Back in 2001, Mickey Lemie produced a morally sobering
documentary “Ram Dass: Fierce Grace”, which he would adapt to a PBS Independent
Lens film about his friend and mentor in
2004.
The 90 minute film depicts the spiritual guru’s recovery
from a stroke, which Dass calls his own “fierce grace” or karma. Earlier in life he had taken care of his own
severely disabled father, very personally and physically. His own physical
paralysis improves very slowly, as he struggles to drive a stick-shift car
again.
Dasss authored the classic “Be Here Now” (Book reviews blog, Nov. 24, 2007), an
illustrated booklet about the Lama Foundation north of Taos, New Mexico. I visited Lama twice myself: in 1980 (for a
writer’s weekend, before I wrote my short story “Expedition”, which I will say
more about soon – it deals with strip mining as an allegory), and in 1984, for
Spring Work Camp, at which I stayed just two days. The second time I had a lot of difficulty
getting down the mountain through the mud on a dirt road. Dass was not present
there when I was.
The Lama Foundation
(link) property was burned with a terrible forest wildfire
in 1996, but I understand that it has since been rebuilt.
Dass has no shame in saying that some use of psychedelic
drugs is OK – he just says be careful about the law.
Toward the end, Dass counsels other people about personal
loss, and why it seems inequitable. He
talks to a young woman whose boy friend or fiancée was murdered in random
violence. The idea of fairness is itself
deceptive. We must find purpose in
service to others – feeding, sheltering and comforting them – even if we would
not have felt welcome in their lives before – an idea that seems to apply to
disaster recovery today.
The entire movie is available on YouTube free, and appears
to be legal to me. I watched a Netflix
DVD from Zeitgeist. My own comfort is
increased when I see a modest YouTube charge to watch a full movie (say $1.99
to $3.99), then I know It’s totally legal.
I don’t know if PBS sells it.
Wikipedia attribution link for Wheeler Peak, near Lama.
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