Through grace and love, I feel the sprouting of seeds planted by the transmission in his words, and I am so blessed to be a part of this beautiful community that feels and experiences that same love and grace. The teachings from his lectures have profoundly affected and infiltrated my path since then in a way that goes far beyond words. I first heard of Ram Dass in 2020 and started listening to the Here and Now podcast in 2021. My name is Liz, I am from Nashville, Tennessee, but currently live in Southern Oregon, and I am so grateful to be a part of this course and community! Joining this course now is part of the project. My awakening is slow I sense a tremendous karmic burden. Decades after Matt’s introduction, the seed within me sprouted, and I now receive Ram Dass as part of a committed program of personal liberation. Though I dismissed it then, a seed was planted. My friend Matt Moore enthusiastically showed me his copy of Be Here Now. During that phase I heard the name Ram Dass associated with Timothy Leary and his departure from Harvard. My hippieness was another suit, even if hipper and more independently selected than earlier iterations. As teenagers in the late 1980s, some friends and I found ourselves culturally influenced by the original hippie generation. From early childhood, while possessed of a certain spiritual sensitivity, I also responded strongly to the abundant “Nice suit!” reinforcements directed at me.

I “grew up” in a suburb a little north of Salt Lake, still on the Wasatch Front. I live in and am participating in this course from Millcreek, Utah, in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. Thank you for inviting me to be here and introduce myself.

Ramdass be here now