I love Ram Dass. Great guide to familiarize the beginner with methods from which to choose. Great guidance on the myriad of possibilities one might expect on the journey. I was most interested in this part. Although I've been at it awhile I've never had a friend who has gone before me talk to me about things like not becoming entrapped in methods and how from our practices life and perspective naturally change. No need to push! When I read or listen to Ram Dass I feel as though an older, wiser a...

This is a decent read for true beginners to meditation. For those who have researched the practice a bit (even via google), this will largely be a refresher. The resources section of the book is amazing, though!

Ram Dass is THE guy for so called "normies" who are just beginning to get into meditation and spiritual practices. Ram Dass writes with a kind heart and easy to follow language, something that can be difficult to find when it comes to the topic of meditation. He guides you slowly into the waters from the riverbank and teaches you how to swim through your mind like an expert and reach the other side of enlightenment. This is much easier said than done and I am still amazed at how he does it with

This was the first book I had picked by Ram Dass/Richard Alpert after reading the Harvard Psychedelic Club and it changed my ability meditation by helpong me find what worked for me. after reading many books on the practice this one was the only one that helped would recomend this to anyone looking at how to get start meditating

Excellent guidebook for people who are starting to practice meditation. The book is very eloquent and encouraging. Thank you Ram Dass!

If you only read one book about meditation, this is it. The chapters are short with great dharma stories that illustrate what Ram Dass has written about. Quotes from Zen masters as well as Christian writers makes this book accessible to all. You don’t need to believe in the Buddha to benefit from Ram Dass’s teachings. Don’t be put off by the size. Half the book is a directory of meditation centers. And if you want to read another and you should, I’d recommend Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jo...

top-notch pick-up-and-go reading. Packed full o' nuggets of sage advice and self-reflective meditative exercises from Zen/Hindu/Buddhist/Christian traditions. I guess you could say it's a journey.

Changed my life for the better.

I love this book so much. It's a refreshing journey that every person has to take. We fight we our demons day by day, but life has incredible ways to teach us for good o for bad. Ram Dass is great, this book is all that you expect to read for your soul and mind and much more. One of my favorite books definitely!

I have been reading this book on and off for a little over a month now. I read a lot and usually have multiple books on the go. A book like this is good to have to slow your mind down. I don't meditate in the conventional sense, but I do run long distances and this is a method of concentration and focus I enjoy for both mental and physical reasons. Reading this book is not the same as a normal read. There is no story to it. It should be read one verse at a time like any book of wisdom. It is ful...

Ram Dass is elucidating, humorous, and digestible. His writing radiates compassion and understanding.I read it fairly quickly but the book holds so much wisdom that it will serve as a perennial reference in my spiritual practice.

This is not a book to gallop through. It should be read thoughtfully and, well, meditatively, and more than once. Extra points for clarity of style.

A simple, open overview of some of the ways that one might find a path in meditation. Ram Dass offers a refreshing perspective, that a successful path will be different for everyone, include different methodologies, and may change over time. This book might give you confidence that there is a meditative path for you. [NOTE: the back half of this book is a meditation center & retreat directory, which is partially obsolete.][Borrowed from the public library network.]

This really is an ideal book for many who are looking for some form of spiritual practice to give some more depth to their lives. Amongst its outstanding points are that it gives a brief overview of several methods, but does not stop there and looks at some of the pitfalls and misconceptions about meditation. Above all I would recommend this book for the enquirer because of the author's detached attitude where he repeatedly suggests that there is no one way to the liberation that he talks about....

Didn't expect much from this book as two other books I started reading by Ram Dass seemed to be more of an autobiography and seemed to focus on gimmicks for enlightenment or peace of mind such as a picture type book with not very wise phrases put on each page in an artsy way with a picture of dancing Indian in an attempt to show the phrase was wise and cultured. This book on the contrary had some wise insights to incorporate into life and meditation and had less of a new age gimmicky feel to it

A large portion of the book is a directory for meditation and yoga centers across North America (well, the States mostly). But the book is amazing and full of wonderful descriptions and stories and ideas.

Spiritual rightness tends to leave a bitter taste in my mouth when reading books like this. A beloved saying by Jung goes, “There is only one way and that is your way. There is only one salvation and that is your salvation...What is to come will be created in you and from you. Hence look into yourself. Do not compare. Do not measure. No other way is like yours...You must fulfill the way that is in you.”I have a deep appreciation for Ram Dass and the way in which he expresses sentiments of life,

A perfect accompaniment to any meditation practice.

For those who are comfortable with the idea of the ultimate goal of existence to become a non-self, this book is fine. It has the usual boilerplate solutions and suggestions and mantras, etc., about how to achieve such. I found the section with specific hang-ups on the path to non-self interesting but not as practical as I'd hoped they would be. Many of Mr. Dass's solutions winnow down to "just do it" without providing much more guidance than that. It reminds me of recovery stories that say "and...

“The need to proselytize, the need to cling to and talk about your experiences, the need to dramatize them by turning simple acts of meditation into spiritual melodrama, all will fall away in time, leaving meditation a normal daily affair— nothing special.”