Ep. 290 – The Balance Between Emptiness and Compassion

Nov 3, 2025

Dive into profound insights on balancing emptiness and compassion. Explore how suffering can be seen as grace while still striving to ease pain. Ram Dass answers engaging questions on synchronicity, the nature of consciousness, and practicing compassion for challenging individuals. Discover techniques for tuning consciousness and the transformative power of letting go. Delve into the historical perspective of societal unrest and learn to cultivate an inner calm amidst chaos. It's a rich journey through awareness and heartfelt connection.

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INSIGHT

Acting And Not Acting Sustain Practice

Ram Dass describes balancing 'acting' and 'not acting' as the heart of karma yoga.
He says the 'not acting' (emptiness) sustains compassionate action and prevents burnout.

INSIGHT

Compassion Arises From Spacious Emptiness

Emptiness and spontaneous compassion arise from the same vast source, not from doing for someone.
Ram Dass emphasizes compassion as a natural generative quality of the ocean-like awareness.

ANECDOTE

Three Tasks From A Tibetan Lama

Ram Dass recounts meeting Kalu Rinpoche and a teaching that you only have three tasks: honor your guru, deepen emptiness, deepen compassion.
The story linked devotional opening to emptiness and practice.

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Ram Dass talks about finding a balance between emptiness and compassion, then answers questions from the audience, including on how to deal with fear around current events.

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This episode of Here and Now comes from a weekend workshop Ram Dass held in San Jose, CA, in May of 1992, not long after the LA riots took place:

Ram Dass begins by discussing how it can be difficult to find a balance between the plane of emptiness and the plane of compassion. He talks about the paradox of seeing suffering as grace and still working to ease the suffering of those around us.
Ram Dass takes questions from the audience, including about seeing synchronicities, practicing compassion with people who are hard to love, whether consciousness survives death, and how to best honor the guru.
The final question is about dealing with fear related to current events, particularly the LA riots that had just happened in 1992. Ram Dass gives an abbreviated version of his lecture on “Riding the Waves of Change,” talking about how the art form is to be part of that in the universe which can handle change without being reactive to the fear by cultivating the parts in yourself that are not afraid.

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.

“So we’re talking about the balance between emptiness and compassion. We’re talking about the balance between control with the mind and boundless love with the heart. I’m just giving you the balances or tensions that you and I, as human species, play with. We’re dealing with the tensions between ourselves as separate entities, with ego structures and bodies and so on, and ourselves as part of one thing that has no separateness at all.” – Ram Dass

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