Ram Dass Here And Now

In this exploration of the fear of suffering as we get older, Ram Dass talks about approaching the mystery of aging and death in the same adventurous manner as his friend Timothy Leary.For more on the relationship between Ram Dass and Timothy Leary, please check out Dying to Know, a book that details their epic friendship and Timothy’s process of dying.The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.This talk from June 1996 is part of an aging study group Ram Dass conducted to help guide his book on aging, Still Here.Fear of future suffering is a major issue for all us, but especially when it comes to aging. Ram Dass explores how we tend to respond to that fear with massive denial, and how we can work on coming to terms with those fears through a shift in perspective.Ram Dass talks about how his work with people who are severely ill or in the process of dying has helped prepare him for his own death. He talks about the fear of losing one’s analytic, linear mind, which is so valued in this culture, and how we can open ourselves up to the value of non-linear thinking.Finally, Ram Dass details the time he spent with his old friend Timothy Leary as he approached his death. For Timothy, death was another glorious adventure. Ram Dass wonders if we shouldn’t all add a touch of the “Leary Method” as a way to approach the mystery of aging and dying.Sponsors of this Episode:Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with our link: magicmind.com/ramdassReunion is offering $250 off any stay to the Love, Serve, Remember community. Simply use the code “BeHere250” when booking. Disconnect from the world so you can reconnect with yourself at Reunion.  Hotel | www.reunionhotelandwellness.com Retreats | www.reunionexperience.org“What Timothy added was the fun of it, the adventure as you approach the mystery. When you’re approaching a mystery, what space do you want to be in in your head? Getting free of guilt? I mean, is that the one you want? Which one do you want? Which one opens to the possibilities? And Timothy was an adventurer, I mean, as I can tell you from being in the backwash for years. Timothy took me fighting and screaming into adventure. He opened up the whole image of dying into the possibility that it was a celebratory, adventurous, exciting part of life.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 5 May 2025

In this special bonus episode, Ram Dass offers his viewpoint on how we can dance in the ocean of change as the structure of our culture shapeshifts before our very eyes.This episode of Here and Now is from a talk Ram Dass gave at a bookstore in Sebastopol, CA, on April 15, 1992.How do you learn to live with change? Where do you stand? Ram Dass offers his viewpoint on our culture as he saw it in the early 1990s, talking about the rapid changes taking place in the ecological, economic, social, political, and spiritual realms. Ram Dass explores the massive denial in the culture about what all these changes mean and how that denial leads to uncertainty and fear. He talks about his work with death and dying, and how we can work with the death of our culture in a similar manner.Finally, Ram Dass shares how we can begin to find some balance amidst the chaos of change. It is possible to feel equanimity and even joy in a world that is filled with suffering. He says, “So you and I are driven to work on ourselves to rest in the place in ourselves where we are not vulnerable to the winds of changing time and space. And then to dance in the ocean of change, and to be a great dancer.” The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.Sponsors of this Episode:Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.Reunion is offering $250 off any stay to the Love, Serve, Remember community. Simply use the code “BeHere250” when booking. Disconnect from the world so you can reconnect with yourself at Reunion.  Hotel | www.reunionhotelandwellness.com Retreats | www.reunionexperience.org“Here we are dealing with perhaps the death of the whole structure, the way we know it. This is a massive death process. Now, this sounds like a gloomy lecture, except it isn’t. It all depends on whether you expect change always leads to bad things.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 22 April 2025

In this classic Q&A session from the 1980s, Ram Dass talks about soul mates, marriage and open relationships, working with truth in relationships, and much more.In this episode of Here and Now:Ram Dass begins with questions about soul mates and the difference between marriage and cohabitation. “I’m not sure,” he says, “I understand the term ‘soul mate’ other than people have work to do together, at times. Then, they may come together in many different forms.” Ram Dass converses with an audience member about being on the spiritual path while having a partner who is not. Next comes a question about open relationships, which leads him to talk about the importance of working with truth in relationships.Finally, Ram Dass answers a question about the different challenges men and women face in awakening through relationships. He talks about a quality of androgyny that can manifest in spiritual identity.The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.Sponsors of this Episode:Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with our link: magicmind.com/ramdassjanReunion is offering $250 off any stay to the Love, Serve, Remember community. Simply use the code “BeHere250” when booking. Disconnect from the world so you can reconnect with yourself at Reunion.  Hotel | www.reunionhotelandwellness.com Retreats | www.reunionexperience.org“It is certainly possible to work with truth in a relationship, to get to the point where, more and more, you are safe in expressing what your impulses are and your truth of your moment. Truth is one of the vehicles for deepening spiritual awareness through another human being and if there is a license for that in any relationship – with guru, with friend, with lover, whatever it is – it is an absolutely optimum way of coming into a liquid spiritual relationship with another person.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2025

In this Q&A session from 1993, Ram Dass talks about his passions, the balance of separateness and unity, dealing with turmoil, the creative force of the universe, and more. This episode of Here and Now is from a Q&A session at an event in Boise, Idaho in April 1993.Ram Dass begins with questions about dealing with people who might not like you, what his current passions in life are, and the art of staying in the present moment. Ram Dass moves on to inquiries about hesitating when action feels needed, making the transition from somebody to nobody, and the limits of Carl Jung’s work with mythic archetypes. Finally, Ram Dass answers questions about dealing with polarization and turmoil in the world, offers his personal feelings about organized religion, and explores the creative force of the universe. He ends with a brief guided meditation centered around awareness and compassion for those who are suffering.The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.Sponsors of this Episode:Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind. Try their new Mental Performance Gummies–a caffeine-free way to stay sharp, providing calm, sustained clarity without the side effects of traditional stimulants. Get 25% off with our link: magicmind.com/RAMDASSGM or use code RAMDASS25 at checkout.Reunion is offering $250 off any stay to the Love, Serve, Remember community. Simply use the code “BeHere250” when booking. Disconnect from the world so you can reconnect with yourself at Reunion.  Hotel | www.reunionhotelandwellness.com Retreats | www.reunionexperience.org“There is a process where, when you get out of the way, the whole creative force of the universe keeps expressing itself through the way you walk, talk, dance, paint, write, whatever your thing is.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2025

In this talk from 1970, Ram Dass explores the transformation from ignorance to wisdom, going up and coming down, living in the spirit, and different techniques of centering.The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.Listen to the Ram Dass Podcast ad-free and support this show at the same time! You can listen to the full podcast archive with hosts Raghu Markus and Jackie Dobrinska or listen to Ram Dass' talks from each episode by themselves. All that with regular guided practices from Ram Dass & friends. Sign up fore a 7-day free trial here: patreon.com/RamDassPodcastThis episode of Here and Now is the second half of a talk Ram Dass gave at the Arlington Street Church in Boston on March 24, 1970. Don’t miss part one of this talk: Tuning Up & Tuning In. In this episode:Ram Dass explores the transformation from ignorance to wisdom. “The really fierce problem that most of us are realizing at this moment,” he says, “is how to alter our ways of thinking about who we are and how it all is, to be in tune with something inside that already knows.”Ram Dass talks about the roller coaster of going up and coming down. But that’s all ultimately a game. The real work is to center ourselves so we can be at the vibrational rate where we are living in the spirit.Ram Dass shares different techniques of centering oneself, including vipasana meditation, pranayama breathing, and bhakti yoga. “As far as I can see,” he says, “every form of yoga is based on one-pointedness of mind. Take bhakti yoga, singing a love song to Ram. It only works when you can make your mind so one-pointed on Ram that you and Ram become one.”Sponsors of this Episode:Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind. Try their new Mental Performance Gummies–a caffeine-free way to stay sharp, providing calm, sustained clarity without the side effects of traditional stimulants. Get 25% off with our link: magicmind.com/RAMDASSGM or use code RAMDASS25 at checkout.Reunion is offering $250 off any stay to the Love, Serve, Remember community. Simply use the code “BeHere250” when booking. Disconnect from the world so you can reconnect with yourself at Reunion.  Hotel | www.reunionhotelandwellness.com Retreats | www.reunionexperience.org“Living in the spirit is a vibrational rate. It’s a take of it all. It’s a vibrational take. In order for it to work, you’ve got to get your head so centered. You’ve just got to calm down and center. And it’s really fierce to do it in the marketplace. And sometimes it’s cool to go off and do it in cycles. So at those times you sort of go off by yourself to cool out and center.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 18 March 2025

In this unique talk from 1970, Ram Dass explores the confluence of dualism and nondualism, how the One and the many exist simultaneously, and why all of life is about tuning up.This episode of Here and Now is the first half of a talk Ram Dass gave at the Arlington Street Church in Boston on March 24, 1970. In this talk:Ram Dass begins by talking about why all of life is about tuning up. “We’re tuning out of dualism into nondualism,” he says. “Tuning into being here and now.”Guided by wisdom from the likes of John the Baptist and Lao Tzu, Ram Dass digs deeper into his exploration of how dualism and nondualism come together. The One and the many can exist simultaneously.Ram Dass talks about Shiva’s dance, the mind-trip of holiness, and taking a night off from his Sadhana to go bowling. He ends with a classic story about not being able to keep his consciousness at the right level during a Q&A session.The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.Sponsors of this Episode:Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.Reunion is offering $250 off any stay to the Love, Serve, Remember community. Simply use the code “BeHere250” when booking. Disconnect from the world so you can reconnect with yourself at Reunion.  Hotel | www.reunionhotelandwellness.com Retreats | www.reunionexperience.orgThis show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with our link: magicmind.com/ramdassjan“The tuning up is complicated, you see, because we’re not tuning out, we’re tuning up. We’re changing our vibrational rate.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 3 March 2025

Ram Dass shares stories of social action and explores how we can plug into our sense of intuitive rightness so that our every act is in the way of things and in tune with the universe.This episode of Here and Now is from a dharma talk given at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, on March 9, 1983. Ram Dass begins by talking about some of the anti-nuclear protests going on and how he feels tired of being “should upon.” He shares a story about how he wound up marching for peace across the Golden Gate Bridge.For Ram Dass, taking part in social action must come from a sense of intuitive rightness within ourselves, not from models of who we think we are and what we think we should be doing. We must listen our way into the harmony of things and resonate intuitively with the deepest parts of our beings.Ram Dass talks about quieting the screaming trumpets of the judging mind in order to hear what our next act should be. He shares the story of a protest he attended in New York where everyone simply felt privileged to be present in the moment. “You and I are environments for each other,” he says. “We’re the soil in which the flowers around us grow.”The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.Sponsors of this Episode:Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.Reunion is offering $250 off any stay to the Love, Serve, Remember community. Simply use the code “BeHere250” when booking. Disconnect from the world so you can reconnect with yourself at Reunion.  Hotel | www.reunionhotelandwellness.com Retreats | www.reunionexperience.orgThis show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with our link: magicmind.com/ramdassjan“It was in the way of things. It had an intuitive sense of rightness. It was the meditative space of listening. Of hearing, not even listening. Of being so in tune with the universe that you can sense how your every act, your walking meditation, is interwoven with every other form. And the quality of the way in which you walk is your participation in the totality.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 17 February 2025

Ram Dass and Stephen Levine take questions from the audience and talk about dealing with fear, appreciating your own unique incarnation, transforming negative energy, and more.Sponsors of this Episode:Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.Reunion is offering $250 off any stay to the Love, Serve, Remember community. Simply use the code “BeHere250” when booking. Disconnect from the world so you can reconnect with yourself at Reunion.  Hotel | www.reunionhotelandwellness.com Retreats | www.reunionexperience.orgThis show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with our link: magicmind.com/ramdassjanThis episode of Here and Now is the final part of a talk given by Ram Dass and Stephen Levine in San Francisco in the 1980s during the AIDS crisis. Don’t miss Part 1 and Part 2 of this talk. In this recording: Ram Dass and Stephen answer questions about dealing with fear in someone who is ill and how to be with a person who is caught in their fear. They discuss the function of fear and how there’s no way we can really take away another person’s fear, but we can be an environment in which they can let go of it if they choose. Responding to a question about viewing AIDS as a death sentence, Stephen says, “No one has to die your death for you, and you don’t have to die your death for anyone else.” Ram Dass brings up the issue of time and talks about not getting attached to a model of what you think life experience should look like. Ultimately, it’s best to appreciate the uniqueness of your own incarnation.Finally, Ram Dass and Stephen are asked to reflect on society’s reaction to the AIDS crisis. Stephen explores how difficult it is to keep your heart open around people whose hearts have closed, while Ram Dass talks about the art form of transforming negative energy. The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox.About Stephen Levine:Stephen Levine was an American poet, author and Buddhist teacher best known for his work on death and dying. He was a friend and colleague to many Be Here Now Network Teachers. Along with Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg, Stephen is responsible for making the teachings of Theravada Buddhism more widely available to students in the West. Find more talks and writings from Stephen at levinetalks.com.“I mean, there’s an art form to learning how to flip negative energy, and there’s plenty of it in the game you and I are all involved in at this moment. And it’s inside ourselves and it’s in each other. And the question is how quickly we can identify it. The minute you can notice it you start to get space. The minute you get space, you can start to transform it. And you can transform that negative energy into something through which you can grow.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 3 February 2025

Ram Dass and Stephen Levine explore how all the experiences in our lives, including the process of dying, can be an opportunity to grow and awaken out of the illusion of separateness.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with our link: magicmind.com/ramdassjanThis episode of Here and Now is part two of a talk by Ram Dass and Stephen Levine in San Francisco in the 1980s during the AIDS crisis. You can listen to part one on Ep. 268 of the Here & Now podcast: The Heart of Healing.Ram Dass talks about how we are being healed out of our separateness through our shared caring and our shared heart. Everything in our lives, including the process of dying, is an opportunity to grow. He explores how we need to shift our perspectives to touch the possibility that we are more than our bodies.Stephen addresses the AIDS crisis and the sense of anger and self-hatred that gathers around the pain people experience as they come closer to death. He shares the powerful story of one AIDS patient he was working with who started to meet his pain with loving kindness instead of with hatred. Ram Dass talks about opening not just to physical pain but to psychological pain as well. He shares some of the heavy learning he’s had to do in order to allow himself to need help from others. To do the work he really wanted to do, Ram Dass needed to acknowledge the fullness of his own humanity first. About Stephen Levine:Stephen Levine was an American poet, author and Buddhist teacher best known for his work on death and dying. He was a friend and colleague to many Be Here Now Network Teachers. Along with Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg, Stephen is responsible for making the teachings of Theravada Buddhism more widely available to students in the West. Find more talks and writings from Stephen at levinetalks.com.“And at the simplest level, I’d say the statement is the antidote to burnout is the perspective that you are a growing being and that everything, including your own life and your own death, and approaching death, is an opportunity to grow.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 20 January 2025

In this talk from the 1980s, Ram Dass and Stephen Levine come together to explore the heart of healing and encourage us to look with clarity and compassion at the issues of pain and death.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now is part one of a talk Ram Dass and his good friend Stephen Levine gave in San Francisco in the 1980s. Check back soon for more of this recording.Stephen begins by talking about how this event came to be. He explores the heart of healing and how it can occur on more than just the physical level. The body might not always reflect the healing, but the healing is happening nonetheless.Ram Dass wants this to be a gathering that can reach for truth. Feeling touched by his stepmother’s recent passing, he shares the beauty of the process they just went through together. He tells the story about being on LSD during his mother’s funeral and explores some of the issues of burnout that are commonplace for people who are caregivers. Stephen talks about teaching with Elisabeth Küblar-Ross and how he learned to let go of his roles when sharing space with people who are facing pain and death. He tells the story of a woman who used her pain to push past her separateness and into a place of collective being. Healing doesn’t have to do with life and death, it has to do with the heart of the moment.About Stephen Levine:Stephen Levine was an American poet, author and Buddhist teacher best known for his work on death and dying. He was a friend and colleague to many Be Here Now Network Teachers. Along with Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg, Stephen is responsible for making the teachings of Theravada Buddhism more widely available to students in the West. Find more talks and writings from Stephen at levinetalks.com.“Those people we know who are working with healing the body often seem to come to the place where they recognize that there is no such thing as just healing ‘my’ body, it is healing the body we all share. Entering the shared heart to experience the shared pain in the body we all share.” – Stephen LevineSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 7 January 2025

In this unique recording from 1995, Ram Dass talks to the Shivas Irons Society about the mystical nature of golf and how he’s using the game as a practice to become more conscious.Today's show is sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now is from a talk Ram Dass gave to the Shivas Irons Society at Stanford University in August 1995. Ram Dass shares why he decided to take up the game of golf and how it helped him work out some old anxieties around the process of learning a new skill.Ram Dass talks about how his concentration practices and cultivation of the Witness allow him to connect to the mystical nature of golf. He explores not being attached to being the actor or to the fruits of an action. Are you being the golfer or are you playing golf?Finally, Ram Dass shares how he’s using the game of golf as a practice to become more conscious and develop qualities such as equanimity and joy in the moment. We can live our storylines, which means picking the right club for the next shot, while simultaneously having a free awareness that delights in the timelessness of each moment.About Ram Dass:Ram Dass’s spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying millions along on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a little piece of his guru, Maharaj-ji, with all who have listened to him.“What I’m saying is the game of golf is an exquisite practice for cultivating the qualities of mind that, in the long run, relieve suffering for you and other people. So I’m saying to you that you have the attraction to and the skills in and the involvement with something that is basically a vehicle for liberation. And to see it as less than that is interesting, but it’s not the full ballgame at all. And it doesn’t diminish the beauty of the game of golf. In fact, it seems to me it enhances it because you’re just appreciating the whole process, including the humor of your own mind.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 23 December 2024

At this rowdy Q&A session from their 20-year reunion event at Harvard, Ram Dass and Timothy Leary answer questions and banter about the scenarios and myths surrounding our lives.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode is part three of the Ram Dass and Timothy Leary reunion event at Harvard University on April 23, 1983. Be sure to check out part one, The Explorer’s Club, and part two, No Signposts. In this recording:Ram Dass and Timothy begin with a little banter about their relationship and how it has evolved over the years.Dealing with a slightly rowdy audience, they take questions about where we go from here, emptiness and form, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, and Ken Kesey. Ram Dass and Timothy both share their thoughts on collaboration and writing as a team, what the future might hold for the use of psychedelics, and whether or not psychedelics cause brain damage. They have a lively debate about Gandhi versus ET. Ram Dass explores some of the myths and scenarios surrounding our lives. Timothy talks about his Revelations per Minute meter and some of the future possibilities he’s most excited about. They quibble over Ram Dass’ use of the word “God” and make some predictions about the remainder of the 1980s.The event wraps up with some extended banter about voting, righteousness, and breaking bread with old enemies. This talk was chosen in celebration of the new book, Dying To Know, which chronicles the epic friendship between Ram Dass and Timothy Leary that shaped generations of seekers. Get your copy today!“My feeling is that we see through scenarios and myths so much that all we can do from here is be true to our self from moment to moment. Because every time we say, ‘Well, where we go from here is…’ We are already sending a whole structural thing forward.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 9 December 2024

In this talk from their 20-year reunion at Harvard, Timothy Leary reflects on the journey he and Ram Dass shared as they explored the boundaries of consciousness with no signposts to guide them.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode is part two of the Ram Dass and Timothy Leary reunion event at Harvard University on April 24, 1983. Don’t miss part one: The Explorer’s Club. In this recording:Timothy Leary takes center stage to share his perspective on the journey he and Ram Dass took when they came together at Harvard. He begins with a brief history of the tradition of transcendental thinking at Harvard which began with Ralph Waldo Emerson. Timothy talks about the simplicity of their work in those early days as he and Ram Dass explored the boundaries of human consciousness with no signposts to guide them. He shares some thoughts on the notorious Good Friday Experiment and discusses the important insights into psychopharmacology they discovered, including the concept of set and setting.Shifting topics to their post-Harvard lives, Timothy talks about the “happiness hotels” he and Ram Dass were running. They share some laughs about the Harvard Crimson, being tracked by the CIA, and Timothy’s description of Ram Dass in his autobiography. Finally, they discuss the mileage they got out of various myths over the years and what their post-Harvard voyages of discovery were like for each of them. Today's talk was chosen in celebration of the new book, Dying To Know, which chronicles the epic friendship between Ram Dass and Timothy Leary that shaped generations of seekers. Get your copy today!“In those days, it did seem almost miraculously simple. We gave, we shared; we took these drugs as novices, as amateurs, hesitantly moving into a field that had no signposts or guidelines. There was simply no language in Western psychology to describe altered states of consciousness or ecstasies or visions or terrors. A psychiatrist said these were psychotomimetic experiences, but that didn’t seem to tell us too much. We were smart enough, and I give us this credit, to know how little we knew.” – Timothy LearySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 26 November 2024

In this talk from his 20-year reunion with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in 1983, Ram Dass shares some reflections about psychedelics and being part of the old Explorer’s Club.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode is the first part of the Ram Dass and Timothy Leary reunion event at Harvard University on April 24, 1983. Check back soon for parts two and three. In this recording:Ram Dass shares some reflections about psychedelics and why he’s still a part of the old Explorer’s Club. Detailing an extremely powerful trip he took at a hotel in Kansas, Ram Dass talks about how he was able to find peace in the space between the thoughts arising in his mind.Ram Dass explores psychedelics as a method and how it helped him connect to the place of unity that lies behind the diversity of human beings.Finally, Ram Dass talks about how using psychedelics has informed his stance on social action. It’s better for our actions to come out of a sense of joy and love rather than fear and hate.This talk was chosen in celebration of the new book, Dying To Know, which chronicles the epic friendship between Ram Dass and Timothy Leary that shaped generations of seekers. Get your copy today!“Now, I suspect that I’ve taken LSD once every two years since I first ingested [it] with Timothy. I’ve taken it many, many more times during the first five or six years. But I don’t think I’ve missed a two-year period. I always assume that I’m going to start from a different launching pad because all the things that happened to me in those two years will put me in a different space from which to take off. I’ll explore a new unchanneled kind of plane of reality. And then I also feel like I’m a member of an old Explorer’s Club that has a loyalty to have reunions.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 11 November 2024

Ram Dass leads a guided meditation centered on compassion and then conducts a fast-paced Q&A session on topics such as world peace, reincarnation, and dealing with teenagers.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now is from a Ram Dass event in Eugene, Oregon in March of 1987.Ram Dass begins with a meditation centered on awareness and compassion. He guides us through a visualization where we become a being of infinite size and infinite compassion.Offering us his truth, Ram Dass conducts a spirited, fast-paced Q&A session with a lively audience. He shares his thoughts on topics such as world peace, humor, relationships, reincarnation, and dealing with teenagers (which can be like when worlds collide). Finally, Ram Dass conducts a rousing rendition of one of his favorite songs, Jubilate Deo, breaking the audience up into a six-part round. Part of this recording is featured in Centered in the Storm, a free course from Love Serve Remember foundation featuring the wisdom of Ram Dass and many of the great teachers here at Be Here Now Network. The course is running right now – sign for free up today.“I mean, when somebody’s on their way to becoming somebody and they meet somebody who’s on their way to becoming nobody, it’s when worlds collide, like Velikovsky said. And that’s usually what happens between spiritually, relatively conscious adults and their teenage kids who are busy getting into stuff and getting through their stuff world. And what you have to do is use that as an exercise to work on yourself to get to the point where your mind is such where you can do what needs to be done to keep that act together, to keep the kid from blowing themselves apart if you can, and at the same moment keep spacious.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 28 October 2024

Ram Dass shares stories of miracles and talks about truth, relationships, and how some dualistic methods can help us straddle the thin line between chaos and cosmos.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now is from a 1980s talk in Sydney, Australia. Sharing stories from Miracle of Love about Dr. Larry Brilliant’s experiences with Maharajji, Ram Dass takes on the subject of miracles. He says the value of these mind-boggling stories is in helping us break the attachment to our thinking minds.Ram Dass tells the story of Maharajji demanding changes to Be Here Now and keys in on the statement, “Money and truth have nothing to do with one another.” He talks about truth, secrets, and how hard it is to be truthful around other human beings. Ram Dass explores the power and trials of relationships based on truth. “The truth is scary,” he says. “Truth keeps shattering your models of how you think it ought to be.” He explains how dualistic methods such as relationships and devotional yoga can help bring us into non-dualism and straddle the thin line between chaos and cosmos.Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on October 22nd at 8 p.m. EDT.“Well, the problem with truth is that we are all these kinds of animal/human/unconscious – we all have all this kind of stuff going back and forth. You might look at your partner and suddenly they look like a skeleton. ‘Good morning dear, you look absolutely ghastly.’ Can you handle that in a relationship? A relationship based on truth follows the very fine line between chaos and cosmos.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 14 October 2024

In this Q&A session from 1994, Ram Dass talks about the importance of honoring lineage, the potential of the rave scene, how to bring a heart quality to academia, and much more.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now is from a question and answer session Ram Dass conducted at a talk in Boulder, Colorado, in June of 1994.Ram Dass begins by answering questions about self-destructing methods, lineage versus eclecticism, and advising people on what methods are best suited to them. He talks about the importance of honoring lineage and respecting each other’s journeys.Next up is a dose of psychedelics and politics. Ram Dass answers a question about the burgeoning rave scene in 1994 and includes his thoughts on the state of psychedelics at that moment. He then takes on a question about fundamentalism, which prompts him to talk about the Clinton administration.Ram Dass wraps things up with questions about bringing a heart quality into academia, his view on open marriages, and the importance of honoring our teachers. He talks about being able to respond to the presence of uncertainty and chaos in a reflective way, rather than a reactive way. Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on October 8th at 3 p.m. EDT.“In the story of lineages, the transmission is passed from individual to individual through specific teachings. I think we should honor and appreciate and treasure the fact that human consciousness has valued and transmitted ways to become free. I think that’s what honoring a lineage means. I think that we’ve got to separate the practice of honoring a lineage from the result of honoring the lineage, which is to be free. And that means free of lineage. You can’t be free of all form, you’re free within form. And within form, you can be in the lineage.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 1 October 2024

In this continuation of his address to the American Psychological Association, Ram Dass talks about integrating different planes of reality and offers 10 recommendations for psychologists.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindIf you haven’t done so already, listen to Here and Now Ep. 259 to hear the first part of this talk. This episode is a continuation of Ram Dass’ address to the American Psychological Association in Montreal, Canada, on September 3rd, 1980. Ram Dass examines the paradoxes that we must incorporate into our beings as we start to play with different planes of reality, including issues of free will and determinism. He talks about embracing his humanity and taking the curriculum that’s offered to him in this life. Ram Dass explores systems that exist in other cultures that are usable by psychology, including the Chakra systems. He reads a story about an Eastern doctor as an example of someone who has integrated different planes of reality into his work. Using his clock analogy, Ram Dass details the process of awakening from identification with our separateness and how we evolve from seeking pleasure to seeking freedom. He ends the address by offering 10 recommendations for psychologists that he’s gleaned through his life experiences. “You and I met here today in a way that our hearts touched. You can’t convert what I said into any simple psychological stuff right away. But you and I are meeting in a way that we know we are touching something that is real for both of us. We may not be able to say what it is that’s just happening to us, but we know it’s happening. We can point at the moon, a little bit.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 16 September 2024

Presenting his unique life as a case study, Ram Dass offers insights into the human mind and altered states of consciousness to a gathering of the American Psychological Association.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now is from the first part of Ram Dass’ address to the Meeting of the American Psychological Association in Montreal, Canada, on September 3rd, 1980.Ram Dass presents his case to the American Psychological Association, talking about a set of experiences and shifting perceptions that confronted him with the issue of what reality truly is. He explores his time as a professor at Harvard, meeting Tim Leary, and the power of his first psychedelic experience. That experience propelled Ram Dass to years of research with these consciousness-altering chemicals and a deep exploration of the human mind.Having become a master of getting high, Ram Dass talks about the horrors of coming down. But these studies with psychedelics helped him to empty his mind, become more of a witness to his experiences, and be less associated with his emotional states.Finally, Ram Dass shares what led to him going to India, his experience of giving his guru psychedelics, and how his concept of time started to change. He closes by talking about the different planes of consciousness.“I found myself becoming less identified with my emotional states and my psychological qualities and characteristics, and perplexedly enough, at the same moment, more involved with them. I seemed to be living more fully in the moment of the feelings, and yet, at the same moment, being more spacious around them.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 2 September 2024

In this half-hour guided meditation, Ram Dass uses concentration and mindfulness techniques to help us sit on the river bank of the mind and watch the thoughts, sensations, and feelings flow by.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindTake a seat on the river bank of your mind with this guided meditation Ram Dass conducted during a retreat in Vancouver, Canada, in February 1992.Ram Dass begins the guided meditation with a Samadhi, or concentration, practice. “Every time the mind wanders to any sensation or thought,” he says, “the minute you notice that it has wandered away from the breath, just very gently, non-judgmentally, draw the awareness back to the next breath.”The meditation shifts to a mindfulness practice. “Now just open up into mindfulness,” says Ram Dass, “just being aware of what is. Let the mind be drawn to whatever primary object it is drawn to. If it’s drawn to a feeling in your back or in your legs, notice that. If it’s drawn to a memory or a plan or an emotion, a listening, tasting, whatever sensation or thought, let it flicker to that, let it sit with it, don’t hold onto the thought or sensation, and then watch it be replaced by another one.”For the last part of the meditation, Ram Dass tells us to focus on the thought of “I.” He says, “Look and see if you can find out where that is. Where is the thought of I? Who is this I? In the ocean of awareness, where is I?”Listen to this podcast ad-free and support these great talks from the Ram Dass Archive. 7-day free trial: patreon.com/RamDassPodcast“It’s as if you were sitting on a river bank watching the mind’s stuff go by. Here comes a floating sensation from the knee. Here comes a thought about the whole process. Here comes the listening to a sound. They just come, and they go.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 19 August 2024

How can we learn to live by changing our relationship to death? Ram Dass addresses the staff at a hospital and shares his vast perspectives on death, not getting caught in the drama of dying, and dealing with burnout.Ram Dass Here & Now is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This show is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindToday’s episode is from a lecture Ram Dass gave to the staff of Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, New York, on November 26, 1986.Ram Dass begins by exploring different perspectives on death. He talks about how the Western perspective on dying can often frame death as the enemy, then shares how the Eastern perspective contains a lot more lightness about death.Ram Dass touches on the hospice movement and then discusses his work with the Living Dying Center. He talks about how death is often the biggest drama in town, but the process of dying can be used to awaken rather than keep people identified with their separateness. Finally, Ram Dass addresses the issue of burnout in the medical community. How can one function in the role of being a healer without emotionally being attached to whether or not the patient lives or dies? But we can approach pain and suffering in a way where we don’t get lost in it.Listen to this podcast ad-free and support these great talks from the Ram Dass Archive. 7-day free trial: patreon.com/RamDassPodcast“I must just encourage you to explore the possibility that you use the adventure of service as a vehicle for opening up the exploration of who you are in relation to what you’re doing. Because I think if you were less a nurse and less a doctor, and more an awareness who was being a nurse and doctor, your payoff would be improved considerably, and death would become an interesting part of nature rather than an error or a failure. And you could still do your work, in fact, perhaps even more impeccably.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 5 August 2024

In this Q&A session from 1990, Ram Dass talks about service, karma, alcoholism, the concept of eternity, cultivating the intuitive heart, experiencing the feeling of coming home, and more.This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.Today’s podcast is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now is from a Q&A session during a talk in Oklahoma City in May of 1990.Ram Dass begins by addressing questions about Hatha yoga, the concept of eternity, and where we can start when it comes to service. He talks about listening inwardly to hear the unique part we can play.Next up, Ram Dass explores dealing with alcoholism, cultivating qualities such as compassion and sympathetic joy, the concept of karma and our unique karmic predicaments, and experiencing the feeling of coming home into the harmony of all things.Finally, Ram Dass talks about some of the figures he admires, cultivating the intuitive heart, and how to deal with the seductive appeal of intensity. What we can do is cultivate the quality of the Witness within ourselves that notices when we get taken and lost in the drama of life. Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on July 30th at 8 p.m. EDT.“I’ll tell you, I experience that as I keep opening my heart and accept my part in the sea of humanity, in the process of it, and start to allow that quality of compassion to come forth, I experience the feeling of coming home. I feel like I come home into family, I come home into place, I come home into the harmony of things. I think that the conditions are available for us to feel that feeling. I think as each individual feels it, then they become an instrument through which others feel it. I think it is a heart-to-heart process of coming home into that feeling of being at home.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 22 July 2024

Ram Dass explores the paradox of suffering a spiritual person lives with, the perfection of it all, better living through chemistry, how we’re touched by grace, and the path of service and love.This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.Today’s podcast is also sponsored by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now continues the talk from Here and Now Ep. 254—The Up-Level. It was recorded at a meeting of the San Francisco Christian Community in 1978.Ram Dass begins by explaining the paradox a spiritual person lives with when it comes to suffering and the perfection of all things. He touches on karma and righteousness.Ram Dass talks about how he came into spirituality through his experimentation with psychedelics and better living through chemistry. He explores the power of the mystical experience, motivations for service in the face of suffering, and the limits we place on ourselves by defining who we are. Ram Dass touches on our attachment to our methods, and how we’re all touched by grace. We can fight it all we want, but we can’t fall out of grace. He tells the story of how he began to give up his anger and ends the talk with an exploration of love. For Ram Dass, his path was simply one of service and of love.“We have been touched. We have been touched by grace. That’s what we’re doing here. That’s why we’re in this room rather than at movies or out getting more and more sensual gratification at a punk rock concert or whatever. The reason we are here is because we’ve touched something. That is the grace, that is the thing. It has happened.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 8 July 2024

In a talk from 1978, Ram Dass explores stepping onto the spiritual path, different planes of consciousness, the process of awakening, and the spiritual up-level game we can get caught in.This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.Today’s podcast is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now comes from a 1978 recording of a talk Ram Dass gave at a meeting of the Christian Community of San Francisco.Ram Dass begins by speaking about the ups and downs of stepping onto the spiritual path, and how the nature of his personal journey had to do with the relationship of thought forms to the universe. There are more ways to know the universe beyond the rational, analytic mind, including intuition.Using meditation as an example, Ram Dass explores how we can lessen our identification with our thinking mind and start identifying more with our awareness. He talks about the different planes of consciousness on which we exist, from the physical and psychological planes to the plane where we’re all one. Ram Dass describes the process of awakening as a process of extricating ourselves from attachment to any of these planes. He talks about the confusion people encounter as they jump from plane to plane and the spiritual up-level game that people can get caught in. Ultimately, what we have to realize is that there’s no place to stand. We’ve got to allow it all, all of the time. “‘Peter, it’s your turn to do the dishes.’ Peter answers, ‘We’re all one.’ Now, it is true we are all one, and it’s also true that it’s your turn to do the dishes. That’s what would be called a confusion of levels, you see. That’s what was known as the up-level in the original jargon of the consciousness movement. That was the up-level. You up-level everybody. Whatever they said, you just jumped one level up. Then you get the penultimate where somebody is saying, ‘It’s all nothing, it’s all empty, there is nothing, there’s nowhere.’ Then you’d say, ‘Yes, but do the dishes.’ And that would be your new up-level, that would be the twist.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 24 June 2024

In this 1981 Q&A session, Ram Dass addresses surrender, astrology, dharmic anger, the illusion of separateness, relative reality, love, hallucinogens, and more.Participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now! Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on June 4th at 8 p.m. EDT.This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.This episode of Here and Now is taken from a talk given in Melbourne, Australia in 1981.Ram Dass begins the Q&A by taking questions about dealing with disturbances in meditation, the relationship between concept and perception, and letting go of our identification with different roles and stances.In response to a question about the role of the guru in the unfolding of his spiritual journey, Ram Dass talks about how his relationship with his guru is like that of a child with an imaginary playmate. He cautions us about getting too caught up in the concept of the guru, saying that there are no rules to this game.After answering a question about free will, Ram Dass takes on an inquiry about being too formless and feeling disconnected from the physical. He talks about the importance of being grounded and getting your act together. Ram Dass ends this part of the session with a question about responsibility, especially as it pertains to social action.Today’s podcast is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindWant to listen to this podcast AD-FREE? Not interested in the commentary before each talk from Ram Dass? We hear you! Join our Patreon for all this, plus weekly guided meditations from Ram Dass and friends. Try free for 7 days by signing up at patreon.com/RamDassPodcast“Once you are without anger, then you can get really angry. I mean, there’s nothing more beautiful than dharmic anger.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 10 June 2024

In this Q&A session, Ram Dass talks about dealing with disturbances in meditation, letting go of identifications, seeing the guru as an imaginary playmate, being too formless, and more.This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.Today’s podcast is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindWant to listen to this podcast AD-FREE? Not interested in the commentary before each talk from Ram Dass? We hear you! Join our Patreon for all this, plus weekly guided meditations from Ram Dass and friends. Try free for 7 days by signing up at patreon.com/RamDassPodcastThis episode of Here and Now is taken from a talk given in Melbourne, Australia in 1981.Ram Dass begins the Q&A by taking questions about dealing with disturbances in meditation, the relationship between concept and perception, and letting go of our identification with different roles and stances.In response to a question about the role of the guru in the unfolding of his spiritual journey, Ram Dass talks about how his relationship with his guru is like that of a child with an imaginary playmate. He cautions us about getting too caught up in the concept of the guru, saying that there are no rules to this game.After answering a question about free will, Ram Dass takes on an inquiry about being too formless and feeling disconnected from the physical. He talks about the importance of being grounded and getting your act together. Ram Dass ends this part of the session with a question about responsibility, especially as it pertains to social action.Would you like to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on June 4th at 8 p.m. EDT.“It’s like having an imaginary playmate as a child, but then as you grow up you realize that the playmate was real and you were imaginary. It’s sort of that way with the guru. I mean, you realize that who you thought you were that was following the guru, that was the hype in the first place. And that it all just is. So Maharaj-ji and I are buddies, lovers; I hate him because every time I try to sneak something by, there he is. And I can’t even describe how much I love him.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 27 May 2024

In this classic talk, Ram Dass explores resting in ‘I am,’ a place where we can see the perfection of all things, including suffering, and how we can balance that place with an open heart.This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.Today’s episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode is a continuation of the talk from Here and Now Ep. 250 – Eat It Like It Is, which was given in Austin, Texas, in the early 1990s.Continuing to take his cue from Swami Ram Tirth’s words, “I am without form, without limit,” Ram Dass dives into the notion of “I am” and talks about how resting in that place makes the world look different than if we are busy being somebody doing something. From this place, we can see the perfection of it all, even with the suffering inherent in form. The predicament is that we are not just the “I am,” we are also human beings with bodies and personalities and human hearts that cannot bear the suffering around us. Ram Dass talks about finding a balance between these two places and keeping our hearts open to the unbearable. Ram Dass explores all the demands to respond to the suffering of the world and how it’s easy to get tired of being “should upon.” Ultimately, we can rely on our intuitive heart-minds to know what is the right action to take for ourselves. The quieter we get and the less attached we are to our roles, the more we will gravitate towards the things that relieve the suffering of all sentient beings.Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on May 21st at 3 p.m. EDT.“If you were resting in your ‘I am,’ you would look and you would see only the perfection of it all. And you would see that what we did in the ’60s is what created Ronald Reagan in the ’80s. You would see the way polarities work; you’d see the way forces polarize… You’d just see it as law unfolding right before you.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 13 May 2024

Who are you? What are you doing here? In this classic talk about identity and attachment, Ram Dass asks where you could possibly stand in a world filled with pain and suffering to ‘eat it like it is?’Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindIn this talk from Austin, Texas, in the early 1990’s:Ram Dass recalls a family saying from his youth, “Eat it like it is,” and asks how we can possibly apply it to the current world filled with pain and suffering.Exploring the nature of identity, Ram Dass talks about how we have to become somebody in order to become nobody. He discusses his experiences with expanded states of mind and how the game shifted from how to get high to wondering why he came down.Ram Dass talks about how the impeccable warrior is someone who exists on all planes simultaneously. He explores the nature of attachment and reads from Swami Ram Tirth, who helps us understand there is a place we can stand where we can see everything as the unfolding of law. This is the place where we can ‘eat it like it is.’Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on May 7th at 8 p.m. EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.“The signs point to Armageddon. It looks like it’s really hit the fan. Where could you stand that you could ‘eat is like it is?’ Or you could love it as it is? Where could you possibly stand? Where could you allow that to be what it is? What perspective, what vector view would you need to have? Who would you be if you were seeing it that way?” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 29 April 2024

In this exploration of suffering, death, and love, Ram Dass talks about resting in change and handling the balance and tension of inhabiting multiple planes of reality simultaneously.Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on April 23rd at 3 p.m. EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis episode of Here and Now is from a 1992 lecture in Edgartown, MA. It continues the talk started in Here and Now Ep. 248 - Patterns of Interdependency.Exploring his work with death and people who are dying, Ram Dass talks about how he’s learning to live simultaneously on multiple planes of reality and consciousness. To him, the art form of being human is the ability to open our hearts to suffering and acknowledge that it hurts like hell, while also appreciating the awesome nature of the mystery, which includes suffering and death.Ram Dass addresses aging and the nature of change. He talks about resting in change and handling the balance and tension of inhabiting multiple planes of consciousness simultaneously.Ram Dass opens up about the trouble he has keeping his heart open to certain people. He talks about the collaborative nature of creating environments where people won’t get trapped in their roles.Ram Dass ends the talk with some reflections about love and not living out of a deprivation model. He shares his classic story about the state trooper who just might have been Krishna in drag as an example of living on more than one level at one time.“When you are able to simultaneously live on those planes of consciousness and handle that tension and that balance, then your every act towards other human beings brings to bear with it equanimity, spaciousness, and joy.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 16 April 2024

Speaking to issues of ecology, politics, and social action, Ram Dass shares stories of compassionate action and explores patterns of interdependency we can recognize in the world.Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on April 9th at 8 p.m. EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis episode of Here and Now is from a 1992 talk in Edgartown, MA.Ram Dass discusses our looming ecological crisis, politics, and living in the age of the Kali Yuga. There is change happening all around us. For Ram Dass, what’s interesting is where one stands in relation to change.How do we respond in an appropriate way to all the suffering in the world around us? Ram Dass shares classic stories of compassionate action and talks about the constant dialogue between the mind and the heart.Ram Dass explores how moving through different planes of reality can help us recognize the incredible patterns of interdependency in this world. By acknowledging that these other planes exist, we can find a way to be fully in the world and simultaneously not be trapped by it. In this way, we’re able to keep our hearts open in hell.“When you experience the plane of reality where everything is interdependent, it includes you, you’re part of it all. If you flip the dial and go to another plane of reality, you see that behind all of the forms, which are like cloud patterns, there’s only one of it. There’s one stuff. There’s one stuff that keeps going into these incredible patterns.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 2 April 2024

In this Q&A session, Ram Dass talks about transcending dualism, the significance of clairvoyance, how reincarnation is part of our dreams within dreams within dreams, and more.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassWant to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on March 26th at 3 pm EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.This episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic MindThis week’s episode of Here and Now is taken from a Q&A session in 1987. Ram Dass begins by answering questions about his Mala beads, his spiritual lineage, and psychedelics. He shares stories about giving his guru the “yogi medicine.” Taking on a question about struggling with the polarities of positive and negative, light and dark, and good and evil, Ram Dass explores transcending dualism. He talks about how before he’d experienced transcendence, he had a lot of trouble with the idea of good and evil. What’s the significance of clairvoyance? Ram Dass talks about the very rigid set of rules we base on what our senses tell us, and how he loves sharing stories of miracles because they push everybody’s buttons.  Ram Dass answers questions about cultivating the Witness, why there is so much blind suffering, and connections that span multiple lifetimes. He talks about how reincarnation is as real as anything on this plane of awareness because it’s all just dreams within dreams within dreams.“Everybody doesn’t have a guru or a physical plane guide, many people have inner guides that they experience as their inner voice, which could be their inner voice or it could be another being helping them. There are many levels of this game. Each person gets their ‘karmuppance.’ They get just what they need, just when they need it.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 18 March 2024

In this classic talk from 1987, Ram Dass explores working with suffering, keeping our hearts open, finding the intuitive heart space, and being responsive rather than reactive. This episode is a continuation of the talk started in Here and Now Ep. 245 – Taking Off Our Spacesuit.Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on March 12 at 8 pm EST. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassIn this week’s episode:Using his stepmother’s death as an example, Ram Dass explores how pain and suffering can become a curriculum through which one awakens.Ram Dass discusses how he has begun to fall in love with everyone, and how his guru opened him up to the possibility of unconditional love. If we’re caught in our separateness, it’s hard to keep our hearts open.Ram Dass shares classic stories of how other beings, including a dolphin, have helped him escape the trap of his own mind and find the intuitive heart space. He talks about taking care of his aging father and learning how to just be present with him.Finally, Ram Dass explores the difference between being reactive and being responsive, reading a story from ‘How Can I Help?’ to illustrate his point. He talks about how, when we are quiet enough on the inside, we can begin to hear how to awaken through the journey of the spirit.“As you quiet your mind just a little bit, you get so that you’re not automatically reacting to everything. You become what’s called responsive rather than reactive. In other words, something happens and there’s a moment when it’s just happening, you’re just with it. As your awareness expands to include more than your separate self, it’s as if you’re part of the gestalt of it all, and you experience the totality of it. And then, out of that quietness comes an act that is appropriate to that moment.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 6 March 2024

In this essential talk from 1987, Ram Dass uses his life experience to guide us through the process of taking off our spacesuit of identity and embracing the curriculum our lives offer us.Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on February 27th at 3 pm EST.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis episode of Here and Now is from a classic talk given in April 1987.Using his journey as a guide for this talk, Ram Dass explores the spacesuits of ego and identity we wear in our lives. He tells us how ill-fitting this spacesuit felt for him, and the feeling of freedom he found when he was first able to take it off. Ram Dass describes how he began to chase the high of not wearing the spacesuit through the use of mind-altering chemicals and spiritual practices. Eventually, though, those things became a different kind of suit he was wearing. Through the advice of a wise friend, he realized he needed to take the curriculum that everyday life has to offer and not just live with his head in the clouds.Once the object of the game shifted from getting high to getting free, Ram Dass chose to stop pushing away all of the things that brought him down. Instead, he embraced the many forms of suffering in the world, working with prisoners, AIDS patients, and people going through the process of dying. To get free, we need to embrace it all, the good and the bad.“As I took off the suit, I felt at home, I felt present. It felt extremely familiar to me, even though as an adult in society I didn’t remember having been in this space before. I was always constantly checking everybody to see if I was enough ‘somebody’ so that I would be allowed to exist.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 19 February 2024

In this deeply meditative recording from 1976, Ram Dass talks about going beyond form and intellect and then is joined by Krishna Das to chant a love song between formless and form.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassWant to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on February 13th at 8 pm EST.In this episode of Here and Now: In a highly meditative fashion, Ram Dass speaks about the spiritual journey and how it is a journey of the heart. The intellect, while an exquisitely powerful tool, cannot know ultimate truth.Ram Dass explores the forms we must use to get beyond the intellect, including meditative practices and chanting. He talks about the identities we create with our minds and how we were born into the illusion of separateness. But the way the dance works best is that we keep shifting forms and understand that all these forms will take us to that which has no form.Ram Dass is joined by Krishna Das to chant “Jai Radha.” Ram Dass explains how it is like a love song between formless and form.“This is like a love song between formless and form, between Father and Mother, between the cow herdsmen and the Gopi, between Radha and Govinda.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 5 February 2024

In this essential talk, Ram Dass leans on the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching, Ramana Maharshi, and Groucho Marx to explore identity, change, and how incarnation is the blueprint for liberation.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassWant to be a part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Register now for the SoulPod Meet-Up on January 23rd at 3 pm EST.This episode of Here and Now is taken from a workshop in Los Angeles in May of 1991.Ram Dass dives into the concept of identity and how we’ve lost the balance between our identity as individuals and our identity as part of the unity of all things. We begin by being too attached to the somebody-ness that’s drilled into us from birth and then, as we awaken spiritually, we go in the other direction and cling too tightly to the unity. The ultimate goal is to be in the world, but not of the world.Offering the wisdom of Groucho Marx, Ram Dass talks about learning to play with reality and how part of what we’re awakening to is that there are many planes of reality. He references Ramana Maharshi and describes how the spiritual journey is ultimately about extricating yourself from your definitions of yourself. Part of the predicament of being so attached to these definitions of self is that all things change, including our bodies. Ram Dass addresses the very nature of change and reads from the Tao Te Ching to offer us a clue to the Way. Ultimately, as we awaken, we can begin to see how our unique incarnations are actually the blueprint for our liberation. There are no errors in this game.“It’s too beautiful. It’s too beautiful that your incarnation turns out to be the blueprint for your liberation. Who would’ve expected that?” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 23 January 2024

Ram Dass explores how we can have perspectives and models about the universe without being attached to them, as long as we cultivate the state of no mind and trust our intuitive validity.Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join the Ram Dass Fellowship virtual meetup on January 9th at 5 pm PST. Sign up for the General Fellowship group here to receive more information.This episode of Here and Now is taken from a Ram Dass talk at Colby College in April of 1970.  In this talk:Ram Dass explores how it’s healthy to have perspectives and models about the universe and how things are, but it’s crucial that we don’t become attached to or stuck in that perspective. Telling stories of his time in far-out places like India, Los Angeles, and heroin treatment centers, Ram Dass shares how it’s all perspective. Having a perspective is harmonious with the Tao, with the way of things, but we can’t get addicted to it and have it become our “reality.” He talks about how things like school and television are designed to keep us stuck in our roles, models, and perspectives.Ultimately, we can learn to trust our intuitive validity and cultivate the Buddhist state of no mind, where we have finished with our models. We can know the difference between being wise and being knowledgeable.“As long as you are attached to any model of the universe, to any level of definition of who you are or how it works, you are closed off from the rest of it. And the state of no mind, the Buddhist state of no mind, is where you have finished with models. You don’t even be enlightened, you don’t be anything, there’s just no mind.” – Ram DassAbout Ram Dass:Ram Dass’ spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying along millions on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a little piece of his guru, Maharaj-ji, with all who have listened to him.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 3 January 2024

In this radio interview from 1977, Ram Dass explores the power of psychedelics and the importance of a guru, plus he leads a guided meditation that connects us to a place of no place.Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join the Ram Dass Fellowship virtual meetup on December 19 at 3 pm EST. Sign up for the General Fellowship group here to receive more information.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis episode of Here and Now is taken from an interview with Ram Dass at the local college radio station in Santa Cruz. The interview is from October of 1977, right after Ram Dass had taken part in a conference that featured Albert Hoffmann, Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and other luminaries of the early psychedelics scene:Ram Dass begins by sharing some of his personal history, especially as it pertains to the university audience and psychedelicsHe and the host discuss the profound experiences that can occur with psychedelics versus using them as a recreational vehicleThey explore the importance of having a guru on the spiritual path, but Ram Dass talks about how the process of awakening is ultimately a journey that must be taken aloneRam Dass leads a beautiful guided meditation that aims to connect us to a place of no place and help us see that the true guru lives within us “Any thoughts which come to your mind, let them go, breathe them out along with the out-breath. Any feelings, sensations, memories, plans… This is only going to take five minutes, you can set aside five minutes out of your busy life just to connect with a place of no place. To get behind your melodrama. Just keep the focus in the middle of the chest. Breathing in; breathing out.” – Ram Dass----In a world that often feels like it's teetering on the edge, it's not surprising that so many of us grapple with feelings of instability and overwhelm. On Tuesday, December 19th, join acclaimed Buddhist meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Ethan Nichtern for a free online conversation on staying grounded, available, and engaged, even when the world is on fire.Sharon and Ethan will also discuss the upcoming Dharma Moon Yearlong Buddhist Studies program and offer their insights on how studying Buddhism can help us show up more fully for ourselves and others during these challenging times.Visit dharmamoon.com/event for more info and to reserve your free spot!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 19 December 2023

Ram Dass explores the art of how to bring the past into the present as we age, leads a powerful exercise centered around the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and talks about working with grief.Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join the Ram Dass Fellowship virtual meetup on December 19th. Sign up for the General Fellowship group here to receive more information.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis episode of Here and Now is from a recording of a study group on aging hosted by Ram Dass in 1995.In the face of aging and death, part of the spiritual work we should consider doing is what Ram Dass calls the art of how to bring the past into the present. Using the example of his mother’s death, he shares the importance of processing events from our past with the perspective we hold in the present.We can also bring the past into the present in a cultural and historical context. Ram Dass leads an exercise centered around the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, having us contemplate and recognize that we are part of a culture that has models of reality that would legitimize the dropping of that bomb.Ram Dass explores the issue of grieving, especially as it relates to aging and loss. He reads a letter he had written to a family who lost their young daughter, and he talks about the importance of moving from the realm of ego to the realm of the soul.“There is a tendency that we do in our mind to romanticize our own existence. We become the center of ‘As the World Turns,’ we are the leading actor, we have been cast. We keep milking our history to justify our existence, to give our existence meaning. I want to suggest to you that there is a cost to that.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 4 December 2023

In this recording from 1995, Ram Dass explores the nature of time, especially as it relates to aging, and shares how his guru helped him see that being in the present moment is all there is.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis episode of Here and Now is from a recording of a study group on aging hosted by Ram Dass in 1995.Ram Dass begins his exploration of time and aging by looking at the nature of time from both the domain of the ego and the domain of the soulHe examines the perspectives on time we hold throughout our lives in this culture, from being fully in the moment as babies, reaching for the future as kids and young adults, thinking of time as money in middle age, and finally clinging to the past in our older yearsRam Dass reads from a book on aging that he’s in the middle of writing, sharing a tale of why time seems to work differently in India and how his guru helped him see that being in the present moment is all there isFinally, he talks about working on letting go of his personal history and the struggles he had with boxes of memorabilia he’d collected over the years“And they talk about gaining awareness is like snatching the pearl of awareness from the dragon time. That’s one of the mystical ways of talking about what awakening and enlightenment are. It’s freeing your awareness from being entrapped within time. Not that you don’t use time, but you’re not used by it.” – Ram DassSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 21 November 2023

Speaking to us from 1983, a time of widespread fear about nuclear war, Ram Dass explores how spiritual work equals social action, and yet, we can’t just wait until we are free to take action.Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join the Ram Dass Fellowship virtual meetup on November 21st at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. Sign up for the General Fellowship group here to receive more information.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass speaks about:How spiritual work equals social actionThe two ways that the game of awakening is playing outHow Gandhi molded his social action movement, bringing together social action and spiritual workHow the path of social action and the spiritual journey comes down to karma yoga and using the stuff of our life to get free, but we can’t wait until we are free to take action“And when we are strong enough to look at ourselves, then we will be strong enough to demand truth. But most of us do not have integrity in our own lives. We are all full of righteousness and good here, and right over here we have deception, we have hoarding, we have all kinds of stuff. And to me, in my life, that isn’t good enough, it stinks. I can’t have any room any longer for guilt and self-deprecation about it. I have to appreciate that’s my evolving humanity, but I see where the path of real social action comes. I see what Gandhi’s talking about when he says make yourself into zero and your power is invincible.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 6 November 2023

In this wild Q&A session from 1976 that is teeming with frenetic energy from the audience, Ram Dass really just wants to talk about three things: God, sex, and dope.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassWant to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join the Ram Dass Fellowship virtual meetup on November 7th, sign up for the General Fellowship group here to receive more information.In this episode of Here and Now:Dealing with a slightly wild audience, Ram Dass answers questions about how our actions can influence other people’s journey of awakening, what commitment truly is, and how to look at our predicament from different levels.But what Ram Dass really wants to talk about is three things: God, sex, and dope. He talks about moving beyond the desire for drugs, how people become attached to their sexual expression and what tantra truly is, and defines God to the best of his ability.Ram Dass ends the evening by singing, “Rejoice in the Lord.” Again, I say, rejoice.“Beyond all of the patterns of energy – physical, astral, causal – lies God, that which is beyond form. You aim for that, and in the course of it, if you are pure in your aim, you can do nothing which is adharmic, going against the dharma. And if you stay in the flow, in the Tao, in the dharma, then whatever needs to be for you and your fellow human being will be done, even though you may not understand what it is that’s happening to you. Your intellectual awareness of what is going on is not necessary for this journey. It can speed it up and help it, but it’s not necessary.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 23 October 2023

In this Q&A session, Ram Dass answers questions about how to love without emotional attachment, the relationship between karma and grace, and how he defines responsibility.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassIn this recording from 1976, Ram Dass answers questions from a lively Los Angeles audience:How to love without emotional attachment? Ram Dass explores the various levels of love, dealing with attachment, and working with the karma that exists in our life space.What is the relationship of karma and grace? Ram Dass talks about how he perceives grace and the ways it intersects with our karma.What’s his view on vegetarianism? And who is God? Somehow, those questions are connected.How does Ram Dass define responsibility? A responsible being lives in the Tao. “And what grace turns out to be is all the forces that exist in the universe that are free agents, that are available to support the process of your going back into the source. All the gurus, all the beings on astral planes, all of the elements, all of the forces in the universe.” – Ram Dass Discover the transformative practice of teaching mindfulness in a new FREE 30-page ebook by Senior Buddhist teacher and Emmy award-winning musician, David Nichtern. With its blend of humor, wisdom, and accessible approach, The Art of Teaching Mindfulness ebook is a must-read for anyone interested in sharing the life-changing practices of mindfulness with others.Already downloaded by over 15k people, visit dharmamoon.com/ebook to get YOUR free copy of The Art of Teaching Mindfulness! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 9 October 2023

In this recording from 1976, Ram Dass explores the process of awakening and becoming enlightened. Featuring a musical interlude from Krishna Das and an introduction from Raghu Markus.This episode is a continuation of the dharma talk from Here and Now Ep. 234 – The Awakening of the SoulRam Dass' Love Serve Remember Foundation and the Alan Watts Organization invite you to open your mind, open your heart, and tap into the living truth of Alan Watts and Ram Dass. Click to learn more about this special 4-week Virtual Course: The Presence of the Way: The Dharma of Alan Watts and Ram Dass Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassIn this episode:Ram Dass, in a very meditative fashion, explores the place of the Mother in the lineage of devotional tantra, talking about taking each experience in your life and redefining it as a form of the MotherKrishna Das takes center stage to invoke the Mother through music, inviting the Goddess to come down and bless us allRam Dass gives a detailed breakdown of the process of awakening and becoming enlightened, from purification and opening the heart to quieting the mind and getting the energy to flowAre you interested in contributing to the wildfire recovery efforts in Maui and in the most impacted areas of Canada? Check out these resources below to find out how you can help:Hawaii Community FoundationCanadian Red Cross“The only thing that I am involved in is the game of perfection. And because of that, when I work with people, or even this teaching, I see the game as a game of moving up and then bringing up the ground with you. It’s like an inverted ’T,’ where you go up the center and then you pull the two bottom lines up with you. So that every new level of consciousness we get into, we then reassess the whole dance of life and keep it together on the physical plane.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 25 September 2023

In this potent talk from 1976, Ram Dass explores the channels of perception of individual differences and how every experience in life is grist for the mill of the awakening of the soul. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassStraight from 1976 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Ram Dass explores:The journey of awakening and the predicament of how we perceive ourselves and othersThe different channels of perception of individual differences, from the physical level to the astral planes and beyondHow everything in our lives, including all the joy and all the suffering, can be used for the awakening of the soulsHow a truly conscious being experiences all the different channels of perception simultaneouslyAre you interested in contributing to the wildfire recovery efforts in Maui and in the most impacted areas of Canada? Check out these resources below to find out how you can help:Hawaii Community FoundationCanadian Red Cross“But what we are meeting as are these entities, or souls, or essences, that are passing through a set of experiences. And we are sharing consciousness as to the nature of these experiences and what their significance is to us as souls. And from that point of view, everything in your life is grist for the mill of the awakening of your soul out of its attachments to either the body or the personality or the astrological identity.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 12 September 2023

In this radio interview from 1985, Ram Dass touches on identity, the purpose of meditation on the path to enlightenment, working with death as a path to spiritual growth, and much more.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassIn this 1985 interview from “The Questline” radio show, Ram Dass explores:Not clinging to identity and how to deal with shifts in consciousnessThe role and purpose of meditation on the path to enlightenmentAstral planes, psychedelic drugs, and the spiritual heartWorking with death and dying, and why he found the 1980s to be a much more optimum time for spiritual growth than the 1960sDifferent levels of awakening, and walking the path of serviceAre you interested in contributing to the wildfire recovery efforts in Maui and in the most impacted areas of Canada? Check out these resources below to find out how you can help: Hawaii Community FoundationCanadian Red Cross“In a way, I’m finding it much more interesting to remain spiritually conscious in the 80s… Like we’re much closer to facing in the daily news the issue of our potential death. And that is a major cultural vehicle for awakening. The confrontation with death is one of the – as Castaneda says, keeping death on your left shoulder – it is the vehicle that helps you awaken the most. And that’s what we’re confronted with much more now. So it seems like the optimum time for spiritual growth to me.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 28 August 2023

In this radio interview from 1985, Ram Dass discusses the journey of awakening, how reincarnation is within the dance of forms, dysfunctional societal myths, and much more.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassIn this 1985 interview from “The Questline” radio show, Ram Dass explores:Enlightenment and the journey of awakeningAttachment to emptinessHow reincarnation is within the dance of formsMerging the Western lifestyle with the path of Eastern traditionsUsing psychedelic drugs and the rise of cocaine use in the 1980sThe dying societal myth that more is better and will make us happyFear and suffering“Reincarnation is within the dance of forms… Some systems focus on reincarnation to help relieve you of your exclusive identification with this incarnation.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 14 August 2023

Ram Dass answers a wide range of questions on topics such as free will, working with fear, and falling in love – plus, he leads a Metta meditation to help us tap into the universe of compassion.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassIn this Q&A session from 1992, Ram Dass explores:Conscious dying, free will, and the grieving processCommunication after death, relaxing about enlightenment, and working with fearDeveloping faith, feeling vulnerable while falling in love, and why we can’t afford to armor our heartsThe practice of Metta meditation and how it can help us tap into the universe of compassionThis podcast is also sponsored by Pengwee's Breath, a tender-hearted story of a young penguin who learns that his own breath gives him the power to calm his fears. Enjoy the book on its own or with a companion Teaching Guide for parents and teachers that can be downloaded for free from the author's website.Get your copy today: Pengwee's Breath“And as this practice deepens and you recognize that you are one of the beings in that circle, as well as the heart that is sending light forth, you enter more and more deeply into the universe of compassion. And in that universe, the heart is freed to love as it must love.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 1 August 2023

Ram Dass explores how to find the balance between emptiness and compassion in the face of immense suffering and tap into the truth of your deepest being to hear your unique dharma.This episode is a continuation of the talk from Here and Now Ep. 229 – The Sword of DiscriminationToday's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis podcast is also sponsored by Apollo Neuro. Developed by neuroscientists and physicians, the Apollo™ wearable uses touch therapy to rebalance your nervous system and support your circadian rhythm, allowing you to sleep better, focus more efficiently, and even meditate with ease. Get $40 off your purchase today using code BEHERENOW and tap into a calmer, better rested, more focused version of you.In this powerful talk from 1992, Ram Dass explores:Boundaries and the nature of loveBelief systems and faithHow his work with death and dying has prepared him for dealing with a dying culture and the looming ecological disasterHis work with the Seva Foundation and the power of communityTapping into the truth of your deepest being to hear your unique dharmaFinding the balance between emptiness and compassion in the face of immense suffering“If you and I are to be instruments of the healing of the world, it is that we are quiet enough to hear our dharma, our way, and that we live our way as a statement. As Gandhi said, ‘My life is my message.’ We live our lives in such a way that the way you are in the supermarket, the way you are with your loved ones, the way you are when you’re facing pain, it is all part of the deepest wisdom statement you are able to make. It is the truth of your deepest being. For that, you have to listen inward very quietly as your offering to all beings.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 17 July 2023

Ram Dass explores how his work with death and dying keeps him at his own leading edge of consciousness and talks about why compassion is truly the sword of discrimination.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassThis podcast is also brought to you by Magic Mind. Magic Mind contains a magical combination of 13 active ingredients, scientifically designed to improve energy, focus, and mood while decreasing stress — all things that, combined, improve your productivity. For 50% off your subscription to Magic Mind, visit  magicmind.co/ramdassIn this powerful talk from 1992, Ram Dass explores:Working with death and dying as a spiritual practice, and how it helps keep him at his own leading edge of consciousnessHow the process of learning to live simultaneously on more than one plane of consciousness is the path to dealing with death, dying, and suffering in a more spacious mannerHow two levels of love – conscious love and relational love – come into play when dealing with death, and why compassion is truly the sword of discriminationHow we can honor diversity by sharing our pain together and grieving our way into unity“It’s taken me a long time to learn the way in which compassion is not fuzzy-wuzzy stuff, compassion is the sword of discrimination.” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 3 July 2023

Raghu Markus returns to Here and Now to present this bonus excerpt from a talk titled “Behind the Clinging,” which features Ram Dass discussing how to deal with neuroses, fear, and family.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdassIn this portion of his talk about going “Behind the Clinging,” Ram Dass explores:Dealing with depression and sadness, and making friends with all of your neuroses instead of trying to get rid of themComing to the edge of fear and embracing it in a soft way without pushing against itDealing with family members who really know how to push your buttons and using those experiences as a way to grow“Is there a way of extricating the awareness? Not by trying to be happy where you were sad, which is feeding the whole reality of that polarity, but just pulling the awareness back. So I would say if you came to me and said, ‘I’m feeling this deep, deep feeling of unworthiness and loneliness and sadness and I’ve always felt it. What should I do?’ I would say, ‘Go back and sit down and follow your breath.’” – Ram Dass See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcribed - Published: 29 June 2023