Ep. 292 – Coming Home to Being Human

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Dec 2, 2025

Ram Dass, a renowned spiritual teacher and author, shares his profound journey of integrating Eastern spirituality into Western psychology. He reflects on encounters with key figures like Trungpa Rinpoche and the transformative power of Tibetan texts. Topics include the balance between monastic practice and daily life, the importance of compassion, and the impact of serving others. Ram Dass emphasizes embracing full humanity, accepting suffering, and staying present as essential steps on the path to self-discovery.

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ANECDOTE

Lesson Through Humble Presence

Ram Dass recounts meeting Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche who lectured brilliantly despite appearing inebriated.
Trungpa used Ram Dass in a public teaching to expose his own clinging and provoke self-awareness.

ANECDOTE

Awakening From A Psychedelic Insight

Ram Dass describes a transformative psychedelic experience that revealed the constructed nature of his mind.
Aldous Huxley then introduced him to the Tibetan Book of the Dead which mapped that ineffable experience.

INSIGHT

Spiral Between Retreat And Marketplace

Ram Dass describes a spiral path: retreat practice followed by marketplace challenges, iteratively deepening awareness.
The external environment reveals latent desires; the problem is the mind, not the place.

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Speaking to a room full of Buddhists and psychotherapists, Ram Dass explores the impact that Eastern traditions have had on his life and his extraordinary adventure of coming home to being human.

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This episode of Here and Now comes from the keynote address Ram Dass gave at the 2nd Annual Buddhism & Psychotherapy Conference in 1987, which was sponsored by the Karma Kagyu Institute.

Ram Dass begins by outlining his connection with the Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, sharing stories of his time with Trungpa Rinpoche. He then gives a brief recap of his journey in life and how he was eventually drawn towards Eastern writings and teachings.
Ram Dass talks about embracing Buddhist practices and his spiral path of bouncing back and forth between being in retreat and being in the marketplace of life. He explores how his work with dying people helped him embrace the extraordinary adventure of coming home to being human.
Sharing a story about Kalu Rinpoche, another friend in the Kagyu line, Ram Dass discusses honoring compassion and the different levels at which we can do service in the world. He wraps things up by saying, “I cannot conceivably repay the debt that I feel to the Eastern traditions for having introduced me to myself.”

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 at ramdass.org.

“And I see that as an extraordinary adventure of coming home to being human. It’s interesting that more of the letters I’ve gotten in the past year have said to me, ‘Thank you for being human.’ Isn’t that bizarre? I mean, I’ve spent 25 years trying to be divine, and people write and thank me for being human. I mean, that just seems like a bizarre paradox to me.” – Ram Dass

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