The next speaker is Baba Ram Dass, formerly Richard Alpert. I feel all the technical or specialized knowledge that I could possibly have is already covered by this exquisite collection. Behind me is the essence of the Jesus prayer. My original tradition was Judaism, and there is Shlomo Kalbach. And we have two Swamis, which covers my Hindu trip, which leaves me just here now. Swami Satchidananda did raise a slight point, which I guess I was called upon by my peculiar background to respond to, which concerned a passing reference, I think, to a sugar cube.

[01:07]

That's an in-joke laugh for some of you, I'm sure, that don't understand that among my usual tradition that's presented in these gatherings is that I'm a professor of psychology, late of Harvard University. and that I'm a yogi. But somewhere in between there, how I got from being a Harvard professor or finishing those six days of rational thought, as Dr. Watts pointed out, to the seventh day of idiocy, involves six years of ingesting sugar cubes. And in fact, I owe my major critical transition in this whole journey to the sugar cube. And in fact, Swami Satchitananda, probably about 90% of your clientele come to you via the sugar cube. Now, I am the first to admit that it is not instant samadhi and that it leaves much work left to do in purification.

[02:16]

However, it does have an interesting aspect in that when used under reasonably conscious conditions, it has allowed a good number of us to break out of certain limited perceptual vantage points and understand possibilities, alternative possibilities. And these possibilities have suggested to us that life didn't need to be the cynical rationalism that many of us had been stuck in, I particularly for one, and we started to explore other alternatives. And which led us ultimately much deeper into religion and deeper to what Reverend Barry has, Father Barry has pointed out is the desire that the church service be back in the traditional languages rather than in English because there is a return, a deepening desire for the fundamental spiritual truths and linkages.

[03:24]

Now, the reason I raise the issue is because it is also related to mantra in that many of the experiences that people have had with psychedelics with these chemicals, LSD and others, have put them into spaces which we might call astral planes, which is the planes where many of the mantric sounds exist. And many of the reports that I have come in contact with and many of my own experiences have tuned me to many of the mantric sounds and many of the yantras or the visual images which later turned up for me in the holy literature and the holy traditions and that in a sense added validity of an interesting kind to my training because often in India I was given something in a new text to study or given a mantra

[04:31]

And it was an old familiar sound even though when I heard the sound I was quote drugged out of my mind unquote and therefore in no condition to decide what it was. Only now later on did I find out did I get some structure and use for that. So that in this sense now it is interesting just in passing that in my own case after having ingested these chemicals sometime, what, in excess of I guess 300 times in the LSD variety, that group, I came to a place where I was no longer able to use these as a total sadhana, as a full method of coming to my full consciousness or emptiness or realization or God. Maybe not because they couldn't do it, but because I didn't know how to use them. And it was at that point that I turned to India and to the traditions of Swami Sachidananda and Swami Venkatesananda.

[05:39]

And I found in these traditions roots that allowed me to continue with that work. And so I guess I'm called upon merely to be the, what would seem in some cultural circles, to be the devil's advocate. But in a way, I think not, because I think once the hysteria concerning chemicals and sugar cubes is passed and we stop having to be violently pro and con, we will find out that the techniques of altering consciousness in order to come into different states of awareness can be systematically done and can be usefully done. Gentlemen and ladies, the issue is not drugs. The issue is consciousness. and whether or not this society is ready to consider the implications of new states of consciousness. Now, this is not just a nice group of ineffectual holy men sitting around playing games with sounds. This involves the very root of society, perception of life and death, and the meaning of every act you perform.

[06:48]

And we are dealing here with major alterations in consciousness. And each institution has its techniques. Some of them are very technical. Some of them are very joyful. Some of them are very emotional. All designed to take you to different planes of consciousness that fit in with their tradition. And realize this is you're on the edge at this moment of very, very profound changes in all of human consciousness that are bringing us much closer to the spirit through technology. and through tradition, because technology is bringing us back through changes in our concepts of time and space, bringing us back to here and now and to the rituals that make, give here and now a sense of significance and fulfillment. Sasaki Roshi has still offered to say a brief word to us at this point.

[07:54]

I'm sure we would not want to miss it. Would you please stand up? Will you please be seated? Place both hands above your head. And breathe, breathe very quietly.

[09:05]

When you are sitting here, you are sitting with God. When you stood up, you stood up with God. When you heard cricket singing, you listened. You listened with God, and when crickets were singing, crickets were also singing with God. If that is not the case, you never talk about God being with God at any time.

[10:14]

Thank you very much, Roshi-san. And there's one more left whom I have explicitly asked to be the last one. And I know that this is a very great favor that I have asked from him because he has traveled I don't know how many hours and has come practically directly from Jerusalem and must be absolutely dead tired. But when we met for the first time, we just loved one another and I knew that I could ask him anything and he would do it. And coming here was one of those things. So I have asked Rabbi Shlomo Carlbach to please be the last one here before Swamiji leads us in the concluding chant. You know, I come from a little Siddhishthan tradition and again I'm not sure if someone spoke about it because in our tradition The singing, the real most important thing is without words, just melody.

[11:26]

You know, when God created the world, He created the world with words. He said, let there be light, let there be flowers, let there be trees. And let's say, when I see the flower, I see God's word. Imagine someone shows me a love letter. So I see the words. But if I know the person, I don't only see the words, I hear the melody. I hear the way they were saying those words. The difference between people who love God and who don't love God is that the people who don't love God just see the flower. They don't hear God's voice. They see the word, but they don't hear the sound. God's voice. If you really love God, then you see the flower and you hear God's voice behind it. In fact, in the Bible, when we speak about Mount Sinai, we never say, God, you heard God's words. It always says, you heard God, you heard God's voice. So when you sing, you connect yourself to God's voice, to your own voice.

[12:33]

I'll tell you something very deep, you know. When someone is crying and he tells you why he is crying, maybe you'll say he is right, maybe you'll say he is wrong. When someone's just crying without words, oh, you're so filled with compassion. And so therefore, in our tradition, we just sing no words, because maybe then we'll get back to the oneness of the world, because words separate us, but the melody is so good. Ti da [...] Da, da, [...] da.

[13:40]

Da, da, da, da, da. Da, da, [...] da. Da, da, [...] da. la [...] La, la, [...] la. Hey, la, [...] la. Hey, la, [...] la. Hey, la, [...] la. La, la, [...] la. La, la, [...] la. La, la, [...]

[15:12]

la [...] La, la, [...] la. Let there be oneness. Da, la, [...] la. La, la, [...] ah la [...]

[16:18]

la [...] La, la, [...]

[17:46]

Ah. Friends, we will have that candle lit and everybody will light their candle from the main candle and then with that candle we will sit and do some more chanting and at the end of the chant, that chant itself will slowly go down in volume and it will lead you into a kind of higher form of sleep.

[19:01]

So the last final chant will be a kind of lullaby. It will put you to sleep with all awareness. So all you have to do is just to be aware of that beautiful vibration that you might be feeling within you and in this beautiful holy shrine. And then it depends upon how long you could make yourself sleep in that higher form of sleep. But if I see too much of sneezing, coughing, restlessness, screeching, scratching of the benches and chairs, then that is the time to end. So if you really want it to continue long, you can tell your system, senses, coughing and sneezing and everything, you can do it afterwards when you go out. Yeah, coughed enough, sneezed enough, eh?

[20:05]

I'll give you more room for that when I go out. For a while, just be, keep quiet. Say that to yourself. And certainly they will obey you. When they have obeyed me, certainly they will obey you also. Mine was more restless. So we will try that. We have heard a pin drop silence. Let us see whether we could really make that, whether we could feel that silence here or not. Namo'valokiteshvaraya [...]

[21:25]

Aum. [...] Om. Asadomaya, Samyamaya, Pramasyamaya, Jyotirgyamaya, Nityamaya, Amritamgyamaya,

[24:57]

Jesus. you Until everybody places their candle, we keep on chanting Aum Shanti, I will lead it.

[26:27]

Aum Shanti Aum Shanti Aum Shanti Aum [...] Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti [...] Om

[27:40]

Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti Om. [...] Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti [...] Om

[29:05]

Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti Om [...] Om shanti om shanti om shanti om. Om shanti om shanti om shanti [...] om.

[30:10]

Om shanti om shanti om shanti om. Shanti Om. Shanti Om. Shanti Om. Peace. Peace. Peace be unto all. Om Shanti. you.

[32:12]

you so so

[33:35]

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