Maharajji told me, 'Give up anger and I'll help you.' I found _x000D_ that love freed me back into the ocean of love and my righteous anger didn't do that. And I would rather be free than right.
Ram DassRead
The humor is that finally when you have the power to move the mountain, you are the person who placed it there-so there the mountain stays.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the irony of having the ability to change one's circumstances yet often choosing not to.
Ram Dass's quote reflects on the paradox of personal power and responsibility. It suggests that when one gains the ability to alter their life's obstacles, often they realize that they have contributed to their own challenges. This realization may lead to an acceptance of the situation as it is, revealing an inherent humor in the human condition where we are both the architects and the prisoners of our mountains.
Themes
HumorResponsibilityPowerChangeIrony
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about self-improvement, one could use the quote to illustrate how we often create our own challenges.
More from Ram Dass
All quotes βThe gift you offer another person is just your being.
Ram DassRead
Let the natural flow of the universe, course through your being, and harmonize your soul.
Ram DassRead
You can be still and still moving. Content even in your discontent.
Ram DassRead
The heart surrenders everything to the moment. The mind judges and holds back. _x000D_ _x000D_ In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight. _x000D_ _x000D_ When we see the Beloved in each person, it's like walking through a garden, watching flowers bloom all around us.
Ram DassRead
When I look at relationships, my own and others, I see a wide range of reasons for people to be together and ways in which they are together. I see ways in which a relationship - which means something that exists between two or more people - for the most part reinforces people's separateness as individual entities.
Ram DassRead
Similar quotes
I don't speak German well but several experts have assured me that I write it like an angel. Maybe so, maybe so- I don't know. I've not yet made any acquaintances among the angels. That comes later, whenever it please the Deity. I'm not in any hurry.
Mark TwainRead
Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.
Samuel JohnsonRead
Male authors always take care to make their heroes at least one inch taller than they are, and considerably more muscular. Just as female authors give their heroines better hair and slimmer thighs.
Lee ChildRead
It was a nasty look. It made me feel as if I were something the dog had brought in and intended to bury later on, when he had time.
P. G. WodehouseRead
Humor has to surprise us; otherwise, it isn't funny. It's a death knell for a writer to be labeled a humorist because then it's not a surprise anymore.
Garrison KeillorRead
[N]o party is any fun unless seasoned with folly.
Desiderius ErasmusRead