Mirabai Bush speaks with Melanie about the most important lessons she has learned along her journey of awakening and reflects on the experience of co-writing with Ram Dass for the final time.
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Show Notes
A Better Way to Be (Opening) – Mirabai Bush shares the story of how she came into her spiritual path. She and Melanie talk about the roles that women play in Catholicism, which impacted Mirabai early in her journey of awakening. We hear the auspicious circumstance that led Mirabai to the East, in search of a better way of living, and to Maharaj-ji along with his devotees who would become her spiritual family.
“I wanted to find out if there was anybody living on the planet that knew of a more integrated life and a more peaceful life than we were able to live.” – Mirabai Bush
We are Not the Mind (21:25) – Mirabai speaks more about her early experiences in India and some of the most transformative teachings that she learned there. We explore the difference between having faith and being dogmatic in our beliefs. Mirabai explores ways we can ground ourselves in what we understand to be true while being open to inquiry.
“What I discovered through sitting is that I am not that mind, or that I am not only that mind. That there is some part of me that could watch that mind, and watch it working, that was not that mind. Just being able to rest in that awareness and notice my mind, to be able to not judge what was going on in my mind, I felt free. I was free to be a person on this planet enjoying it and discovering what it is that I am here to do, but not be so identified with that mind and my body – I had got caught thinking that was all there is.” – Mirabai Bush
Raghu Markus and Dr. Mark Epstein talk about moving past the stories about ourselves that our minds weave on Ep. 232 of the Mindrolling Podcast
Walking Each Other Home (45:10) – Turning to Mirabai’s experience of co-writing Ram Dass’s final book, Walking Each Other Home, Mirabai reflects on the closure of Ram Dass’s work around death and what it means to rest in truth through our practice.
“Ram Dass has been talking about dying since Be Here Now, the actual truth of it is all there. Of course, when you lead a life you live into those truths and that is what he has been doing all this time.” – Mirabai Bush
Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying is now available for pre-order! In Walking Each Other Home, Ram Dass and Mirabai explore the ways in which we can be present with dying and help ourselves and others leave this world consciously. Through artful storytelling and practical guidance, these two teachers offer an intimate, thoughtful, and uplifting exploration of the greatest of human mysteries—and show us how death gives us an unparalleled opening to cultivate gratitude, compassion, mindfulness, and an abiding joy in the simple beauty of living. Pre-order here: Walking Each Other Home
