Ram Dass Here And Now

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ram Dass interviews Trungpa Rinpoche at the Dharma Festival in 1973. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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