In this unique recording from 1995, Ram Dass talks to the Shivas Irons Society about the mystical nature of golf and how he’s using the game as a practice to become more conscious.
This episode of Here and Now is from a talk Ram Dass gave to the Shivas Irons Society at Stanford University in August 1995.
- Ram Dass shares why he decided to take up the game of golf and how it helped him work out some old anxieties around the process of learning a new skill.
- Ram Dass talks about how his concentration practices and cultivation of the Witness allow him to connect to the mystical nature of golf. He explores not being attached to being the actor or to the fruits of an action. Are you being the golfer or are you playing golf?
- Finally, Ram Dass shares how he’s using the game of golf as a practice to become more conscious and develop qualities such as equanimity and joy in the moment. We can live our storylines, which means picking the right club for the next shot, while simultaneously having a free awareness that delights in the timelessness of each moment.
“What I’m saying is the game of golf is an exquisite practice for cultivating the qualities of mind that, in the long run, relieve suffering for you and other people. So I’m saying to you that you have the attraction to and the skills in and the involvement with something that is basically a vehicle for liberation. And to see it as less than that is interesting, but it’s not the full ballgame at all. And it doesn’t diminish the beauty of the game of golf. In fact, it seems to me it enhances it because you’re just appreciating the whole process, including the humor of your own mind.” – Ram Dass
