I've read, all that I have been able to find, everything written by Ram Dass (born, Richard Alpert), from "Be Here Now" through "The Only Dance There Is" to his most recent book "Be Love Now". His work "Be Here Now", 40 years ago, was my starting point on the journey that has lead me to this forum. His new book rehashes a lot of stuff that was in his earlier works. What's new is the last section where he presents the lives of several Hindu Saints. In each case the Saint displayed behavior that I think would get most of us locked up in a padded cell or admitted to an ICU and put on heavy doses of medications. It seems, however, that this crisis was essential for the Saint to become fully realized. In reading about them I am reminded of the story of Eckhart Tolle's biography where " For the best part of two years in the early 1980s a man in his mid-30s would sit on a park bench in Russell Square, central London, and in a state of deep bliss watch the world go by." Descriptions sound almost as if he had had a schizophrenic break.
My question to the Forum is "is madness a precursor to enlightenment?" Bill not Bill! Find what makes your heart sing…and do it!
