Ep. 245 – Taking Off Our Spacesuit

Ep. 245 – Taking Off Our Spacesuit

Author: Ram Dass / Love Serve Remember February 19, 2024 Duration: 59:31

In this essential talk from 1987, Ram Dass uses his life experience to guide us through the process of taking off our spacesuit of identity and embracing the curriculum our lives offer us.

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This episode of Here and Now is from a classic talk given in April 1987.

  • Using his journey as a guide for this talk, Ram Dass explores the spacesuits of ego and identity we wear in our lives. He tells us how ill-fitting this spacesuit felt for him, and the feeling of freedom he found when he was first able to take it off. 
  • Ram Dass describes how he began to chase the high of not wearing the spacesuit through the use of mind-altering chemicals and spiritual practices. Eventually, though, those things became a different kind of suit he was wearing. Through the advice of a wise friend, he realized he needed to take the curriculum that everyday life has to offer and not just live with his head in the clouds.
  • Once the object of the game shifted from getting high to getting free, Ram Dass chose to stop pushing away all of the things that brought him down. Instead, he embraced the many forms of suffering in the world, working with prisoners, AIDS patients, and people going through the process of dying. To get free, we need to embrace it all, the good and the bad.

As I took off the suit, I felt at home, I felt present. It felt extremely familiar to me, even though as an adult in society I didn’t remember having been in this space before. I was always constantly checking everybody to see if I was enough ‘somebody’ so that I would be allowed to exist.”

 – 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. 166 – How Different It Is… [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Be Here Now Network presents a classic talk from 1986 that captures one of Ram Dass’ core teachings around identity and the different planes of consciousness.In this talk, Ram Dass offers a method for envisioning the dif…
Ep. 165 - Innocence, Lightness [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Ep. 164 - The Path of Awakening [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Ep. 163 – The Emptiness of Compassion [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:20
In this talk from 1989, Ram Dass leads an exploration into what it takes to be present with our hearts, present with the moment, and to have compassion for the suffering in the world.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.c…
Ep. 162 - The Transition from Somebody to Nobody  [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:13
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Ep. 161 - Becoming One with Our Dharma  [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:06
In this talk from 1976, Ram Dass reflects on how we can get to God by embracing our Dharmic path in life.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-s…
Ep. 160 - Science and Spirituality [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:51
In this interview from 1980, Ram Dass shares a mind-bending conversation with physicist Amit Goswami about the intersection of science and spirituality.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Priva…
Ep. 159 – Stuck In-Between Stories [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:55
In this dharma talk from 1993, Ram Dass looks at how each of us can get stuck in our transition between the fear-driven social institutions that we were born into and the love-driven paths of the heart that we are re-dis…
Ep. 158 – A Pledge to Social Responsibility [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:11
In this dharma talk from 1978, Ram Dass looks to the example set by The Shakertown Pledge as a model for committing ourselves to inner and outer social action.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Californi…
Ep. 157 – It's All Right Here [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:19
In this dharma talk from 1982, Ram Dass illuminates how happiness, boredom, suffering, past and future, life and death, it’s all right here in every moment we experience.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy an…