The question

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Ram Dass

Spiritual teacher and author

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Well, I—I've experienced that the stroke was grace. It was grace, for me, to play, to get inside, grace. I was dependent. These are things that I—those, those were graceful things. You know, pushed. And just go inside, to be—you're a quote "author" and it's a cultural thing, that role, to get into your head. But it's a head game. It's a head game. And I wanted to get down to my spiritual identity. And the stroke placed me at the spiritual identity.

Ross Simonini, The Believer, issue 115, by Skype from Hawaii, 20 November 2017 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 155 →
Bruno Tonioli Italian choreographer
Follow your dream and never give up, because it’s not over until the fat lady sings. Ride the adventure!
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 April 2023 source ↗
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
I believe in this country. I believe in the American people. I believe that people are more good than bad. I believe tragic things happen, I think there's evil in the world, but I think that at the end of the day, if we work hard, and if we're true to those things in us that feel true and feel right, that the world gets a little better each time.
Recorded Christi Parsons, James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, the White House, The White House (Obama administration archive), 18 January 2017 source ↗

More from Ram Dass

View profile →
Question What have you come to understand about what it means to be human? Values & belief
The stroke cut out a lot of my external trips: my sports car and golf and my cello. This [ points to hand ] is just not much use with a cello, and I was—forced inside, and finding myself living in my inside. And that has made me be part of my soul. And that's perceiving my incarnation from here [ points to heart ], rather than from here [ points to head ]. And since this is words, I start from here, go over there.
Recorded Ross Simonini, The Believer, issue 115, by Skype from Hawaii, 20 November 2017 source ↗
Question What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? Failure & regret
everyone saw me as a victim of a terrible illness. But what happened to my body was far less frightening than what happened to my soul. The stroke wiped out my faith. It took me so far from my guru that I felt my oxygen cord had been cut. ... I couldn't put the two together. Then I thought, maybe the stroke is a form of grace, and I hunted for that: how could the stroke be seen as grace? ... The stroke was giving me lessons, advanced lessons. ... It brought me into my soul, and that's grace.
Recorded Sara Davidson, Keynote talk at a conference on body and soul, Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, reported in the New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, 21 May 2000 source ↗

More on time & hindsight

Also answered this

Terry Pratchett, Tony Judt, David Lynch, Richard Coles, Jo Nesbø, Clive James

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

Report this answer