Ram Dass on spirituality and meditation

“I view spiritual practice as the freeing of awareness from identification with anything ... One of the ways to do that is, for example, to pick an object of concentration and focus on that, and let everything else come and go. So let’s say I’m gonna follow my breath, rising and falling, rising and falling. Now my awareness can feel that muscle going up and down, that’s really where the focus is.”

“Then the thought will come into my mind, ‘This won’t work, what kind of Mickey Mouse thing is this?’, or ‘I’m hungry...,’ whatever thought comes in. At that moment, I notice the thought, acknowledge it, and go back to the breath. That’s all, just keep going back. That’s the whole instruction of the game.”

~ Ram Dass on spirituality and meditation