Ram Dass Here And Now

In this recording from 1989, Ram Dass talks about looking through the veil of role and personality in the business world, and offers his unique perspectives on work and money.

In this collection of clips from his core teachings on death and dying, Ram Dass explores love, loss, and soul, elucidates the art of grief, and encourages us all to make peace with death.

In this exceptional and unique offering, the Be Here Now Network along with our friends at the Alan Watts Organization, have specially curated a podcast featuring words of wisdom from Ram Dass, and legendary, contemporary spiritual teacher, Alan Watts.

In this a Be Here Now Network first, Alan Watts offers his far-reaching Buddhist, Taoist, and meditative wisdom; playing off of and complementing Ram Dass’ deep inquiry and presence on topics pertaining to identity and separate self, unity and interdependence, surrender and trust, intuition and grace, faith and freedom, and meditation and the eternal now.

Brought to you by LSRF and AlanWatts.org

On this special episode of Here and Now, Raghu Markus and Rameshwar Das celebrate the release of Being Ram Dass by reflecting on some of Ram Dass’s most important teachings.

In this dharma talk from 1982, Ram Dass tackles the problem with personality, exploring how we need to honor the power of our personality without identifying and being attached to it.

In this dharma talk from 1983, Ram Dass looks at the context of reality from the perspectives of both the social and political domain, and the domain of spiritual awakening. 

Being Ram Dass is now available to pre-order – read the story of awakening toward living in oneness and love.

In this late 1970’s Dharma talk from New Lebanon, NY, Ram Dass explores the innate power of reducing ourselves to Zero in order to be truly effective individuals in our practice, service, and being.

Looking at life as a series of lawfully unfolding events, Ram Dass shares rare stories and Eastern wisdom that elucidate the concepts of karma and reincarnation.

Exploring the various forms of Yoga, Ram Dass shares methods for coming into the One.

Links from this episode: Ram Dass Soul Land Live Music Series | The Yoga of Service: 4 Week Online Course

Ram Dass explores how spiritual practice helps us find a home in the domain of spirit and root ourselves in presence, even amidst all the suffering and pain of this world.

In this 1992 session, Ram Dass explores patriarchy and the Ramayana, dharmic roles, planes of consciousness, and being a good adversary.

In this question and answer session from July 17th, 1992 in Rhinebeck, NY at the Omega Institute, Ram Dass answers questions surrounding the topics of patriarchy in religion, dharmic roles, relationships, the value of extended family, karma, planes of consciousness, self-love, mindfulness, personality, politics, and being a good adversary in social justice.

Links from this episode: ‘Cultivating Wise Hope’ Virtual Retreat | Soul Land Music Series  

Be Here Now Network presents a classic talk from 1986 that captures one of Ram Dass’ core teachings around identity and the different planes of consciousness.

In this talk, Ram Dass offers a method for envisioning the different planes of consciousness as TV channels, guidance on understanding ineffable spiritual experiences, and shares a personal account of how these experiences allow us to see our differences while also seeing our oneness.

In this talk from 1989, Ram Dass shares his thoughts on how innocence is very much a part of the spiritual journey, the importance of humor and lightness on the path, and much more.

In this talk from 1989, Ram Dass leads an exploration into what it takes to be present with our hearts, present with the moment, and to have compassion for the suffering in the world.

In this riveting Q&A session from a 1989 retreat, Ram Dass answers questions around making the transition from somebody to nobody, right effort, doubt versus faith, and much more.

In this talk from 1976, Ram Dass reflects on how we can get to God by embracing our Dharmic path in life.

In this interview from 1980, Ram Dass shares a mind-bending conversation with physicist Amit Goswami about the intersection of science and spirituality.

In this dharma talk from 1993, Ram Dass looks at how each of us can get stuck in our transition between the fear-driven social institutions that we were born into and the love-driven paths of the heart that we are re-discovering for ourselves.

In this dharma talk from 1978, Ram Dass looks to the example set by The Shakertown Pledge as a model for committing ourselves to inner and outer social action.

In this dharma talk from 1982, Ram Dass illuminates how happiness, boredom, suffering, past and future, life and death, it’s all right here in every moment we experience.

In this dharma talk from 1981, Ram Dass looks at how we can let go of our fears about change and dying by understanding our true nature.

This episode of the Here and Now Podcast is the first since Ram Dass recently left his body on December 22, 2019. It features a special message from Raghu Markus, long-time presenter of the show and dear friend to Ram Dass.

Ram Dass shares a dharma talk exploring the complex relationships we form through devotional yoga that become doorways leading to inner liberation.

In this blast from the past, Ram Dass is the ringmaster for some astral fun and games as he takes on miracles, psychedelic powers, and connecting across different planes of existence.

In this unique dharma talk from 1976, Ram Dass explores the practice of devotional tantra, which is about seeing the world as the Divine Mother Kali and feeding her with your impurities. 

In this dharma talk from 1975, Ram Dass speaks of the still small voice within that serves as a constant reminder of our true nature and relationship with God.

In this dharma talk from 1993, Ram Dass answers questions about navigating our spiritual path and working with practices that can bring us into union with the One.

With the floor open to his live audience, Ram Dass touches on topics such as his own spiritual practice, methods for bringing us closer with the One, losing faith, working with a guru and more.

Celebrate the theatrical release of Becoming Nobody, the quintessential portal into Ram Dass’ life and teachings, with this collection of teachings featured in the film.

Becoming Nobody, from director Jamie Cato, represents the core arc of Ram Dass’ teachings and life. Through historic clips balanced with engaging conversation, Ram Dass shares the tools available to get free from our old roles and disguises.

Find screenings in a city near you beginning September 6th, including special events featuring Q&A with Jamie Cato and special guests like Sharon Salzberg, Mirabai Starr, Producer Raghu Markus and more at becomingnobody.com

In this talk from 1986, Ram Dass reflects on how we relate karmically within our family as we grow and our roles evolve.

Ram Dass invokes lord Krishna as he discusses divine love versus worldly love, then leads a guided meditation where the seeker and guru become one.

In this talk from 1976, Ram Dass reflects on the motives for spiritual practice that can liberate us or keep us stuck in our own egos.

In this talk from 1983, Ram Dass reflects on the journey into innocence and uninhibited loving compassion that we all share.

In this continuing talk from 1992, Ram Dass explores how we can best navigate the situation of this incarnation here on Earth that we find ourselves in.

In this talk from 1992, Ram Dass looks at how quieting the mind allows us to accept life how it is, including all of the love, suffering, joy, and discomfort that comes with it.

It is all happening as it should in our lives so that we can grow to become free. Ram Dass shows us how cultivating spaciousness and trust allows us to sit comfortably with all life has to offer and connect with the inner truth that guides us.

Buckle in for a classic talk from Ram Dass that dives deep into the concept of awareness, and the disruptive phenomena of the attractions and aversions born from karma.

In this talk, Ram Dass shares a lesson on the liberating practice of service and how we can turn everything in our life into a practice of yoga.

Ram Dass shares a reflection on the different kinds of spiritual practice available to us and looks at how they each offer the potential to liberate or keep us trapped in our egos.

In this talk from 1993, Ram Dass reflects on our ever-evolving cultural myths and how we can shift our awareness beyond these narratives.

In this early talk, from 1970, Ram Dass talks about the methods of purification necessary for waking up in this lifetime, illuminates the traps that lie within these methods and explores what is waiting for us in the ever-present moment.

Ram Dass is joined live on stage by Krishna Das and Raghu Markus for a conversation that explores generosity as a path of practice and the value of being part of a community that supports each other on their spiritual paths.

Find links, show notes and the video version of this podcast at https://beherenownetwork.com/ram-dass-here-and-now-ep-138-were-all-just-saving-each-others-asses/

Ram Dass is joined by Noah and Raghu Markus for a conversation about meeting injustice with compassion and the importance of inner social action.

Find show notes and links here: https://beherenownetwork.com/ram-dass-here-and-now-ep-137-the-importance-of-inner-social-action

In this talk from 1995, Ram Dass looks at how we can fully inhabit our roles with joy and emptiness instead of taking ourselves so seriously.

Find show notes and resources here: https://beherenownetwork.com/ram-dass-here-and-now-ep-136-how-to-inhabit-roles-lightly-with-joy-and-emptiness/

Ram Dass explores one of the most difficult teachings he was given by Maharaj-ji, accepting the perfection of the unfolding all things, and explores the curriculum of life that unfolds when our attachment to ego begins to dissolve.

Find show notes and resources here: https://beherenownetwork.com/here-and-now-ep-135-creation-creativity-and-spirituality/

In this talk from 1981, Ram Dass explores the fierce but liberating path of relationships that bring us to a place where we can become one with another person.

Find show notes and resources here: https://beherenownetwork.com/ram-dass-now-ep-134-relationships/

Mirabai Bush and Raghu Markus join Ram Dass to celebrate the release of Ram Dass and Mirabai’s new book, Walking Each Other Home, and share a conversation about how embracing death can allow us to live more fully.

Pick up your hardcover copy of Walking Each Other Home and learn to embrace the mystery of death with compassion and love: Walking Each Other Home 

In this talk from 1994, Ram Dass investigates the many roots of suffering and how our perception shapes our experience of that suffering.

Find show notes and links here: https://beherenownetwork.com/here-and-now-ep-132-roots-of-suffering/

On this episode of the Here and Now Podcast, Ram Dass and Raghu answer questions from members of the community around some of the difficulties and roadblocks we encounter while navigating our journey of awakening.

In this talk from 1976, Ram Dass takes an honest look at the cycles of liberation experienced on the spiritual path. 

 

Ram Dass sits down for a conversation with Raghu Markus around generosity and sharing the gifts of spiritual life.

In this talk from 1989, Ram Dass explores what is needed to become impeccable with whatever we are handed karmically in our lives. 

This time on the Here and Now Podcast, Ram Dass explores the question of what survives after death.

Ram Dass is joined by Larry Brilliant for a conversation about the miracle that was Maharaj-ji and how we can bring the love and compassion that he radiated into the world.

In this 1993 talk from the Omega Institute, Ram Dass explores methods of embracing the mystery of life through selflessness and service.  

 

In this talk from 1980, Ram Dass invites us to bring all aspects of our lives into harmony by integrating the different planes of our awareness. 

 

In this talk from 1991, Ram Dass discusses encountering fear and working through difficult moments along the journey of awakening.

 

 

Daniel Goleman and Raghu Markus join Ram Dass to talk about the power of meditation that they were exposed to in the East and what Western science has begun to understand about consciousness and meditation practice.

 

 

In this talk from 1970, Ram Dass talks about what it means to share darshan from both the perspective of the devotee and the guru.

Ram Dass has a discussion with Raghu Markus about the fine line between efforts driven by ego and the dharmic efforts that, with faith, bring us closer towards merging into the spacious love that exists beyond duality.

 

On this episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass continues his discussion on how our spiritual practice affects our sense of change and how we respond to an impermanent reality.

On this episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass explores how our spiritual practice affects our sense of change and how we respond to an impermanent reality.

 

On this episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass reflects on the fundamentals of spiritual practice and being mindful. 

 

On this episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass explores a deeper source of psychological neuroses and touches on some of the most crucial aspects of the spiritual path.

 

 

Ram Dass is joined by Rameshwar Das and Raghu Markus for a conversation around Satsang and taking risks.

On this episode of Here & Now, Ram Dass asks us to honor our incarnation and live on this plane as if “we” are all “us.”

Ram Dass talks about integrating a sense of oneness into all planes of consciousness, challenges us to honor our incarnation and explores Eastern systems of practice through the lens of science.

Ram Dass is joined by Raghu Markus for a conversation around wrestling with difficulties and uncertainty. 

From dogma to physical suffering to our own Dharma, Ram Dass and Raghu talk about wrestling with our difficulties and overcoming them through practice. 

Recorded at Naropa University in 1974, Ram Dass joins Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, John Baker, Jim Green and Duncan Campbell for a conversation around the notion of ego and personal identification. In this panel discussion, the group explores the concepts of ego in both Western psychology and Eastern traditions. Exploring what the notion of ego really is, and isn't.

Ram Dass gives a moving talk on the Guru's grace and the story of how he received a true secret teaching from his own Guru. Recorded in June 1973, Ram Dass leads a discussion around the concept of Dharma, or one's path in life, and how he discovered his own Dharma through secret teachings from his Guru. We may go to great lengths to avoid our path, but our inner voice continues to bring us back. Ram Dass also explains the role of karma yoga and what it means to 'die into service.' We learn to work with our desires and move right into the fire. Through this work, we free ourselves from attachment and find a deeper connection with God.

Live Awake; this special talk given at the 1994 Psychedelics Symposium at Chapman College follows Ram Dass's history and thoughts around psychedelics. Psychedelics have guided the course of Ram Dass's life. Ram Dass shares the history of his relationship with the experience, its possibilities and limitations.

Ram Dass is joined by Roshi Joan Halifax, Raghu Markus and the author of “The Five Invitations,” Frank Ostaseski, to talk about his book and how death offers a path to radical transformation. Frank Ostaseski is a leader in contemplative end-of-life care. His book, "The Five Invitations," gives practices for anyone navigating any sort of loss and shows us how to wake up fully to our lives. Frank leads the group in a discussion about death and dying in the context of these Five Invitations.

In this rare talk, Ram Dass reports on the geography of the journey of awakening. Ram Dass gives this talk not long after returning from India where he began to learn the geography of the journey. He describes the cycles of the journey and the tools used along the way to access higher states of being.

On this unique episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass discusses seeing God in all things and how the true revolution is found through the evolution of consciousness. In both parts of this episode, Ram Dass imparts wisdom on transformation. We look at transforming our world by transforming our worldview. Ram Dass shows us that the true revolution starts by changing our inner world.

In this talk from 1976, Ram Dass talks about what we are beyond this lifetime and asks, "Who are you?" Time after time we have experienced a cycle of birth and death. Each time we are born into a new identity and cling to that incarnation as if it was all we had, until the moment we get a glimpse of something more. Ram Dass explores our journey of awakening and returning to the one.

Ram Dass and Raghu have a conversation around social action and keeping our quietness and love in 2017. Ram Dass talks about balancing ourselves, social responsibility, why he puts President Trump on his puja (prayer) table, and cultivating love for everyone no matter their beliefs. Ram Dass leaves us with perspective and insight on keeping our quietness and love in the coming year.

Ram Dass is joined by a young Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield for a meaningful talk about mindfulness and food. This discussion is part of the Naropa University Bhagavad Gita Sessions of 1974. We are shown a new perception of what it is that we are eating. Ram Dass, Joseph, and Jack help us to understand that there is a connection between what sustains us and who we are.

In this lecture from 1974 at Naropa University, Ram Dass talks about our unhealthy preoccupation with our individual differences.   We grow up with the identity of a separate self, building an entire character around that separate self. From this, we begin identifying others based around our character development. In this episode, Ram Dass gives insight on how our practice helps us move beyond our patterns and perception of individual differences.  

On this episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass has a Sunday hangout session with Raghu Markus. The two chat about the concept of the 'soul-complex', how Ram Dass manages his suffering, as well as duality and devotion. Ram Dass and Raghu discuss the 'soul-complex' and the transition process between lives. They also consider the similarities between duel and non-duel systems. Explaining how the limitations of one are complimented by the other, and how the two have different means to the same end. "In life, the 'soul-complex' is never for two consecutive moments the same, but is, like the body, in constant change. There is thus a series of successive, and, in one sense, different states, which are in themselves but momentary. There is still a unifying bond in that each momentary state is a present representative of all those which are past, as it will be the generation of all future transformations potentially involved in it. This process is not interrupted by death."

How would you answer the question of, "Who do you think YOU are?" You probably believe that you are somebody, but that somebody is the ego. On this episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass talks about our separation from the One, getting back to God, and what we must do to make it happen. "We can be righteous, but we cannot be righteous and be one with God." -Ram Dass

On this special 100th episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass and Raghu Markus talk about imagination, faith, and gratitude. Ram Dass teaches us to see through our own delusions that mislead us and weigh us down with fear. Ram Dass brings insight to several important questions. How can we learn to trust our intuition without fooling ourselves? Where does gratitude come from? Explore these questions and more on this episode of Here and Now.

Raghu introduces a new outstanding essential teachings course from Ram Dass entitled – Being Here Now: An Odyssey into the Essential Teachings of Ram Dass. After a deep dive into the Ram Dass audio archives, Raghu gives us a preview of the never before published Ram Dass content. Being Here Now is an eight-week audio course with a companion guide written by Rameshwar Das. The course also features a big bonus current video of Ram Dass. Raghu gives us a taste of each week, and shares wisdom on some of the topics featured in the course. This course is brought to you in partnership with Tami Simon and Sounds True. Being Here Now: An Odyssey into the Essential Teachings of Ram Dass Identifying with Our True Self From the moment we incarnate as a human being we are identified with our body, feelings and thoughts. Yet, beyond our thinking mind and sensory perceptions, there is a vast realm of the soul which is pure consciousness, love, joy and peace. Our individual soul is part of that unitary consciousness, whether we call it God, Buddhahood, or the One. It is our origin and where we shall return. Sometimes just a subtle shift in perspective or point of view can remind us of this true nature of our being. Witness and Awareness The gateway to our true Self is our own awareness. Becoming an impartial observer of each instant of our incarnation allows us to be present in the moment and at the same time to extricate from our desires, thoughts, attachments and the time-binding of regrets about the past and worry about the future. Awareness and love, loving ourselves with full awareness of each thought and feeling, even of negative emotions, begins to dissolve our identification with the ego and allows us to live in our soul. Methods and Purifying the Mind Meditation means going within to bring the mind to one point in order to quiet the cacophony of thoughts, emotions, and desires. Patanjali, the sage who wrote the Yoga Sutra, starts with, “Citta vritti nirodha,” or, consciousness arises when thoughts dissolve. Our guru, Maharaj-ji, said, “Bring your mind to one point and wait for Grace.” There are many methods of meditation. Find one that works for you and develop a regular practice. Suffering and Disturbing Emotions Physical, emotional, and mental suffering is a reality of life. Thoughts, emotions, and sensations come up constantly to disturb the essential peace of the heart and mind. While we cannot avoid the difficult challenges of life, how we deal with and experience them can magnify or reduce their impact. We can find a spaciousness in our encounters with suffering- we can actually make friends with our suffering. Cultivating Love and Compassion Love is the emotion of merging, or becoming one. Compassion is being with another’s suffering, experiencing our inter-relatedness in the most direct way by opening our hearts to one another. The Buddhist practice of metta or the Hindu devotional practices of Bhakti yoga can help with that heart opening. Ram Dass teaches Loving Awareness meditation that brings together love and awareness. We have to start from where we are. Only when we truly love ourselves can we become beacons of love to others. Relationships and the Spiritual Path Transforming the karma of relationships into grist for the mill of the spiritual path is a challenge. Discriminating between love and attachment, personal desire and unconditional love, is part of everyone’s spiritual evolution. Karma Yoga Transforming everyday work and activity into spiritual practice is karma yoga, often expressed through seva, or selfless service. The Bhagavad Gita is one of the great wisdom sources for karma yoga. As it says, ultimately we bring our lives into harmony by surrendering the fruits of our actions to God. Love and Death Our ego fears annihilation because of the identification with our body. Living in faith that we are truly a soul helps transform fear. The grief of losing a loved one yields to the certainty that though bodies pass away, love does not die. If we live fully in the present moment, death is just another moment.

When it comes to Spiritual Practices, Ram Dass poses the question, “why do we practice?” Raghu reads a passage from The Wisdom Teachings and Good Wishes of the Adi-Buddha Samanta-Bhadra which poses that the reality which is “the foundation of all is uncreated, uncompounded, independent beyond mental concept and verbal definition.” Not knowing this we humans get overwhelmed by the darkness of unconsciousness, from which comes ignorance and error, of course what arises is us and them, together, or I and others. Which spawns an unbroken current of samsaric (illusion) evolution, so the root source of error among sentient beings is thus unconscious ignorance Raghu suggests this is pretty good motivation for spiritual practice. Ram Dass gives another motivation, which is, change generates fear. Fear generates contraction, contraction then generates prejudice and bigotry, and ultimately violence. What’s the antidote for this? It’s consciousness that does not respond to change with fear. So how do we get that consciousness? It takes spiritual practice. Once you start to practice, the journey to awakening starts to dominate the terrain. “Everything in your life becomes grist for the mill of awakening. You learn to trust the deepest inner message you can hear.” Ram Dass also says: “if you’re thinking you should meditate, don’t bother, go out and lust some more. You need an honest approach to the path, you can’t be phony holy.” Raghu talks about his own experience on sitting on a regular basis, even if he’s tired or cranky. The beauty of a true spiritual journey is that it keeps unfolding from inside yourself.

Ram Dass talks about disturbing emotions that may arise is potential wisdom the moment you relax into your natural mind. Look directly into it, don’t deliberately reject it, regard it as a fault, or indulge in it concretely or, regard it as a virtue. Ram Dass talks about experiencing his life as a dance of balance of cultivating the qualities of spaciousness, of equanimity, of peace, of happiness, we fear the passions of life because they take us away from that balance. We have to find a balance between intuitive heart and thinking mind. Because the tendency in the spiritual journey is to denigrate the thinking mind into it and we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. In this talk, Ram Dass speaks on making human relationships our yoga. Let us help each other awaken. Ram Dass tells us an exquisite story about Ramana Maharashi that exemplifies the possibility Of a being who is not trapped, but are always living in that spacious awareness-- of compassion or emptiness. Miracles remind you that what you think is reality is not truth. That frees you to think about what is true reality. When you wonder how it is, you’re hooked.

Raghu and Ram Dass do a live hang out on Skype. Raghu reminds Ram Dass of the first moment they met in Montreal  and how that moment defined a trust for him that led to meeting the Guru.  Ram Dass talks about his first encounters with trust through the sacred mushroom and Tim Leary. For the first time Ram Dass tells the real story of how he came to coin Be Here Now while searching for the Guru in India. Ram Dass talks about intuition and imagination as a method to connect with the Guru- and Raghu quotes from Ram Dass' book Journey of Awakening in relation to meeting the Guru- " When needed the Guru appears. It's a benign conspiracy". Finally Ram Dass talks about contentment and the fact that he has been living in a "stroked" body has not deterred him from being in the moment and being content.

Ram Dass talks about the value and limits of psychedelics – when they can enhance the spiritual path and when there can be risks. From ancient times there has been the idea of an elixir sometimes called Soma and the use of natural herbs to effect spiritual transformation. The experience that humans have is the ability to see the universe from a different vantage point- now we could experience the deeper part of our beings that lie behind the thinking mind. Our monitoring system gets turned off so we can have a completely fresh view. When the boundries break down we begin to see the inter-relatedness of everything. We see the way in which it’s all connected- the mystery that lies behind the apparent phenomena. These psychedelics give us an inner validity to our intuitive voice. Ram Dass talks about the original playbook laid out in the early days on set and setting when taking ethneogens. “When I broke through, what I saw was the reality I thought was real was only relatively real- not absolutely real. What happened to my mind was a shift in consciousness.”

In tracing our spiritual journey, we have gone from a psychological, economic and political universe into a spiritual universe. And in the course of that transition, we have rejected the psychological, economic and political aspects of our lives. We have to finally honor our incarnations, god manifests through form and we have to love the form that we were incarnated into, and give that form space to be what it has to be. We need to stop taking a stance to protect ourselves from the supposed contamination of the world on our so-called ‘spiritual purity’. What we are should be able to play in all of the fields of our lives. As long as we have the desire to be ‘special’ we are pushing life away out of fear. Afraid of dying into the universe for fear it will contaminate us.

Ram Dass illuminates the trap that many of us fall into as we grow up - which is the idea that we are our thoughts. The more accurate view would be, "I am and I think.” Thinking is a power that we have - “Intellect is a great servant but a lousy master.” Most of us live almost entirely within the projections of our thinking mind. Intellect is only one way of knowing the world, but the intuitive mind and heart is a more profound way of "knowing" the universe than the analytic intellectual linear mind. The more you think inwardly and self reflect, the more you become an object to yourself until the whole universe is made up of objects. We need to change the relative power positions of "intellect" and “intuition" so that we develop greater balance and freedom to grow on the spiritual path.

Ram Dass brings up a meeting he had with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche during which Rinpoche said to him, "We have to accept responsibility,” to which Ram Dass replied, "God has all the responsibility,” and Rinpoche replied, "Ram Dass, you are copping out.” Ram Dass explores the way in which we experience everything as a free choice but in some way it's part of a determined law: You have a choice of identifying with your incarnate creation (your body, personality, social entity) or You as the creator (God that resides within each one of us) of that creation. The creative spark - that's what is responsible. We accept that we are part of the One, and that we are in fact creating our universe.

Ram Dass tells the story of Maharaji arranging the reunion of a barber and his son by appearing in two places at one time and says, "More profound than miracles is the quality of His presence - His unconditional love was so intense that it cut through cynicism, doubt and separation. Imagine a place where someone is living in that presence of unconditional love all the time with everyone - and everyone you see is their Beloved. A fully conscious and realized being is that - there are no conditions and no attachments.” On the other hand we all live within limits which prevent us from loving freely - we are conditional lovers. How do we transform? Not by destroying our bodies, thoughts or emotions but by getting beyond the attachments that prevent us from being free and unconditional lovers.

The Bhagavad Gita says, “The greatest birth is in a family of Yogis.” That would reflect people who are not caught so much in the illusion of separateness. Small children, when in the presence of parents who are spacious and aware, allow the child to develop a “somebody-ness” but not at the level that it entraps them. Rather, it becomes a functional “somebody-ness” not an entrapping “somebody-ness”. As parents, we should cultivate with our children as quickly as possible the notion that we are fellow travelers, that I am in a role of caretaker and you as child, and slowly we are going to emerge as two friends. Then you become a Dharmic parent.

Ram Dass talks about being socialized out of any recognition of who we were. Everyone wants to believe they are who they think they are. Through the use of psychedelics we recognized we'd been had. Where your mind is in relation to the game is what creates or relieves suffering-your's and everyone else.   Ram Dass also leads a short three breath mindfulness meditation for practice anytime during the day.

  On this special Here and Now podcast, we feature our new book ‘Love Everyone’, stories of the Westerners who heard about Neem Karoli Baba through Ram Dass and went to meet him. The author, Parvati Markus, introduces some of the stories from the book from her interviews that form the backbone of ‘Love Everyone’. Raghu introduces a very special Ram Dass talk from a radio interview after he just got back from India in 1972, and described for the first time what it was like being with Neem Karoli Baba in extraordinary detail. As a bonus, Raghu introduces a never before told story of Maharajji saving someone from drowning, and the family never knew it was him until 60 years after the incident. 

Everybody that has asked to be free has called down upon themselves Grace; that is through their Guru, Guide, Guardian Angel or Spiritual Friend. That being, whomever it may be, is your guide to liberation. This is called forth by your genuine asking- if you don't ask they don't even notice you.   But the minute you do ask to be free- you call down Grace and your whole life becomes a dialogue with that being. 

It takes but a flick of a look in a person's eyes to see who it is you are to them. Which level of reality you exist upon. A conscious being has no attachment to any level, neither busy denying nor affirming, neither saying "I am this" nor "I am not this" - neither protecting nor justifying. Once you get a peek at the reality of who you really are, you cannot go back to your former identity, try and try as much as you will. When the pursuit of your true nature is the only game, everything in your life becomes an instrument for getting free.

Ram Dass’s precise enquiry into the real nature of purification and liberation – jumping into your own individuated Dharmic fire, not ignoring your weaknesses and neuroses.  The bliss is one part, the reality of life on Earth at this moment is another – he firmly suggests embracing all of it.  There is “no irrelevancy in the whole system” he says and this includes suffering and loss and major difficulties.  Ram Dass’s expliqué of the long, incarnational progression is particularly exquisite in this talk – detailing the gradually emergent, awakened embodiment and then the ineffable potential of the bodhisattva manifestation.  

Ram Dass takes a number of questions on how to navigate our paths in life. He talks about how to deal with fear and sit with it, watching our reactivity, wanting to create resistance against what we are afraid of. Allow yourself to notice the resistance and keep softening, embrace it into yourself. The resistance against something makes the fear more intense. See the fear as a process that comes out of conditioning and identification. Ram Dass talks about “out of body” experiences and suggests that one does not preoccupy oneself with what the experience is. It’s more about what the experience is offering in terms of a deeper understanding that one can use in personal growth. Remember, the intellect wants to know it knows. Intuitively, one can feel the validity of the experience and that validity colors our future life.

When we have any kind of mystical or ineffable experience, it upsets our apple cart. It upsets the security of our separateness.  We get attached to our separateness and become afraid of losing it. And out of that comes greed, lust, anxiety and fear.  The main quality of that separateness is suffering, which is why it’s called “the veil of tears.”  This birth, which looks to you as a kind of chaotic, random, somewhat morbid humor of God, has an absolute exquisite perfection of the unfolding of your being in an evolutionary direction towards you becoming fully conscious of who you are, which turns out to be God.     

Ram Dass takes questions from the audience on a variety of topics including letting go of boundaries, "What is the Guru?", psychedelics, methods as traps and the human agenda to name a few. “Trust your intuitive heart - everyone has an inner guide. Maharaji is my inner imaginary playmate - I talk to him all the time - He turns out to be real and I’m the imaginary one.” “We move in and out of our roles in life. And finally as we get true detachment we are free to play the roles without being trapped in them.” “It’s up to the most conscious person in a relationship dynamic to let go the soonest.” “As Gandhi said, My life is my message."

We keep closing off the door of entry to a higher state of consciousness because of the fear of the implications of a true spiritual journey. We have embarked on a game that is much more profound than we usually think we are in - we’re ready to slip by and make everybody feel good. As in the metaphor for the Bhagavad Gita - Arjun fights an army of attachments - attachment to family, to a secure and comfortable life, to the prestige of habit and comfort, to shine in society - they may have served as guides and teachers in the past but they have been part of what has kept us from God.

The soil into which spirituality from the East was planted was not so rich in the early days. In India, everyone believes in re-incarnation and sees life from that perspective. In the West words like "Guru", "devotion" and "surrender" have a hard time being digested. Most of the people who are Saints in India would be hospitalized in the West. Now there seems to be a shift where we can honor these traditions in a way that does not water them down.

In this episode Ram Dass' satsang family Mirabai Bush, Raghu Markus and Danny Goleman hang out and talk about Danny's new book with HH Dalai Lama- A Force For Good- which coincides with HH's birthday. Also remember the days they spent together in India with Neem Karoli Baba and what transmission they brought back to the West and how that has affected their individual offering in their work and lives.

When you begin to awaken, you are not coming from such a needy place when you enter into a relationship, not looking to “lock in” so quickly. Your need is still there as a human incarnation - but you are not so identified with that need and because you are already resting in a place of love, and you can experience the sharing of love and oneness without fear.  You don’t need a person to get into that space, you are already in it.           

"Renunciation is internal dropout, not external dropout" This is often in direct contrast to the Western model of achievement oriented success. But we are not required to move off into a cave in order to find enlightenment. Through complete devotion to our work and our love for that process, we can absolutely move in the direction of realization. "By letting go, everything gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try, the world is beyond the winning" Through cultivation of the witness we move out of the melodrama and into the place of pure perspective and peaceful awareness

Ram Dass answers questions from the audience on the predicament of Grace and Karma- the predicament of judging- the predicament of social responsibility. Also same sex relationships and the relation to divinity. “Only when you are honoring the plane on which it is all totally perfect just the way it is, can you assume on the other plane the responsibility to change it; recognizing that the desire in you to change it is part of the perfection of it all."

Dan Ellsberg tries scare tactics to get Ram Dass to take social action. Ram Dass says –“In fact nuclear weaponry are out of balance with the way of things - The Dao - so you don’t have to cajole or coerce people into acting. You can’t milk it through fear. You can just trust people’s gut. They will react through their own intuitive sense of being in tune with the way.” “Quiet mind-open heart- we do what we can to relieve suffering” - Ram Dass “It’s the freedom of consciousness that hears the impeccable act that brings about the healing of the planet and all it’s people so that you are an instrument for the relief of suffering; Even though at another level you can see that suffering is part of the nature of things. And the perfection is that we act to relieve the suffering while acknowledging that both the act and the suffering are part of one mosaic.” - Ram Dass

In this wide ranging interview by Radio For Peace, Ram Dass talks about satsang/community and how it can uplift us as well as become a trap. “The possibility is there in spiritual community to die into the truth. But people die very hard and as a result fall back on structures that can enhance separateness.” There is pressure in satsang to conform to the median and that pressure to conform can get individuals calcified. Institutions that are optimum for the spirit are totallt creative and imaginative. We are in the process of dissolving and being creative every moment.” Ram Dass also talks about belief and faith- “Faith is an aspect of the nature of being. Belief won’t help you when you are facing death.”

In this podcast, Mickey Lemle, filmmaker and director of the Ram Dass documentary Fierce Grace, talks with Ram Dass about the power of storytelling. Writing sometimes doesn’t allow spiritual concepts to come across fully. Storytelling can convey the direct human experience of spirituality in a more personal and immediate way. Join Ram Dass and Mickey Lemle as they relive their stories together.

Surya Das joins Ram Dass for a puja side chat at Ram Dass' home on Maui. Surya Das is a bhakta as well as an American Lama. They explore questions like, "What is our true sadhana (spiritual practice)?" - "Are we egos or dharma masters? Or are we simply two brothers on the path to the Guru's feet?" Ram Dass talks about doing practices consciously, giving the example of yoga, where each pose is "shaking hands with God." Surya Das asks, "What keeps us from remembering God in each moment of our lives?"

How far do you have to go to get through the layers of psychology, of defenses, of personalities in order to get to the root of a being, behind those veils where the spark is - the overriding faith in reality beyond the senses.

We are both separate and one. Creator and created. The question is, “Can we allow for free will and at the same time acknowledge that everything is determined?” The trick is to neither identify nor deny either of them.

The confusion of the paradox you find yourself in is that you are in an incarnation that’s totally dedicated to the preservation of it’s own separateness, and at the same time you are awakening to the realization that the entire domain of separateness is but another illusion. So you find yourself marching in the opposite direction of everything you've learned, against everything your body is telling you, against all of the deepest structures of the ego.

Forms are created and exist and disappear into the formless. Methods are the ship crossing the ocean of existence. You entrap yourself in them in order to burn out karma that keeps you from being free. You know that the method works when it self-destructs.

As long as you perceive love as a verb, you are thinking of another person as a separate object to give love to. When we are truly in love, we are in a simple state of “being” love. As an incarnation, you have to understand what it means to live outside of time and space. You have to understand what it means to see a continuing process of which a human birth is but one very minor segment…

We can be the biggest somebody in the world when we have no attachment, but we have to start from somewhere, we can’t start out being nobody. The force of “somebody-ness” that develops the survival mechanisms (social, physical, etc.) is our starting point. It is in the freedom of non-clinging to models about self and other that you begin to tune to and hear the way of things, called the Dao or the Divine Law. When you respect that tuning in yourself, actions that flow from you start to become dharmic. They are acts that release beings from suffering and do not perpetuate the illusion of separate self.

Each of us has in us a psychic DNA memory of the quality of life in the Sat Yuga (the age of truth and purity), where people generally and naturally help each other. This represents an organic flowing of a healthy human heart. Episode Outline: - We are living in the Kali Yuga (Age of Destruction) not the Sat Yuga, where truth does not abound, but isolation, fear and separateness is prevalent. Still there are moments and times when there is a natural expression of helping each other. - The ultimate alienation is thinking about yourself all the time so you become an object to yourself, you can’t even help yourself. - Getting over the barrier of “us” and “them” is very tricky. - If you want to live in a peaceful world, you better be peaceful. If you are full of anger, you won’t bring about much peace. The qualities in yourself determine what qualities manifest in the world. - When you pit yourself against the way of things, you better expect that it’s going to cost you.

Change is an opportunity for growth, but it requires consciousness that holds an inner quality of equanimity and openness to the unknown. A certain way in which the chaos of the moment doesn't undercut you because you are not dependent on the external for your equanimity. You and I are in training to be instruments in a society where we can be stable in the presence of change, not holding onto the old system, but being able to move into the unknown without fear.

Ram Dass hosts his long time Buddhist friends- Jack Kornfield, Catherine Ingram and Wes Nisker at his home in Maui for an intimate chat on their first meetings - the gathering of the "soul pod" - In the early 70's these westerners took in the essence of Hinduism and Buddhism from the East, deepening their understanding of true nature, and brought it back to the West. The group also discusses "spiritual bypassing", the meaning of suffering and Ultimate Reality.

The whole design of your incarnation is like an incredible computer program that sets you into the exact life situations to move you forward towards true awareness. It’s all perfect. Every part of the birth you are taking is part of the unfolding of the karma you need to burn through. There is not one experience you are having or could have or have had that is not part of that process.

The meaning of honoring Shiva is to give space to ALL of the forces of the universe. To recognize them all, to allow them to be, to not try to shove anything under the rug. It's all Grace: sickness, fatigue, pleasure, pain, there's nothing left in my life other than the teachings that bring me into union with the Divine.

All spiritual practice ultimately becomes the preparation of your body, your heart, and your mind to receive God. The path of going into God, in truth, is not an easy path.

Desire is a trap; desirelessness is liberation. Desire is the creator; desire is the destroyer. Desire is the universe.

Our Journey is towards simplicity and quietness - to a kind of joy that is beyond time - a journey where we leave behind all our models of who we are.

You build your life so that every moment is the moment of death and rebirth. Because life and death become so intimately involved with one another and finally they merge, it's the eternal present.

At the moment of orgasm, you transcend your separateness and there is a moment when you merge together. For most people that is the direct route to a spiritually transcendent state. What you learn to do in a lot of yoga forms is awakening the sexual energy, not to the point of orgasm - but just to the point where you draw the energy up the spine into the upper chakras, and you use your partnership to keep awakening that energy.

The more evolved you become spiritually, the less boundaries there are between my energy and THE energy. When your energy is used in a way that is destructive, meaning that it creates suffering to you and other people and creates pain of separation, you want to keep working to move that energy in other ways, to create a more compassionate environment.

Can we take anticipated future suffering and turn it into something that enriches the present moment? For those of us who want to approach future suffering with some degree of equanimity, mindfulness and open heartedness, the earlier we start, the better.    The more we come into the presence of these phenomena, working with these struggles even though they are not ours yet, the more we will have eaten what we have to eat and digested our reactivity to be able to keep our hearts open. 

The Guru as a separate entity only exists within the illusion of separateness - the minute “it" has worked to awaken you - “it" ceases to be anything. It’s a self destruct mechanism.

When you are no longer laying trips on anyone, not judging, or discriminating individual differences, you become the environment in which the optimum growth is available to all human beings you come into contact with.

Most people in society are pushing away experiences that indicate that they have an identity on other planes of reality, in order to hold tightly to the plane of reality that they are comfortable with. A liberated being is someone who has moved out of the reality that they initially thought was the absolute reality in their life, into subsequent realities. They are then liberated from being stuck in any single reality... 

"Loving kindness is the spirit of friendship toward yourself." - Sharon Salzberg "Interdependence is not romantic, but it's the truth of things - that our lives have something to do with one another." - Sharon Salzberg

There are tools and techniques that one can make use of to have a happier life - and these tools do not require a belief system. It’s about the possibility of re-training the condition of the mind in a way so that old patterns of pushing away or holding on can be challenged and relinquished into a whole new way of relating to our experience.

The process is realizing that you and I exist on more than one plane of awareness simultaneously and on one plane suffering stinks, and on another plane suffering is grace. And the question is, "Can you balance those two things in your consciousness?"

What's awesome is the amount of energy that is available to a human being. The paradox is, as long as you are a somebody you are dealing with a finite amount of energy that is able to function through somebody-ness. Only when you become nobody can you be one with universal energy. 

Our journey is about totally embracing life, but doing it with non-attachment. By embracing the ten thousand horrible visions and the ten thousand beautiful visions, you go through the doorway of nature to go beyond nature at the same time as being fully in it.

How do we bring spirituality and business together? How do we bring sustainability and justice into business? We must fulfill our roles to use them as vehicles to become free. Ram Dass uses the Social Venture Network and their honest social action as examples of conscious business practices.

How can we look at our life experience in a way that liberates us from suffering and liberates those who we come into contact with from suffering? We begin to see our life experiences as Grace - as a set of opportunities through which we can become free. The predicament is that as you awaken you realize you have been the perpetrator of the conspiracy you got caught in.

We have built such a habitual structure of self definition on this plane of reality. That is the model you impose with your self definition of separateness. What does it take to bring about the full transformation so that you dance in your separateness without being entrapped by it.

Community is when human beings come together in the shelter of each other. We are a community of beings acknowledging the dual intention of working on ourselves as an offering to others, and working with others as a way of working on ourselves. Our lives are training sessions to turn ourselves into instruments of true kindness and compassion.

Ram Dass realized that the Western religious traditions weren't profound enough to connect people to their inner selves, they didn't provide man with the wisdom necessary to know inner peace and fulfillment - so he traveled to the East and connected with yoga (union with God). After encountering yoga he was able to come back into the Western traditions and hear the inner message. For instance, the prayer "Here O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One." Isn't it strange to go to the East to break the barrier of cynicism around Western religions...

Ram Dass interviews Trungpa Rinpoche at the Dharma Festival in 1973.

Ram Dass talks about his relationship with the great Tibetan Lama, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Includes detailed moments with Trungpa and Ram Dass at different events and venues in the early 70’s where Trungpa was teaching- the methods he used with his students and the dismay of many who were offended by his unusual behavior and teachings that were enigmatic to say the least. Ram Dass delves into a substantial issue around teachers in the West that are unconventional and sometimes divisive yet can provide students with a path that allows for real growth.

Swimming with the dolphins connected me immediately to my intuitive heart space. They were a mirror of non-judgmental awareness that reminded me of being with Maharaji. Being with him felt like being with someone who was human but not human, like a wild animal. I was removed from my conceptual conspiracy of relating to the world through attachment, greed and anger. -Ram Dass

Alduous Huxley preceded Ram Dass and Tim Leary in explorations of the remote frontiers of the mind and unmapped areas of human consciousness. In doors of perception, Huxley studied the profound effects of mind-expanding drugs. In the book "Island" he described an ideal society that flourished on a remote South Sea island. An outsider is shipwrecked on the island and is shown the values of this ideal society, and learns about hope.

The spiritual journey is a different path than what you thought you were on. It's very hard to make the transition to that path because we tend to take the power from the spiritual work we do to make our lives "nice" - but that's not what the path offers. The path offers freedom, but freedom demands complete surrender. The dialogue between the mind and the heart has become out of balance in our culture.

The quality of a really good teacher is rascalism. All you need to know is this: If you want to be free, use the teacher to the fullest extent. Their karmic problems are their karmic problems.

Ram Dass talks about the promises and the pitfalls of the spiritual path, and the shift of reality that happened in the sixties that was predicated by psychedelics. This shift blew apart the traditional religious systems that were in place at the time, and the psychedelics gave people a connection that they had never experienced before: a feeling that they were interconnected with the universe. When we see how much of our behavior is a defense mechanism to alleviate the pain of separateness, we begin to realize the importance of healthy intuitive and compassionate hearts.

Being in the presence of dying people keeps me close to the edge of my own awakening. Love touches time and turns it to dust. Love is beyond the reach of time. -Ram Dass

There's another way of being in the universe. The Chinese call it "the heart mind" or as we may call it "the intuitive mind." Rather than knowing through dualistic means or thinking about it, one subjectively merges with it, becomes one with it. It's like the difference between wisdom and knowledge. 

The nature of aging is change. We are fascinated by watching that which changes. When change starts to happen to who we think we are, the fascination turns into fear. We are living in a system that is out of balance; the zeal for independence and individuality has left us alienated from the structures of family, community and nature. 

What we offer each other is our truth, which includes all of our "stuff." We have to allow ourselves to be human. The way to the truth is through acknowledging the fullness of where we find ourselves to be, which is through our humanity and our divinity. 

One cultivates spaciousness or awareness which allows you to acknowledge the emotions and see them as part of the human condition. Emotions are like subtle thought forms and they all arise in response to something outside yourself. They are all reactions. You cultivate a quietness in yourself that watches these emotions rising and falling and passing away. 

Media can destroy the message in the way it delivers it, similarly, as long as I have a price I am transmitting fear, because I have something to lose. The minute I have no price, I can transmit perfect joy of presence and freedom. 

The world is a reflection of our internal state; if we dwell on turmoil, anger and confusion then that's how the world will be perceived to the individual. You have to work on yourself first before you can effectively take any social or political action. A quiet mind and and an open heart are important attributes to project into the world. 

Raghu reveals an interesting confession about an LSD experience he had involving the death of his ego and the birth of a very specific concern. Ram Dass discusses the art of dying and suffering. Suffering only happens to a "somebody" - if you are not attached to your "somebodyness" you don't suffer because there's nothing for that suffering to cling to and manifest within you. The suffering that has occured in your life is part of what allows you to be here today - the way that suffering burns into you and deepens you makes you less superficial. 

The clinging of mind is the cause of suffering. Suffering gives you clues to the ways you are clinging, and we make the nature of things our enemy. If you are going to be available for someone else's suffering you have to be able to acknowledge your own suffering. 

A guru is somebody who is a pure mirror, so pure that when you meet that being you immediately see where you are caught. Ram Dass talks about the mirror of the guru, mentioning "I know more than I understand, and I'm intellectually ahead of where I am intuitively." He ends the lecture with the first chant that he brought back to the states from India in 1967.

Ram Dass teaches us the mantra "aditya rdiyam punyam sari shatru bena shenam" meaning "All evil vanishes from life for him who keeps the sun in his heart."  When you understand that thought comes from the space of the thoughtless your singing and dancing (work, career, family, relationships) are no other than the voice of the dharma. 

How may I serve you in the journey we are all on to come to the light? That's the only possibility we have as humans. As Hanuman said in the Ramayana "When the cloud of duality covers me I serve Ram. When the cloud is lifted, I am Ram."

As long as you are somebody you are dealing with finite energy. Tuning into higher energy is not possible if ego is present. The secret to tuning into higher energy is that you get it all when there is no "you" to experience it.  Ram Dass uses Maharaji as an example of a being who becomes pure energy and because energy is what underlies universal matter, he is in a position to reorganize the matter according to his will. But that will is aligned with the universal will, not my but thy will. 

Turn off your mind and float downstream. Embrace the ten thousand horrible visions and the ten thousand beautiful ones. Embrace it all. Ram Dass talks about the idea of servant, master, and surrender and how we completely misunderstand what that means in the West. 

Karma Yoga is the transformation of being that is based on your daily work in the world. Raghu describes this talk from Ram Dass, which was recently discovered in our media archives from 1974 when Ram Dass was interviewed at a NY radio station. Ram Dass talks about taking what you do everyday and using it as material to transform yourself. The central theme of the Bhagavad Gita is to do what you do in the world, but do it as an offering to God without looking for results. 

Ram Dass tells stories of his experiences in India that expanded his consciousness and allowed him to see the  true potential of human beings. The miraculous events that happened with Maharaji led Ram Dass to understand that the laws of the universe worked in a vastly different way than he had perceived before coming to India.

Ram Dass talks about relationships as a triangle with the third side of the triangle being shared awareness. He also talks about how the relationship of Guru and devotee has nothing to do with intellect. Raghu talks about Maharaji marrying westerners and relates a story of first being in India and meeting a Swami and confronting the idea of touching his feet. 

Raghu tells a story about his father visiting he and his brother in India and Maharaji telling him to take LSD, which miraculously changed his life. As Ram Dass says, "I wasn't true to my deepest self until my first experience with psychadelics." Ram Dass talks about his neuroses in a lecture he gave in 1987, after he returned from India the first time. He remarks about how they didn't dissappear, but became less prominent in his day-to-day life. He refers to them as "little shmoos" rather than big time issues. 

Raghu tells about Maharaji and the people who were put into a state of deep Samadhi by him, which is the complete absorbtion into the divine. Ram Dass tells a story about a group of Indian soldiers who came to see him and how he kept one soldier behind to put into a trance state. 

Raghu tells a story about going to a meditation workshop with some of the Westerners in India, and how Maharaji was amused by the notion so asked them to explain to him what they learned about meditation and how to meditate. Ram Dass also talks about meditation and focuses on a very simple and effective practice of following the breath. 

In 1974, in the wake of the Nixon Watergate hearings, Ram Dass produced a box set of LP's called Love Serve Remember. Included in the set were excerpts from a radio show he did that consisted of Q&A from audience members. It's amazing how relevant Ram Dass' answers to these questions are to our own very challenging contemporary times. 

Raghu takes his friend Krishna Das to visit Maharaji, who gives a teaching on the oneness of all traditions. Ram Dass talks about going behind our personalities and individual incarnation and karma back to the source of Om. 

While in India, Ram Dass becomes angry at the Westerners, and Maharaji tells him to give up anger and that he would help him to release it. In his lecture he discusses yoga and how all is one – energy is the same exact thing as what we call "consciousness", the universe is conscious – not self conscious. It does not know it knows, it just is.  

Raghu and Ram Dass talk about the manipulation of the puny ego, Raghu tells his story of giving Maharaji stamps, but holding back half of them. Ram Dass talks about seeing through the illusion while still carrying the burden of one's personality through life. Maharaji said "you must honor your personality to gain freedom from the tyrrany of your thoughts." 

Raghu has a serendipitous encounter with a Tibetan Lama after he visits Maharaji in Kainchi. Ram Dass discusses the seductiveness of the rational mind. 

Raghu talks about a strange experience of unity through a "contact high" on retreat in the Himalayas with Ram Dass and the rest of the group. Ram Dass elaborates on unity and discusses our faith in rational man and the necessity of breaking the bonds of rationality in order to expand our concept of faith. 

Raghu, Ram Dass and other devotees travel to Kausani and rent a house overlooking the majestic Himalayas to do a meditation retreat. By cutting through the veil of illusion, one realizes they are not the body or the mind. In fact, we are seduced into the appearances of reality. The game is to get free from attachments to the senses by using the witness. 

Maharaji teaches Raghu how to meditate before he travels into the mountains, and Ram Dass explores the Four Noble Truths.

Still residing in India, Raghu and another Canadian go to meet Maharaji, who gave him a feeling of being home for the first time and showed him unconditional love. Meanwhile Ram Dass continues his spiritual evolution and learns the meaning of "renunciation of desire" and explores different vehicles to get to and maintain a place of pure oneness.  Ram Dass also discusses polarities and how they relate to karma and unattachment. Truthfulness is the most profound quality for Westerners to understand, because it is the one they struggle with the most. When the heart is totally open and truthful, there is no risk or vulnerability at all. 

Raghu struggles with two deadly diseases in India while awaiting word from Ram Dass about his Guru, and ends up visiting "the Mother" at the Kainchi Ashram, where he finds peace and restfulness.  Then Ram Dass informs Raghu that he has found Maharaji, his Guru, which excites Raghu because now he can finally meet him and go back to America, or so he thinks...

Raghu arrives at his first ashram in India, disappointed because he didn't find the answers he was looking for. Meanwhile, Ram Dass ventures out of his comfort zone and follows Bhagavan Das on a transformative journey through India, leading to a very special meeting at the Kainchi ashram.

Ram Dass talks about the mental and physical trials he experienced before traveling to India after he was fired from Harvard, and about embarking on his journey to the East to find his Guru. 

The premiere episode of Ram Dass Here and Now! Raghu Markus of the Love Serve Remember foundation explores the origin and early years of Ram Dass. Never heard of Ram Dass? This episode will introduce you to the man and his work.