any condition.
“Healing is not, after all, the same as ‘curing’,” Ram Dass observes. “Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather, allowing what ‘is’ now to move us closer to God.”
Yes, yes. Amen, and amen.
Rent the movie. Get the movie. Watch the movie.