In this continuation of his address to the American Psychological Association, Ram Dass talks about integrating different planes of reality and offers 10 recommendations for psychologists.

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If you haven’t done so already, listen to Here and Now Ep. 259 to hear the first part of this talk. This episode is a continuation of Ram Dass’ address to the American Psychological Association in Montreal, Canada, on September 3rd, 1980.

• Ram Dass examines the paradoxes that we must incorporate into our beings as we start to play with different planes of reality, including issues of free will and determinism. He talks about embracing his humanity and taking the curriculum that’s offered to him in this life.
• Ram Dass explores systems that exist in other cultures that are usable by psychology, including the Chakra systems. He reads a story about an Eastern doctor as an example of someone who has integrated different planes of reality into his work.
• Using his clock analogy, Ram Dass details the process of awakening from identification with our separateness and how we evolve from seeking pleasure to seeking freedom. He ends the address by offering 10 recommendations for psychologists that he’s gleaned through his life experiences.

“You and I met here today in a way that our hearts touched. You can’t convert what I said into any simple psychological stuff right away. But you and I are meeting in a way that we know we are touching something that is real for both of us. We may not be able to say what it is that’s just happening to us, but we know it’s happening. We can point at the moon, a little bit.” – Ram Dass

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Presenting his unique life as a case study, Ram Dass offers insights into the human mind and altered states of consciousness to a gathering of the American Psychological Association.

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This episode of Here and Now is from the first part of Ram Dass’ address to the Meeting of the American Psychological Association in Montreal, Canada, on September 3rd, 1980.

• Ram Dass presents his case to the American Psychological Association, talking about a set of experiences and shifting perceptions that confronted him with the issue of what reality truly is.
• He explores his time as a professor at Harvard, meeting Tim Leary, and the power of his first psychedelic experience. That experience propelled Ram Dass to years of research with these consciousness-altering chemicals and a deep exploration of the human mind.
• Having become a master of getting high, Ram Dass talks about the horrors of coming down. But these studies with psychedelics helped him to empty his mind, become more of a witness to his experiences, and be less associated with his emotional states.
• Finally, Ram Dass shares what led to him going to India, his experience of giving his guru psychedelics, and how his concept of time started to change. He closes by talking about the different planes of consciousness.

“I found myself becoming less identified with my emotional states and my psychological qualities and characteristics, and perplexedly enough, at the same moment, more involved with them. I seemed to be living more fully in the moment of the feelings, and yet, at the same moment, being more spacious around them.” – Ram Dass

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In this half-hour guided meditation, Ram Dass uses concentration and mindfulness techniques to help us sit on the river bank of the mind and watch the thoughts, sensations, and feelings flow by.

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Take a seat on the river bank of your mind with this guided meditation Ram Dass conducted during a retreat in Vancouver, Canada, in February 1992.

• Ram Dass begins the guided meditation with a Samadhi, or concentration, practice. “Every time the mind wanders to any sensation or thought,” he says, “the minute you notice that it has wandered away from the breath, just very gently, non-judgmentally, draw the awareness back to the next breath.”
• The meditation shifts to a mindfulness practice. “Now just open up into mindfulness,” says Ram Dass, “just being aware of what is. Let the mind be drawn to whatever primary object it is drawn to. If it’s drawn to a feeling in your back or in your legs, notice that. If it’s drawn to a memory or a plan or an emotion, a listening, tasting, whatever sensation or thought, let it flicker to that, let it sit with it, don’t hold onto the thought or sensation, and then watch it be replaced by another one.”
• For the last part of the meditation, Ram Dass tells us to focus on the thought of “I.” He says, “Look and see if you can find out where that is. Where is the thought of I? Who is this I? In the ocean of awareness, where is I?”

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“It’s as if you were sitting on a river bank watching the mind’s stuff go by. Here comes a floating sensation from the knee. Here comes a thought about the whole process. Here comes the listening to a sound. They just come, and they go.” – Ram Dass

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