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73-469: Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert ; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019), also known as Baba Ram Dass , was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga , psychologist , and writer. His best-selling 1971 book Be Here Now , which has been described by multiple reviewers as "seminal", helped popularize Eastern spirituality and yoga in the West. He authored or co-authored twelve more books on spirituality over

146-454: A master's degree in psychology from Wesleyan University in 1954, he was recommended to Stanford University by his mentor at Wesleyan, David McClelland . Alpert wrote his doctoral thesis on "achievement anxiety", receiving his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford in 1957. Alpert then taught at Stanford for one year, and began psychoanalysis . McClelland moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to teach at Harvard University, and helped Alpert accept

219-703: A tenure-track position there in 1958 as an assistant clinical psychology professor. Alpert worked with the Social Relations Department, the Psychology Department, the Graduate School of Education, and the Health Service, where he was a therapist. He specialized in human motivation and personality development, and published his first book Identification and Child Rearing . McClelland did work with his close friend and associate Timothy Leary ,

292-520: A "countercultural bible" and "seminal" to the era. In addition to introducing its title phrase into common use, Be Here Now has influenced numerous other writers and yoga practitioners, including the Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs , the self-help writer Wayne Dyer , and the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti . The first section of the book inspired the lyrics to George Harrison 's song " Be Here Now ", written in 1971 and released on his 1973 album Living in

365-399: A class on medieval Islam, nor can an art historian run an organic chemistry lab. Moreover, there is no way that the employing institution can provide the kind of retraining that would facilitate such a transformation... even the largest and most well-endowed institution lacks the resources to reevaluate and replace its medieval Islamicists and algebraic topologists every year. Tenure thus lets

438-515: A god, fulfilling the prophecy in the Bhagavad Gita that Vishnu would take on earthly form when the world was threatened by evil. The potential for abuse in the transformed guru-follower relationship is large, and there have been multiple instances of apparent or proven sexual, mental, and emotional abuse by gurus. Anthony Storr has documented, for example, the excesses of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh ; Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad have examined

511-403: A large following; in contrast to the old guru-shishya tradition , the modern guru-follower relationship is not secretive, not exclusive, and does not necessarily involve a tradition. Many such gurus, but not all, teach a form of yoga as exercise ; others teach forms which are more devotional or meditational; many teach a combination. Some have been affected by scandals of various kinds. Before

584-581: A lecturer in clinical psychology at the university. Alpert and Leary had met through McClelland, who headed the Center for Research in Personality where Alpert and Leary both did research. Alpert was McClelland's deputy in the lab. After returning from a visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley , in 1961, Alpert devoted himself to joining Leary in experimentation with and intensive research into

657-540: A manuscript he had written, entitled From Bindu to Ojas . The community's residents edited, illustrated, and laid out the text, which ultimately became a best-selling book when published under the name Be Here Now in 1971. The 416-page manual for conscious being was published by the Lama Foundation, as Ram Dass's benefit for the community. Be Here Now contained Ram Dass's account of his spiritual journey, as well as recommended spiritual techniques and quotes. It became

730-426: A pay increase may be required to compensate faculty members for the lost job security. Some U.S. states have considered legislation to remove tenure at public universities. A further criticism of tenure is that it rewards complacency. Once professors are awarded tenure, they may begin putting reduced effort into their job, knowing that their removal is difficult or expensive to the institution. Another criticism

803-544: A popular guide to New Age spirituality, selling two million copies. The proceeds helped sustain the Lama Foundation for several years, after which they donated the book's copyright and half its proceeds to the Hanuman Foundation in Taos. Be Here Now is one of the first guides for those not born Hindu to becoming a yogi . For its influence on the hippie movement and subsequent spiritual movements, it has been described as

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876-412: A problem but fail to see how abolishing tenure would help. As things stand, some heterodox scholars do get hired and tenured.. If only the heterodox need formal protection, and we have a problem with growing orthodoxy, then eliminating the formal protection will exacerbate the problem." Skoble argues categorically and plainly against critics that say "tenure protects incompetent professors": "My argument

949-446: A relatively late age, as on average one becomes an Academic Assistant at the age of 42. In 2002 the "Juniorprofessur" position (comparable to an assistant professor in the US, but not always endowed with a tenure track) was introduced as an alternative to "Habilitation". However, the degree of formal equivalence between a "Habilitation" and a successfully completed "Juniorprofessur" varies across

1022-516: A series of attendant rights and benefits, yet this status is subject to discussion. In the W pay scale the professorial pay is related to performance rather than merely to age, as it was in C. Under the tenure systems adopted by many universities and colleges in the United States and Canada, some faculty positions have tenure and some do not. Typical systems (such as the widely adopted "1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure" of

1095-462: A trip to India in 2004, he gave up traveling and moved to Maui , Hawaii , where he hosted annual retreats with other spiritual teachers until his death in 2019. Ram Dass was born Richard Alpert in 1931. His parents were Gertrude (Levin) and George Alpert, a lawyer in Boston . He considered himself an atheist during his early life. Speaking at Berkeley Community Theater in 1973 he said, "My Jewish trip

1168-566: Is continued in post-lineage yoga , which is practised outside any major school or guru's lineage. The concept of the guru, along with mantra and meditation , reached the West in the 1960s with The Beatles' trip to India , for a Transcendental Meditation training course at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 's ashram in Rishikesh . Modern gurus since then have used the divine status of the traditional guru to claim that they were gods or goddesses. Some asserted they were avatars , earthly incarnations of

1241-445: Is essential in teaching and research in this regard. In the United States, tenure rights for teachers serving in (K-12) public schools also have been in existence for more than a hundred years. Defenders of tenure, like Ellen Schrecker and Aeon J. Skoble, generally acknowledge flaws in how tenure approvals are currently run and problems in how tenured professors might use their time, security, and power; however, as Skoble puts it,

1314-544: Is evidence both from research in psychology and from the recollections of former devotees like Daniel Shaw, once a senior member of staff in Gurumayi 's Siddha Yoga organisation, that even if a guru is seen to be lying, devotees will ignore the matter and "keep on believing". Tenure-track Tenure was introduced into American universities in the early 1900s in part to prevent the arbitrary dismissal of faculty members who expressed unpopular views. One notable instance

1387-400: Is that it may cause the institution to tolerate incompetent professors if they are tenured. Gilbert Lycan, a history professor at Stetson University , writing in respect of a fellow professor he deemed unacceptable, stated that "the dean ... would not tolerate ineffective teaching by a non-tenured teacher who was making no effort to improve," thereby tacitly admitting, or at least leaving open

1460-468: Is that the more I am persuaded that there is groupthink orthodoxy afoot, the more I want assurances that I would not get fired if I write an essay on free trade or the Second Amendment or a book on anarchism. I take it the counterargument is that the more entrenched the orthodoxy becomes, the less likely a heterodox scholar will be tenured, or even hired, in the first place... I can see that this poses

1533-519: Is that when this happens, it is a malfunction of the system, not an intrinsic feature of its proper use. The way it is supposed to work is that incompetent professors do not get tenure in the first place. The rebuttal is 'but they do, therefore tenure is a bad idea.' But that is like arguing that because you ran a red light and caused a train wreck, driving is a bad idea." Some have argued that modern tenure systems diminish academic freedom, forcing those seeking tenured positions to profess conformance to

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1606-656: The ABC , And When I Die, Will I Be Dead? It was adapted into a book in 1987. Ram Dass also served on the faculty of the Metta Institute where he provided training on mindful and compassionate care of the dying. The Love Serve Remember Foundation was organized to preserve and continue the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass. Over the course of his life, since the inception of the Hanuman Foundation, Ram Dass donated his book royalties and profits from teaching to his foundation and other charitable causes. The annual estimate of

1679-528: The American Association of University Professors ) allow only a limited period to establish a record of published research, ability to attract grant funding, academic visibility , teaching excellence, and administrative or community service. They limit the number of years that any employee can remain employed as a non-tenured instructor or professor, compelling the institution to grant tenure to or terminate an individual, with significant advance notice, at

1752-697: The Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, New York , after IFIF's New York City branch director and Mellon fortune heiress Peggy Hitchcock arranged for her brother Billy to rent the estate to IFIF. Alpert and Leary immediately set up a communal group with former Harvard Psilocybin Project members at the estate (commonly known as "Millbrook"), and the IFIF was subsequently disbanded and renamed the Castalia Foundation (after

1825-550: The Seva Foundation with public health leader Larry Brilliant and humanitarian activist Wavy Gravy . The foundation joined with health-care workers to treat the blind in India , Nepal , and developing countries. It has become an international health organization. In the early 1970s, Ram Dass taught workshops on conscious aging and dying around the United States. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was one of his students. Ram Dass helped create

1898-482: The "downsides are either not as bad as claimed, or [are] costs outweighed by the benefits"—and he points out that the very debate about tenure in which he is engaging is made possible by the academic freedom which tenure makes possible. "Tenure remains scholars' best defense of free inquiry and heterodoxy," writes Skoble, "especially in these times of heightened polarization and internet outrage. Let us focus on fixing it, not scrapping it." Supporters of tenure argue that

1971-433: The "social justice" element of Schrecker's defense makes it seem like present-day assurances of academic freedom create a politically left echo chamber in academic departments, Skoble observes that tenure thus becomes all the more necessary to preserve a diversity of ideas: "There is an orthodoxy in the academy, a well-documented leftward slant in political affiliation. To Bruce, this is an argument against tenure, but my point

2044-511: The 1970s and 1980s and are often no longer refilled after a retirement. In order to attain the position of professor, in some fields, an academic must usually complete a " Habilitation " (a kind of broader second PhD thesis; the very highest degree available within the university, entitling the holder to be a "full professor"), after which they are eligible for tenureship. This means that, compared to other countries, academics in Germany obtain tenure at

2117-561: The AAUP and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the 1940 Statement is endorsed by over 250 scholarly and higher education organizations and is widely adopted into faculty handbooks and collective bargaining agreements at institutions of higher education throughout the United States. This statement holds that, "The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition" and stresses that academic freedom

2190-786: The Dying Project with its Executive Director Dale Borglum, whom he had met in India. At the time, Borglum was also executive director of the Hanuman Foundation. The Living/Dying Project, based in Marin, California , starting in 1986, was initially named the Dying Center and located in Santa Fe, New Mexico . The Dying Center was the first residential facility in the U.S. where people came to die "consciously". In 1981, he appeared on an Australian radio documentary about death and near-death experiences that aired on

2263-631: The Material World . During the 1970s, Ram Dass taught, wrote, and worked with foundations. He founded the Hanuman Foundation, a nonprofit educational and service organization that initiated the Prison-Ashram Project (now known as the Human Kindness Foundation), in 1974. The Hanuman Foundation strives to improve the spiritual well-being of society through education, media and community service programs. In 1978, Ram Dass co-founded

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2336-648: The Third Reich. Adolf Hitler called universal education "the most corroding and disintegrating poison". He appointed Education Minister Bernard Rust , to ensure Nazi racial theories were integrated in university curriculums. This caused a purge of 1500 professors, and by 1939, nearly half of all faculty posts were occupied by Nazis. In the late 1940s, the University of Illinois at Urbana fired several prominent economists for teaching Keynesian economics . Danish universities in advertisements for faculty positions usually state that professor positions are tenured. However,

2409-408: The academic community avoid excessive turnover while still ensuring the quality of the institution's faculty. It is structured around two assessments – one at hiring, the other some six years later – that are far more rigorous than those elsewhere in society and give the institution enough confidence in the ability of the successful candidates to retain them on a permanent basis." Tenure also locks in

2482-460: The age of 88. In the 1990s, Ram Dass discussed his bisexuality . He stated, "I've started to talk more about being bisexual, being involved with men as well as women," and added his opinion that for him, his sexuality "isn't gay, and it's not not-gay, and it's not anything—it's just awareness." At 78, Ram Dass learned that he had fathered a son as a 24-year-old at Stanford, during a brief relationship with history major Karen Saum, and that he

2555-516: The average dose); after trying them, the LSD seemed to have no psychotropic effect on Neem Karoli Baba , but instead told him that the same state could be achieved through meditation and that he could live in that state. After this, Neem Karoli Baba became Richard Alpert's guru, and gave him the name "Ram Dass", which means "servant of God", referring to the incarnation of God as Ram or Lord Rama . Ram Dass called his new guru "Maharaj-ji", and studied with him

2628-497: The betrayal of trust that is involved. Swami Vivekananda said early in the modern era that there are many incompetent gurus, and that a true guru should understand the spirit of the scriptures, have a pure character and be free from sin, and should be selfless, without desire for money and fame. Following the downfalls of several gurus accused of misconduct, practitioners have publicly debated whether gurus are still necessary. As for how gurus can get away with abuse for so long, there

2701-443: The creation of modern yoga , hatha yoga was practised in secret by solitary, ascetic yogins, learning the tradition as a long-term pupil or shishya apprenticed to their master or guru. The ancient relationship was the primary means by which spirituality was expressed in India. Traditional yoga was often exclusive and secretive: the shishya submitted to and obeyed the guru, understanding that lengthy initiation and training under

2774-427: The different states ( Bundesländer ), and the informal recognition of having served as a "Juniorprofessur" as a replacement for the "Habilitation" in the appointment procedures for professorships varies greatly between disciplines. Due to a university system that guarantees universities relative academic freedom, the position of professor in Germany is relatively strong and independent. As civil servants, professors have

2847-824: The dismissal had not followed the collective agreements and Thybo received an economic compensation. Thybo had insisted that he should be reinstated in his previous position, but this was not supported by the court and the university did not rehire him. The original form of academic tenure was removed in the United Kingdom in 1988 through the Education Reform Act . In its place, there is the distinction between permanent and temporary contracts for academics. A permanent lecturer in UK universities usually holds an open-ended position that covers teaching, research and administrative responsibilities. Academics are divided into two classes: On

2920-536: The earnings he donated ranges from $ 100,000 to $ 800,000. His guru, Neem Karoli Baba, died on 11 September 1973. Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, who had grown apart after Ram Dass denounced Leary in a 1974 news conference, reconciled in 1983 at Harvard (at a reunion for the 20th anniversary of their controversial firing from the Harvard faculty), and reunited before Leary's death in May 1996. Ram Dass explored Judaism seriously for

2993-448: The end of a specified time period. Some institutions require promotion to associate professor as a condition of tenure. A university may also offer research positions or professional track and clinical track academic positions which are said to be "non-tenure track". Positions with titles such as instructor, lecturer, adjunct professor, research professor etc. do not carry the possibility of tenure, have higher teaching loads (other than maybe

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3066-615: The end. ... Now, I really am ready to face the music all around me." Ram Dass did not leave the Hawaiian Islands until July 2019, when he attended the consecration of a new Hanuman Mandir in Taos, New Mexico, on July 13, 2019, after which he returned to Hawaii and continued to make public appearances and to give talks at small venues; held retreats in Maui; and continued to teach through live webcasts . Ram Dass died in Maui , on December 22, 2019, at

3139-1004: The estate where people paid to undergo the psychedelic experience without drugs, through meditation, yoga, and group therapy sessions. Alpert and Leary co-authored The Psychedelic Experience with Ralph Metzner , based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead , published in 1964. Alpert co-authored LSD with Sidney Cohen and Lawrence Schiller in 1966. In 1967 Alpert gave talks at the League for Spiritual Discovery 's center in Greenwich Village . In 1967, Alpert traveled to India where he met American spiritual seeker Bhagavan Das , and later met Neem Karoli Baba . In 1967, Bhagavan Das guided Alpert throughout India, eventually introducing him to Neem Karoli Baba , whom Alpert called "Maharaj-ji", who became his guru at Kainchi ashram. Neem Karoli Baba gave Alpert

3212-438: The first controlled, double-blind study of drugs and the mystical experience. While not illegal at the time, their research was controversial and led to Leary's and Alpert's dismissal from Harvard in 1963. In 1967, Alpert traveled to India and became a disciple of Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba , who gave him the name Ram Dass, meaning "Servant of Ram ," but usually rendered simply as "Servant of God" for Western audiences. In

3285-399: The first controlled, double-blind study of drugs and the mystical experience. Leary and Alpert were formally dismissed from Harvard in 1963. According to Harvard President Nathan M. Pusey , Leary was dismissed for leaving Cambridge and his classes without permission or notice, and Alpert for allegedly giving psilocybin to an undergraduate. In 1963 Alpert, Leary, and their followers moved to

3358-449: The first time when he was 60 years old. He wrote, "My belief is that I wasn't born into Judaism by accident, and so I needed to find ways to honor that", and "From a Hindu perspective, you are born as what you need to deal with, and if you just try and push it away, whatever it is, it's got you." In February 1997, Ram Dass had a stroke that left him with expressive aphasia , which he interpreted as an act of grace . He stated, "The stroke

3431-502: The following four years. After Alpert returned to America as Ram Dass, he stayed as a guest at the Lama Foundation in Taos, New Mexico . Ram Dass had helped Steve Durkee ( Nooruddeen Durkee ) and Barbara Durkee (Asha Greer or Asha von Briesen) co-found the countercultural, spiritual community in 1967, and it had an ashram dedicated to Ram Dass's guru. During Ram Dass's visit, he presented

3504-484: The following years, he co-founded the charitable organizations Seva Foundation and Hanuman Foundation . From the 1970s to the 1990s, he traveled extensively, giving talks and retreats and holding fundraisers for charitable causes. In 1997, he had a stroke , which left him with paralysis and expressive aphasia . He eventually grew to interpret this event as an act of grace , learning to speak again and continuing to teach and write books. After becoming seriously ill during

3577-435: The guru can be seen in the case of one of these pioneers, Yogendra , who explicitly rejected the role of traditional guru for a single pupil or shishya . The physical context, too, is transformed along with the nature of the teacher's authority; yoga as exercise is often taught in an urban yoga studio, where the instructor's yoga teacher training stands in for the old guru-shishya relationship. The trend away from authority

3650-475: The guru is poorly understood. Modern yoga practices are often open to everyone, without any sort of initiation into any organisation or doctrine. The modern guru Jaggi Vasudev explicitly rejected "all that traditional whatever"; all the same, some yoga traditions still emphasise and respect a teacher's lineage ( parampara ). For example, Gurumayi 's Siddha Yoga pays careful attention to her predecessors, Muktananda and Bhagawan Nityananda . Another major change

3723-400: The guru was essential for progress. So strong was the guru-shishya relationship that Vivekananda stated that "The guru must be worshipped as God. He is God, he is nothing less than that". The role of the guru in the modern world is radically transformed. Globalisation has extended the guru's reach into environments where they may be a stranger, and where the religion, purpose, and status of

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3796-682: The highest professional standards while also trying to contribute in some way to the cause of freedom and social justice, I am viewed as a controversial figure in some circles. I would be seriously hampered in my work, however, if I was constantly worrying about losing my job because of something I wrote or said... Tenure is also the mechanism through which institutions create a protected space within which college and university teachers can exercise their craft without worrying that an unpopular or unorthodox undertaking might put their careers at risk. More concretely, it creates an economically secure cohort of senior faculty members who can (and sometimes do) defend

3869-521: The intellectual colony in Hermann Hesse 's novel The Glass Bead Game ). The core group at Millbrook, whose journal was the Psychedelic Review , sought to cultivate the divinity within each person. At Millbrook, they experimented with psychedelics and often participated in group LSD sessions, looking for a permanent route to higher consciousness. The Castalia Foundation hosted weekend retreats on

3942-618: The interpretation of tenure at Danish universities has been a matter of controversy. Denmark adopted a more hierarchical management approach for universities in the early 2000s. This new system was introduced by parliament on proposal by the Minister of Science, Technology and Development, Helge Sander , based on his vision that Danish universities in the future should compete about funding in order to increase their attention to marketing and industry. The controversial understanding of tenure in Denmark

4015-445: The kinds of financial remuneration that similarly educated individuals in other fields expect." Furthermore, Schrecker continues, because research positions require extreme specialization, they must consolidate the frequency and intensity of performance evaluations across a given career, and they cannot have the same flexibility or turnover rates as other jobs, making the tenure process a practical necessity: "A mathematician cannot teach

4088-413: The level of mediocrity as those awarding the tenured professorships. For example, according to physicist Lee Smolin , "...it is practically career suicide for a young theoretical physicist not to join the field of string theory ." Economist Steven Levitt , who recommends the elimination of tenure (for economics professors) in order to incentivize higher performance among professors, also points out that

4161-411: The name "Ram Dass", which means "servant of God", referring to the incarnation of God as Ram or Lord Rama . Alpert also corresponded with Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba and mentioned Baba in several of his books. The day after their first meeting, Neem Karoli Baba asked Alpert to give him the "medicine". Alpert gave him one dose of "white lightning", but he asked for 2 more tabs (915 μg or 9 times

4234-604: The next four decades, including Grist for the Mill (1977), How Can I Help? (1985), and Polishing the Mirror (2013). Ram Dass was personally and professionally associated with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s. Then known as Richard Alpert, he conducted research with Leary on the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs . In addition, Alpert assisted Harvard Divinity School graduate student Walter Pahnke in his 1962 " Good Friday Experiment " with theology students,

4307-622: The non-pecuniary aspects of academic compensation, lowering the required salary. Above all, however, tenure is essential because it protects academic freedom: not only in cases in which a scholar's politics may run counter to those of their department, institution, or funding bodies, but also and most often in cases when a scholar's work innovates in ways that challenge received wisdom in the field. As much as Ellen Schrecker identifies its flaws, she asserts tenure's crucial role in preserving academic freedom: And yet, despite its whittling away by such unfortunate decisions as Urofsky, Garcetti, and Hong,

4380-707: The one hand, professors (W2/W3&C3/C4 positions in the new and old systems of pay grades) are employed as state civil servants and hold tenure as highly safeguarded lifetime employment; On the other hand, there is a much larger group of "junior staff" on fixed-term contracts, research grants, fellowships and part-time jobs. In 2010, 9% of academic staff were professors, 66% were "junior staff" (including doctoral candidates on contracts), and 25% were other academic staff in secondary employment. Permanent research, teaching and management positions below professorship as an "Akademischer Rat" (a civil service position salaried like high school teachers) have become relatively rare compared to

4453-610: The potentially therapeutic effects of hallucinogenic drugs such as psilocybin , LSD-25 , and other psychedelic chemicals , through their Harvard Psilocybin Project . Alpert and Leary co-founded the non-profit International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF) in 1962 in Cambridge , Massachusetts, in order to carry out studies in the religious use of psychedelic drugs, and were both on the board of directors. Alpert assisted Harvard Divinity School graduate student Walter Pahnke in his 1962 " Good Friday Experiment " with theology students,

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4526-726: The quality of American education as well as the ability of their colleagues to teach, do research, and speak out as citizens without fear of institutional reprisals. Such, at least, is the idealized version of the relationship between tenure and academic freedom. In elementary and secondary schools, tenure also protects teachers from being fired for personal, political, or other non-work related reasons: tenure prohibits school districts from firing experienced teachers to hire less experienced, less expensive teachers as well as protects teachers from being fired for teaching unpopular, controversial, or otherwise challenged curricula such as evolutionary biology, theology, and controversial literature. If

4599-483: The research positions), have less influence within the institution, lower compensation with few or no benefits (see adjunct professor ), and little protection of academic freedom . In response to Nazi manipulations of university faculty in Germany, the modern conception of tenure in US higher education originated with the American Association of University Professors ' (AAUP) 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure. Jointly formulated and endorsed by

4672-432: The security granted by tenure is necessary to recruit talented individuals into university professorships, because in many fields private industry jobs pay significantly more; as Schrecker puts it, providing professors "the kind of job security that most other workers can only dream of" counterbalances universities' inability to compete with the private sector: "Universities, after all, are not corporations and cannot provide

4745-429: The traditional form of academic freedom still exists, misunderstood and imperiled as it may be. It exists by virtue of two practices that protect the job security and institutional authority of college and university teachers: tenure and faculty governance. It exists as well because of the procedural guarantees that surround those practices... My own experiences prove tenure's value. As a historian who wants to conform to

4818-449: Was demonstrated by University of Copenhagen in 2016, when the university fired the internationally renowned professor, Hans Thybo , due to what they regarded as unacceptable and untenable behavior (putting pressure on postdoc in regards of an employment survey and using private emails for work related matters despite repeated warnings about it). The handling of the firing was criticized by other researchers. A later court decision ruled that

4891-665: Was giving me lessons, and I realized that was grace—fierce grace ... Death is the biggest change we'll face, so we need to practice change." After he almost died from a second stroke during a trip to India in 2004, Ram Dass moved to Maui . In 2013, Ram Dass released a memoir and summary of his teaching, Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart . In an interview about the book, at age 82, he said that his earlier reflections about facing old age and death now seem naive to him. He said, in part: "Now, I'm in my 80s ... Now, I am aging. I am approaching death. I'm getting closer to

4964-441: Was introduced by Vivekananda; his Ramakrishna Mission set the example of public service in education and medicine, something now practised by many other Indian religious movements. These religions thus shifted from a focus on personal salvation to public altruism. A further radical shift was from spiritual to physical in yoga as exercise , as pioneered by Yogendra , Kuvalayananda , and Krishnamacharya . The transformed role of

5037-458: Was now a grandfather. The fact came to light when his son, Peter Reichard, a 53-year-old banker in North Carolina, took a DNA test after learning about his mother's doubt concerning his parentage. Modern yoga gurus Modern yoga gurus are people widely acknowledged to be gurus of modern yoga in any of its forms, whether religious or not. The role implies being well-known and having

5110-634: Was primarily political Judaism, I mean I was never Bar Mitzvahed, confirmed, and so on." In a 2006 article in Tufts Magazine he was quoted by Sara Davidson, describing himself as "inured to religion. I didn't have one whiff of God until I took psychedelics ." He was also interviewed by Arthur J. Magida at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York , who published the interview in 2008, quoting Ram Dass as saying "What I mostly remember about my bar mitzvah

5183-538: Was that it was an empty ritual. It was flat. Absolutely flat. There was a disappointing hollowness to the moment. There was nothing, nothing, nothing in it for my heart." Alpert attended the Williston Northampton School , graduating cum laude in 1948. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Tufts University in 1952. His father had wanted him to go to medical school, but while at Tufts he decided to study psychology instead. After earning

5256-504: Was the case of the resignation of Brown University president Elisha Andrews , who advocated silver coinage to reduce the impact on Americans and farmers who owed larger and larger loans due to deflation . The board of Brown University, many of whom were creditors and landowners (positions that benefited from deflation), told Andrews to cease his public advocacy. The Dean of Yale Law School , Francis Wayland , argued that Andrew's free expression threatened donations to Brown, and that money

5329-444: Was the life blood of universities. In 1897 Andrews was forced to offer his resignation, but there was a backlash by faculty and students who advocated that he should be protected under the principles of free speech. The board reversed its decision and refused Andrews' resignation. A year later, Andrews resigned anyway. Before Nazism , Germany had been a leader in academic tenure, but free speech and tenure were severely curtailed under

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