Ram Dass: Fierce Grace (2002)
"The suffering comes when you try
to hold on to continuity." - Ram Dass
It might be easy for some to dismiss
the documentary "Ram Dass Fierce Grace" as a sort
of "for fans only" cinematic love letter. Those that
do simply aren't ready for the message yet. There's
a hell of a lot more going on here than exaultation.
I walked into the film knowing nothing
about Ram Dass. I thought, vaguely, that he was some
sort of 60's, Indian, guru type person but that was
only an educated guess at best. The first shot in
"Fierce Grace" confirmed some of that notion but then
the film veered wildly into Ram Dass' life as it is
now, showing him as an older man coping with a recent
stroke. This goes on for 20 or 30 minutes. I thought,
"Geez, they're really taking it for granted that the
audience knows who Ram Dass is. I was, as a neophyte,
a little confused but still interested.
Of course, the film does eventually
plunge into the whole background story of the man.
And it is fascinating. A contemporary of Timothy Leary
at Harvard, Ram Dass was born Richard Alpert. With
Leary, Alpert, also a professor of psychology, began
experimenting with drugs and the mind. Eventually,
the two were fired. Leary went on to preach the supposed
benefits of psychadelics while Alpert went to India
and met Maharaj ji. That meeting and his subsequent
"enlightnement" lead Richard Alpert to become Ram
Dass and to reutrn to America and write one of the
best-selling book of the 70's, "Be Here Now."
But this film is really about Ram
Dass now, in the new milenium, and how he regards
his stroke as yet another learning experiment from
God. After the brief aside into his history, the film
again returns to explore the here and now.
This documentary was made by Mickey
Lemle, who has known Ram Dass for over 25 years. Yes,
it is at times very personal and even a tribute to
its subject. This isn't some sort of "balanced viewpoint"
documentary about the man. But Lemle does a more than
fair job of simply allowing cameras to roll and capture
the man that is Ram Dass today. He also does quite
well combining archival film footage and other materials
to tell the story. While certainly a bit biased, the
film is also enlightening and interesting.
A personal aside: I watch this woman
on Austin cable access TV often named Gangaji. She
is sort of this graceful and very mellow guru type
who speaks so calmly about existence and then answers
questions and hears "reports" from audience members.
Her message seems to be an amalgam of several different
philosophies, most of them based on Eastern religions
and philosophies. Anyway, Gangaji often tells her
audience that she is bringing them a message she received
from her teacher, an invitation to stop. That seems
to be a big message in this type of philosophy, to
simply stop. Stop trying to acquire things, stop trying
to succeed, stop trying to find love, etc... and just
"be." It's an exciting and interesting idea, one I
am totally incapable of achieving.
After seeing "Ram Dass Fierce Grace,"
I can imagine a no greater invitation from a teacher
to stop than God himself giving you a stroke.
Ram Dass has written a book about
his stroke and about ageing called "Still Here." If
it is one-tenth as fascinating as this documentary,
it should be required reading for anyone over 40.
That's what this film is about: Ageing, slowing down,
and find ing out all about the "everything" that is
out there, finding out about life. It's a beautiful
idea.
It's a fierce idea.
My teacher is inviting you to stop.
Notes:
The version of the film I screened
(which plays at Austin's Dobie) was on 16mm.
