HOW CAN I HELP?

by Ram Dass & Paul Gorman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 10, 1985

A mystical-practical philosophy of service--particularly slanted toward social workers, nurses, doctors, and other therapy-providers--that's soft around the edges but fairly solid at the core. Ram Dass and Gorman intersperse their meditations with edifying but generally believable first-person narratives of people who had some sort of epiphany while helping others (e.g., cop refrains from flattening criminal who spits at him, criminal breaks down and apologizes). The basic message is a sort of eclectic Buddhism with a sturdy quasi-religious optimism: learn to free yourself from the shackles of ego; ""find tranquility in the midst of trauma"" by cultivating an objective ""Witness"" to the follies, impatience, fears, etc. of the self; deal with pain by ""letting go."" We all have within ourselves ""that essence of Beings which is in all things--call it God, Life, Energy, Consciousness,"" so a) we all have something to contribute to and share with others, and b) in so doing we achieve a sublime fusion. Self-help (cleaning up the clutter within) helps others, and helping others helps us (destroying the ""illusion of separateness""). Unlike some East-leaning visionaries, Ram Dass and Gorman acknowledge the presence of real evil and the need for politics, but seem naive in their insistence on going ""deep to the place where we are One."" (How do you do that with Hitler or Stalin or Jim Jones?) Though they discard the usual self-congratulatory rhetoric of do-gooders, they don't leave enough room for tragedy and futility. The book is written in a clean, unemphatic style that sometimes verges on the soporific. Worth considering, if not for the tough-minded.

Pub Date: April 10, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1985

Categories: NONFICTION