Ep. 246 – How to Be Responsive, Not Reactive

Ep. 246 – How to Be Responsive, Not Reactive

Author: Ram Dass / Love Serve Remember March 6, 2024 Duration: 1:10:29

In this classic talk from 1987, Ram Dass explores working with suffering, keeping our hearts open, finding the intuitive heart space, and being responsive rather than reactive. This episode is a continuation of the talk started in Here and Now Ep. 245 – Taking Off Our Spacesuit.

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In this week’s episode:

  • Using his stepmother’s death as an example, Ram Dass explores how pain and suffering can become a curriculum through which one awakens.
  • Ram Dass discusses how he has begun to fall in love with everyone, and how his guru opened him up to the possibility of unconditional love. If we’re caught in our separateness, it’s hard to keep our hearts open.
  • Ram Dass shares classic stories of how other beings, including a dolphin, have helped him escape the trap of his own mind and find the intuitive heart space. He talks about taking care of his aging father and learning how to just be present with him.
  • Finally, Ram Dass explores the difference between being reactive and being responsive, reading a story from ‘How Can I Help?’ to illustrate his point. He talks about how, when we are quiet enough on the inside, we can begin to hear how to awaken through the journey of the spirit.

“As you quiet your mind just a little bit, you get so that you’re not automatically reacting to everything. You become what’s called responsive rather than reactive. In other words, something happens and there’s a moment when it’s just happening, you’re just with it. As your awareness expands to include more than your separate self, it’s as if you’re part of the gestalt of it all, and you experience the totality of it. And then, out of that quietness comes an act that is appropriate to that moment.” – 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]

Duration: 36:26
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
In this dharma talk from the late 1960’s Ram Dass, just coming back from recent psychedelic explorations, shares his insights on embracing it all, non-attachment, and his namesake of service, Hanuman.See Privacy Policy a…
Ep. 19 – Karma Yogi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:51
In this radio interview from the mid 1970s, Ram Dass talks about what makes him a karma yogi, and how every experience in our lives is grist for the mill.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Pri…
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…