Authors: Ram Dass, RAM
ISBN-13: 9781400054022, ISBN-10: 1400054028
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Date Published: October 2004
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Ram Dass has served on the faculty at Stanford and Harvard Universities. In the 1960s, he traveled to India, where he met his guru. Since then, he has pursued a variety of spiritual practices, including guru kripa, devotional yoga, karma yoga, many forms of meditation, and Sufi and Jewish studies. Many of his books, including Be Here Now, are international bestsellers and classics of their kind.
For centuries, readers have turned to the Bhagavad Gita for inspiration and guidance as they chart their own spiritual paths. As profound and powerful as this classic text has been for generations of seekers, integrating its lessons into the ordinary patterns of our lives can ultimately seem beyond our reach. Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism's most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or "paths for coming to union with God."
In Paths to God, Ram Dass brings the heart of that system to light for a Western audience and translates the Gita's principles into the manual for living the yoga of contemporary life.
While being a guide to the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, Paths to God is also a template for expanding our definition of ourselves and allowing us to appreciate a new level of meaning in our lives.
Dass, long exiled from the faculty of Harvard for "psychedelic research," is well known as the author of Be Here Now, a book that gave a phrase to the language. His latest is an updated summary of a series of lectures that he gave in the mid-1970s. Despite its title, it is less a guide to the Gita than a tour through Dass's own post-Buddhist-like spiritual musings, with the Gita acting as a kind of springboard. Still, Dass's reflections are often interesting and stimulating; he is as well qualified as anyone now writing to "rediscover ways of honoring the sacred." For most collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Backward and Foreword | xiii | |
Introduction | 1 | |
1 | Context and Conflict | 13 |
2 | Karma and Reincarnation | 34 |
3 | Karma Yoga | 55 |
4 | Jnana Yoga | 73 |
5 | Brahman | 94 |
6 | Sacrifice and Mantra | 107 |
7 | Renunciation and Purification | 127 |
8 | Devotion and the Guru | 159 |
9 | Social Aspects of Sadhana | 182 |
10 | Dying | 204 |
Conclusion | 228 | |
The Course Syllabus | ||
A | Keeping A Journal | 249 |
B | Contemplation | 251 |
C | Meditation | 255 |
D | The Witness | 256 |
E | Giving and Receiving | 259 |
F | Silence | 262 |
G | Tapasya | 265 |
H | Hatha Yoga Asanas and Pranayam | 267 |
I | Japa Yoga | 270 |
J | Going to Church or Temple | 272 |
K | Kirtan | 274 |
L | Satsang Collaboration | 276 |
M | Puja Table | 278 |
N | Karma Yoga | 280 |
The Supplemental Syllabus | ||
A | Vipassana Meditation | 285 |
B | Mindfulness Meditation on Food | 288 |
C | Buddhist Mealtime Meditations | 291 |
D | Satsang Meditation | 297 |
E | How to Use a Mala | 299 |
F | The Chakras | 301 |
G | The Yoga of Psychedelics | 304 |
Notes | 307 | |
Glossary | 311 | |
Resources | 319 | |
Index | 321 |