Ram Dass on The Levin Interviews, 1981

This recording originates from a 1981 episode of the BBC's The Levin Interviews, hosted by famed journalist and broadcaster Bernard Levin. In the interview, Levin asks Ram Dass a myriad of calculated questions concerning identity, spiritual awakening, religion, God, and incarnation.
__________________
The Love Serve Remember Foundation is dedicated to preserving and continuing the teachings of Ram Dass and his guru, Neem Karoli Baba.
Find out more at ramdass.org
Instagram: / babaramdass
Facebook: / babaramdass
TikTok: / ramdassofficial
Support us in offering more content like this: igfn.us/form/d...
or text KZbin to 91999

[@divinewind7405]

What a wonderful incarnation Ram Dass was. 🙏🏻✨️🙏🏻✨️

[@YT_HATES_FREE_SPEECH]

Ram Dass wins for the greatest ever 'appriciation' nod at the end of the interview 😂

[@OfficialGOD]

haha yes

[@TheDharmaBarber]

“I may be truly psychotic Bernard.” 😂

[@johnatyoutube]

What a beautiful talk. Ram Dass is such a special being and a master story teller. I had the honor of spending an evening with him a week before his passing. He emanated love. ❤

[@deerush9088]

Notice how consciously aware and detached from identity he is right from the start of the interview. “Tell us who you were” “I was born, given the name Richard Alpert”

[@rajeevmishra6156]

"I'm in the business of freedom " ....priceless

[@noelhutz]

one of his best interviews!

[@gavinduggan199]

Let’s respect Bernard Levin here too

[@lightenough]

He really embodied the smile of unbearable compassion here. Had me smiling and crying inside.

[@franc7188]

So beautiful…..my heart swells when I hear him speak

[@slowwco]

Ram Dass quote highlights from this video: “I realized in India that they had maps about this terrain of consciousness-the types of things that we were thinking we were the first explorers on the earth.” “The name ‘Ram Dass’ was useful to me because every time somebody calls you ‘Servant of God’, it reminds you about what your business is about-which Richard didn't really do.” “I'm not any more a Hindu than I am a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Jew, or a Islam … I think in every one of them is living spirit, and I am completely hooked on living spirit and that which truth brings you to. At the highest or most esoteric essence of each of the religions is that same truth. I am very much attached to Spirit and not particularly to religious forms.” “What seem like critical moments in a life, when you look back later, you see that there was a lot of preparation in your being for that.” “It seems to me that the entire universe of forms is lawful in its unfolding, and that it is not by chance that each event occurs … . It merely is a set of lawful interactions.” “I have adopted the role of listening to the universe to hear the part I play, rather than thinking that I am so much of a choosing instrument.” ”The ultimate understanding that I have now is that we have taken a human birth in order to have a series of experiences which are vehicles for our awakening out of the illusion that we are only separate … Separate from the totality of form or what might be called ‘God’, or the formless that lies behind form, or ‘the one’.” “The journey of awakening leads one from thinking that the reality that you grew up with is real giving way to understanding that that's only relatively real. There are many types of realities, not only cross-cultural, but planes of awareness as well.” “I see another human being just like me, but in a different package. All the individual differences become packaging.” “There's only one of us in drag, making believe we are the many.” “The complete cycle is going from the many into the one, and then coming back into the many to delight in the forms of individual difference.” “You have transcended any attachment to a separate identity, even though you still enjoy the separateness.” “You have become experience. You transcend the dualism, the separation between subject and object.” “Was it merely the one of us creating the many in order to come to know itself because there was no way a one could experience itself? So, it plays with dualism? Because as you awaken out of dualism, you realize that the entire thing was like a dream, or a dance, or an illusion.” “The rational mind can never comprehend the system that created it. In other words, a system can’t understand a system meta to it.” “If you look at the wheel of births and deaths in which you go from the one into the many and then awaken back into the one-and then stand back from that wheel outside of time and space-you see that there is nothing happening, there is no beginning and there's no end.” “God just is. God isn't going anywhere. It always was, is and will be.” “If I were to define what I am, I'd say I'm in ‘nobody training’.” “As Christ points out, one lives in the world, but not of the world.” “You slowly realize that this is a form that's manifesting, and you dance with it. You wear it like your clothing, you honor it, you take care of it, you keep it clean and neat-and you find out how it harmoniously expresses itself.” “You are constantly listening to hear what your function is, and the quieter you become, the more you hear your function is that of service, of leaving the suffering that exists.” ”There is a place where you and I are one, and if you are suffering, I'm suffering. And, there’s where social responsibility comes in.” “We aren't who we think we are. That's really the basic teaching of it all. You aren’t who you thought you were. You’re much more than that.” “You see models as merely models, and you start to rest in your awareness that lies behind the models … In that awareness, that spaciousness around the forms, is the equanimity.” “My life is my message (attributed to Gandhi). What you realize is that you work on yourself and you become an environment which allows another person to grow if they are in the point of evolution with a wish to grow. And if they aren't, you leave them alone.” “Pleasure and happiness is not the business I'm in. I'm in the business of freedom. It's very different.” “Once you have started to awaken and extricate yourself from identification, one of the first things you break the identification with is your own body.” “Every time you let go of your model of who you were and how the world is, you are open. There's a little teeny space in the veil that you could use as a vehicle for awakening.” “You don't die. Just who you think you are dies.” “Everything I'm saying is a lie because words are birds; they're just flying through the space, and the truth has no form.” “Everybody has as much guidance as they need. It's all happening perfectly. That's what's so mind blowing. The thing is just unfolding for each person so perfectly.”

[@timmy1874]

Stand back and listen to see which part you play

[@CandyCrush-th4hy]

Ram Dass knows his Buddha teachings

[@citizenenak]

Wow. Ram Dass just recited my perspective on why we're here. Religion, everything fits this view when you see yourself clearly apart from thoughts and feelings.

[@jimmyhart3191]

The fiercest player of all time

[@cro-emils783]

Just love this interview…. One of my favourites.

[@Max-lb4xk]

Ram ram ram

[@citizenenak]

Just consider you can get lost and in a very real sense sh-l gets real scary maybe or real heavenly or maybe we should stay the middle path. Buddhists are right says that citizen.

[@yahboimavvy7771]

The guru of the western civilization 🧎‍♂️☮️

[@vortexfx420]

This also does not include the millions of NDE's experiences of all the same information but I can imagine back in 81 it wasnt talked about.

[@tessallations378]

honestly it’s beautiful how it fits so so well with the NDEs. i learned of NDEs, and then coming back to spiritual teachers they are just saying the same thing. it’s really great.

[@thepresentmoment369]

Oh my thank you so much whoever you are. Bless you 🙏🙏🙏

[@JaiSriRam1777]

This comment is to peacefully protest the gatekeeping of RD’s lectures. Common complaints as clarified by the community on the Ram Dass subreddit are as follows. Removal of content, privatizing/licensing out content, copyright striking others who post content without replacing what was removed or providing another means to access the content. Restriction of what is released, cutting and editing pieces of full lectures and not releasing the full lectures themselves. Putting a paywall in place that provides access to still limited content. Access to content is overall severely limited compared to just a year or two ago.

[@andrewmorrison5359]

Get the feeling Ram Dass was just getting warmed up there and could have talked for a few more hours 😊

[@tessallations378]

hahaha i got the same feeling! i think he’s used to talking more, and i wish they had had more time.

[@gregjohnson8706]

I'm over here laughing my butt off. Look at the expression on Ram Dass face while explaining those levels. Lol. Like he was selling a lemon at a used car lot.😂😂😂

[@johnm3152]

Thank you - "can't close the door when the wall's caved in" Thanks for the peek into the applicable past

[@justinmus2896]

World Peace. One Piece at a time

[@gregjohnson8706]

Mr Levin says " what happens when we it the jackpot ! " 😂😂😂

[@gregjohnson8706]

Ram Dass says " it's only one of us in DRAG! " 😂😂😂

[@RawanShenasi]

My Guru ❤

[@justicefrequency]

Baba Ram Dass. My guru ❤

[@shubhambansal1572]

He is enlighted for sure

[@ObliviousToEverything]

Underrated interview

[@HanzKetchup100]

Makes sense. 19:39 19:40

[@wondergirl60s]

❤️

[@jh3choi]

ॐ~

[@OfficialGOD]

classic

[@lukearonie]

this one's so good

[@davidreid8075]

When TV was worth watching.

[@BabaRamDassChannel]

We at the channel totally agree with you!

[@ibnniaz]

1:01

[@manuelparedes9675]

We are millions and one at a time. 👁️👁️

[@ronamain8689]

Great interview ❤

[@ledacedar6253]

I found him in the 70’s Be here Now was far out & fantastic; then hormones, marriage, kids career took hold without this rooting for a balanced well being! Humility, superb teaching & from the best Spiritual researcher & practitioner of living life in connection to all that is! RIP RamDass

[@o.j5526]

❤

[@juliusgruning4696]

just a petty scam like every other self acclaimed "guru"... nooooo he would have never called himself a guru yet somehow he knows the answer to just how life works and all that... yea.. "formless behind the form" i just learned where eckhart lolle got that bs from

[@thomasburke3013]

How’s life treating you? Are you okay?

[@magdalenab8682]

​@@thomasburke3013wanted to ask the same...so much pain coming from this comment