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. 26 – Suffering Part Two [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Raghu reveals an interesting confession about an LSD experience he had involving the death of his ego and the birth of a very specific concern. Ram Dass discusses the art of dying and suffering. Suffering only happens to…
Ep. 25 – Suffering Part One [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:55
Ram Dass offers his reflections on suffering, including how we can come to see the way in which suffering is grace, and how the clinging of mind creates suffering.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Calif…
Ep. 24 – Rama Rama [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:43
In this recording from 1969, Ram Dass talks about watching the drama unfold, the pure light of the guru, and sings the beautiful Rama Rama.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at…
Ep. 23 – Shiva’s Dance of Life [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:45
In this dharma talk Ram Dass discusses Shiva’s dance of life, reflecting on methods for centering ourselves, serving others, and tending to the part of us that isolates ourselves from the world.”See Privacy Policy at htt…
Ep. 22 – How May I Serve You? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:07
On this episode of Here and Now, Ram Dass talks about what service really means, moving beyond ego and time, and why his mantra is the question, “How may I serve you?”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and C…
Ep. 21 – Energy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:36
In this dharma talk from 1969, Ram Dass shares on the concept of energy. Using the examples of Hanuman and Maharajji, he explains that through surrender, renunciation, and service, that you can get it all, but only when…
Ep. 20 – Embracing it All [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:13
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Ep. 19 – Karma Yogi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:51
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Ep. 18 – Indian Stories [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:54
Ram Dass shares some of his Indian stories about his guru, Maharajji, that are meant to help us stretch our consciousness and investigate how the laws of the universe truly work.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/pr…
Ep. 17 – Yoga of Relationships [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:28
Ram Dass talks about cultivating loving truth in intimate relationships, and how the yoga of relationships is perhaps the hardest yoga to practice. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy N…