Ep. 227 – Awareness Without Identification

Ep. 227 – Awareness Without Identification

Author: Ram Dass / Love Serve Remember June 5, 2023 Duration: 45:18

In this Q&A session from 1993, Ram Dass explores an array of topics, including psychedelics as a method, assisted suicide, dealing with suffering, and awareness without identification.

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In this episode, Ram Dass answers questions about:

- Psychedelics as a method

- Assisted suicide

- Emptiness and form

- Dealing with suffering

- The relationship between the One and the many

- Liberation and service

- Awareness without identification and attachment

- The concept of criticism

- Pushing against form and separateness

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“The term attachment has to do with where the awareness is, what it’s identified with. Like, at this moment, your heart is beating, but you’re not beating your heart; your awareness isn’t connected with your heart beating, it’s just going on. And as your awareness draws back, and you find a way to start to remain in awareness without identification, then the phenomena of the universe continue to happen, but the awareness is no longer identified with the act. It’s what the Gita calls breaking the identification with being the actor. It doesn’t mean that the actions aren’t happening.” – Ram Dass

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The voice of Ram Dass carries a unique and enduring warmth, a blend of profound spiritual insight and grounded, often humorous, humanity. Ram Dass Here And Now is a curated archive of this wisdom, drawing from a rich tapestry of lectures recorded over four decades. Each episode is a focused journey into themes of consciousness, love, service, and the intricate paths of awakening, all filtered through Ram Dass's distinctive heart-centered perspective. The podcast is presented by the Love Serve Remember Foundation, with longtime friend and director Raghu Markus providing contextual introductions that connect these timeless talks to our contemporary moment. Listeners will find themselves immersed in conversations that weave together Eastern philosophy, particularly from the Hindu and Bhakti traditions, with practical Western psychology, exploring how spiritual principles manifest in everyday life, relationships, and societal challenges. It’s less a formal lecture and more an intimate, meandering dialogue with a wise elder, offering reflections that feel both ancient and immediately relevant. This isn't about dogma, but about the shared, often messy, human experience of seeking meaning and connection. To spend time with this podcast is to encounter a gentle guide, one who points persistently toward the present moment, toward compassion, and toward the recognition of our shared essence.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 307

Ram Dass Here And Now
Podcast Episodes
Ep. 106 - Who Are You? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:36
In this talk from 1976, Ram Dass talks about what we are beyond this lifetime and asks, "Who are you?" Time after time we have experienced a cycle of birth and death. Each time we are born into a new identity and cling t…
Ep. 105 – Keeping our Quietness and Love [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Ram Dass is joined by a young Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield for a meaningful talk about mindfulness and food. This discussion is part of the Naropa University Bhagavad Gita Sessions of 1974. We are shown a new perc…
Ep. 103 – Individual Differences [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:53
In this lecture from 1974 at Naropa University, Ram Dass talks about our unhealthy preoccupation with our individual differences. We grow up with the identity of a separate self, building an entire character around that…
Ep. 102 - Soul Complex [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:22
On this episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass has a Sunday hangout session with Raghu Markus. The two chat about the concept of the 'soul-complex', how Ram Dass manages his suffering, as well as duality and devotion. Ram Das…
Ep. 101 - Separation, Lust & Kali [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:09
How would you answer the question of, "Who do you think YOU are?" You probably believe that you are somebody, but that somebody is the ego. On this episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass talks about our separation from the On…
Ep. 100 - Imagination, Faith, and Gratitude [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:37
On this special 100th episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass and Raghu Markus talk about imagination, faith, and gratitude. Ram Dass teaches us to see through our own delusions that mislead us and weigh us down with fear. Ram…
Ep. 98 - Spiritual Practices [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:55
When it comes to Spiritual Practices, Ram Dass poses the question, “why do we practice?” Raghu reads a passage from The Wisdom Teachings and Good Wishes of the Adi-Buddha Samanta-Bhadra which poses that the reality which…
Ep. 97 – Being Free Together [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:47
Ram Dass talks about disturbing emotions that may arise is potential wisdom the moment you relax into your natural mind. Look directly into it, don’t deliberately reject it, regard it as a fault, or indulge in it concret…