Ramdev joins Raghu to talk about deepening our compassion through devotion and a willingness to meet suffering with an open heart.

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This time on Mindrolling, RamDev and Raghu discuss:

• Coping within the current climate of our country
• Considering if it must get worse before it gets better
• Concerns with ICE and deportation
• Seeing suffering in the context of wholeness
• The problem with over-identification with negative emotions
• Requesting our needs and desires from Maharaj-ji
• A devotee's story from the book By His Grace
• Using our grief and longing as a spiritual path
• The loss that is going on worldwide
• Perspectives on depression and spirituality within the book The Awakened Brain
• Meeting suffering with a wide open heart

This episode is also brought to you by Dharma Moon. Join Buddhist teachers David Nichtern and Professor Robert Thurman for a free online event on Tuesday, March 4th at 6pm ET. Together, they'll explore the power of lineage, tradition, and the evolution of mindfulness practices. They’ll also discuss Dharma Moon’s renowned mindfulness meditation teacher training program. Visit dharmamoon.com/lineage for more info and to reserve your spot for the free online event with David Nichtern and Professor Robert Thurman!

About RamDev:

Dale Borglum is the founder and Executive Director of The Living/Dying Project. He is a pioneer in the conscious dying movement and has worked directly with thousands of people with life-threatening illness and their families for over 30 years. In 1981, Dale founded the first residential facility for people who wished to die consciously in the United States, The Dying Center. He has taught and lectured extensively on the topics of spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, on caregiving as a spiritual practice, and on healing at the edge, the edge of illness, of death, of loss, of crisis. Learn more about The Living/Dying Project at livingdying.org.

Be sure to also check out RamDev’s podcast, Healing at the Edge, on the Be Here Now Network.

“Compassion is the open heart meeting suffering. Tibetans say this remarkable thing, that compassion is the mixture of sadness and joy. You’re sad because you’re touching human suffering, but there’s a joyfulness that transcends happiness and sadness because your heart is open.” – RamDev

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John Lockley joins Raghu to discuss befriending our shadows and finding freedom and joy in a world of upheaval.

Mindrolling is brought to you by Reunion. 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

In this episode, Raghu and John explore:

• Relinquishing hatred and growing our compassion bit by bit
• The unifying force that connects all people
• Working on self-kindness and not feeding into self-deprecation
• Being respectful to our enemies rather than perpetuating evil
• Allowing our spirits to relax and engage in play
• Discovering our dream gifts and harnessing them within reality
• Finding our purpose and listening to our ancestors
• Ether and spaciousness as food for our dreams
• Not letting technology control and distract us

This episode is also brought to you by Dharma Moon. Join Buddhist teachers David Nichtern and Professor Robert Thurman for a free online event on Tuesday, March 4th at 6pm ET. Together, they'll explore the power of lineage, tradition, and the evolution of mindfulness practices. They’ll also discuss Dharma Moon’s renowned mindfulness meditation teacher training program. Visit dharmamoon.com/lineage for more info and to reserve your spot for the free online event with David Nichtern and Professor Robert Thurman!

About John Lockley: 

John Lockley began his journey as a young medic drafted into the South African military. He then trained under Zen master Su Bong from South Korea, and returned to post-Apartheid South Africa to spend 10 years in apprenticeship with MaMngwevu, a medicine woman from the Xhosa tribe. John now splits his time teaching in South Africa, Ireland, Europe, and the US. Find out more about John’s work and learn more about his numerous upcoming events, retreats, and other offerings at JohnLockley.com.

“The political system at the moment is tough, but sometimes it’s actually not as tough as you think it is. You need to find freedom where you are free. You’re not in jail; feel the freedom of walking, of going into the sea, of going into the wilderness, and let your spirit feel free. That’s very important.” – John Lockley

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Bringing together mindfulness and science, Anu Gupta offers transformative tools for dealing with hatred and prejudice.

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This week on Mindrolling, Raghu and Anu explore:

• How Anu was brought up around meditation and yoga
• Receiving the gift of spirituality
• Anu’s early connection to the Gayatri Mantra
• The distinction between caste and class in India
• Adjusting to Western life and dealing with bias in the U.S.
• Researching the nature of hatred and prejudice
• Holding our egos with loving awareness and compassion
• Transforming ourselves through practice
• Making our unconscious biases conscious

Check out Anu Gupta’s 2024 book, Breaking Bias, to learn more science-backed methods for unraveling stereotypes and prejudices.

About Anu Gupta:

Anu Gupta is a human rights lawyer, scientist, scholar of bias, meditation teacher, and the founder and CEO of BE MORE with Anu, a professional development company that trains corporate, nonprofit, and government leaders to advance inclusion and wellness by breaking bias. He is also the author of Breaking Bias: Where Stereotypes and Prejudices Come From and the Science-Backed Method to Unravel Them(2024), with a foreword from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Check out Anu Gupta on Substack.

“The tools that we need are the ones I’ve been teaching people; mindfulness, stereotype replacement, compassion. Not just talking about them, but actually practicing them and feeling them.” – Anu Gupta

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Mindrolling alumnus David Silver re-joins Raghu to help us transform our relationship with thought and lead us to growth and inner peace.

Mindrolling is brought to you by Reunion. 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

This journey on Mindrolling, Raghu and David weave through:

• Opposing the idea of ‘I think, therefore I am’
• The disease of overthinking and why we think
• Letting thoughts come through and letting it go
• How our relationship to thought is what makes us suffer
• Focused, creative, compassionate thinking as the center of our growth
• The necessity of compassion for oneself along with mindfulness
• Coming back into mantra when our mind wanders
• Passing through thoughts that are negative rather than getting hooked
• Right thinking and right action

About David Silver:

David Silver is the former co-host of the Mindrolling podcast. He is a filmmaker and director, most recently coming out with Brilliant Disguise. Brilliant Disguise tells the unique story of a group of inspired Western spiritual seekers from the 60s, who in meeting the great American teacher, Ram Dass, followed him to India to meet his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, familiarly known as Maharaj-ji. Two days before he left his body, Maharaj-ji instructed K.C. Tewari to take care of the Westerners, which he did resolutely until the day he died in 1997. Silver’s #1 charting MGM/UA/Warners film, “The Compleat Beatles” is the critically acclaimed biopic movie about history’s most famous band. The term ‘rockumentary’ was first applied to this two-hour movie. Rolling Stone recently described the film as a “masterwork.” Silver’s Warner Brothers’ feature film, “No Nukes” also started the whole trend of music/activism feature documentaries.

”This is workable conditions. We can absolutely transform so that we are not hooked and glued to these thoughts and the belief and story from which they come from.” – Raghu Markus

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Cultivating both inner and outer harmony, the Be Here Now Network trifecta of Raghu, David, and Sharon offers lessons in metta and letting go.

This episode was recorded live at the annual Ram Dass Legacy “Open Your Heart in Paradise” retreat in Maui. Learn more about these Maui retreats, our annual Mountain retreat in Boone, North Carolina, and our regular digital retreats at ramdass.org/event.

Mindrolling is brought to you by Reunion. 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

This week on Mindrolling, Raghu, David, and Sharon discuss:

• Ram Dass’ teaching of loving awareness and being at home in the universe
• Putting practice and compassionate mindfulness into our daily lives
• The power and strength of love
• A guided metta practice from Sharon
• Both inner and outer harmonizing and turning metta towards ourselves
• The Bodhisattva tradition and taking on the suffering of others
• Loving motivation and using wise discernment
• The continual process of letting go
• Forgiveness and not allowing pain to overtake our lives

About David Nichtern:

David Nichtern, founder of Dharma Moon, is a senior Buddhist teacher who has been practicing and teaching meditation for over 40 years. He was one of the initial American students of renowned meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and studied closely with him soon after his arrival in the United States in 1970. He is also a business consultant with companies creating a variety of offerings integrating meditation in a larger health and well-being context. David is also a multiple Grammy-nominated and Emmy award-winning musician.

About Sharon Salzberg:

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is one of the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, and her seminal work, Lovingkindness. Her podcast, The Metta Hour, has amassed five million downloads and features interviews with thought leaders from the mindfulness movement and beyond.

Learn more about Sharon and pre-order her new book at www.sharonsalzberg.com

“You can ask yourself the question, what do I really want to see? What do I care about most right now? Is it winning or is it being kind? It brings us to wisdom we already have, that we can then bring forth and have it inform our action as best we can.” – Sharon Salzberg

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Sharing spiritual mementos from his world travels, Dakota Wint sits with Raghu to explore finding God everywhere and at any time.

This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and Dakota converse about:

• Dakota’s travels throughout Ethiopia
• Rastafarian tradition and its origin in Ethiopia
• Reminiscing about their time shared in India
• Confronting the weirdness of our collective state
• Finding spirit in all cultures across the world
• How travel and curiosity have affected Dakota’s growth
• The central Buddhist value of impermanence
• Turning within and connecting to God
• Stories of the Aghori people in India
• The tribes of Papua New Guinea

About Dakota Wint:

Dakota Wint is a documentary filmmaker, vlogger, podcast host, and spiritual teacher from Detroit, Michigan. His films and podcasts revolve around current events, strange spirituality, and taboo traditions. You can subscribe to his podcast, A Place for Humans, HERE. Dakota grew to fame as an internet personality via his popular YouTube channel, Dakota of Earth. Dakota hosts retreats around the world and runs a non-profit focused on cultural and language preservation. Learn more about current happenings on his website.

“The same spiritual lessons I’m finding all over the world. There’s a similar feeling, a shared feeling, to what I find when I’m in India, or Japan, or in Mexico. I can find the spirit or God hidden in the symbols.” – Dakota Wint

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Redefining sainthood as a deep care for ourselves and others, Lama Rod Owens and Raghu discuss reclaiming our sacredness and our identity.

Check out Lama Rod’s book, The New Saints, to learn more about becoming a spiritual warrior.

Within this episode, Raghu and Lama Rod discuss:

• Healing through music and other mystical experiences
• Lama Rod Owens’ college experience and getting into activism
• Re-framing our relationship to religion
• The freedom to be our most authentic selves
• Owning our own identity and sacredness
• Community and collective as the hero we all need
• The apocalypse as an unveiling of the truth
• Creating a culture of care and prioritizing well-being
• Disrupting habitual reactivity and transforming our responsiveness
• Loneliness on the spiritual path

About Lama Rod Owens:

Lama Rod Owens is a Black Buddhist Southern Queen. An international influencer with a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School with a focus on the intersection of social change, identity, and spiritual practice. Author of Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger and co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation, his teachings center on freedom, self-expression, and radical self-care. Highly sought after for talks, retreats, and workshops, his mission is showing you how to heal and free yourself. A leading voice in a new generation of Buddhist teachers with over 11 years of experience, Lama Rod is highly respected among his peers and the communities that he serves. From these intersections, he creates a platform that’s very natural, engaging, and inclusive. Check out Lama Rod’s most recent publication, The New Saints and his podcast on the Be Here Now Network, The Spirit Underground.

For current offerings and programs, click here. 

“I think that the most important spiritual practice is care, compassion love; I think that’s the common expression across many paths. A saint is defined by the depth of their care for others.” – Lama Rod Owens

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Noah and Raghu Markus catch up with Joseph Goldstein to talk about poetry, imposter syndrome, trust, and more.

Grab a copy of Joseph’s poems and reflections HERE

In this episode, Raghu, Joseph, and Noah connect through these topics:

• How Joseph revitalized his poetic spirit while traveling in Spain
• Revision as the most important process of writing
• Struggling with imposter syndrome
• How poetry overlaps the meditative space
• Silence as an integral precursor to creativity
• The beauty within very ordinary experiences
• How aversion traps us just as much as desire
• Compassion as the activity of emptiness
• Loneliness and the myth of intimacy
• Building trust and self-confidence
• Artistic versus scientific ways of understanding
• Anger as a messenger and using wise discernment

Be sure to check out this talk on quantum mechanics, as suggested by Joseph in today’s episode.

About Joseph Goldstein:

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

“A lot of creativity comes out of the silence because then it’s more intuitive rather than thinking through something. It’s that overlap that I really love. I can be in a quiet space and a very ordinary perception of something takes on more meaning because I’m not just rushing through it, I’m actually there in it.” – Joseph Goldstein

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Trauma-focused psychotherapist Ralph De La Rosa links with Raghu to explain how radical self-compassion can outshine our deepest wounds.

Eager to learn more? Grab your own copy of Ralph’s new book, Outshining Trauma.

In this episode, Raghu and Ralph have a conversation about:  

• Ralph’s casual brush with death and the divine play of the universe
• Healing our afflictions and uncovering our awakened state
• How we all tend to dissociate and distract ourselves
• Inspiration from Buddhism in Ralph’s own life and his therapy practice
• Befriending all of the different parts of our psyche
• Connecting the heart of compassion to the difficulties we experience
• Utilizing the tools of Internal Family Systems
• Working with the breath and other meditation techniques
• Getting intimate with our afflictions
• The concept of taking refuge
• Considering what a healthy love/relationship looks like
• How to respond to self-judgment and drop our armor

About Ralph De La Rosa

Ralph De La Rosa (he/they) is a teacher of human spirituality, an internationally published author and a trauma-focused psychotherapist. Ralph works in private practice and is a seasoned meditation teacher known for his radically open and humorous teaching style. He is personally mentored by Richard Schwartz, founder and developer of Internal Family Systems. Check out Ralph’s new book, published in November 2024, focusing on trauma and radical self-compassion, Outshining Trauma. You can keep up with Ralph on his website.

“Our hearts can really break open for our own struggle. That, for me, is the nature of what I would call radical self-compassion, when you start to behold your own struggle and are willing to get intimate with your afflictions rather than run from them.” – Ralph De La Rosa

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Aboriginal scholar Tyson Yunkaporta joins Raghu to discuss our shared evolution of consciousness and navigating a post-truth world.

This week on Mindrolling, Tyson and Raghu have a conversation about:  

• Living in a post-truth world where objective facts lose to emotional/personal appeal
• How coronavirus nudged us closer to fascism
• Cultural feedback routes and how America affects Australia
• Working with Indigenous medicine to connect to the spirit
• Navigating the grieving process
• Revolutions of consciousness through the eras
• Our universal connection and sharing of space with each other
• Disinformation and the build-up to our recent election
• Right story versus wrong story and how the truth gets blurred
• All of our relations, human and non-human

About Tyson Yunkaporta:

Tyson Yunkaporta is an Aboriginal scholar, founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University in Melbourne, and author of Sand Talk and Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking. His work focuses on applying Indigenous methods of inquiry to resolve complex issues and explore global crises.

Preorder Tyson’s book, Right Story, Wrong Story: How to Have Fearless Conversations in Hell

“People are really suffering, and this feels true. This story reflects our feelings of terror and the need to preserve our cultures and communities and resources exclusively.” – Tyson Yunkaporta

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