In this Q&A session, Ram Dass talks about dealing with disturbances in meditation, letting go of identifications, seeing the guru as an imaginary playmate, being too formless, and more.

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.

Today’s podcast is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic Mind

Want to listen to this podcast AD-FREE? Not interested in the commentary before each talk from Ram Dass? We hear you! Join our Patreon for all this, plus weekly guided meditations from Ram Dass and friends. Try free for 7 days by signing up at patreon.com/RamDassPodcast

This episode of Here and Now is taken from a talk given in Melbourne, Australia in 1981.

• Ram Dass begins the Q&A by taking questions about dealing with disturbances in meditation, the relationship between concept and perception, and letting go of our identification with different roles and stances.
• In response to a question about the role of the guru in the unfolding of his spiritual journey, Ram Dass talks about how his relationship with his guru is like that of a child with an imaginary playmate. He cautions us about getting too caught up in the concept of the guru, saying that there are no rules to this game.
• After answering a question about free will, Ram Dass takes on an inquiry about being too formless and feeling disconnected from the physical. He talks about the importance of being grounded and getting your act together. Ram Dass ends this part of the session with a question about responsibility, especially as it pertains to social action.

Would you like to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on June 4th at 8 p.m. EDT.

“It’s like having an imaginary playmate as a child, but then as you grow up you realize that the playmate was real and you were imaginary. It’s sort of that way with the guru. I mean, you realize that who you thought you were that was following the guru, that was the hype in the first place. And that it all just is. So Maharaj-ji and I are buddies, lovers; I hate him because every time I try to sneak something by, there he is. And I can’t even describe how much I love him.” – Ram Dass

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

In this classic talk, Ram Dass explores resting in ‘I am,’ a place where we can see the perfection of all things, including suffering, and how we can balance that place with an open heart.

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.

Today’s episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic Mind

This episode is a continuation of the talk from Here and Now Ep. 250 – Eat It Like It Is, which was given in Austin, Texas, in the early 1990s.

• Continuing to take his cue from Swami Ram Tirth’s words, “I am without form, without limit,” Ram Dass dives into the notion of “I am” and talks about how resting in that place makes the world look different than if we are busy being somebody doing something. From this place, we can see the perfection of it all, even with the suffering inherent in form. 
• The predicament is that we are not just the “I am,” we are also human beings with bodies and personalities and human hearts that cannot bear the suffering around us. Ram Dass talks about finding a balance between these two places and keeping our hearts open to the unbearable. 
• Ram Dass explores all the demands to respond to the suffering of the world and how it’s easy to get tired of being “should upon.” Ultimately, we can rely on our intuitive heart-minds to know what is the right action to take for ourselves. The quieter we get and the less attached we are to our roles, the more we will gravitate towards the things that relieve the suffering of all sentient beings.

Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on May 21st at 3 p.m. EDT.

“If you were resting in your ‘I am,’ you would look and you would see only the perfection of it all. And you would see that what we did in the ’60s is what created Ronald Reagan in the ’80s. You would see the way polarities work; you’d see the way forces polarize… You’d just see it as law unfolding right before you.” – Ram Dass

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

Who are you? What are you doing here? In this classic talk about identity and attachment, Ram Dass asks where you could possibly stand in a world filled with pain and suffering to ‘eat it like it is?’

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/ramdass and get on your way to being your best self.

This episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic Mind

In this talk from Austin, Texas, in the early 1990’s:

• Ram Dass recalls a family saying from his youth, “Eat it like it is,” and asks how we can possibly apply it to the current world filled with pain and suffering.
• Exploring the nature of identity, Ram Dass talks about how we have to become somebody in order to become nobody. He discusses his experiences with expanded states of mind and how the game shifted from how to get high to wondering why he came down.
• Ram Dass talks about how the impeccable warrior is someone who exists on all planes simultaneously. He explores the nature of attachment and reads from Swami Ram Tirth, who helps us understand there is a place we can stand where we can see everything as the unfolding of law. This is the place where we can ‘eat it like it is.’

Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on May 7th at 8 p.m. EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.

“The signs point to Armageddon. It looks like it’s really hit the fan. Where could you stand that you could ‘eat is like it is?’ Or you could love it as it is? Where could you possibly stand? Where could you allow that to be what it is? What perspective, what vector view would you need to have? Who would you be if you were seeing it that way?” – Ram Dass

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

In this exploration of suffering, death, and love, Ram Dass talks about resting in change and handling the balance and tension of inhabiting multiple planes of reality simultaneously.

Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on April 23rd at 3 p.m. EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdass

This episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic Mind

This episode of Here and Now is from a 1992 lecture in Edgartown, MA. It continues the talk started in Here and Now Ep. 248 - Patterns of Interdependency.

• Exploring his work with death and people who are dying, Ram Dass talks about how he’s learning to live simultaneously on multiple planes of reality and consciousness. To him, the art form of being human is the ability to open our hearts to suffering and acknowledge that it hurts like hell, while also appreciating the awesome nature of the mystery, which includes suffering and death.
• Ram Dass addresses aging and the nature of change. He talks about resting in change and handling the balance and tension of inhabiting multiple planes of consciousness simultaneously.
• Ram Dass opens up about the trouble he has keeping his heart open to certain people. He talks about the collaborative nature of creating environments where people won’t get trapped in their roles.
• Ram Dass ends the talk with some reflections about love and not living out of a deprivation model. He shares his classic story about the state trooper who just might have been Krishna in drag as an example of living on more than one level at one time.

“When you are able to simultaneously live on those planes of consciousness and handle that tension and that balance, then your every act towards other human beings brings to bear with it equanimity, spaciousness, and joy.” – Ram Dass

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

Speaking to issues of ecology, politics, and social action, Ram Dass shares stories of compassionate action and explores patterns of interdependency we can recognize in the world.

Want to participate in the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on April 9th at 8 p.m. EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdass

This episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic Mind

This episode of Here and Now is from a 1992 talk in Edgartown, MA.

• Ram Dass discusses our looming ecological crisis, politics, and living in the age of the Kali Yuga. There is change happening all around us. For Ram Dass, what’s interesting is where one stands in relation to change.
• How do we respond in an appropriate way to all the suffering in the world around us? Ram Dass shares classic stories of compassionate action and talks about the constant dialogue between the mind and the heart.
• Ram Dass explores how moving through different planes of reality can help us recognize the incredible patterns of interdependency in this world. By acknowledging that these other planes exist, we can find a way to be fully in the world and simultaneously not be trapped by it. In this way, we’re able to keep our hearts open in hell.

Take part in a 4-week Sliding-Scale Course - Reimagined: The Life & Teachings of Ram Dass. Beginning April 8th, click here to learn more!

“When you experience the plane of reality where everything is interdependent, it includes you, you’re part of it all. If you flip the dial and go to another plane of reality, you see that behind all of the forms, which are like cloud patterns, there’s only one of it. There’s one stuff. There’s one stuff that keeps going into these incredible patterns.” – Ram Dass

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

In this Q&A session, Ram Dass talks about transcending dualism, the significance of clairvoyance, how reincarnation is part of our dreams within dreams within dreams, and more.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdass

Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on March 26th at 3 pm EDT. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.

This episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic Mind

This week’s episode of Here and Now is taken from a Q&A session in 1987. 

• Ram Dass begins by answering questions about his Mala beads, his spiritual lineage, and psychedelics. He shares stories about giving his guru the “yogi medicine.”
• Taking on a question about struggling with the polarities of positive and negative, light and dark, and good and evil, Ram Dass explores transcending dualism. He talks about how before he’d experienced transcendence, he had a lot of trouble with the idea of good and evil.
• What’s the significance of clairvoyance? Ram Dass talks about the very rigid set of rules we base on what our senses tell us, and how he loves sharing stories of miracles because they push everybody’s buttons. 
• Ram Dass answers questions about cultivating the Witness, why there is so much blind suffering, and connections that span multiple lifetimes. He talks about how reincarnation is as real as anything on this plane of awareness because it’s all just dreams within dreams within dreams.

“Everybody doesn’t have a guru or a physical plane guide, many people have inner guides that they experience as their inner voice, which could be their inner voice or it could be another being helping them. There are many levels of this game. Each person gets their ‘karmuppance.’ They get just what they need, just when they need it.” – Ram Dass

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

In this classic talk from 1987, Ram Dass explores working with suffering, keeping our hearts open, finding the intuitive heart space, and being responsive rather than reactive. This episode is a continuation of the talk started in Here and Now Ep. 245 – Taking Off Our Spacesuit.

Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on March 12 at 8 pm EST. Subscribe to the General Fellowship Group for more information.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdass

This episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic Mind

In this week’s episode:

• Using his stepmother’s death as an example, Ram Dass explores how pain and suffering can become a curriculum through which one awakens.
• Ram Dass discusses how he has begun to fall in love with everyone, and how his guru opened him up to the possibility of unconditional love. If we’re caught in our separateness, it’s hard to keep our hearts open.
• Ram Dass shares classic stories of how other beings, including a dolphin, have helped him escape the trap of his own mind and find the intuitive heart space. He talks about taking care of his aging father and learning how to just be present with him.
• Finally, Ram Dass explores the difference between being reactive and being responsive, reading a story from ‘How Can I Help?’ to illustrate his point. He talks about how, when we are quiet enough on the inside, we can begin to hear how to awaken through the journey of the spirit.

“As you quiet your mind just a little bit, you get so that you’re not automatically reacting to everything. You become what’s called responsive rather than reactive. In other words, something happens and there’s a moment when it’s just happening, you’re just with it. As your awareness expands to include more than your separate self, it’s as if you’re part of the gestalt of it all, and you experience the totality of it. And then, out of that quietness comes an act that is appropriate to that moment.” – Ram Dass

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

In this essential talk from 1987, Ram Dass uses his life experience to guide us through the process of taking off our spacesuit of identity and embracing the curriculum our lives offer us.

Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on February 27th at 3 pm EST.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdass

This episode is also brought to you by Magic Mind, a matcha-based energy shot infused with nootropics and adaptogens designed to crush procrastination, brain fog, & fatigue. Use the code RAMDASS at checkout to get up to 50% off your subscription: Magic Mind

This episode of Here and Now is from a classic talk given in April 1987.

• Using his journey as a guide for this talk, Ram Dass explores the spacesuits of ego and identity we wear in our lives. He tells us how ill-fitting this spacesuit felt for him, and the feeling of freedom he found when he was first able to take it off. 
• Ram Dass describes how he began to chase the high of not wearing the spacesuit through the use of mind-altering chemicals and spiritual practices. Eventually, though, those things became a different kind of suit he was wearing. Through the advice of a wise friend, he realized he needed to take the curriculum that everyday life has to offer and not just live with his head in the clouds.
• Once the object of the game shifted from getting high to getting free, Ram Dass chose to stop pushing away all of the things that brought him down. Instead, he embraced the many forms of suffering in the world, working with prisoners, AIDS patients, and people going through the process of dying. To get free, we need to embrace it all, the good and the bad.

“As I took off the suit, I felt at home, I felt present. It felt extremely familiar to me, even though as an adult in society I didn’t remember having been in this space before. I was always constantly checking everybody to see if I was enough ‘somebody’ so that I would be allowed to exist.”

 – Ram Dass

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

In this deeply meditative recording from 1976, Ram Dass talks about going beyond form and intellect and then is joined by Krishna Das to chant a love song between formless and form.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdass

Want to be part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Join us for the SoulPod Meet-Up on February 13th at 8 pm EST.

In this episode of Here and Now: 

• In a highly meditative fashion, Ram Dass speaks about the spiritual journey and how it is a journey of the heart. The intellect, while an exquisitely powerful tool, cannot know ultimate truth.
• Ram Dass explores the forms we must use to get beyond the intellect, including meditative practices and chanting. He talks about the identities we create with our minds and how we were born into the illusion of separateness. But the way the dance works best is that we keep shifting forms and understand that all these forms will take us to that which has no form.
• Ram Dass is joined by Krishna Das to chant “Jai Radha.” Ram Dass explains how it is like a love song between formless and form.

“This is like a love song between formless and form, between Father and Mother, between the cow herdsmen and the Gopi, between Radha and Govinda.” – Ram Dass

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

In this essential talk, Ram Dass leans on the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching, Ramana Maharshi, and Groucho Marx to explore identity, change, and how incarnation is the blueprint for liberation.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/ramdass

Want to be a part of the discussion about this episode of Here and Now? Register now for the SoulPod Meet-Up on January 23rd at 3 pm EST.

This episode of Here and Now is taken from a workshop in Los Angeles in May of 1991.

• Ram Dass dives into the concept of identity and how we’ve lost the balance between our identity as individuals and our identity as part of the unity of all things. We begin by being too attached to the somebody-ness that’s drilled into us from birth and then, as we awaken spiritually, we go in the other direction and cling too tightly to the unity. The ultimate goal is to be in the world, but not of the world.
• Offering the wisdom of Groucho Marx, Ram Dass talks about learning to play with reality and how part of what we’re awakening to is that there are many planes of reality. He references Ramana Maharshi and describes how the spiritual journey is ultimately about extricating yourself from your definitions of yourself. 
• Part of the predicament of being so attached to these definitions of self is that all things change, including our bodies. Ram Dass addresses the very nature of change and reads from the Tao Te Ching to offer us a clue to the Way. Ultimately, as we awaken, we can begin to see how our unique incarnations are actually the blueprint for our liberation. There are no errors in this game.

“It’s too beautiful. It’s too beautiful that your incarnation turns out to be the blueprint for your liberation. Who would’ve expected that?” – Ram Dass

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