In this Q&A session from 1990, Ram Dass responds to questions about immortality, how to deal with evil, population growth, and how to play the game impeccably.
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The Way Things Are
Ram Dass takes questions about changing the way things are, suicide, and powers such as immortality. He talks about how the more conscious people get the less they want to change the game, how the act of suicide is an act of attachment and the reality of siddhis.
Ram Dass shares stories of how his guru would play with reality in Here and Now Ep. 185
Where Impeccability Lies (8:03)
Ram Dass answers questions about the concept of God as an imaginary playmate, the issue of abortion from a spiritual perspective, how to play the game as impeccably as possible, how to use relationships as a path to freedom, and whether or not Ram Dass himself desires what he does and enjoys doing it.
“I do this because I do this. You’re here because you’re here. What happens is what happens. That’s where impeccability lies.” – Ram Dass
The Awakened Heart Blog writes about what it means to be impeccable
The Art of Resisting Evil (19:57)
Ram Dass ends this session with questions about how to deal with evil, whether or not prayer works, how society should deal with people who murder, rape, and steal, and whether or not Ram Dass relates population growth with reincarnation.
“So as your consciousness starts to rest in the One, if you push away the two, you’re still off balance because for an enlightened being there’s nowhere to stand. To stand in the two with the awareness of the One means that you become an instrument of good against evil. But you don’t do it as an entrapment in the polarity. So you don’t hate evil, you understand that your job is to act against evil. And you identify evil as a set of actions that are the result of karma of individuals. So you don’t blame people, you blame acts. You stop acts and you punish acts, but you don’t punish people. And that’s a very interesting one. That’s the art form of being able to resist evil and do it from a place of dispassion, but that’s your function, that’s what you do.” – Ram Dass
Raghu Markus and Barbara Graham discuss the mystery of reincarnation in Mindrolling Ep. 439