The Place Beyond Words with Ram Dass

Program Description

Ram Dass, much beloved spiritual pilgrim, talks candidly about his own journey and the wisdom he has gained from being at the heart of the consciousness movement. He compares life in New York to life in India, being a psychology professor at Harvard to being shunned by many institutions, consciousness in the 1960s to consciousness the 1990s, and how he dropped out of Western society to explore Eastern mysticism, only to return to a life of social action and service. A man who feels privileged to have a “front row seat right at the edge of mystery” through his work with the dying, Ram Dass has learned that whether we’re entering the Age of Aquarius or approaching Armageddon, the best thing to do is “quiet my mind, open my heart and try to relieve the suffering around me”.

Ram Dass has worked in the arenas of politics, international health, environment and socially responsible business, and is the author of many books including How Can I Help (Knopf 1985), and Be Here Now (Lama Foundation 1971).

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• How to find your own spiritual path
• How to help others find their spiritual path
• How to prepare for death
• The difference between doing and being
• How to go from “me and them” to “us”
• A new way of looking at surrender
• Treating death as a passage instead of a failure
• The root cause of pain and suffering
• Comparing the ’60s to the ’90s
• How our belief systems create preconceptions about death

Program Number: 2651              Host: Mark Walstrom & Michael Toms                Interview Date: 8/1/1996