In this dharma talk from 1993, Ram Dass answers questions about navigating our spiritual path and working with practices that can bring us into union with the One.
With the floor open to his live audience, Ram Dass touches on topics such as his own spiritual practice, methods for bringing us closer with the One, losing faith, working with a guru and more.
Links from this episode: Support Becoming Nobody
Practice Makes Perfect
What are the spiritual practices that Ram Dass personally works with? Ram Dass shares some of the methods that he uses to maintain balance and keep his ego in check.
“My basic method is Guru Kripa, or grace of the guru. I play games with my guru. He and I sort of play hide and seek all the time, he keeps coming to me as people. I think I am meeting you, but I don’t realize that you are Maharaj-ji in drag – coming to test me about my practice. My practice is a weave of life.” – Ram Dass
After Maharaj-ji (24:10)
How does death change our relationship with someone? Ram Dass looks at the evolution of his relationship with Maharaj-ji after Maharaj-ji’s passing in 1973. He reflects on how our relationship with our pain changes as we move away from suffering.
“Maharaj-ji died in 1973 and he was the most important thing in my life. He had opened my heart – touched me with unconditional love. It was amazing, the sequence I went through.” – Ram Dass
Entering into the One (32:40)
The practices of dualism and non-dualism might, at a glance, seem to mix as well as oil and water. Ram Dass shares his perspective of these two paths of practice, exploring the unique traps and paths to liberation that they both offer and how one can work with them both in their journey of awakening. What do we do when things hit rock bottom along our journey and we lose our faith, abandoning all paths?
“Dualist practices are practices of purification. They are practices that lighten a lot of things. Extricating you from certain planes that you were deeply stuck in.” – Ram Dass
Just Another Experience (44:15)
Is there a way that we can see our darkest experiences as just another state to be worked with in our practice? Ram Dass speaks about working on ourselves in this way and whether or not searching the world for a guru to help us get free is really necessary.
