As I sat on the plane ride home, watching the clouds pass beneath me, one single word kept echoing through my chest, over and over like a heartbeat, and that was… Love. Love. Love.
Tears gently spilled from my eyes. Over four beautiful days at the Ram Dass Legacy Retreat, I sat in a hall filled with his enduring spirit. Though Ram Dass is no longer alive in physical form, his presence was vibrantly alive in every room. Through intimate anecdotes shared by those who walked closely with him, archival video footage of his talks, and sessions led by teachers holding his lineage, his core transmission felt as immediate and urgent as ever.
Lineage of Love
Underlying every talk, song, and story was the unmistakable presence of Maharaj-ji (Neem Karoli Baba)—Ram Dass’s guru. Throughout the retreat, Maharaj-ji was acknowledged as the ultimate driving force behind Ram Dass, Krishna Das, David Nichtern, and so many of the masters present. It was his lineage of unconditional love and service that set this whole energetic river into motion.
Listening to these teachers across their varied traditions, I realized that beneath the different terms and languages they use, every single speaker bowed to the same truth.
If I could distill everything gathered into one high-concentration elixir, it would simply be Love.
Ego in Drive
Flashing back to that airplane seat and that ride home from the retreat when my mind played through my whole life on rewind. I saw all the places where I had struggled, fought, and hurt. I saw how often my ego was driving the situation. There it was, haughtily demanding to be right. To be the one holding onto hurt, the one wanting to retaliate when I was wounded, and even sometimes withdrawing into defensive armor.
I thought I was growing over the years, but a part of me was still holding on, still insecure, still measuring my worth by achievement, by pleasing others, or by trying to appear in a certain way.
On that plane, a real shift occurred for me. I realized I no longer care about validating my life with external achievements and carefully curated personas.
What matters is making my life count by plunging into my own capacity to love.
What is important is to drop the feeling of clinging, possessiveness, and any hidden motivations, and simply become love.
What Real Love Is (And What It Is Not)
So then, What is Love? Before we can embody this presence, we have to untangle what real love actually is.
Modern culture has conditioned us to confuse love with attachment. We often say -I love you- but what we often mean is “I need you to act a certain way so I feel safe,” or “You are mine,” or “Remember that time you hurt me?”
True love has no room for jealousy, control, or keeping score. It is not a fleeting emotion; true love is an indestructible field of non-dual awareness.
And, as the retreat leaders and spiritual traditions remind us, this field of true love goes by many names:
Maharaj-ji (Neem Karoli Baba) embodied it purely through radical action and unconditional presence: unconditional service, total acceptance, and the simple, profound command to “Love everyone, serve everyone, remember God.”
Ram Dass called it Loving Awareness—the unconditional witness within us that watches life unfold without judgment, a legacy sparked by Maharaj-ji and kept alive through his teachings and community.
Krishna Das points to love as our essential, underlying nature—channeling Maharaj-ji’s presence through sacred sound to strip away our personal armor.
David Nichtern describes the field as a vast, sacred one of inclusive compassion, deeply shaped by his own path and the wisdom of this lineage.
Acharya Shunya speaks of it as Param Prem-Roopa—the ultimate Vedic non-dual love that powers the entire universe.
Sharon Salzberg calls it Real Love—an inherent capacity of the heart cultivated through deliberate loving-kindness (Metta).
Becoming Love
Clearly, Becoming Love, is not a weekend to-do task. It is a life’s work. It is the goal of a lifetime. And it’s something you never get done.
So, I don’t write this as someone who has mastered it. I write as someone who is choosing to learn out loud, with an audience. I am someone stepping into this arena with all my humanness laid bare, with my past conditioning and even my moments of shortcoming.
I am choosing to make this practice of becoming love my life’s work.
I want to make my time on this beautiful earth count. And not with achievements, appearances, or outcomes — but by choosing to become love.
It doesn’t matter how many turns on the wheel we get or what lies beyond this life. What matters is choosing, right now, to let everything be Fuel for Love.
I invite you to practice right here, right now —with me.
Mindful Minute: Think about all the ways in which you can recognize the presence of Loving Awareness in your life. Maybe share one or two with other readers.
Now, consider ways that you can amplify these moments. Try to squeeze as much goodness from these juicy moments as you can so they can grow and sustain you.