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Ram Dass – Here and Now – Ep. 2 – Journey to the East

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

We learn about his and Tim Leary’s fascination with the Tibetan Book of the Dead and how they re-worked its concepts into a guide for the spiritual use of psychedelics.

Show Notes

The Inside Story (Opening) – Ram Dass describes his return to Harvard after taking psilocybin mushrooms for the first time with Timothy Leary and his efforts to integrate his new perspective through his work while working within the academic system. He shares the lessons about the offerings and limitations of psychedelics that he learned in those early psychonaut years.

The Psychedelic Experience (14:30) – After coming to the conclusion that psychedelics held an unprecedented potential for the exploration of the human consciousness, Ram Dass quickly realized that he and the Western academic community lacked the knowledge to use them properly. He discusses his turn to Eastern philosophy in the search for a better understanding of what the psychedelic experience had to offer.

Journey to the East (20:00) – By 1967, Ram Dass had hit a wall in his search for answers through the resources that were available to him in the West and if there was anything to be found he must go to the source. Ram Dass describes that journey across the East where he met mystics and holy people from many spiritual backgrounds and how he met Bhagavan Das, the wild Westerner who would lead Ram Dass to the answers he was looking for.

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Shantala Joins the Soul Land Music Series on Instagram Live

October 18 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm  PDT

To honor Ram Dass’s deep connection to music, and to provide our community with a source of solace, inspiration, and connection, we are launching a new virtual Instagram Live music experience called Soul Land Music Series: Songs and Stories Inspired by Ram Dass.

Join us this Sunday October 18 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm  PDT to connect deeply to some of your favorite artists who have been impacted and inspired by Ram Dass! 

About Shantala

Benjy and Heather Wertheimer have been leading kirtan (sacred chanting) worldwide since 2001 as the duo Shantala. They are known for their special gift of bringing the audience into a vast and loving experience through their unique blend of exquisite voices with instruments of India and the West.

Together they create music with beauty, passion, and reverence. Shantala has performed and recorded internationally with such sacred music luminaries as Krishna Das, Deva Premal & Miten, and Jai Uttal. Heather and Benjy have released six beautiful and well-loved albums of sacred chant music since 2003, including LIVE2love, Living Waters, Jaya, LIVE in love, Sri, and The Love Window.

DETAILS Date: October 18 Time: 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm PDT Event Category: Virtual Events Website: https://www.instagram.com/babaramdass/

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“Our whole spiritual transformation brings us to the point where we realize that in our own being, we are enough.” - Ram Dass

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Shantala Joins the Soul Land Music Series on Instagram Live

Benjy and Heather Wertheimer have been leading kirtan (sacred chanting) worldwide since 2001 as the duo Shantala. They are known for their special gift of bringing the audience into a vast and loving experience through their unique blend of exquisite voices with instruments of India and the West.

Together they create music with beauty, passion, and reverence. Shantala has performed and recorded internationally with such sacred music luminaries as Krishna Das, Deva Premal & Miten, and Jai Uttal. Heather and Benjy have released six beautiful and well-loved albums of sacred chant music since 2003, including LIVE2love, Living Waters, Jaya, LIVE in love, Sri, and The Love Window.

DETAILS

Date: October 18 | Time: 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm PDT

Event Category: Virtual Events

Website: https://www.instagram.com/babaramdass/

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Becoming What You Are. It is only through thousands upon thousands of births, awakening a little each time, that you become what you are. There is Grace. -Ram Dass

Becoming What You Are

It is only through thousands upon thousands of births, awakening a little each time, that you become what you are.

For you need purification to become what you are. It’s like dreaming at night; you awaken and realize that you were still dreaming, but it was a dream within a dream. Well, here we are again. Another one. And this isn’t real. That’s why peace within the dream is not enough; because it still leaves the yearning; because it still lies within the illusion of separateness. And that’s why the statement, ‘Without God, life has no ultimate meaning’ is so important, it’s the whole point.

To recognize oneself as a being of God, who is dancing through a life, means that you begin to examine the life in terms of its function for awakening, every component of your life, every single one.

There are no accidents

Everyone you meet; every incident that occurs to you: all is bliss for the mirror of your awakening.

And in each case, once you have understood the process you’re in, once you have looked up, every experience involves a choice on your part. And that choice is to ask in a way that brings you closer or moves you away. Biblically, it would be said; to ask in accordance to God’s Will, or to go against the Will of God. And that’s the choice. The far out part of it is, sooner or later, you will get home anyway. And God doesn’t care, because God isn’t in time. It’s you that cares; you’re the one, because you’re the one who suffers. God can wait. So whatever choice you make that takes you deeper into the illusion, God, Guru, all of it, just sits and says, ‘mmmmm.’ Does it bug you? Just notice it. But if that’s true, then where is grace? At the moment, you look up and look in, and recognize the source from which you come, and you cry out, your soul cries out and says, ‘I want to come home; I want to awaken. Help me. Let me surrender. Let me hear Thy Will. Let my life be a vehicle for opening.’ That reaching up, that asking is the stimulus is the key which brings forth grace.

And what is grace?

Grace is those beings who have remained in form on one plane or another, in order to help other beings become enlightened, and your reaching out calls them forth, but to do what for you? Not to force you to go with the Will of God if you choose to go against it. But to help, if you choose to go in harmony with the Will of God, to speed up your journey. Grace speeds up the awakening. It won’t force you, it will help you. But it will only help you when you make the choice.

Once you have tasted who you are, you have a number of choices. If, for example, you have tasted and experienced that we are all one, fellow souls in a journey through form, then a situation arises where you could rip off another person, thus increasing suffering, it is your choice. You choose to do that. You create a new set of veils around yourself, an illusion strengthened by your own paranoia, which ultimately makes it more difficult for you to get home, along with other people.

Once you have begun to awaken, your acts can either be merely dealing with experiences which have presented themselves for you to work out your old karma and your responses to them create no new karma. Or you pit yourself against the system and you create new karma, and that just keeps going on and on and on and perpetuates your separateness and your suffering, life after life after life. It’s your choice.

Recognizing Incarnations often leads to Compassion

Surrounding you are beings at every different level of incarnation. Some of them are going to be born this time and a thousand more times without recognizing that they are caught at all. They may be your parents; they may be your children; they may be your brother or sister or your husband or wife. There is no better or worse; there are merely older beings and younger beings. It is not better to be fifty than ten, or better to be twenty than thirty; it is merely older or younger. The recognition of this leads to compassion.

Compassion is that you allow other people their own trips; you don’t lay your trip on another person: you are what you are, and each person drinks from the well as they are ready to drink.

An attempt to force someone else to drink from the well as you are drinking comes from your own lack of faith in who you are. There is no possibility of proselytizing. For if you take a person who is not ready to awaken and you force them to open, the minute you walk away, they will close up. And not only will they close again, but they will close in such away that it may become harder for them to open later and that karma will be on your head.

Thus you learn that the way in which you create a more conscious universe is by being a more conscious being; the way you create a more loving universe is by being a more loving being; the way you create a universe in which humanity once again has the choice to recognize its source, is by living a life which acknowledges that source.

– Ram Dass

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Konda Mason – Brown Rice Hour – Ep. 2 – Spirituality and Social Justice with Jakada Imani

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Jakada Imani and Konda explore the intersection of spirituality and social justice in relation to the ongoing movement for racial justice.

Jakada Imani is a spiritually rooted coach and trainer with 30 years’ experience working for racial, social and economic justice. He is the Chair of the Board of OneLife Institute, which serves at the intersection of spirituality and social action. Over the last three decades, Jakada has worked for organizations and or supported movements working on campaigning to close youth prisons, fight for workers’ rights, tenant organizing and green jobs. In 2013 he received a ChangeMaker Fellowship from Pacific School of Religion, where he served for two years leading The Ignite Institute, a center for spiritual and social transformation. Current Rev. Jakada serves as the Board President of Greenpeace U.S. You can find more information about Jakada at OneLife Institute and LinkedIn.

Spirituality & Social Justice

After diving right into pressing comfort food matters like the proper way to prepare delicious grits, Konda and Jakada open to the heart of the conversation on how to reconcile spirituality with social justice. Elucidating the realities of racism through sharing his past experiences, Jakada uncovers the roots which led him on his carefully balanced path of fighting in social justice movements to enact necessary change, while still fostering and cultivating a relationship to love and spirit. He attributes his successes to his Bay Area activist mentors, such as Konda.

��You get to meet all these amazing people who’ve been in the struggle and can give you game. I got to learn from people, and read amazing things, and talk to folks who are in the struggle about what they’ve been doing, how they did it – not just inspiration, but I got information, the strategies and organizational structures.” – Jakada Imani

Liberation Through Connection (31:00)

Jakada explores his coming to realize the connection between the realms of divine spirit and the realms of the political, material world. In his work youth organizing for anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-homophobia, and unlearning, he was taught some of the handed-down freedom songs from slave camps his ancestors were forced into. Recognizing that deep down, internally, he knew these songs and the unique, rich spirituality they represented, Jakada realized that the spiritual and the material were two sides of one coin, where only through accepting this balance can we find and offer true liberation.

“I understood that there was this divine realm, and I understood that there was this worldly political realm, and that I was acting as if those two things were not connected.” – Jakada Imani

Ethical Framework for Racial Justice (40:52)

Responding to the George Floyd protests and the surging movement for racial justice, Jakada and Konda talk about the opportunity presented through the portal that this immense suffering has opened. While Jakada is saddened by the loss of a father, a community member, and a loved human being, he is heartened by the notion that this is not a new story, but young people are responding to it in increasingly new ways. They are saying that devastation, heartlessness, and hatred will not be the last word.

“In this tremendous devastation of this man’s life…death creates a portal. It creates a portal for either further death and destruction, or resurrection, renewal, and rebirth.” – Jakada Imani

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(Be Here Now Network) 

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Set alarm clocks or design your day or put up notes on the wall so that a number of times during the day when you are in the midst of various occupations you confront yourself with the questions: (a) Where Am I? and then answer (see answer below) (b) What time is it? and then answer (see answer below) Each time you do this, try to feel the immediacy of the Here and Now. Begin to notice that wherever you go or whatever time it is by the clock . . . it is ALWAYS HERE AND NOW. In fact you will begin to see that you can’t get away from the HERE and NOW. Let the clock and the earth do their ‘thing’ . . . let the comings and goings of life continue . . . But YOU stay HERE and NOW. This is an exercise to bring you to the ETERNAL PRESENT . . . where it all is. For specific periods of time focus your thoughts in the present. DON’T THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE. JUST BE HERE NOW. DON’T THINK ABOUT THE PAST. JUST BE HERE NOW. Reflect on the thought that if you are truly Here and Now (a) it is ENOUGH, and (b) you will have optimum power and understanding to do the best thing at the given moment. Thus when ‘then’ (the future) becomes Now — if you have learned this discipline — you will then be in an ideal position to do the best thing. So you need not spend your time now worrying about then. Reflect on the fact that you can plan the future in the Here and Now as long as when then is Now . . . you are fully Here and Now. Seem paradoxical? Of course! Keep reflecting! Answers:    (a) HERE     (b) NOW Excerpt from Be Here Now by Ram Dass

Art by jessie.dxn

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The Psychedelic Experience A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead Authors: Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, Richard Alpert

This manual uses material from The Tibetan Book of the Dead for this preparation. The authors also make an important contribution to the interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. They show that it is concerned not with the dead, but with the living. The last section of the manual provides instructions for an actual psychedelic session, under adequate safeguards.

The authors were engaged in a program of experiments with LSD and other psychedelic drugs at Harvard University until sensational national publicity unfairly concentrating on student interest in the drugs, led to the suspension of the experiments. Since then, the authors have continued their work without academic auspices.

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Guided Meditation Just Be

Ram Dass leads a guided meditation centered on noticing what you are directly experiencing in the moment, and simply letting it all just be as it is.

What I would like to invite you to do is to sit as straight as you can. We're going to meditate for about 10 minutes. For some of you, that will be a new experience. For some of you, even the term meditation is an alien term. It's part of the balancing we're trying to do between getting out in the market place and cultivating the inner quiet space.

So first, just get here. Just breathe gently and sit with what you're experiencing at this moment. If you're experience tiredness, let yourself be tired. If you're feeling hot or cold, if you're feeling the seat under you, the sounds outside -- don't push anything away, just be with what is.

But keep coming back to what you are directly experiencing in this moment. If your mind takes you on a train of thought, when you notice that, just come back and experience the floor under your feet, or the air on your cheek, or the presence of the person next to you. Letting your mind not hold onto things, but just be. Thoughts arising and passing away.

Noticing which sensations present themselves to you -- the horn, the feeling in your leg, maybe an agitation. Perhaps it's a memory, or it's a judgment about yourself or something else. Just notice it, and be with it. And let it stay or go, as it chooses.

Noticing if the siren comes into your consciousness, let it be there. Don't resist it, don't grab hold of it. It comes and it goes. Notice that what you were noticing as much as two minutes ago is already gone. Thoughts, feelings, sensations, memories, plans -- crossing your awareness like clouds cross the heavens.

Clinging to nothing, just being at rest with what is.

If there is agitation, just notice agitation. Whatever state of mind, whatever feeling, or thought, or sensation, neither clinging to it nor pushing it away. Just coexist with all of it. Just be with it, just as it is. There's nowhere to go, there's nothing to accomplish, there's no merit. It's just this, just this.

Feel the awareness as a vast ground like the sky. And all of the thoughts and sensations and memories and plans and qualities of mind and judging, is clouds that come from who knows where and go who knows where. Identify for a moment with the vast sky. This vast presence. It hears everything, and yet there is no effort. It's not doing anything, it's just being. How little time we acknowledge that in us which is just being.

(via Just Be – Meditation) 

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Cookbook for Awakening

Love Serve Remember Foundation (January 1, 2017)

After spending years curating over five decades of Ram Dass wisdom, Love Serve Remember Foundation is pleased to unveil "Cookbook for Awakening", a scrapbook of essential teachings on topics to help you become more awake in your life – and to inhabit “be here now” in a truly authentic way.

We found the most potent teachings from Ram Dass' talks on awareness, meditation, relationships, unconditional love, and service and compassion, and created a visual meditation that reflects his journey over these many decades - from his life as a cultural icon to his historic meeting with Neem Karoli Baba (Maharaj-ji) and the subsequent teaching in the West and the writing of his transformational book, “Be Here Now”.

This is a tool to expand our minds and our hearts. Take it with you on your journeys, and as “Be Here Now” has attracted so many of you to the spiritual path, we hope this book will inspire a new generation of seekers into an awakening of the spirit.

Cookbook for Awakening Features 40 high-quality color pages of Ram Dass teachings, quotes, archival photographs, handwritten letters, and meaningful imagery from the past 40 years of his journey.

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“One day in India, on my second stay, Maharaji said to me, ‘You don't have to change anybody; you just have to love them.’ In relationships, when the other person doesn't fit into your model of how heaven would be, you don't have to play God. You just have to love individual differences and appreciate them the way they are because love is the most powerful medicine.” - Ram Dass Photo by Rameshwar Das

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Shantala Joins the Soul Land Music Series on Instagram Live

October 18 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm  PDT

To honor Ram Dass’s deep connection to music, and to provide our community with a source of solace, inspiration, and connection, we are launching a new virtual Instagram Live music experience called Soul Land Music Series: Songs and Stories Inspired by Ram Dass.

Join us this Sunday October 18 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm  PDT  to connect deeply to some of your favorite artists who have been impacted and inspired by Ram Dass!

About Shantala

Benjy and Heather Wertheimer have been leading kirtan (sacred chanting) worldwide since 2001 as the duo Shantala. They are known for their special gift of bringing the audience into a vast and loving experience through their unique blend of exquisite voices with instruments of India and the West.

Together they create music with beauty, passion, and reverence. Shantala has performed and recorded internationally with such sacred music luminaries as Krishna Das, Deva Premal & Miten, and Jai Uttal. Heather and Benjy have released six beautiful and well-loved albums of sacred chant music since 2003, including LIVE2love, Living Waters, Jaya, LIVE in love, Sri, and The Love Window.

DETAILS Date: October 18 Time: 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm PDT Event Category: Virtual Events Website: https://www.instagram.com/babaramdass/

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In 1970, Ram Dass' Be Here Now became the counter-culture bible for thousands of young people seeking enlightenment in the midst of the darkness of Vietnam. It was a pioneering bridge, written in colloquial language, from the psychedelic 60s to eastern spirituality, and over the years has sold more than two million copies.

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We would like to share an important message from Ram Dass' friend and colleague, Rameshwar Das...

As we wrestle with the chaos around us, we can take heart from the conflicts between Truth (Dharma) and untruth (adharma) that come our way from other cultures.  In the Bhagavad Gita the dialogue between God (Krishna) and a warrior prince, Arjuna, takes place in the middle of a battlefield just before an internecine war of succession. (Read: Talking heads on the nightly news before a pandemic election.) With a backdrop of impending slaughter, Krishna instructs Arjuna how to navigate the strife. Krishna tells Arjuna he can’t not act, that he must fulfill his role as a warrior, but to fight holding love for the divine nature of souls on both sides, and with detachment, by giving up the fruit of his actions to the universal spirit that inhabits all.  It’s an intricate message and a good perspective for working in perilous times:   Do what you do with love. Don’t worry about how it turns out. The Gita’s view sees the cosmic in the earthly struggle, the spiritual in the political, the Reality behind the news. The takeaway: Love and awareness, compassion and wisdom, devotion and detachment, will help steer us back to a sense of unity, service and shared purpose. Take heart! And vote! - Rameshwar Das, LSRF Boardmember

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Soul Land Music Series Songs & Stories Inspired by Ram Dass

“Music is a tremendous vehicle for opening the heart.”- Ram Dass

Music always played an important role in Ram Dass’s life. He thought of music as a portal into what he called ‘Soul Land' - The doorway to Spirit. During this isolating time of fear and uncertainty, it feels fitting that we both honor Ram Dass and provide our community with a source of solace, inspiration, and connection through music.

Over the last few years, Love Serve Remember Foundation (LSRF) has evolved into a fertile ground for creatives to cultivate work inspired by Ram Dass’s teachings. Musicians from a variety of genres and artists have asked to collaborate, using the timeless wisdom of Loving Awareness to enrich their projects.

To honor Ram Dass’s deep connection to music, and to provide our community with a source of solace, inspiration, and connection, we are launching a new virtual Instagram Live music experience called Soul Land Music Series: Songs and Stories Inspired by Ram Dass.

FIND OUT MORE

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“In the process, the heart gets opened…which is the devotional part, the love. Because when you are with somebody who you open to, and you suddenly experience the intensity and immensity of the love of the universe, you just are so open and so appreciative.” - @Babaramdass Visit our story for a link to Ram Dass' newest Dharma talk exploring the various forms of Yoga for coming into the One All Ram Dass podcasts can be found @beherenownetwork 

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