He Spent 50 Years With Ram Dass! | Raghu Markus

to the degree that you want something is the degree you're afraid of not have again I wish I started I was younger and oh yeah but you didn't so shut the [ __ ] up was I'm going thank you nobody changes until they change their energy and when you change your energy you change your life because it's not till then that it's really real it's like oh this is way worse than I thought oh yeah way way worse than you thought yeah but luckily there's more to you than you think [Music] how you doing right girl I'm okay which doesn't say much of anything been a rough month say the very least yeah but you know what we were just talking about impermanence before we got on mm-hmm yeah been a lot of that a lot of dealing with more than one plane at a time in the plane of grief for those of you who don't know I run Ram Dass is slub server member foundation and you knew him for 51 years and I knew him for 51 years yeah I do well you're the right person to run the organization I don't think that's the qualification many people there's so he passed December 22nd and then maybe two weeks ago his Indian brother the man who when he first went to India and met neem karoli baba his guru how a guru this man was a translator and neem karoli baba who we called maharaj a just a nickname said okay his name was KK KK take Ram Dass back who was Richard Alpert in that moment still right take him back to your house and take care of him from that moment on two three weeks ago or when Ram Dass left they were like the most close brothers I don't even there's no word I could put about how close they actually we just found some letters as we're going through now and of course collecting all of Ram Dass his letters memorabilia and and in there was the most profound exchange of love between these two humans it was just fantastic it's actually it's going to be on Ram Dass dog on the on the home page excerpts from that from those letters there's four Denari so he went because he said I'm not I can't say if he's gone I'm he actually said that when I called him and told him what happened and with Rama so in that situation there it's it's very interesting when people have this sort of consciousness around passing because most of us think of death as it just kind of happens accidentally but you hear cases of this and in certain relationships and this seems like one of those relationships all the time yeah all the time but that kind that is that in and of itself is a little bit paradigm shattering because most of us are like afraid afraid afraid afraid oh whoops yeah right you know but but there's you know when you reach a certain level of I suppose consciousness or whatever you want to call it you can start to take a little bit more agency over that process potentially the other thing that's going yeah that's all true I think but the other thing that's going on he's been with this KK Ram Dass his brother from India Indian brother he's been with this realized he he seven years old he met neem Karoli Baba that was in maybe around early 40s okay and all the way was close to him and the whole thing right saw there's no birth there's birth you know there's sickness there's old age there's death he knew all of that like in his soul so for him to say hey I'm checking out I mean it saying like that he said I have nothing to live for when I call them now he was acted out on that kind of plane of consciousness it's the same plane where grief happens mm-hmm right but what ROM das was all about was he used to say all the time you can live on more than one plane of consciousness at the same time so there's the grief plane and then there's that other plane where we do understand in some deep part of ourselves that we are not this thing that we're identifying with and there is an incarnation that repeats in order for us to get it right over a span of time that we could never imagine and we can never understand this with our mind so but that is something and you know we all know it I mean we might know through psychedelics right mm-hmm through a piece of music a book something happens that it that's that ineffable thing you can't describe and then you start to trust that thing which is what happened with me when I first met Ron das when I oh [ __ ] that's what I've been waiting for it to hear all this time yeah truth so yeah I think it's a good thing to realize that and and helps you not stay stuck in one or the other cuz you can get stuck in grief many of course we all do right but on the other level that other plane of conscious you get stuck too much in your head adds okay we're all just body and we're not these body you know that kind of bypassing mmm so it's it's loving all of the planes of existence that you're in and not being stuck being fluid yeah to be able to to access those different planes so if you're like look I've I'm in this grief thing and it's here and let's go back to this spiritual plane where the unborn in the undying is real and exists and I feel that part and there is no grief in that plane and but it's not ignoring it's just being able to access yourself on all those planes and doing it with some awareness rather than just well I took these mushrooms and I got to here and now I'm back to you know my self-doubt and lack of self-worth and lack of self-love and I'm back to this plane and I'm stuck and maybe the mushrooms will liberate me but the mushrooms can give you and I think that was a great way that Rama das described it just give you something that can pry you out of this give you an idea of what's possible but the ultimate goal is to have the ability to use choice to access yourself on these different levels to a certain degree yeah yeah he also used to say if this psychedelic experience is a great facsimile of the real deal but it's still affect simile mmm-hmm okay that [ __ ] me up actually when he was telling me oh yeah because it was true but like the thing about the psychedelic experience so you do five Meo DMT and it feels like it feels like for me this is my personal experience it feels like you merge - you Nissa t but when he was talking I think it's astral fun and games that's a podcast I was listening to and he's talking about well that's a loketh ATS a plane of existence where you get to experience what it feels like to feel the you Nissa T but it's not the actual Samadhi it's not the actual experience of Annisa T it's you're accessing the feeling of it which is still valuable absolutely super valuable but don't don't confuse it because if the Saints because then I'm realizing like yeah actually because I was still witnessing myself experienced that mm-hmm so I was still watching myself there I wasn't fully embodying and because I'm still watching myself experience it going oh wow like if I'm really there I'm not going oh wow yeah because the oh wow part is still the me that's experiencing exactly yeah you know when Ramdas gave that white lightning acid to neem Karoli obama like twelve hundred micrograms oh my god so it happened twice two different times the first time he was was there and then when he went back so the first time it happened you know were you there for any of those no I was not there for any of them um the first time it happened he nothing happened but then when Ram Dass went home he went back to America thought [ __ ] I wonder if he maybe it was a sleight of hand like he threw the things you know over his shoulder I thought they were going in his mouth he he thought this he so then he got doubt you know what maybe something what's going on yeah so he goes back the second time the second time and Christian Dawes who you know I believe was with him at that time Maharaja says do you have any of that yogi medicine he called a yogi medicine acid around I said yeah cos he was all prepared because he wanted this to happen right so he said well give me and and he gave him one nun that give me a few ok so then he picked each one up in his fingers stuck his tongue out put it on his tongue and swallowed it and said to round us did I do that right Wow so he knew yeah but anyhow so but more to the point is what he said this allows you to have being the presence of Christ mmm right for a couple hours but then you got to come down you got to go back better to do it naturally feed people and love them that's what he said so but we did get the message that it's an opener obviously and it's something that helps people understand the absolute integration of everything that is possibly manifest in this unit yeah sure you know that idea of using these experiences to just open you up to other experiences has been something that's radically shifted my life because I just spent time and we haven't gotten to talk about my recent journey maybe you followed a little but I spent time six days like pretty much a full week in absolute darkness and silence you know pitch black like jet black darkness and it was a the most powerful choice are you in a nice bath and I'm going what yeah so I was under water - nice bath all that all that stuff is you know those that's all fun challenging but fun but then the darkness was the darkness was the real medicine and I think one of the biggest takeaways from that was something that I think ROM dasas teachings helped put me together which was understanding that my mom to me is the closest person that I've ever known to provide unconditional love how what a blessing that that young baby now still consistently through the whole through my whole 38 year life like people asked my mom and I've told this story before on the podcast but I'll tell it again people you know I have some success now you know I've done some things people will come up to my mom say oh I'm so proud of abri and she'll just look at him like the puzzled look on her face and go what do you mean I've always been proud of hungry like it's like it's the most it's the closest that in obviously there's different you know ways that someone like neem Karoli Baba can reach the state of unconditional love and on the spiritual plane but as far as like from a human perspective it's been the purest love that I could ever feel the same with my grandma right so beautiful but I didn't really realize how the potential of me leaning into that love could actually teach me about love like that love you always think of like oh love well I gotta find that with someone I'm having sex with or my girlfriend or whatever but just like you and Ramdas used neem karoli baba 'he's love to show you about love and Rama das talks about it with his dying aunt and all of these people that he that he fell in love with fell it not fell but rose to the state of love that actualization of love with of any variety of people which can then be the thing that informs us about love I don't think there's anything what so could you've made a difference between that unconditional love from your mother and your grandmother and the kind of an unconditional love that exists in in a neem karoli baba body it's not it's the same thing I don't yeah there's no difference what's that can only be one one thing going on there can't be two things going on absolutely so yeah there is no difference absolutely no difference whatsoever man you know I mean it's that place where there's it's a one-way street that was my I know I did not experience that I mean I had a really incredible aunt I don't remember my mother I remember my aunt who was that for me when I was more baby or young young kid but you know when I first met that thing and I call it a thing because the first thing that meeting neem karoli baba was I realized it was a one-way street I was not having this kind of a dialogue or the kind of dialogue we have with any human there's always there's a bit of jousting you know and it could be in good spirit but there's a to the two is going on in this case it's only a one and and you're just in that field and it that the uncondition allottee of it the way in which nothing was wanted in return right and that's the same thing you're talking about it's like even just hearing you say it is it makes me emotional to realize that that's been something that's been there and I've been but I've been blind to it to a certainty I have known it's there but I haven't known the power of him and also there was some part of me that didn't feel worthy of receiving it you know what I mean like it's like I didn't quite feel worthy of receiving it so I let it come in skin deep and every once in a while get a little deeper but I was like I don't deserve that I look like when like the story of ROM das when he first you know when when maharaja says love everyone tell the truth like I got too many judgments I got all these things I got all these things like I don't deserve that love I'm not ready I shouldn't be loved he said I can't I cannot love everyone and tell the truth I mean think of that think of us doing that right telling the truth but you can do it you know in a way that the other person isn't going to be hurt that's extraordinarily difficult so and certainly difficult when you've you know you're identifying with your story right yeah which is you identifying with your story I am not good enough to receive this thing is unconditional know my day to day when I first met neem Karoli Baba that was my day to day to day okay he's gonna throw me the [ __ ] out of here because I'm such a piece of [ __ ] I can't you know I waited you know it didn't didn't happen but thank God but yeah that that that's just the story so that we're telling ourselves it's something else believing in these thoughts right it really it really isn't it and I think that was it's such a beautiful and kind thing that you said that actually strengthens this so much because you know Ram Dass talks about the Guru and we're in a time now where guru isn't really something that we identify with you know right like it's not a tie it's not it's almost like not even the era of guru - it's a strange tournament I mean it is true and I've been saying what you've been saying but I'm countering myself okay dick not Han you know the great yes he said the next Buddha is the Sangha the next guru is a satsang the community of like-minded Souls ah that's so the gifted though it's saying I like for us we're what ROM das for instance who although never called himself a guru and anybody who called him a guru he said I am NOT a guru neem Karoli Obama is a guru but he he would say here we are together like we'd be in Maui and wish you would have come there one of these yeah and the way that we shared that heart was is exactly what you're describing with your mother but we felt good about ourselves because of so many of us were there and that's what satsang is it supports that place whereas if you're all alone you get lost in your identity and your story and everything and you you know you do what you did which didn't do anything your mother didn't stop right she kept doing it yeah no matter what you did which is the whole point of the thing and that's the satsang reflects the nature of that one thing which is that selfless love that means a [ __ ] word to love and that's and that's I think like it's like refrain and while there's barnacles on all these words yeah I love everything it's like it's like a it's like a whale that's been swimming for so long then it's all barnacles and you can hardly see that it's a beautiful blue whale underneath it but you know you're just so lost in the and all the things that have been attached to it but thinking of the Guru in in a variety of different ways besides it being just one person which you guys got to experience that in a person you know which was Maharaja but thinking that okay my mom in the way that she loves me that's guru and like the community even that community the little that we formed in Poland going through the ice and that's just a band of brothers who are doing extreme things and supporting each other like the radical support for everybody like there was one of our one of our brothers they're humble the poet who didn't even know how to sum the poet was there yeah oh yeah you know him he doesn't he doesn't know how to swim and he jumped into a frozen waterfall and all of us were there to support him he wouldn't have jumped into a frozen waterfall on his own but because all of our brothers were there and there would have been 12 other people if he had any it if he had any difficult all 12 of us would have jumped in there you know and I was like that community created a sense of love and support where no matter what anybody was doing whether they went 15 seconds in the water or they went 3 minutes in the want didn't matter it was just like supporting that was a kind of a satsang it was a kind of a community kind of it was yeah I mean yeah this is what Ramdas brought back when he left one thing I posted was you know ROM das has brought us the kind of mixture of like satsang like one you know one pointed one minded people okay just one mind but family adds another dimension to that just makes it there's a warmth to it you know when you just hear that word you feel comfy you know feel safe now and I'm family is here and then it extends out to strangers you don't necessarily know except that they're there all wanting what you want is to share that hard space right so he brought that back in spades you know and it's all the money and you know we're as you can imagine getting tremendous influx over the last month from everybody around the world and publicity on it it was extraordinary I didn't know quite wow you know it just was sort of just a tsunami and we even put a an email address where they could write to to tell their story like immediately like a thousand people just out of it we're actually now taking it and going well we'll put a little book together remarkable encounters with wrong to us it'll be called well and you know just that's more of people sharing and and everybody was like you know it was a big hey keep keep this going because since he left I can feel him around when I'm just with other people and we're just talking about him or it or whatever and you know so Ram Dass gives the kind of extraordinary motivation for me in particular to do this rather than go off to India and find a cave somewhere which I have thought of in the last month let me tell you when it was just okay in India they say bus hoagie enough already you know I've reached my max quota dukkha suffering hmm yeah I think that idea that everything that he really was the essence of him while his body left the essence of him that lives on through everything that we're so fortunate that was captured all the speeches all the talks the physical encounters everything that that is going to live on forever and may actually grow and should and will it is for me I mean I'm and I'm someone who's been on the this path and I came to his teachings later than many you know but there's many who haven't even haven't even started and that in there and it's just interesting how that's it's continuing to blossom you know just hearing just hearing him talk and like reading his work and like understanding and then meeting people who've met him and it's it's a beautiful thing that you realize that even though his body is is no longer here who he is Rama das is here yeah he's here it's more than one level it's a level as you said there's all I mean all of these talks are recorded and it's extraordinary I think we have in the library over 15,000 titles of one guy okay so we do have all of that and and it's to me and the first time I heard him was I was running a radio station as a kid and you know twenty two three-year-old and Montreal where I'm from and they asked me to promote his I'm telling his story you didn't ask for it but it'll help appoint and they asked me to promote him doing a lecture at McGill University so I I said like who's that you know know Albert and Larry oh yes you know we loved them send me over a tape and they sent me a tape of a previous talk and I went in the studio and I listened to this thing and that was the that was a demarcation point in my life mm-hmm okay he had a way of transmitting that kind of knowledge because of his psychological brain you know professor all that and his way he would absorb many different things you know even though because with neem karoli baba when he met him he yes he was Hindu when I first went there all he talked about was Christ so he was not and I'm Jewish so it's not you know what yeah so yeah ROM das just had a smorgasbord yeah of traditions that he absorbed and then translated to us in the West in a way that we get it yeah easier than just about anybody I mean people loved Alan Watts and they he's in that kind of same tradition of being able to transmit you know for him more than anything that's not going anywhere people have access right be a read be here now take some acid and then Oh rom das oh let me listen to you know and we are making it more and more accessible and more and more easily findable whatever it is you want because he covered so all of the gamut of subjects you know yeah that that would help but there's another level the level of behind him and behind us all and this is very sound in was I say it but neem Karoli Baba that thing whatever that is and I really don't know what that is I met it in a body had a body and had a personality and did all the stuff that people yeah yeah well them awful names as well I mean yet a mouth right but I'd you know I can't tell you what it is except I mean I don't know I guess they the the grand intelligence decides to manifest some part of itself in order to do something that we have no idea about in this case a bunch of us were there and we all came back to America and are doing different things that maybe you know people are gravitating towards that makes sense for them and I've opened their lives up in a way that so I don't know if that's the only thing anything of because otherwise we were we were the kind of people who you needed to be hit over the head with a hammer to get through yes you are not your thoughts you are not your emotions you are not your body okay stop and we stopped and then from there we were able to absorb as Ramdas is the biggest great example of it absorb all of these traditions as I said and be able to elucidate it so that you can practically change your perspective and without changing perspective yet we are lost if we continue to you use that think that the brain which you know the intellect and the West I mean that's what it's all about right sure it gives us a little bit of a leverage to get out of it that's why his his last thing ROM das was all about you know move to loving awareness in the center of your chest from just move out of your ego mind you know take some deep breaths into the center of your chest I am loving awareness I am NOT this judging my takes off on on a whim and takes us for a ride right yeah and once that happens life gets way better oh that is true oh yeah I think one of the things that I love when I hear the stories of neem Karoli Baba is his seeming playfulness you know and it's that's the to me that's the signature I've always said you can you know you can tell a spiritual master by the sound of their laughter like if you're not laughing you know I don't think you quite got it I don't think you quite got that this is this is this is fun you know like this is this is all this is yes it's can be serious and you can get to that plane where everything is very serious and it's all life or death but it's also fun it's like we're here too we're here to like experience and enjoy and I actually had an encounter with in the darkness you start to see visions visions that are as strong as any ayahuasca I've taken maybe not Peak ayahuasca or DMT but like DMT like intense visions and I had an encounter and I've never had an encounter with Buddha before a Buddha come shining golden I'm and I'm not Buddhist but I mean I probably Buddha's in this house we're recording in right I loved the Buddha that I love doesn't love Buddha so I see Buddha I was like whoa Buddha and Buddha was smiling and I said Buddha why are you smiling and Buddha says why aren't you smiling oh oh yeah and then I see Buddha laughing I go Bluto how he laughing because why aren't you laughing and then we just looked at each other for a minute smiling and laughing and then Buddha was gone out of my vision space but it was this idea like the the wisdom that this Buddha whether myth perhaps is my mind whatever but didn't feel like that you know I always put that caveat out there it felt like a real encounter but whatever but the wisdom was very simple like I'm smiling and I'm laughing and you should be too mm-hmm you know like if you really if you really get it if you really get that your love you know you are loving awareness then you're looking at all these things that are so troublesome and we get so neurotic about we get so worried about self-serious it's so self-serious but you look at Buddha and Buddha says why aren't you smiling why aren't you laughing and that's Buddha nature yeah well and another thing that Ram Dass represents is a sense of humor yeah What did he say in the movie you saw becoming nobody yeah something like two things are necessary you get these two things your cool love and humor especially but you know I mean the self serious stuff is really tough you know because we're judging ourselves and we're reacting to stuff and polarizing on a moment-to-moment basis you know so if you can just put a crowbar the crowbar of humor and just just get a little bit of leverage then you see oh yeah it's okay right okay all right be here now all right yeah yeah yeah humor very important it's it is it feels like to me when I look at my own life and I look at myself when I'm the most free there is a there is a kind of us scoundrelly sense of humor you know there's a scoundrelly sense of humor that it's like it's so and I feel so alive and I feel so free and it feels like that's that's my soul one of my someone I'm really my soul is really embodying and in permeating the self and I'm identified as that it's it's so fun and so funny but I don't I'm not there that often you know but I know when I'm there and it's like oh yeah it's all so much it's also impossible for the brain to understand that the only logical response is just to the laugh and love exactly what he was saying yeah practice though to be able to say I'm there sometimes so that's the whole point of practice is to increase the spaciousness of that sometimes so that there's a moment moment activity yeah you know so that's a toughy because it's difficult for people to in this day and age especially right to just get concentration where you're focused on one point and you're discursive mind isn't as crazy as it normally is and then it keeps coming down the more you do it and then that's what Insight Meditation the bipasha things all about once you get to that point then you can expand that through this spaciousness because your mind is not you know you're not Oh gone oh that was ten minutes fifteen minutes you know so yeah the practice is a big part of this big big you know by the way you just mentioned the Buddha and when you said that okay this is really crazy to admit this son on your podcast while all this stuff has been going on the death and this loss and all of it and new year and you know the responding to so much it's not just me and the people around me it's coming from across the world this the grief and the expectation of response and being together cat how can we be together because I don't want to be alone you know sure somebody a friend of mine said hey there's a really great series on Netflix you ought to watch it I go what's that she goes Buddha it's a kind of Bollywood Indian TV series depiction of the life of the Buddha with Indian actors and all of the kind of jewelry and costuming from whenever though 5,000 years ago whatever it was whatever they imagined it was it is so lucky I mean it is corny beyond corny it's unbelievable but there's something I got attached to the Buddha like the Buddha is so powerful he can even come through this Bollywood schlock of a series touched me maybe it was because I was so bereft hold on oh yeah I was wide open you should I'm telling you everybody out there watch it especially if you're going through anything because it is so light hearted it's got all kinds of adventure and because he Buddha of course came from a you know he was the son of the king of an area of India at the time and it's a fascinating story how his father kept him from any kind of suffering no old age no disease no nothing he moved all the old people out of the city he created another city well I wondered what a wild myth yeah that is well I don't know I mean you know I'm not saying that it's not true but it's I don't know it's like a it's like a mythological parable of like trying to remove all suffering and then the reaction to that is to actually embrace and love all suffering which is the way that you actually remove suffering is backwards from what the father was doing which but the backwards way that it was trying to be indoctrinated I actually probably facilitated the forward way yeah when they look at it like that yeah it's perfect it's perfect yeah I love Buddha the Buddha I mean actually the our tradition if you would call it that I don't know but really neem Karoli Baba although he was Hindu I said before I mean he talked to us on and on he went on about Christ I mean it's a famous story that I asked him after just being there a few days like I figured you meet Hindu guru get a mantra but I didn't say can you give me a mantra I said can you tell me how to meditate I take anything he said yeah meditate like Christ when he was nailed to the cross he felt no pain only love I'm like no can't even I don't you know I mean I went to Jewish parochial school half the subjects in Hebrew half in English do you ever take geography in Hebrew think of it Wow it was horrible so anyhow so I had no relationship whatsoever with Christ so Ramdas came he wasn't there he came to the next day I said do you have a convivial relationship with him you can talk to him I'm as I'm like huh you know mm-hmm he goes back the next day says he said meditate like Christ well how did he meditate Maharaja he just went like this closed his eyes sat back and we're all sitting around it was actually Christian oz who you know as well and a few others just like five or six young Westerners with ROM to us and then tears came from his eyes and he opened them and we're you know when your kid and your parents are crying you don't know what the hell's going on we became like that and he said over and over he never died you don't understand he never died this all through a translator listen he was lost in love with every sentient being he never died and he went on from there and we all had total experience of what Christ is the Christ right in that moment and so there was certainly nothing about him being and he was often put there's only one thing going he would say in Hindu in India in Hindi suback all one all one he we'd sit down you go suback you know like that because he never he was always saying he did everything like it's a question sub X sub back you know it's all one including the Buddha mm-hmm one day I went there with Krishna's for those of you out there don't know and you like Chan fine Christian to us because he he he does a quite well really will and I took him to see maharaj ji' because he had a bum knee he couldn't walk hardly so he's limping and I bring him in and so he wanted to get some help which he it I won't go into that part of the story but Krishna's had a book a diary and in it he would put pictures of maharaja and write poems and whatever he had one thing in it it's called Maha mudra one of the great Buddhist a text okay about the oneness of everything you know the beyond - basically and maharaja said to translate read that so he started reading it and then maharaja said teak yep that's right on and then he flipped the page and there was a picture of him he said who's that then we all Krishna said I went you know it's you ha ha ha he said nice Buddha and our minds got twisted into the place where okay this is not a being that's identified with any of that kind of thing that we project a guru to be or anything like that this is coming from a place where there is no differences at all and completely absorbed in in that place which is the non-dual but in a body which is extraordinary when you think about so the the thing that the Buddha represents is that incredible wisdom right discriminating wisdom do it yourself and see inside look inside yourself right self-inquiry get in there through practice through meditative practice until you realize the truth Buddha mind that mixed in with what the other side for us which was about Hanuman the monkey God who is like he's he said it was just like Maharaja would say Christ in Hanuman or one service love for Humanity right same thing it was just if you talk about mythology it's a different myth and when you mix those two together that passionate devotion or absolutely there's nothing for Hanuman but doing for Rahm God nothing but that and mix that with that wisdom and it's a kind of a potent brew that and we've been doing this over in Maui and these retreats for with Ramdas for 15 years and I now look at it and go wow that's a that's something really of value because sometimes you can get you know in either one of those traditions on their own you know the the devotional heart thing can get a little bit too as Trumper call them used to cause with loving lighters he used to call around us and that's trump originated a great great tibetan lama and then on the buddha's side they can get so crystal clear about the reality that the buddha presented that you get lost there's no heart there's no when when you put those two things together you know i think the really potent well it was quite a speech what the [ __ ] is Lissa teacher what's interesting story you're talking about the the oneness of these beings but the way that we understand them is with different flavors yeah and like so like Hanuman has a different flavor it's all ice cream I think we kind of get it like it's all ice cream but like there's the Hanuman flavor there's the Buddha flavor and then there's the Christ bless you tea isn't it it's beauty that is beautiful that's beautiful and I guess and I guess that's the that is the way that it works on these multi-dimensional planes right where it's like it is all one and all of us you know are part of that one as well and I think that's the teaching that everyone had right is that we're all a part of that but it's like realizing there's the part of that and also loving the particular flavor that the articulations of that one trickles down all the way through the form even the fact that Hanuman is a monkey is a flavor it's just a flate a way that you can taste the one in a slightly different way on your palate and the way that you can taste the oneness of Christ or taste the nobuta it just tickles different taste buds but it's a whole it's all the same thing how do we respect each other's taste buds that would be a good thing right that would be a real good thing instead of killing each other for which taste buds we [ __ ] prefer yeah over thousands of years yeah this is going on odd isn't it odd I mean this is being a human and and I so that I mean that seems to me like it's just it's a way I mean the ego as far as I understand the ego especially the dark side of the ego the ego is a multiplicity it's just a it's kind of an archetype that I think you can fill in a lot of different things but the ego a very you know a very big part of it is the idea to know itself relatively into seek superiority right like that seems to be a signature of the ego I know myself relatively to others and I want to be above those that I know relatively and I think a lot of all of this war and a lot of all of this strife is that I've found something that my ego can identify which which is this practice this flavor and that makes me superior which gives me the right to kill torture you know put down anything else because it just it just when the ego gets out of control and says like oh no now I'm superior and these are the inferior these are the infidels this is this is me and it's just a way that the ego kind of hijacked the truth the love power power power okay that's it you know it begins and ends there and you identify with that and then you have what we have and I would I guess in the you know they have the UGA's the Hindus as sati oh good we're in the Kali Yuga which is the last one seems to be moving quite swiftly along that line but in the sake of knew everyone loved each other you know everyone had a job everyone I mean that the rule of the King was devoted to his subjects to make their lives better it's hard to imagine but I think endemic to the human condition is this battle mm-hmm to recognize we are not that thing like the ego as a master is a mother pocket right but as a servant pretty good mm-hmm that's us to take the initiative to do something yeah for somebody else it allows us to move our love around like the car yeah we can put our love in but it shouldn't be the driver yeah exactly so but doing that switch is extraordinarily difficult as the ego is grappling and wrestling to be a driver you know you you know the His Holiness the Dalai Lama said what's gonna save us is our mothers is women compassionate mothers bringing up children is going to save us okay and you had one of those mothers so now you have a large responsibility hungry yeah and I've always felt like I was never doing enough mmm and maybe that's because of some dharmic thing that was you know from you know an existence of my soul that's you know whatever or maybe it was just the fact that I had for those mothers well however you want to frame it but I have felt that I have felt this kind of like well [ __ ] I got this I got this these skills and this mom like better do something great but then I can get lost in the self-judgment of I'm not doing enough I'm not doing enough when the whole game is not about what I'm [ __ ] doing it's about who I'm being yeah but you're not like now we're having this conversation which is part of like when your mother's first loved you like this right this is a continuum to this second yeah and you're not taking so seriously the fact that I'm not worthy I did this and that in the other I'm not a bad bad right I mean I you know it's like ramadasu talks about it I I haven't in the movie right the his old Harvard professor friend says to him dick you haven't changed at all when he had become Rahm Das and wrong you know around us laughs and says eventually in the movie I still have the same neural neurosis that I had when I was young all the way till now all this work I've done on myself they're still there but now they're little schmooze right they're not they're not the ego is backed off enough so it does not have control to make these things so horrific that you know for some people they can't even live sure right and for others it's just a day-to-day fight and then you've got that if you got that ineffable thing to trust that there is something else then you do the work whatever it may done for you you know to open up and be able to be of some help to somebody yeah let's talk about power again for a little while cuz you see you've seen these stories of someone who seems like they have and and I don't want to cast my judgment on things that I don't really know but you hear a lot of stories of gurus or even if you look at the story of osho it feels like there was a corruption of power it feels like somehow power infiltrated and somehow power corrupted that kind of beneficent sense of loving and serving and you see this repeated over all over a tradition in every tradition and and I think all of us have to grapple with that even my spiritual mentor Don Howard who used the plants he served watch him he was a watchin marrow from the shavon tradition of thousands of years ago revived that served it for 50 years recently passed this year as well and he would always talk about like all of us have to grapple with how power will present itself to us and we have to face it and then we have to decide whether we're going to engage the path of power or whether we're going to stick to the path of service and love and this is the choice of somebody or nobody you know and just that that thing and it's it's interesting in my journeys you can really feel it when powers there and it's like it's like a strong drug it's like they're it's like syrupy and it's thick and it pulses like the bass of music and it's like and it feels good for a minute and you're like oh no no no no you know but you can feel it kind of coming on with Stephen way subtler ways in which it manifests that that's kind of gross you feel that thing and you're like what the no forget that you know and you can easily do a turnaround but then maybe not even so easily though because it's it is a it's like a drug it's like you've just gotten a little bit of heroin in and you're like do I want to keep doing heroin you know like well it's [ __ ] heroin like it feels good but but no you know and unfortunately I've and when my encounters have been able to be like it not like not that I haven't gotten lost in the I think where you're going is the subtle the subtle parts of power where you're just subtly tasting just sipping a little bit let me just consciously you run a company sure you have many employees and sometimes maybe you're walking through the halls or whatever encountering people however and maybe that day somebody ticked you off in the morning so you're not kind of you're wrestling with yourself a little bit and you're more identifying with the boss mm-hmm and all of the ought to I should be this that in the other and then you might have been Noma you probably never do this Aubrey I'm talking about myself okay I probably have whatever you're gonna say I'm sure being slightly dismissive say in a moment to a person right and that creates polarization separation that person you inside yourself the whole thing so it's something that happens day to day and that's why mindfulness practice is a good thing so we can at least be in touch with our motivations on a consistent basis but it can't be from the you just dismissed that person you [ __ ] [ __ ] what's wrong with you it cannot be that no we are doing that all the time yeah the real mind [ __ ] is actually not even the harsh use of power the tyrannical use of power which is very it's very blatant right yeah though the the tricky one which I had to grow I had a lot of time in the darkness obviously and so like really exploring the ways in which power can be given through magnanimity like through through gifts I gave you this thing and I can pretend to myself that I'm giving it as a selfless act but really there's some element of power of like yeah you owe me now you know and there's some part of me you owe me now how about manipulating through tone of voice let's get really down oh gee I'd missed you you've by you haven't been here in some time I Wow you know and there's an expectation there's something that's needed from that person in some fashion so there's a tone that you watch your tone that's like you know it's like throw a little bit of honey yeah you know and you see that you see it going in the air and oh my and in relationships too especially so and then you then you dangle something like a sexual experience that you really want and then you try to ride you try to ride your truth through that whole thing and you're intoxicated by your desire and you know I do my best now through all the awareness practices I do my best to ride the truth through the thing but I can catch myself in like little in little ways in which I'm manipulating reality for to get the result that I'm looking for not in a not in a kind of diabolical way but subtle subtle ways you know and it's just like whoo you know like out of how to ride how to keep awareness like ride with awareness the whole time and always and I think that's a great thing about Ramnath is just loving loving what you see not judging because that's that resistance is just gonna cause it to accelerate to the compound it you're gonna have guilt and then you're gonna have to deal with the guilt and you're gonna have to go on this thing but just just see awareness be like okay I see that you really want you really want this sexual experience this is the thing that your put be aware that love that let's that's maybe yeah this may be change course it's just okay you're okay you know when I said at the beginning of this podcast I mentioned at some point what Ramdas brought back because we were talking about community satsang and the way that he blended that with family because he that's what he was thrown into an Indian family so far different from our families not even funny and so he I said further in that little post that I did so he brought all of that all of the wisdom the love all of that but you know I said the one thing that was the hugest difference maker for me was the fact he brought back it's okay you're okay because he was so honest with himself in public about himself all of his foibles when I first listened to at that time in the studio when I first met him and by the way the post I did had I somehow had a picture of us taken so it's the first day I met him in the radio station which is kind of cool it was him saying it's okay you're human we are human we are going to make mistakes all the time we are going to have selfish intentions all the time we are going to have dark thoughts we are constantly what is it when can I get my needs met it's it's okay and in that okay to me you just talked about awareness keeping that awareness going you got to have that okay it's okay yeah not to the point where you're using it like bypassing to [ __ ] people sure okay which can happen as well you got to be honest and how do you get that kind of honest is practice because if it's not okay you're not going to look at it because the penalty that you'll give yourself the denial of your own love the punishment that you'll give yourself will cause the subconscious blinding to what you're doing so you'll be out of awareness yeah until you get to the point where you can love your dark thoughts and love your selfishness and like you said not use that as an excuse because that's an another manipulation of that but if you don't have that awareness and that love and that forgiveness you'll be blind you will blind yourself maybe you'll have a very difficult life yeah I gather right yeah for sure you know people and I'm sure people that are listening and I know people who listen to mine rollin my podcast they'll all they can get very tired of too many big exultant expressions of the spiritual path big big ideas that seem beyond the capability of anybody to really embody right but the reality is if you if you just get a little bit of trust in that intuitive place inside ourselves that you are going to get presented the kinds of things that are going to support it's okay I want that awareness because I don't want to keep hurting myself and other people so I want to change and usually that comes you know with a bunch of suffering that's how we change you know or I mean in my case when I was a kid I just couldn't understand what was going on it was horrible you know it was so the society and the culture was the expectations it was nuts so just a little bit of trust you know in our intuitive process allows us to be able to have that awareness and pursue it because we you know his Holiness the Dalai Lama my only religion is kindness hmm so if we can't be that so that's what I mean all kinds of highfalutin terms and spiritual terms and around mindfulness and all of that yes it is to learn mindfulness it is good to have a practice but ultimately you got to just check in with don't I want to be kind and give love out you know as Rhonda says in the movie when is what I want enough when is what I need enough it's way more interesting to serve yeah yeah I think I loved when he was talking about when he would look out at the the day that was coming and he would look with that curiosity like what does God have for me to chew on today you know what's what are the things that are gonna hook me today what are the things they're gonna hook my attentions hook my emotions today what what will I get the opportunity to be aware of and to love you know and I said that's why he moved to New York City for example you know because there was many things that could hook him and yeah and Ryan he's like oh good the fire like let's go you know let's let's steer towards that thing cuz he was so dedicated to his freedom and so if you're dedicated to your freedom you can't avoid the things that are gonna actually hook you you can't go if you're dedicated to their freedom you can't go to the monastery where everything is you're isolated then your Buddha back in the palace walls rather than Buddha out there in the world actually becoming truly free you know and like so dealing with your sexual desires and dealing with your you know monetary desires and your comfort desires and all of these different things is like this is my opportunity to practice this loving awareness and release of attachment to the things that are really trying to hook me what were the things knowing robbed us what was his were some of his like Achilles heels where were the areas that were the things that hooked him as a human being you know the things I'd like for him he would get a little hooked by like the I think I think we all have our own special karmic and you know things that just get us a little easier hmm just took us literally did he have those things well particularly after the stroke he hated him people to have to help him he used to say I wrote a book how can I help now I need a book how can you help me and he so he got caught in that place uh-huh a lot over the time you know cuz like he started he gave it up more and more in the last couple of years I could tell but if there was you know pick up something he could only use one arm right and you'd go to pick that up together he'd look at you like sit down and shut up and he'd go late or whatever the hell it was so here yeah that was an Achilles heel the thing I am the helper I am the guy you're not the guy even after the stroke so he had to go and I would say to I would say to him so you you know you really don't want me to help you here don't you you know I would drive him because God knows how much he drew he drive me in my whole life well he tells those similar stories like the story with his aunt like where that's I think it's a very common thing where people it's very vulnerable it's very channel years yeah she she just released yeah and it was she was comfortable with him like taking care of her taking her to the bathroom why should washing or wiping or doing the whole thing yeah and that's that's a very difficult yeah very difficult but I mean in this case you're asking he didn't have a lot of stuff okay he and far less stuff than most horses he's dedicated his life to freedom yeah so but that was still there mmm-hmm it is a normal thing right as you get into a dependent part of your life that people help to take care of you or help take care of you and people have many different kinds of reactions to that and that was one that he was still working through so how did he wrestled with lust because you read a lot of the old texts and this is like one of those things and even especially you know Hindu texts different spiritual texts lust is like one of those things where a lot of a lot of spiritual traditions they just push that aside like men and Anna like don't even [ __ ] engage with that because that's to stick that's what they do in India you know they they put on ochre robes in her Barry you know nobody can in a nobody nobody can touch a no female can touch a Buddhist monk you know it's like they don't even want to engage it cuz they're like this is too [ __ ] sticky okay so I'll give you one example of I mean the the reality as far as ROM das was concerned he was like all of us he was dealing with it in the most conscious manner he could possibly do that and obviously after his stroke that all changed and then that was not the kind of problem it had been before her for just obvious reasons being paralyzed half paralyzed but yeah this thing in you know look what's happening in our culture I mean these recently a major Buddhist organization went completely kaput and as a result of some sexual mouthy ins by the leader and how many times has that happened in our I mean it's like left and right right all over the place and it is true that in the Hindu say even a sage can be beguiled by one of those beautiful Apsara goddesses that come down and try Buddha got you know he got one too he got some beautiful women trying to get him out of his Samadhi and so on but he's Buddha so yeah you may have been we can depend on him yeah but there are you know we say guru which means you know pointer of the light or opener of the light you know guru whatever that is but they're more teachers most of them because they haven't gone through on the beyond whether the not to they have not they're not doing that so there's very few gurus that are not that are beyond this issue that we're talking about lust it is it's the biggest it's the biggie right seems to be yeah it seems to me it is the biggie I I recently met somebody in India yogi 25 years in caves and you know the kind of austerity that isn't really done these days much anymore and he seems to come out the other side he was a you know he embraces women without fear okay and I never saw quite somebody like that who who did that I mean it's extraordinary that somebody seems to have broken through it is so rare though it is unbelievable so yeah we are going to Aubree till that last breath I'm thinking we're gonna be in it right yeah you know yeah like yeah you're young you could I I kept thinking as I got older now that that would go away no I had I had lunch once with my 85 year old father and I'm sitting there having lunch with him in a pub in a restaurant and there's people walking around and I'm telling him something and suddenly his his eyes start doing this he's following somebody across the thing I turned my head and it's a beautiful woman I go dad now is this what I'm looking for this is what I'm looking for at 85 if I ever make it to 85 yeah so lust it's there and I think it's so I really lost attachment and desire you know calm chromo ha lo ha it's the four things that they you know you'll sit down from okay you got to get through those yeah yeah but again beating oneself to death in a cave is not going to do it okay and perhaps being you know just it's just as you said before awareness we've got to bring that to the table and we got to develop it in a way it's not a judgemental awareness that's why I love ROM doses I am loving awareness from from deep inside loving awareness of his lost loving away yes Elvis yeah and he was bracing but you're not searching in a way yeah I mean you're not also you know going indulging indulging it you know and then you are and that's okay you know I did that maybe I needed to get through that but it kind to us compassion and kindness attachment is and I know we'll wrap this up here pretty soon but attachment is another one that's really tricky because I think what I noticed in myself is one of the things that was keeping me from my happiness and keeping me from love and keeping me from enjoying this life was the knowledge that I had to let it go and so there's a protection mechanism that comes in and says no no no no you got to die you got to let it all go so just don't quite love it so much it won't be so painful when it leaves and that's [ __ ] up I don't want that I'm gonna love it fully and it's gonna go anyways yeah it's gonna go either way so you either you either are living a life protecting yourself from the inevitable or you actually really live your life and live it in a way that it's so full that you can go smiling to the beyond yeah it's in the movie becoming nobody we have you said by the way you gave us that wonderful quote this is like especially if you're going through stuff this is something you can watch repeatedly to bring you back into especially the part about death which is what you're talking about right now I mean unless you fully embrace the impermanence of life you can't live fully to fulfill your Dharma of everything you're supposed to do in this light and everything you're supposed to be for everybody around you so embracing it is extraordinarily important and very difficult because the idea oh [ __ ] no body I mean you get it on acid you know you look down over nobody what I had I had a trip this is really we're on a podcast and I'm forgetting about it I had a trip of some really strong acid you know of course decades ago but I lost the body everything went away that's good no problem then a thought came oh [ __ ] no body no sex and bang gone into it I sketched out for about two hours Wow into this like I well partially it was my friend who I went and I said to him because we took time it must have been like like way more than anybody takes it I'm checklist Avakian I asked it was at least five or six hundred micrograms Wow you know I took two and I went to my friend and I said you think everything's okay so yeah that has all to be dealt with that fear of death of the we are no longer going to exist because the thing we think should be existing is the thing in life that we we need to understand that is not who we are so that's the beauty of working on yourself needs to get to that place now not not when you're you know five years away or when ever gets sick whenever it's you know then it gets difficult to practice yeah one of the things that I really appreciated was he gave a talk talking about the two ways that you can kind of get to that oneness and it's neti neti I am not that I'm not my body I'm not that thought and I'm not this thing I'm not that or taught Thomas yeah I am that I am that so it's both both ways get it's a I am that is not the the I am not that that it's a different yeah I am that is Shiva so hum I am that which is beyond duality okay I am NOT that is I am NOT that which is in duality right me it's one way to say right so it's it's just very interesting how everything and nothing ultimately converge in the same thing it's all the one yeah many one is the game many different ways to get to the peak of the mountain but yeah you get there don't know and that's the beautiful thing of when he was talking about the guru who doesn't care how long it takes which allows which allows you to love someone exactly as they are oh this lifetime cool next one cool a thousand more yeah that's good of course unless you're really living some of that it's meaningless yeah right it's not to electrolyze nice well [ __ ] enjoy it you know we're all going home yeah going home but to me might as well keep thinking of the way in which we are so locked into serving ourselves getting what we want we are so locked into that so keep thinking about to me I mean it's what I say to myself like okay it's that it's again I go back when is what you need what you want enough that's a good mantra I think when is what you need and what you want enough enough stop is okay you know sit back a little bit yeah and just allow some spacious awareness to come in and then you're not you know the idea of service by the way is as soon as you start to think of somebody else you stop thinking about yourself you know I go to India every year because I go somewhere I know where to go where I can plug in and I'm not thinking about myself mm-hm or the future in the past for at least you know a couple of weeks mm-hmm and to me that's the refresher that we can all do in one way or another in some ceremony or another in some course or another whatever but we got to take that time you know otherwise it's just lost in me meal and Duncan and I are working on her on a book about this by the way mm-hmm yeah krishna das has a great the thing that he talks about in which so I stole it from him it's called the movie of me you wake up in the morning you're the hero you're the villain you're the director you're the writer you're the producer and it goes on 24/7 just watch it and you see so at some point you go when is that enough you know and you start to think how do we get to the we you know and you know what the we is one small thing of what the we is it's like we're just here together I'm you know you're a few feet away from me we're I to eye contact and we're giving each other complete attention now some of its because it's a podcast and you know we're being on in some way yeah I wasn't to do what's not lunch we had no it wasn't at all well you know yeah we have a nice a nice little thing going we're we're free you know with each other so but that kind of attention that's that's what I got from ROM das when I first met him there was nothing else he wasn't being Richard or ROM das he was being here for me and there was one pool okay in that that's what we need to aspire to right and you can just start with the attentions a big thing you know that from all your relationship stuff that I've seen you talk about that tension is huge right the most generous thing you can do in life is give someone full attention so you just start with those little kind of things so this is not a spiritual thing mmm right very practical pragmatic and that's what I'm into I love it can we do like a bunch more of these pot guys yeah yeah absolutely every once in a while yeah no sure and then you got to come to Ojai and we get nine out there yeah since my studio very great and sit in one of the sad songs yeah dragon thank you for your service thanks for putting everything out thanks for keeping you know the teachings in the essence and offering your own and all your wisdom and just deeply appreciate you know the work that you and ROM das and Maharajah everybody's it's contributed the whole thing it's the the thing yeah I appreciate the whole thing so thank you will appreciate you too from the minute I became aware of you before our mutual friend Duncan and what you're doing is just fabulous thank you brother thank you alright so anything you got a couple podcasts you want to let people know well you know both well there's a be here now Network we go to be here now Network calm and we have amazing amazing jack Kornfield Sharon Salzberg krishna das rom das and I have a mind rolling podcast where I talked to different people every week so we have that and we have Ram Dass org you want to get further into Ram Dass and once you go there you'll find a host of other lovely offerings that we have online courses and yeah just sign up get up on the romm das list and you'll hear all about it beautiful retreats and everything yeah you got may 21 re in Ojai California cool okay we're doing a spring retreat there beautiful sounds good to me thank you thank you everybody if you enjoyed this video please make sure to subscribe also share with any friend that you think might benefit from it and lastly go to Aubrey 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Channel: Aubrey Marcus

Views: 44,711

Keywords: raghu markus, raghu markus ram dass, raghu marjaavaan, Ram Dass, Maharajii, mindrolling podcast, be here now network, Aubrey Marcus Podcast, Raghu Markus podcast, Love, Meditation, Learning to meditate, Understanding Ram Dass, Be Here Now, be here now ram dass, Spirituality, Ram Dass Meditation, Aubrey Marcus Love, Aubrey Marcus, Aubrey Marcus Meditation, Aubrey Marcus Raghu Markus, Wisdom, Ram Dass Wisdom, Raghu Markus Wisdom, Maharajii lsd, Maharajii Acid

Id: LXCum823m8o

Length: 77min 25sec (4645 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 04 2020