The Essence of Service and Activism

Speaking across the decades, from the 1960s to the 2010s, Ram Dass shares his insights into responding to suffering, the meaning of service, and the confluence of social action and spiritual work.

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This episode of Here and Now is a compilation of Ram Dass talking about service and social action across the decades.

• We begin in 1969, during a time of significant cultural change. A time where the people of the United States found themselves in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-war protests, and the rise of Women’s Liberation. Ram Dass explores the concept of social responsibility and talks about why protesting should come from a place not of anger, but of love.
• Next, we move to 1983. The media landscape has transformed in the wake of the Iran hostage crisis, political paradigms shift as Ronald Reagan makes his way to power, and communities all over the world begin to feel the impact of the growing AIDS epidemic. Ram Dass talks about learning to trust one’s intuitive inner voice when it comes to responding to suffering, and how we can bring together social action and spiritual work.
• Two years later, it is 1985 and the world has rapidly evolved. The Soviet Union has become a global threat. The nightly news shows the Apartheid regime in South Africa violently cracking down on Civil Rights activists, while the Reagan administration stands by, focused instead on rolling back civil liberties at home in the United States. Ram Dass offers perspective on navigating these challenges with an open heart. He explores the difference between dharma and seva, and why service requires us to embrace paradox in our lives.
• It is 1993, technology is transforming the world and how we engage with it. Ram Dass explores how being too attached to the fruits of our actions can be detrimental to social action work, leading activists to burn out quickly.
• We end our journey across the decades in 2018, in the middle of the first Trump administration in America. Wars rage on, and civil liberty is at risk across the globe. How do we oppose this skillfully and with an open heart? Ram Dass talks about how karma yoga is the key to finding the right balance between working on yourself and taking action for the benefit of others. 

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“So it really requires, it seems to me, staying open from moment to moment when you’re doing social action. And if you’re too obsessed with the goal, you lose it. If you’re too obsessed with the goal, since in much action you don’t get what you want, you’ll burn out much sooner. And so, the injunction of the Bhagavad Gita, which says be not identified with being the actor, be not attached to the fruits of the action, and yet, the action happens.” – Ram Dass

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