Ep. 285 – Across the Decades: Resting in Awareness

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. For some people, summer is the best time of year. Kids are out of school and fun adventures await. For others, it's an overwhelming juggling act. Between kids, travel, and work, there's no time for you. Don't forget to take care of yourself during this busy season. Therapy can help you understand your needs. Feel more confident setting boundaries, and create a version of summer that feels right for you. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served more than 6 million people globally. They do the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. You don't have to say yes to everything this summer. Find support in therapy. Find up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/romdas. That's better. H-E-L-P. dot com/romdas B here now network is celebrating 10 years of sharing perennial teachings with incredible wisdom keepers to listeners around the world. We are raising funds to help restore and preserve the Rondas here and now archive and to support this network that continues to carry these teachings forward. If our offerings have meant something to you, please donate today. Now through June 30th, gifts are matched dollar for dollar up to $50,000. So please give today go to beherenownetwork.com/10years. Just allow your awareness to expand, to embrace everything you hear or feel or think. And that too, yes and that too. Just keep seeing there is space around each thing. See that your awareness is the space in which all of the thoughts and all of the sensations are appearing and disappearing. As if your awareness were the sky and all your thoughts and sensations of the clouds are coming, passing through, disappearingly, bar-horized. Hi everyone, this is Rondas here and now a new episode and I'm Raghub Marcus. Glad to be with you in this moment. And before I get into just a little bit of an intro about the podcast, about this particular content, I just want to say we just got back from Boone, North Carolina where we do our annual Summer Mountain retreats. It's just this beautiful property overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's extraordinary. And we had some fantastic speakers and of course we had Krishnan and we had East Forest doing his thing based on the music that he created with Rondas a few years ago before Rondas left obviously. And we had Bob Thurman who is just a phenomenal entertaining speaker. Bob is very close to his holiness of Dalai Lama and had been a teacher until he retired. A few years ago at Columbia University, so just fantastic content from him as well as somebody new, Acharya Shunya from India, whose grandfather was a devotee of name Karole Baba and she brought something brand new to the table so to speak. So this wonderful content, I just wanted to mention, we have a platform it's called Inner Academy. And on that platform we put our courses, we put our retreats and make it available to people. Right now there's over 100 hours on there and we continually are putting up more content as we record and video it. And I suggest a peak, go take a peak, rondas.org/inneracademy and see what the offering is. There's a couple of levels of it. There's the level of just just join. I mean we have 4,000 people right now that are on the platform communicating, there's offerings that are presented and so on. And then the subscription part which allows Love, Serve, Remember to be able to put on everything that it does from retreats to courses, to books and films and so on. That is a way for us as I said to be able to continue doing the things that we have been doing for years serving the community. And so just take a look and see what you think in terms of becoming part of it, either the part in which you can just communicate and be part of the community or and then further to that is the subscription which you'll see when you get there to the platform. I highly recommend it. It's just so very rich and related to the theme of this podcast which is around resting in awareness. We have these mentors, KK Shahz, one and by the way that film is available as part of the subscription and others of our films will be available as we move along here and make more content available. But KK of course was just an extraordinary figure who many people do know because he came to the retreats in Maui and over the years a number of them. And then KC Tawari who's movie brilliant disguise we produced and put out maybe three years ago. That is about the seminal figure in our lives, meaning those people that were with him Karole Babaf. He was very close to Maharajee. And he was like our, I don't know if you remember this great cartoonist, our crumb from back in the 70s. He's still alive I think. And he had something called Mr. Natural, this strip comic strip. That was just fantastic. Well KC Tawari was like Mr. Natural. Whenever you're going off in terms of your thinking or your depression or whatever which was happening to us all the time when we were much younger. But he would come up to you and say, my boy, awareness, awareness. He was a reminder of what that is in our lives. And so this talk which is really, it's knitted together from four different talks over four decades. It's a phenomenal thing with Ram Das, exploring being in harmony with the way of things. How awareness and love are really the same thing. How to deal with clinging. What clinging is that really prevents us from being spacious and in harmony and full of equanimity and love. We all want to get there. And so this talk from him is, as I say, over these decades which is phenomenal in itself. I mean that he did this, that Ram Das did this over these many years. And there's one thing that I love. And he used to tell this story over the years, not story, but this analogy. Which the analogy is the pure sky, the blue sky. There's nothing there. There's no clouds. And when the clouds start to come, they're simply the passing phenomenon of your life, your whole concept of who you think you are. All the stuff of me, me, me is all the cloud. And the cloud is being appreciated and embraced or carried by the sky. The sky is just awareness. It's really beautiful talk. And in the end, he does a meditation around loving awareness, which was great teaching over the last years of his life in Maui, almost 20. And that alone is worth the price of admission. which there is no price of admission. It's a podcast. Anyhow, here it is. It's Ramdhas and the importance of resting in awareness. And we'll see you next time. Ramdham. Feel more confident setting boundaries and create a version of summer that feels right for you. They do the initial matching work for you, so you can focus on your therapy goals. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/ Ramdhas. That's better, h-e-l-p.com/ Ramdhas. And it is in the freedom of non-clinging to models about self and other. That you begin to tune to and hear the way of things. Call the Dow, the way. The way in which forms relate lawfully. Not rational analytic law, but in natural law, the divine law. The law that includes paradox. And the way in which you tune to that law of the universe is not necessarily with your intellect. It's tuning at a more profound way of relating to the universe. Then even through your senses. And it's that tuning. And when you respect that tuning mechanism in yourself, the actions that flow from you start to be what is called "darmic" or in the way of things, or acts which release beings from suffering and do not perpetuate illusion. As long as you are in an incarnation, there will be actions. As long as there is form, there will be change. But depending on who is doing the acting, or who thinks who is doing the acting, will determine whether that act is part of the flow of things or in opposition or antagonistic to it. It's like the story of the King's Butcher. I think the story is written in Reps Book. And the King is a very fine Butcher. And the King asks the Butcher how he does it, that although he has been cutting with the same knife for 19 years, it's never needed to be sharpened. And it turns out that what the Butcher does is he is in tune with that which he is cutting. And the knife finds its way into the joint. It doesn't hit against the joint. It finds its way in, around, around the bone. And because he is tuned, not only he isn't busy being, and I am a Butcher cutting this piece of meat. He is awareness, and that awareness includes the meat and the Butcher and the knife. And so there is an act happening, but there is no doer of the act, because there's nobody that thinks he's a Butcher. Or the King's music standmaker. And he makes incredibly beautiful music stands. And the King says to him, "How do you make such incredibly beautiful music stands?" The music standmaker says there's nothing to it's side. First I fast for five days, until I forget that I am working for the King. Then I fast for another five days, until I forget I'm a music standmaker. And then by then I am staggering through the woods. And I come across a tree, and in the tree is the music stand. And I just clear away everything that isn't necessary. That is the level. That is the level at which awareness works, because when you are aware without clinging, and in harmony with all of the forces, you are no longer in time. Your body is in time. Your thoughts ring time. Your personality is in time. But you aren't. And when you are not in time, and everything in the universe interrelates in a lawful way, though not a law that is knowable by the intellect, and you are in harmony with that law, you are in harmony with the way everything comes out, and everything that preceded it, so that you cannot act wrongly. For not only are you in tune with the particular act you're doing in terms of time, but the Gestalt, all of the ways in which that act is interrelated with everything in the universe. That is a level of consciousness, in which social action that flows from it truly liberates humankind, for it is a level of awareness from which actions are manifest that have no clinging, not even clinging to the effects of the act. You can work with all of your energy and total one-pointedness towards bringing about an end. You have done all you can do at any moment. It is total involvement, and it doesn't happen at the end. And at the moment it doesn't happen, you are right here now. You are not holding on with the spear or anger or frustration. That's then, you are right here. The new existential moment is now. It's always the beginning of things, always. Don Juan says, "No personal history." You keep giving up your storyline. You have it. It's there. You can write about it. You can keep a diary of it. But you don't cling to it. Because every time you walk into a situation and you have a model of who you are or who you aren't, stops the flow. I never dance. I'm Brahmacharya. I love dope all the time. I love dope. Yeah. I'm a responsible person. I'm a mother. I'm a seeker. I'm dependent on. It's interesting when you just are aware and you walk down the street because you see too much. Because you see who everybody thinks they are. Because everybody dresses and walks and looks and smiles or averts their eyes. In harmony with this model they are holding on to of who they must be. Night before last I was doing a television show with a fellow interviewing me. And he started the interview by saying. "Whatever it is you are, I want. How do I get it?" This is right out front, I am. So I said to him, "Why don't you stop being who you think you are?" And we looked into each other's eyes. And we saw interviewer, interviewer. He was busy being Patrick and I was Ramdas. And slowly all these roles just kept becoming passing show. And here we were and the television cameras were grinding away. And he was getting higher and higher and lighter and farther out. And I said, "You can go as high as you want but don't forget your interviewer. You can keep the game going. You don't have to be in it." "You can just play it. You can keep doing it. You have to blow your scene." This is all on the television camera. And then he said, "I don't understand what's happening." He says, "This is where he says, I love you and I couldn't possibly love you. I don't even know you. You're a man. It's impossible." See the problem. All of our social, cultural bloops are based on thinking everybody's somebody doing something. When you fall in love with somebody, what he's supposed to do. Love is so far out there. This flow. It's not the word love is, you know, we've got an awful lot of overload meaning to it. Making love, falling in love. We love each other. The whole romantic poetic metaphor of love. But that romantic one is like, I fell in love with her or him, meaning she or he turns me on to the place in myself where I am love. And I can't get there other than through my connection, which is her or him. And I get attached to my method of getting high of being in love. So I want to have my method with me all the time, my mullibedes, my beloved, I call it. And the thought that my beloved might split is a little bit freaky, so that I want to possess my beloved. This romantic poetry often has an angelicity and even hatred. But can you imagine when that place you've only touched through your methods, you become, you are love. You finally acknowledge who you are. And you've cleared away all the mind trips that keep you from being who you are. So you just are it. Now, everybody you look at, you're in love with. What do you do about it? I mean, maybe two. Three, but it's absurd. I mean, at least you want to do is go up to somebody and say, I love you. We try that for a long time. But it's even out of hand. I mean, it's way beyond that one. Because you can't do it to policeman and people you're just passing on the street. You can't do it. It's just not done. And then you see the exquisiteness of the predicament, of being in love with everybody, and there's nothing that has to be done about it. Because you've developed compassion, compassion to let people be as they need to be, without coming onto them. And the only time you come onto people are when their actions are limiting the opportunities for other human beings to be free. And then the way in which you come on is critical. For if you are somebody coming on, forget it. You're just creating more anger. If you are nobody special, but it is your Dharma to come on about injustice, then it is merely a pure act of the Dharma. And not for a moment, do you forget that you love the other person totally? It's interesting to separate out the space in which we love. We are love. We merge in love from the yeses and noes of life. To be able to say no to somebody without withdrawing love. It took me a long, long time, because I so identified, doing what other people wanted me to do as a way of demonstrating love. It was a long time before I understood that I cared enough about other human beings to be straight with them, and that straightness could be love. And I could say no without withdrawing that love. That's a big one. For the love is not on the domain of social relationship. And that awareness that I was talking about earlier, and the love I'm talking about now, are the same thing, because what we're talking about has no labels. These are just ways that you can approach it intuitively. Through what you know about love, through what you know about awareness, brings you into aah. Be aware of your breath. All the sounds around you just notice them. Everything that arises, a sound or a sensation, just let it arise and then pass away. Don't grab hold of it. Don't try to push it away. There's pain in your body. Just notice that. Allow it. Don't get upset. Don't. It's not going to keep you from anything. Thoughts about past or future just notice them. Just allow your awareness to expand, to embrace. Everything you hear or feel or think, just end that too. Yes and that too. And just keep seeing there is space around each thing. And see that your awareness is the space in which all of the thoughts and all of the sensations are appearing and disappearing. As if your awareness were the sky and all your thoughts and sensations of the clouds coming, passing through, disappearing in the form of the mind. are horizon. And feel that this awareness has qualities to it that you can notice at this stage. You can notice spaciousness. Notice spaciousness. Feel the spaciousness that expands into this whole theater so that really there is one awareness and there are all these different forms through which it is passing. And now another quality of this spaciousness, equanimity. Just see that no matter how agitated you are, no matter how frightened you are, no matter how despairing or aggravated or doubting or confused, see that also in you is this place behind it which has equanimity which is equanimous. And allow that too. And that too, it doesn't make your depression or despair or confusion or doubt or agitation any less. But it merely says also here is equanimity. There is a place in me that always is at peace if I will merely acknowledge it. Even at the most frightening moments, tiny thread though it might be, it's always right here. And see how this quality, this awareness also has the quality of love, an appreciation of forms. Bring before your mind's eye somebody that you love and feel that place in your heart that opens. And now fortunate you are to have shared part of an incarnation with such a person. Whether that person be in flesh or not. Now bring to mind before your eye an image of yourself standing in front of yourself, your separate self. And see what happens to your heart then, does it close down, does it stay open? Do you have that same feeling of love and appreciation for the preciousness of yourself? If you pull back into your judging mind, release, relax, look more deeply, part the veils and see your own beauty, your own precious isness. See that behind all of the dramas of that person that self that stands before you. There is I am. Listen to this poem of Swami Ram Teerth and keep in mind yourself standing before you. He said, "I am without form, without limit. I am beyond space, beyond time. I am in everything. Everything is in me. I am the bliss of the universe. Everywhere I am, recognize your own higher self and recognize the way it has come into form and appreciate the perfection of the creation. See that you are the Creator and the Creator. You are the lawful form unfolding and you are that which is behind the law. You are one of the many and you are the one. Can you not love that being that stands before you? Can you not allow it to be just as it is and recognize the possibility that it is not an error? It is nothing to do. You are just as you are and the work and the changes all will happen naturally if you will just allow yourself to be as you are. And you can delight in the changing form of that being that stands before you. Work on yourself is one level. Another level, there is no work. It is all dance. Another level, there is no dance. There is no time or space. It all just is. All true. All who we are. We are so much more than we ever think we are. Now bring before you somebody who you have a difficult time liking. Somebody who you feel their actions hurt others or creates suffering or take away others' freedom. Feel what happens to your heart then. And once again, hold quiet. Notice your reactivity and stay aware in the space and allow yourself to see through the veils of the action to the being back inside and realize what a heart incarnation it must be for somebody whose actions create suffering in others. And see the way in which you can say no to the person's actions without closing your heart to the soul that has taken that birth. See the way a no can be a healing no. It can heal you and that other person into the one that lies behind the no and the yes. And now from this collective place of isness, this quiet, equanimous, peaceful, spacious, present moment. Let us at this moment send from here our blessings our love. Let us be instruments through which pure spirit passes to earth and let it be guided to those who suffer those who are caught who are lost into the drama. Let our thoughts and this spaciousness surround them with love, with peace, with equanimity. If there is somebody special, you wish to bring the mind, do so. To people who are imprisoned in their minds, in their bodies which are suffering in institutions caught in any way. May they see through the veil and realize that we are all always free. No one can imprison us but ourselves. May each of us become such clear and pure instruments of light, of love, of presence, of clarity, of equanimity, that the light of spirit pours through our every cell and everybody we meet is touched by living spirit. No matter how we meet them in whatever role in life, then where we are, everywhere we look, we will see flowers blooming. It's what the sun sees when it looks down from above. What grace, what incredible grace. Well, if you can see a cloud in the sky, can everybody see a cloud somewhere? Okay, look at that cloud now. And think of that cloud as your life. If it's a long cloud, it might have a birth, a middle, and tailing off. Or it might be just a round cloud in which it's all present all at once but it's your life. your life. It's her or it's him. Now, as you are looking at that cloud and seeing your life, and it has thousands and millions of components to it, it has all the feelings and all the memories and all the plans and all of the economics and all of the relationships and all of the sufferings and all of the joys. It's all here in that cloud. Now, just to push you a little bit harder, you're looking at that cloud from here. And here feels like a very precise place. We're all sitting together on this porch. But now, let me explore with you another way of defining who you are. Look at the cloud again and become aware of the sky that surrounds the cloud. And now, I invite you to identify your awareness with the sky. And in your awareness, there is your life that is the cloud. Not the jar of cloud, just cloud. In other words, your whole concept of who you think you are, all your sense experiences of your body, the sounds you're hearing now, all of that, all of this stuff of me is all the cloud. And the cloud is being appreciated or embraced or carried or allowed or by the sky. It's much easier to describe the cloud than to describe the sky. The sky doesn't have a beginning or an end and it really doesn't have qualities. It's just sky. And that's the quality of awareness. It doesn't have a trip. Sky doesn't have a trip. It's just hang out. And through the sky are coming clouds and aeroplanes and birds. And this isn't that. They're all within the sky. When you look up the sky, there are stars in the sky. But the sky just is. Now, what I've just given you is the ground for one of the most advanced spiritual teachings that is now available to us in the West, which is called "Zokchen" out of Tibetan Buddhism. It is basically saying, "The sky is awareness. You are awareness. Into your awareness arise phenomena. The phenomena arise, they exist and then they pass on. The phenomena include your thoughts, your senses, your feelings, stuff. Phenomenal come and go. Awareness is. Awareness has nothing to do with time. It's not coming and it's not going. It isn't born and it doesn't die. It's nothing personal. It's not my sky. It's sky. It's awareness. It's not my awareness. It's awareness. So just imagine that we're playing a game here of life in which we got caught along the way in thinking we were the cloud as beautiful as it might be as romantic as it might be as sensual as it might be. And then at some moment we begin to awaken and we're awakening to the eye, not the me, the eye that which sees, that which is, that which embraces, that which the presence, the awareness, we're awakening to our identity behind the clinging to separateness. That's what awakening is about. And there's only one of it. So when you say, "Shma'eus, Roe'el, I don't know El Hano, I don't know El Hano, El Hodhero, Israel, Launa, Launa, Launa, Launa, of course it's one. There's only one." And you can arrive at it through any religion you want, except through Buddhism which says it's really zero. But when you're in one it is zero. It's only, it seems like one when you look at it from two. If you miss any of those, just let them go because they're, they come around again in another lifetime or so. Let me first ask, did you understand that example? Did you work with it? The, the, the, the sky, because that is basically, that is a full spiritual practice. If you went out an hour a day and lay on your back and looked up at the sky and see the sky as sky, and then experience the sky as a mirror of your awareness. So your awareness is the sky now and then you watch what comes into the sky. And into the sky comes hunger, into the sky comes memories, into the sky comes smells, tastes, feelings, thoughts, memories, plans. And they come in and then you just sit with the awareness and then they go, oh, they don't go. And maybe they cover the whole sky. So you don't see the sky and just think I'm depressed. Depression's great. It feels the whole thing. That was a call, mine states in one system. So if I were to say, what is my life about? I would say my life is about awareness and becoming or being aware because becoming is already a trip in the cloud. I'm getting aware. It's another one. Washington 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. And some of those phenomena, first of all, I would say if you want to really play technical, that the only phenomena that arise in your awareness are reflecting your attractions and your reversions. Otherwise, you wouldn't even notice them. Yeah, that one, that's an interesting one. That's one we say was really out there. A lot of stuff is really out there. But you don't notice it. It's fascinating to see what you notice. You never notice what you notice because you're so. But if you stand around the corner and watch, it's fascinating to see what you noticed an hour ago. Right. I mean, if you're in the, if you have a sailboat, when you went down to the water, you noticed what make of sailboat, what length, how it's kept, how recently was painted, you notice everything. Although I just saw a group of boats, well, you didn't see anything. You've, you've tasted the water. You didn't even notice the boat. So when I look at the phenomena that arise, I'm looking at, of course, the projections of my own karma. I'm really looking at a movie that's being projected because not that the stuff isn't out there, but what I'm selecting to see of what's out there is selected by the predispositions of my own block, whatever it is I bring into this situation. Is this too weird? When it gets too weird, raise your hand and I'll try to backtrack and bring it along. Because otherwise it's just fun to go out, you know, for a while and then I'll get bored and then you can talk. If you feel any to talk, talk. It's okay. I can, I teach listening so I have to listen when you talk. Although I'm not really interested in what you're going to say, because I'm not interested in what I said. Because stuff is stuff. It's more clouds and the awareness is the awareness. I'm not disinterested. That would be another trip. I'm not interested. It's far out. I got to a point where I started to say to my friends, people around me all the time, I don't care if I never see you again. And it's funny how many of them got offended. You know, and there was nothing personal in it at all. I mean, it wasn't that I, you know, I don't like you. It was just that I don't think they trusted me that I meant it. I don't know whether I trust me either. I mean, I thought I meant it. So into awareness comes all of these phenomena. And you can feel the qualities of attraction or a version that are involved in them. And I work with lines like the dial line, truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing. When you desire something you see only the outward container. I mean it is absolutely true. If you haven't had that experience, just go watch your mind for a while. You'll see it. If you're horny you see what's makeable. If you're hungry you see what's edible. If you're tired you see mattresses. I mean that's what you see. You don't see flowers when you're tired you see mattresses. Your motivation selects your perception. I mean that's just straight. Even the Western psychology knows that. They don't know much. It's going to be one of those kind of weeks I can see that. So I see clinging and a version. I go ahead clinging to power. There's most people that grew up feeling inadequate do, which includes everybody here anyway. Do you think you're dog you're just defending? Even if you were here last week. And I watched. It made me move towards powerful people because and in my mind, in my all of little veils you have in your mind, one of them is righteousness. So I think I want to be around powerful people to do more good. People have access to more energy so I do more good. But then I saw that Western thing in my mind of more is better. Very suspect as is righteousness. And I've watched over the past five years how my whole attitude towards power has changed. That I began to see people that have power as people that just have a certain karma trip they have to work out. It's not necessary to hold power to be an instrument of change in the universe. That's an interesting one point Maharajee said, all the money in the world is mine. Can you imagine a more psychotic statement than that? I mean, what who would have the hoods but say a thing like that? All the money in the world is mine. Depends on who you think you are. If he thinks he's the guy in the blanket, it may seem far fetched, although maybe not, you know, some of his powers. But if you think of him as the sky that contains everything, certainly contains all the money in the world, just more clouds. It was a beautiful Swami, Swami Ram Teerath, who spoke in the United States. He died. I think in the. I am the Ganga. What 28 or something like that? But he had a great. He went around the United States speaking and he had one incredible line. He said, poem. He said, "I am without form, without limit." I am beyond space, beyond time. I am in everything. Everything is in me. Everywhere I am. I am Satjit Ananda. Tathwama, see. I am that. He's describing awareness. Sit or fly or whatever you're doing, spine straight. It lets your energies come up. Bring your attention to your breath. Something on your lungs on the chest. In, out, in, out. The breath goes in and out. Now I tend to your. To the middle of your chest with the breath. And concentrate on the spiritual center. Loving awareness. Loving awareness. Loving awareness. Your inside, your personality, your inside, your body. What you are is loving awareness. You may be aware of what your ears are hearing. What your eyes are seeing. What your skin is sensing. What your mind is thinking. Of all that, you are in an ocean of love. An ocean projected from your heart. We are all in the ocean of love. I am talking to myself. We are waves on the ocean of love. Get your awareness travel from this that lovingly to all. It's all wrong. It's all God. It's all the one. Subjectively, you are the world. You are the universe. You are the trees. You are the bushes. You are the guns. You are poverty. You are commerce. You are relationships. It's all one. It's all one. It's all one. Loving awareness. Loving awareness. Loving awareness. A whole universe is loving awareness. Stars are loving awareness. We are loving awareness. Silence is loving all the people. When? Namaste This podcast is brought to you by the Love Serve Remember Foundation and Ramdas.org. We appreciate you listening and we appreciate all the support that you've given us. Please continue that support and donate at Ramdas.org. We can then continue to share what Ramdas has been sharing for all of these years. Thank you. Ten years ago, Be Here Now Network made a simple promise. Keep these teachings free and available to anyone who needs them. And for a decade now, that's exactly what we've done. Preserving Ramdas's words and carrying them and other teachers forward to listeners all over the world. This June, we're celebrating that milestone and we need your help. We're raising funds to restore and preserve the Here and Now archive. So these teachings aren't just available today but for generations to come. Right now, through June 30th, every dollar you give is matched dollar for dollar, up to $50,000. 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