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.org

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/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 Dass

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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.

This 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.

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

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/ramdassjan

“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 Dass

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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.

This 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.

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. Visit Ramdass.org/fellowship to sign up for the General Fellowship, and you'll receive event invitations directly in your inbox.

“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 Dass

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

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/ramdassjan

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with our link: magicmind.com/ramdassjan

This 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 Levine

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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 Mind

This 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 Dass

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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 Mind

This 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 Dass

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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. Get Magic Mind at 50% off with the Black Friday offer, available only through our link until December 6th: https://www.magicmind.com/ramdassbf

This 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 Leary

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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 Mind

This 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 Dass

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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 Mind

This 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 Dass

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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 Mind

This 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 Dass

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