RamDev rejoins Raghu for a conversation on love, fear, death, faith, grief, compassion, and becoming somebody; sharing mind-blowing Karmapa, Hanuman, & Maharajji darshan stories.
RamDev founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the coauthor with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman and Dwarka Bonner of Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook, Bantam Books and has taught meditation since 1974. Dale lectures and gives workshops on the topics of meditation, healing, spiritual support for those with life threatening illness, and on caregiving as spiritual practice. Learn more about RamDev’s work via the Living/Dying Project and subscribe to Dale’s Healing at the Edge Podcast.
May 10th begins an enlightening 8 Week Course illuminating the Life & Core Teachings of Ram Dass. Sign up at RamDass.org/LifeCourse
Don’t miss the spring Soul Land Music Series: Songs & Stories Inspired by Ram Dass finale Friday 4/30 ft. John Forté, Rising Appalachia, & Marti Nikko & DJ Drez
Living/Dying Project: Fear, Love, Faith
Welcoming longtime Satsang friend and BHNN Podcaster, RamDev, Raghu invites him to share about his Living/Dying Project – aimed at helping those who are ill or dying to be able to consciously use their experience for awakening. Does the fact that you are going to die inspire you to be more alive? Contemplating questions of fear, love, and faith amidst the coronavirus pandemic, RamDev and Raghu touch on the inherent wisdom in surrendering to death as the other necessary side of life.
“The fact that we’re all gonna die informs how we’re living. It’s the fact that you’re gonna die and I’m gonna die. Does that inspire us to be more alive? The fact that death exists, can that be something that really inspires us to be awake, generous, loving, compassionate, and present? And at the same time, can we live in a way that prepares us for a conscious death?” – RamDev
For more RamDev and Raghu on how to move from ‘fear’ to ‘right here’, tune into Ep. 127 of Mindrolling
Becoming Somebody: HH Karmapa, Compassion, & Embodied Mindfulness (9:26)
Trading mind-bending darshan stories of HH the 16th (and 17th) Karmapa, RamDev and Raghu help uncover the continuity of consciousness and the oneness behind it all. Sharing in wise and playful discourse highlighting Ram Dass’ sentiment that ‘you have to become somebody before you can become nobody,’ RamDev speaks to the realities of working with psychological issues like inadequacy, shame, and guilt, before being mindfully embodied enough to dismantle your separate identity into your true nature.
“The spacious heart is difficult to bear if we don’t feel adequate. The heart is the 4th chakra. If you don’t have the first three chakras feeling safe, then staying in the heart is only going to be possible when the environment feels supportive enough. And if the environment doesn’t feel supportive enough, then the heart opens and closes.” – RamDev
Join Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein illuminating the practice of embodied mindfulness, on Ep. 110 of the Metta Hour
Hanuman Darshan: Ram Dass, India, & Maharajji (24:02)
Invited by Raghu to share on his deep connection to Hanuman—the monkey deity of selfless service—RamDev tells a rare and potent experience of a Hanuman darshan and proceeding miracle. Recalling more stories involving Ram Dass, India, and Maharajji; RamDev illuminates a lila (play/dance) of Maharajji for bringing him into the bhav (love/devotion) and pure offering of Hanuman.
“There’s that level of Hanuman where there’s the temple, the photographs, and it’s Hanuman’s Living/Dying Project, but mostly my relationship to Hanuman goes back to that Karmapa quote, where I do try to feel I hold other people more dear, and by doing that, I become more pure myself.” – RamDev
For more RamDev on his enlightening experiences with Ram Dass and Maharajji in India, check out Ep. 42 of Healing at the Edge
Guided Meditation (59:55)
To close the podcast, RamDev shares a guided visualization and breathwork meditation for embodied mindfulness.
Source images via RamDev & anand pathak