Ep. 236 – The Relationship Between Karma and Grace

Ep. 236 – The Relationship Between Karma and Grace

Author: Ram Dass / Love Serve Remember October 9, 2023 Duration: 43:41

In this Q&A session, Ram Dass answers questions about how to love without emotional attachment, the relationship between karma and grace, and how he defines responsibility.

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

In this recording from 1976, Ram Dass answers questions from a lively Los Angeles audience:

  • How to love without emotional attachment? Ram Dass explores the various levels of love, dealing with attachment, and working with the karma that exists in our life space.
  • What is the relationship of karma and grace? Ram Dass talks about how he perceives grace and the ways it intersects with our karma.
  • What’s his view on vegetarianism? And who is God? Somehow, those questions are connected.
  • How does Ram Dass define responsibility? A responsible being lives in the Tao. 

“And what grace turns out to be is all the forces that exist in the universe that are free agents, that are available to support the process of your going back into the source. All the gurus, all the beings on astral planes, all of the elements, all of the forces in the universe.” – 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. 76 - Predicaments on the Path [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:23
Ram Dass answers questions from the audience on the predicament of Grace and Karma- the predicament of judging- the predicament of social responsibility. Also same sex relationships and the relation to divinity. “Only wh…
Ep. 75 - Tired of Being Should Upon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:29
Dan Ellsberg tries scare tactics to get Ram Dass to take social action. Ram Dass says –“In fact nuclear weaponry are out of balance with the way of things - The Dao - so you don’t have to cajole or coerce people into act…
Ep. 74 - The Heart Language [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:10
In this wide ranging interview by Radio For Peace, Ram Dass talks about satsang/community and how it can uplift us as well as become a trap. “The possibility is there in spiritual community to die into the truth. But peo…
Ep. 73 - Knocking on the Door of the Spiritual Heart [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:48
In this podcast, Mickey Lemle, filmmaker and director of the Ram Dass documentary Fierce Grace, talks with Ram Dass about the power of storytelling. Writing sometimes doesn’t allow spiritual concepts to come across fully…
Ep. 72 - Puja Chat with Lama Surya Das Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:49
Surya Das joins Ram Dass for a puja side chat at Ram Dass' home on Maui. Surya Das is a bhakta as well as an American Lama. They explore questions like, "What is our true sadhana (spiritual practice)?" - "Are we egos or…
Ep. 71 - The Spark Behind the Veil [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:18
How far do you have to go to get through the layers of psychology, of defenses, of personalities in order to get to the root of a being, behind those veils where the spark is - the overriding faith in reality beyond the…
Ep. 70 - The Duality Enigma [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:37
We are both separate and one. Creator and created. The question is, “Can we allow for free will and at the same time acknowledge that everything is determined?” The trick is to neither identify nor deny either of them. S…
Ep. 69 - The Confusion in the Paradox [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:50
The confusion of the paradox you find yourself in is that you are in an incarnation that’s totally dedicated to the preservation of it’s own separateness, and at the same time you are awakening to the realization that th…
Ep. 68 - Passing Show [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:08
Forms are created and exist and disappear into the formless. Methods are the ship crossing the ocean of existence. You entrap yourself in them in order to burn out karma that keeps you from being free. You know that the…
Ep. 67 - Love and Incarnation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:32
As long as you perceive love as a verb, you are thinking of another person as a separate object to give love to. When we are truly in love, we are in a simple state of “being” love. As an incarnation, you have to underst…