Recorded live at the 2025 Summer Mountain Retreat, this homestyle chat with Raghu Markus, Nina Rao, and Robert Thurman explores the Bhakti-Buddhist lineage of Ram Dass and Maharaj-ji.

Ep. 609 – The Bhakti-Buddhist Lineage with Raghu Markus, Robert Thurman, and Nina Rao

In part 1 of this Q&A session, Joseph Goldstein gives Buddhist-flavored insight on accepting impermanence, developing our practice, and loving selflessly.

Ep. 251 – The Selfless Path to Happiness

Speaking across the decades from the 1970s to the 2010s, Ram Dass shares his wisdom on the importance of resting in awareness. 

The Ram Dass community gathers regularly to engage in meaningful discussions about the podcast. We invite you to join us and share your curiosities, insights, and wisdom. Sign up for the General Fellowship to receive event invitations directly in your inbox: https://www.ramdass.org/fellowship/

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This episode of Here and Now is a compilation of Ram Dass discussing the concept of resting in awareness throughout the decades. 

We begin in Washington, D.C., in 1976, with Ram Dass exploring being in harmony with the Tao, the Way of things, and how awareness and love are really the same thing. “When you are aware without clinging,” he says, ‘And in harmony with all of the forces, you are no longer in time.” 

We move on to 1985, with Ram Dass meditating on the qualities of awareness. These are qualities such as spaciousness, equanimity, and love. He encourages us to become instruments of light, love, and presence. “Just allow your awareness to expand, to embrace everything you hear or feel or think.” 

The next stop is the Virgin Islands in 1995, with Ram Dass comparing awareness to the sky. The clouds in the sky are simply the passing phenomena of life. “Your whole concept of who you think you are,” he says, “All the stuff of ‘me’ is all the cloud. And the cloud is being appreciated or embraced or carried by the sky. The sky is just awareness.” 

Finally, we end in Maui in 2016, when Ram Dass had learned how to completely rest in his loving awareness. He guides a meditation to connect us to the space of loving awareness, where we can all go for a swim in the ocean of love. 

About Ram Dass:
Ram Dass’s spirit has been a guiding light for generations, carrying millions along on the journey. Ram Dass teaches that through the Bhakti practice of unconditional love, we can all connect with our true nature. Through these teachings, Ram Dass has shared a little piece of his guru, Maharaj-ji, with all who have listened to him. Learn more about Ram Dass, his teachings, and more at ramdass.org.

“I would say my life is about awareness. And becoming or being aware. Because becoming’s already a trip in the cloud. ‘I’m getting aware.’ It’s another one. ‘I’m washing dishes, now I’m getting aware.’ It’s just another trip, it’s another thing you’re doing. So, I’d say my life is resting in awareness. And into the awareness come phenomena.” – Ram Dass

Ram Dass Across the Decades: Resting in Awareness | Here & Now Podcast Ep. 285

For episode 269, we bring you the first of a two-part episode from the archives.
Recorded in the early 2010s in a visit to Asheville, North Carolina, Sharon is teaching on Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances. 

In this teaching, Sharon speaks about:
• Her travel adventure to North Carolina
• Her first impressions of Asian philosophy 
• Changing our relationship to joy & delight
• Transforming our relationship to suffering
• Awakening to the realm of neutral experiences
• Sharon’s first time meditating
• The three skills of  meditation 
• Sharon’s mantra of “something will happen”
• The deepening of concentration
• Our tendency to project into the future
• Mindfulness is not passive
• The magic moment in meditation

The episode closes with Sharon leading a guided meditation practice. Stay tuned for the second half of this teaching, which will be released in two weeks' time in Part 2 of Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances.


Sharon Salzberg: Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances Part 1 | Metta Hour Podcast Ep. 269

Jack shares a whimsical story on light and dark, birth and death, forgiveness and mercy, passion and sincerity, impermanence and immorality, and finding your inner light.

Ep. 304 – Finding Your Inner Light

Encouraging listeners to take responsibility for their own inner healing, Krishna Das discusses cleansing the heart of betrayal, hurt, and grief.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

This week on Pilgrim Heart, Krishna Das provides wisdom on:
- Meeting Anandamayi Ma and what it means to have darshan with a guru 
- Accepting people as they are and loving unconditionally
- Recognizing where we really are on our spiritual journey so that we can see where our work lies
- How all things are accomplished through the repetition of the name 
- Navigating parental relationships and seeing our parents as people instead of only parents
- Taking responsibility to cleanse our hearts of betrayal, hurt, and pain
- Practicing seva (selfless service) and offering love to the world around us
- Holding grief with compassion and allowing ourselves to move through it with care
- Simplifying our practice: treating others the way we want to be treated 
- How Maharaj-ji scoffed at superficiality and preferred authentic practice, even if it wasn’t meditation

“Our relationship with our parents can be very difficult. We don’t know our parents as people; we only know them as our parents. We don’t know how many times their hearts were broken. We don’t know how their parents treated them. We don’t know what they’ve gone through that made them into the person they are now...When your parents lay a trip on you, if you get caught in reacting, that's your problem, not theirs. They are allowed to be who they are.” – Krishna Das
 
About Krishna Das:
Layering traditional Hindu kirtan with instantly accessible melodies and modern instrumentation, Grammy nominee Krishna Das has been called yoga’s “rock star.”  With a remarkably soulful voice that touches the deepest chord in even the most casual listener, Krishna Das – known to friends, family, and fans as simply KD – has taken the call-and-response chanting out of yoga centers and into concert halls, becoming a worldwide icon and the best-selling chant artist of all time. His album ‘Live Ananda’ (released January 2012) was nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Age album category.

KD spent the late ’60s traveling across the country as a student of Ram Dass, and in August 1970, he finally made the journey to India, which led him to Ram Dass’ own beloved guru, Neem Karoli Baba, known to most as Maharaj-ji. Krishna Das now travels the world sharing his kirtan practice and wonderful stories of his life, of Maharaji-ji, of his life on the Path and discusses bringing chanting into our lives through retreats and workshops. To date, KD has released 15 well-received albums, most recently Trust in the Heart released in October 2017.

MORE INFORMATION and OFFERINGS VISIT: https://krishnadas.com/ KRISHNA DAS ON SOCIAL: FACEBOOK: facebook.com/KrishnaDasMusic INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/krishnadasmusic YOUTUBE: / krishnadasmusic X: @krishnadas #KrishnaDas

Krishna Das: Lessons on Love and Personal Responsibility | Pilgrim Heart Ep. 184

Exploring how modern culture often reduces love to sex and pleasure, J. Krishnamurti points to a deeper understanding: love as a mirror for self-knowledge and true relationship.

To start at the beginning of this 18-part dialogue on consciousness, spirituality and navigating life with J. Krishnamurti and Dr. Allan W. Anderson: https://youtu.be/rcn0gXWv9UU

In this episode, J. Krishnamurti and Dr. Allan W. Anderson consider:
- How to love without focusing on achievement or reward
- Why reducing love to sex and pleasure distorts its true nature
- Real love as the total absence of ego
- The Christian perspective on love and dissolving the “I”
- Pure joy as an effortless state and how this is connected to love
- The role of celibacy across spiritual traditions
- How chastity can open the mind to clarity and truth
- The idea of enjoyment as pleasure 
- How ambition, nationalism, and identification, can deeply isolate a person

“Western civilization has put this over the whole of the earth through cinema, books, pornography, advertisements, stories. This sense of love is identification with sex, which is pleasure, basically. Can a mind pursuing pleasure, ambitious/competitive mind, can such a mind love? It can love sexually, but love of sex is the only thing.”  – J. Krishnamurti

This talk was originally recorded in 1974 at San Diego State University and curated by the Krishnamurti Foundation of America

About J. Krishnamurti:
For nearly six decades until his passing in 1986 at the age of ninety, Jiddu Krishnamurti traversed the globe, delivering spontaneous and captivating discourses to large audiences. Krishnamurti assumed the role of an investigator rather than an authority figure, encouraging individuals to question assumptions and explore the depths of their consciousness. His extensive body of work, estimated at over 100 million words, spans more than six decades of relentless inquiry and dialogue. His teachings, compiled in numerous books and translated into multiple languages, continue to inspire seekers worldwide, inviting them to embark on a profound journey of self-discovery and understanding. J. Krishnamurti’s legacy endures as a guiding light, offering timeless wisdom for those who dare to challenge conventional thinking and explore the complexities of existence.

About Dr. Allan W. Anderson:
Dr. Allan Anderson was a poet, author, Professor Emeritus, beloved teacher, scholar of the Oracular Tradition, and a gifted religious linguist. He helped to form the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State College in 1969. Dr. Anderson later became chair of that department, specializing in Eastern Religions, until his retirement in 1985.

J. Krishnamurti: Defining Love Beyond Sex and Pleasure | Freedom from the Known Podcast Ep. 12

Familiarizing listeners with the five Buddhist hindrances, Trudy Goodman suggests a compassionate return to mindfulness of the senses.

In this episode, Trudy Goodman outlines:
- The 5 Buddhist hindrances: desire, aversion, sloth and torpor, restlessness/worry, and doubt
- Remembering that being affected by the hindrances is not a mistake or our fault, but instead is an opportunity to practice mindfulness
- How craving pulls us out of the present moment and how our senses can ground us back into awareness
- Reflecting on the feeling of wanting something, and whether our desires truly align with our core values
- The four kinds of suffering, most of which we have all experienced
- Understanding that aversion is not inherently ‘bad’ and how it can be a kindness to turn away from something that causes us pain
- Shifting our attention away from hostility and turning towards curiosity about our emotions
- Practicing walking meditation as a remedy to sloth and torpor 
- Getting to the root of our restlessness and discovering what we are trying to change about the present moment 
- How, beneath the paralysis of doubt and inner cynicism, there is often a lack of inner confidence 
- Living our lives fully, not wasting a moment, and being completely present as often as we can

“We each have our favorites of the hindrances, but again, these are not mistakes, these are not your fault, they’re part of the practice. When the mind gets lost in them, the doorway back to being present is through coming to our senses. What we see here, taste, feel, in this particular moment of our life. We know this is actually the only real moment of our life.” – Trudy Goodman

About Trudy Goodman:
Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats, engages in activism work, and teaches workshops worldwide and online. She is also the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. You can learn more about Trudy’s flourishing array of wonderful offerings at TrudyGoodman.com

This recording was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

The Hindrances with Buddhist Teacher Trudy Goodman | BHNN Guest Podcast Ep. 223

Exploring spaciousness as the ground of awakening, Jack Kornfield shows how peace, impermanence, and love are all born from the open heart.

Ep. 305 – Remembering the Pleasure of Peace

East Forest recounts his powerful experience meeting and recording with Ram Dass, and offers a live set of transcendent music seamlessly interwoven with Ram Dass’s timeless teachings.

Check out more music from this spiritual collaboration: East Forest x Ram Dass

In this episode, hear East Forest perform and learn more about:
- East Forest’s profound and intimate collaboration with Ram Dass 
- How the peace of nature can be a spiritual tool for us 
- The integral role of psilocybin and psychedelics in Ram Dass’s awakening and teachings
- The synergistic relationship between the audience and the performer during live music
- Relating to the wilderness within our own hearts through music
- The technology of our breath and how it calms us down into the present moment
- The human connection to nature and nature as a manifestation of God
- Loving all beings and all elements of the world around us
- Letting go of everything within ourselves that we do not need

This episode was recorded at the 2022 Summer Mountain Retreat. Join us for the Open Your Heart in Paradise retreat this December in Maui! 

About East Forest:
East Forest is a multidisciplinary artist, producer, and ceremony guide. Since 2008, East Forest’s “lush” (Rolling Stone) and “blissful” (NPR) music has blended ambient, neoclassical, electronic, and avant-pop to explore sound as a tool for inner journeys and consciousness expansion. Known for being the first musician to collaborate with Ram Dass, his latest endeavor is the feature-length film Music for Mushrooms, a narrative documentary showcasing the transformative power of psychedelics, music, and community.

"I'm not up here generating something and presenting something for you to passively receive. It’s more that your attention into this space, the Bhakti space, the love space, the emptiness, it feeds the emptiness itself for me to hopefully channel that back out. It’s like surfing: we go in, we go out. In that, we can have a real experience together that can be whatever it needs to be right now.” –East Forest

Wisdom Within Music: Recording Ram Dass, featuring East Forest | BHNN Guest Podcast Ep. 224

Inverse Reinforcement Learning and Inferring Human Preferences is the first podcast in the new AI Alignment series, hosted by Lucas Perry. This series will be covering and exploring the AI alignment problem across a large variety of domains, reflecting the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of AI alignment. Broadly, we will be having discussions with technical and non-technical researchers across a variety of areas, such as machine learning, AI safety, governance, coordination, ethics, philosophy, and psychology as they pertain to the project of creating beneficial AI. If this sounds interesting to you, we will hope that you join in the conversations by following or subscribing to us on Youtube, Soundcloud, or your preferred podcast site/application.

In this podcast, Lucas spoke with Dylan Hadfield-Menell, a fifth year Ph.D student at UC Berkeley. Dylan’s research focuses on the value alignment problem in artificial intelligence. He is ultimately concerned with designing algorithms that can learn about and pursue the intended goal of their users, designers, and society in general. His recent work primarily focuses on algorithms for human-robot interaction with unknown preferences and reliability engineering for learning systems. 

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-Inverse reinforcement learning
-Goodhart’s Law and it’s relation to value alignment
-Corrigibility and obedience in AI systems
-IRL and the evolution of human values
-Ethics and moral psychology in AI alignment
-Human preference aggregation
-The future of IRL

AIAP: Inverse Reinforcement Learning and Inferring Human Preferences with Dylan Hadfield-Menell

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change.

The Institute's work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions.

FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.

AIAP: Inverse Reinforcement Learning and Inferring Human Preferences with Dylan Hadfield-Menell

Future of Life Institute

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