In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight.

Ram Dass (1931–2019) was an American spiritual teacher and psychologist. A student of the Indian guru Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj ji), he wrote several books, including Be Here Now and Grist for the Mill, bringing Eastern spiritual teachings to a Western audience. His later books address aging and facing the end of life. He is also known under his previous name, Richard Alpert, for his research on psychedelics with Timothy Leary at Harvard in the 1960s.