Ram Dass is back with more Talk Radio From the Heart, answering questions about grief, how love transcends death, bringing spirituality into daily life, Right Livelihood, and more.
Love Transcends Death (11:43)
Straight from December 31st, 1996, Ram Dass is back on the KPFK Los Angeles airwaves for some more Talk Radio From the Heart. He begins with a caller dealing with feelings of anger and inadequacy, then moves on to a person trying to make sense of her feelings around death. Ram Dass talks about dealing with grief and how love ultimately transcends death.
“What happens is, when the grief runs its natural course… you come to the point where you realize that you’ve tasted something with that person that was such a living moment that that moment still exists independent of death. There’s a moment when we recognize that love transcends death. And that has to happen experientially, and it has to happen when grief runs its natural course.” – Ram Dass
Bringing Spirituality Into Daily Life (26:53)
Ram Dass answers a question about bringing spiritual practices and revelations into daily life, talking about how it can take a long time to go from intellectually understanding something to actually being it. He moves on to a call about Right Livelihood and how strange it feels to charge money for teaching spiritual practices. Ram Dass answers a question about immortality.
“I certainly think that there are ways of using energies in the universe to extend the duration of physical life. Whether or not one wants to do that is another question; whether one hears it to be in the harmony of the way of things. The deeper I get into parts of my identity, the less I am attached to keeping this physical body eternally – because it just seems like a certain classroom or a level and I really find that there are more interesting aspects of existence beyond that of incarnation in a physical body.” – Ram Dass
An Instrument of Compassion (35:30)
Ram Dass spends time with a caller whose son died at the age of four. They talk about how his son’s legacy is training him to be an instrument of compassion in this universe. Ram Dass moves on to a final question from a caller who was abused as a child and has trouble in relationships as a result of that trauma.
“Just listen to hear what the form of your dance is, and don’t be afraid to risk. And when it blows up, just go through the pain and get on with it. And you will find each relationship, you’re coming at it from a different place. There is growth through all of these experiences you’re having.” – Ram Dass
Read Ram Dass’ A Letter to Rachel, which was referenced by a caller in the latter part of this episode
