Ram Dass on the Levin Interviews | Part 1 of 2 - BBC 1981

Ram Dass interviewed on the BBC in 1981. Ram Dass tells his story. Ram Dass is spiritual not religious. The entire universe is lawful in its unfolding. It's not by chance that each event occurs. It is a set of lawful interactions. It is best to listen for your part in the play, not the chooser. We have taken a human birth to have a series of experiences which are vehicles for our awakening out of the illusion that we are exclusively separate. The journey of awakening goes from seeing yourself as separate to seeing that this "you" is only relatively real. You are separate on one plane, but going up one level, you see that we are not separate.

[@leanne5669]

Rest in Peace Baba Ram Dass, December 22, 2019. Time now to be fully in your awareness!

[@michaelserebreny454]

Leanne Forsythe ehh. He won't be gone for long. I don't think he's the type to just go dancing off into the void and leave the rest of us without a teacher, do you?

[@leanne5669]

@@michaelserebreny454 just a transition- like walking through a doorway

[@livingmonk3709]

Did you know the books of ram Dass?? What is the name of the book that he wrote.?

[@leanne5669]

@@livingmonk3709From Wikipedia, the published works of Ram Dass: Identification and Child Rearing (with R. Sears and L. Rau) (1962) Stanford University Press The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner) (1964) ISBN 0-8065-1652-6 LSD (with Sidney Cohen) (1966) ISBN 0-453-00120-3 Be Here Now or Remember, Be Here Now (1971) ISBN 0-517-54305-2 Doing Your Own Being (1973) The Only Dance There Is (1974) ISBN 0-385-08413-7 Grist for the Mill (with Stephen Levine) (1977) ISBN 0-89087-499-9 Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook (1978) ISBN 0-553-28572-6 Miracle of Love: Stories about Neem Karoli Baba (1978) ISBN 0-525-47611-3 How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service (with Paul Gorman) (1985) ISBN 0-394-72947-1 Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service (with Mirabai Bush) (1991) ISBN 0-517-57635-X Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying (2000) ISBN 1-57322-871-0 Paths to God: Living The Bhagavad Gita (2004) ISBN 1-4000-5403-6 Be Love Now (with Rameshwar Das) (2010) ISBN 1-84604-291-7 Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart (with Rameshwar Das) (2013) ISBN 1-60407-967-3 Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying (with Mirabai Bush) (2018) ISBN 1-68364-200-7

[@112deeps]

@@leanne5669😱 😂😂🙏😉. God's Name is revealed to Moses on the Mount. 😇. Thank you

[@Werdxp]

Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Terence McKenna, all on another level.

[@goodsirknight]

have a gander at "a conversation with Terence McKenna and Ram Dass", sublime stuff

[@solodolotrevino]

Check out Jason Silva. He's and up and coming version of these guys

[@dreamingrightnow1174]

+goodsirknight I did, what a striking difference in the two personalities. And speaking of that, what about the delightful way Ram Das explains oneness and separateness as it relates to different roles for different planes.

[@corbenvanloosbroek4811]

Timothy Leary

[@cheemooo]

You said it just right these are the three men I always think of when I crave interaction beyond the mundane level of life.

[@ernestolombardo5811]

Let us acknowledge Mr Levin here, it is a spectacularly skillful interviewer who can keep time and dance with the concepts Ram Dass talks about in the way he talks about them. Time and again you can see the smile of delight in Ram Dass, the twinkle in his eye at enjoying intelligent questions asked in an elegant manner.

[@finosuilleabhain7781]

Much missed. Where is his like these days - at least on a regular TV network?

[@KidForTodayBOC]

Yes, I even wrote to BBC asking them to make the Levin interviews available but to no avail.

[@randomelvis3359]

I agree, Ram loved a play mate….

[@john-carlosynostroza]

Yup. True. Check out the Jeffrey Mishlove interview. Also great stuff! Mishlove is a wonderfully appreciative interviewer with great questions.

[@EddieBryan]

I saw Ram Dass at my community college from which I had graduated. He was observing silence. Clad in white. Very happy. Smiled, smiled, smiled.

[@iristerhorst598]

"i have adopted the role, of sort of listening to the universe, to hear the part i play, of rather thinking that i am so much of a choosing instrument" dangggg

[@ghahandi]

I wish I had had a chance to meet him. What I love about Ram Dass is his simple articulation of big ideas supported by his personal experience. His gift is communicating no b.s. truths.💓

[@harryschultz6951]

That’s so true.

[@ghahandi]

I met Tim Leary once in SF. We spoke briefly. I always thought certain psychedelics could bring world peace.

[@rr7firefly]

"If you could just stand back far enough…" That's it right there: we are living in a myopic cultural framework where social conditioning keeps us in a state of ignorance.

[@MrSuperbluesky]

Noe Berengena well said

[@rr7firefly]

@@MrSuperbluesky Let's make some progress with our spiritual evolution. What do you say? In today's world there are always distractions thrown in our path to slow us down. Or to actually obscure the way. der Weg, mein Freund!

[@luxinfinity73]

Remember the lyrics of "The Wall" by Pink Floyd.

[@Essential4Life]

​@@rr7fireflymuch love to you!

[@chrislaro1396]

here is the deal that summed up RD's existence - tell the truth and LOVE EVERYONE unconditionally and fully and eternally. Period. Serve, serve, serve.

[@BuddhatheRockstar]

Personally this interview was so extremely important to me. 😍

[@harryschultz6951]

What’s remarkable is that he’s so incredibly articulate and explains this so that pretty near anyone can understand. That’s an amazing gift and talent just on its you know ?

[@crypticwintermoon6284]

I can listen to this man for hours. His voice is soothing and the words meaningful.

[@Dahn.Baern.]

So grateful for the ability to see things like this at a whim! "God just is, God isn't going anywhere."

[@mattpetello]

I will never forget watching this video for the first time a couple years ago. Amazing then, even more amazing now.

[@lilyxin9149]

Then you probably should check out Advaita Vedanta, that is what he's talking about throughout the entire video. It's an extremely deep and profound philosophy.

[@2sridhark]

I was saddened to see how much Ram Dass is suffering after the stroke he had in 1997. He has given so much to the world. I hope he finds bliss and grace till the end.

[@usitha]

Don't be sad. Look at the Netflix documentry... he definitely is not

[@pxu156]

Usitha Ranatunge What’s it called?

[@AntonDee]

Every time i listen to this interview I learn something new, the quieter I become the clearer my purpose becomes

[@alcooper6186]

Thank you Bro, We are All One. Let's hope that One Day the whole world will recognize it. RIP - Om Shanthi🙏

[@Adipsia1]

Pure wisdom put across with such clarity... and under the kind of intellectual scrutiny that can't be found any more, even through the BBC. 'Never mind the quality, feel the width' is the mantra these days.

[@Adipsia1]

The fundamental question that we should be asking ourselves is why we should continually choose to reincarnate ? The answer is that seemingly we become addicted to Lila - the play of forms - and choose to stay on that reincarnation 'hamster-wheel'. But to what end ? How many times do we have to go through the cycle before we understand that we have the choice of stepping-off between incarnations ?

[@prophetsoflondon2082]

Unmatched wisdom

[@totesalli]

Similar to what Alan Watts says about the Universe becoming aware of itself in your being human... the One becoming many so it can observe itself. This concept resonates with me when I look around at the world, especially nature. I'm glad to be a vessel through which the Universe can enjoy its own complexity :)

[@Mrrickyboy41]

Allison Villa The thing is though to what extent do we place our belief that the Universe we live in is REAL when in the true reality of things,time and space don't exist and are only illusions..

[@totesalli]

Moonlite Delite I see what you're saying, Moonlite! But I didn't say anything about the reality we experience being absolute truth. Isn't the nature of reality irrelevant in this situation? ;)

[@Mrrickyboy41]

Hmm im not sure.Cause you make it sound like The Universe "purposely" did this to itself.This "separation" was not intended..i think.It's a dream.But if you want to take it from the stand point that we are in now,i agree its fun being they eyes of the Absolute and being able to play a part in..

[@Majnun74]

+Moonlite Delite Teleology

[@gpenaa]

I love you so much Baba Ram Dass, thank you ❤❤

[@isaklytting5795]

This is a beautiful, beautiful, concise interview with Richard Alpert. It's full of wisdom. And the interviewer is terrific and super intelligent. He actually understand philosophical ideas and what he and Alpert are talking about. This journalist is one in ten thousand.

[@isaklytting5795]

***** No, I am not. Jeez! Are you feeling just a little a bit paranoid and control-freaky and nit-picky? I didn't give it a second thought! I haven't followed his life after he took that name, and don't know his reasons for it, and I don't feel the slightest bit ashamed for not knowing everything you know. Ever since I learned who Alpert was when I was 12, 35 years ago, and discovered the group from Harvard, he has been Dr. Richard Alpert to me. So sorry if that offends your way of how things should be. I just loved the interview, and wanted to give my appreciation for a wonderful experience. There are people who get so obsessed with the minutiae and petitesses of a religion or of the details around a person they admire, that in time they lose sight of what originally attracted them, and it becomes more important to them how people pronounce words, or whether some rules are strictly observed, than what the actual point of the religion or the message of that person is, and what is really in the heart of the person standing in front of them.

[@jhonefinsmith7240]

Isak Lytting but isak :) he was just asking friend. people are different in this world, tolerance over aggression

[@isaklytting5795]

***** Do you think so? Now that I read the letter again, I think you may be right. I am sorry. I missed seeing the following part of the letter before it was edited: "Also, I felt the interviewer was missing the point(s) on a grand scale, and was entrenched in western (Christian-centric) standpoints." That makes it more clear to me that David might just be asking a question out of curiosity, as you say. By the way, that may be true, I am not sophisticated enough in the technical aspects of the religion and philsophy to judge that, or even the non-technical aspects. I just felt he kept up pretty well with Ram Dass, and maybe I was just so surprised, as I was comparing with most of the journalists I am used to seeing, whom I struggle too see as anything more than morons, or at least extremely dull and uncritical, and unaware of how little they understand and are capable of understanding.

[@isaklytting5795]

***** You are right. Tolerance over aggression. But I am not very close to enlightenment at all. Or even as evolved as I once was. I am very much full of flaws. And I am sorry.

[@jhonefinsmith7240]

Isak Lytting theres no need for sorrow.... no one is more or less enlightened, we are all teachers and we are all students.. life is a journey, not a competition so be happy in yourself and with yourself and let the wheels keep turning

[@alexb8395]

Rest in peace Ram Dass. राम

[@louiscyfer6944]

Alex B i think dumb ass is more appropriate.

[@paramahansayogananda51]

Very good, inspiring wisdom. This is the result of company and blessings of a great self realised Guru Baba Neem Karoli. Thanks.

[@hiranpeiris8770]

Fantastic Interview . Clear Explanation By Ram Dass

[@YASHWANTH871]

Interview at its best!

[@vm2943]

This interview is so awesome, it is a true questionnaire to understand things and not to argue or prove, one or the other is wrong. There is no sarcasm, no cynical attitude, just pure path to understanding more, as much as I love Ram Das answers, I equally enjoyed the questions put forward

[@luxinfinity73]

The movie "Becoming Nobody" is an eye and heart opener. There's no other though in this game, it feels as if there is.

[@CanadianMang]

This was so powerful!

[@krishnapartha]

This is truth. How I pray all of us realize it.

[@sjjahoda5622]

My mind just melted

[@AK-fh1zr]

Amazing !!! Can't think of any other word to describe how I feel after listening to Ram Dass.

[@virginiamellum7036]

Great video, lots of wisdom if conciously listen to.

[@linacasale1415]

❤️❤️❤️ amazing and so relevant each time

[@tonzagunz8881]

I love Ram Dass.

[@karanranawat5124]

I live in india. The Ashram of Neem Karoli Baba( maharaj ji) is 200-250 kms away from my home..i have to board a bus and it will drop me there. And i know i will completely transform if i go there.

[@Mueseek]

I’m really grateful for this video. It’s great to see a one on one, focused, back and forth conversation like this. And the interviewer asks good questions.

[@marypalmer1062]

Being part of everything that ever was and ever shall be... and I saw that it was so simple as not to be seen by most. I knew that my consciousness would soon revert to where it had been

[@ahmedelectobri1164]

Love this interview ❤️ RIP Baba

[@chrislaro1396]

it was a great question - if we all are part of the universe then why do we have to seek or become it? Good thought. Because, life itself creates in us an expanse of stressors and guilt, regrets, pains n' sorrows that derails our connection. This path is about renewal always, practice always so we can become more and more connected not separate.

[@SD-np5ew]

He is amazing. Changing life

[@lucasmaloney9304]

Beautiful! Namaste amigo

[@Aishwarya4801]

He Is so crisp in his knowledge and in percieving it.

[@pejlin30]

I really enjoy you'r interview, it makes me so search more about you and i will do. You have so much commun like my spirtutal inside though. I wish you the best !

[@katherineturner1892]

This is beautiful

[@MrSolfreeman2]

He's magnificent!!. What an intelligent interview. You don't get that these days too often lol

[@sharpasaneraser]

This guy was everywhere in the 60s...headed up the Tijuana Brass, co-founded A&M records, discovered The Carpenters and wrote a couple of bestsellers.

[@vidster123]

That would be Herb Alpert lol

[@simsimma9622]

@@vidster123 Hahaha!!!!

[@andrewcorbett5729]

Thank you Richard Alpert/Ram Dass

[@jorgevasconcelosmadetomove]

pure gold

[@bhushanmayank]

Today the knowledge of spiritual freedom can be discovered in many ways on KZbin..But, Ramdass' discovery of this elusive knowledge of advaita must have been difficult .

[@alaresrock9810]

Love you Baba , thank you, thank you. thank you 🙏🏻 !!!!!!

[@sevadance]

important historic content, context; mahalo for posting

[@rareoro]

I realize many people are disturbed at their own misunderstanding of his lesson and easily jump to judgement. Open your mind. Listen without thinking. Receive. Trust yourself as a person and slowly you will come to understand what few know and many have forgotten. Be brave and let the truth set you free. God bless.

[@Anon1696]

I am loving awareness

[@vinaypandey2457]

amazing

[@ssake1_IAL_Research]

Top-notch questions. There is a trap, here, of speaking about things beyond one's personal experience as though one knows (when actually, one knows intellectually, from study). Ram Dass sometimes steps into it, and sometimes avoids it. At one point he quotes "Buddha's answer," which I think it would be best to do on all such occasions.

[@sarahritt.creates]

Just Brilliant.

[@MrNitKap]

Ram Dass is explaining the Hindu ideas ... but he is wise enough to know NOT to say he is a Hindu (which is not wrong because at that level indeed there is no such thing as Hindu...BUT Hindus are indeed the people who understood this long before anyone else even thought about it...and still are way ahead of anyone else...)

[@moonflower48]

10:29 that knowing look and laugh =)

[@outspokenfreespirit]

stellar

[@Daffodil956]

Classic. 🙏🙏

[@bhaichungbhutia9914]

🙏...jai maharaji ... god bless...!!!

[@amityoutube9428]

Jai gurudev 🙏😍

[@AlanJohnMayer]

I am changing my name to Servant of God now.

[@jazwarraich4267]

Alan John Mayer Abdullah

[@donjuantrumpetajohnson]

Good..now bring me a sandwich and massage my feet..

[@mary-janegibson8691]

I love this man

[@jitendrarajoriya8586]

Jai siya Ram 🙏 jai siya Ram 🙏 jai siya Ram 🙏 jai siya Ram 🙏 jai siya Ram 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@Minakshi20021]

Rest in peace Ram Dass🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@joeladams8506]

Ram Ram Ram

[@oracleowen]

Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram

[@dhammaboy1203]

Ram Dass is the real deal in the awake wisdom game!

[@humanhuman1038]

Great

[@richardconner15]

YOU CAN HEAR HOW HE HAS A GREAT WISDOM DIALOGUE.ITS MAKE,S HIS APHASIA AFTER HIS STROKE, EVEN MORE SAD. ITS LIKE THE WORLD HAS HAD A REPOSITORY OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE BURNED TO THE GROUND.

[@willuseman]

Groovy

[@pepperedburns7922]

i entered the wind upon listening

[@NJacana]

I'd llike to know that piano music in the intro.

[@jm-rf7kl]

Baba Ram Dass had just the right blend of personality, education and spiritual attainment for his role of helping to enlighten the west. He reminds me of Alan Watts in that way.

[@manufacturedreality8706]

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ― Albert Einstein

[@moesypittounikos]

Rams lectures titled The Yoga's of the Bhagavad Gita is amazing. However, I was left with more knowledge of the adventures of Ram Dass than anything about the Gita.. I was left with the feeling that Ram Dass was a rich boy (his father was a railway magnet) playing as spirituality. Ram Dass even said his dad was a millionaire and, once, his dad went to visit his son in sqalar in India and offered him 10 thousand dollars. Ram Dass said no.

[@ncf1]

Little wonder we humans get so caught up in drama; to create the illusion that indeed something really is 'happening', is important, is necessary. Whereas as Ram Dass says, it actually starts to get interesting when you understand that its pointless.

[@manish8309]

Rip 🙏💐

[@jagdishdumka7759]

Definitely gurudev poured himself upto some extent, otherwise he can't answer so profoundly.. 🙏🙏

[@davidli9070]

Who is watching this in 2021?

[@michaelserebreny454]

You don't have to abandon the search for meaning - just the expectation of finding it. The search IS the meaning; we find an answer - we say "ah." and stop living.

[@kshathriya]

❤️🙏❤️ Baba Ram Dass 🔯🏹🐚

[@yyy5569]

A true genius

[@ALittleNobody]

interesting....

[@allannudelman9144]

What song is that in the beginning?

[@maxbassful]

Ram Dass lost Levin a few times but overall he did a decent job. You can see the smile in Ram Dass's eyes he's enjoy it all.

[@RocketKirchner]

St Augustines Confessions he talks about transcending the illusion of time as in the way Spinoza said we are to see the world in its fullness . Once we see that we are really one human race we begin to get less lonely . that is what Ram Dass is getting at but using the wisdom of the East to explain it .

[@michaelserebreny454]

This interviewer thinks that "pointless" means "pointless." In truth; when you realize the house is pointless, you do a more careful job painting it.

[@oracleowen]

!

[@kylepsmith21]

RAM = Right Ascension Meridian

[@gravy3858]

Does anyone know the intro song ? I’d appreciate it

[@ANA1961maria]

Aunque he puesto la traducción en español ha sido imposible entender lo leido podría alguien, por favor, traducirlo de forma leíble. Estoy interesada, gracias.

[@Blades729]

Apprende ingles

[@conscious3714]

Eastern and western philosophies are different externally but in essence both are very similar at spiritual level.

[@rg533able]

this was the bbc in 1981......people were happy to discuss such themes on the main channel for the uk... Now we want to view "reality" tv... and all kinds of cosmetic trivia. Am i missing the point in the point?????

[@marybonett327]

Absolute don

[@vacupulsion647]

Bit unfortunate that the camera was placed at the level of his adam's apple. I wonder whether the cameraperson did that on purpose to place him on a higher plan?

[@Majnun74]

Very interesting fellow. My fear is that people who have experienced psychadelics to the degree Ram Dass has, have this flowery prose and seeming enlightenment, but it may just be the 'Vanishing Point' to which the L.S.D. took you. There is no going back to the person you were after a trip I'm told and trying to explain it in terms of allegory and metaphor may be like the simple 1 dimensional shapes (square, triangle, line et al.) from Edwin A. Abbott's 'Flatland' book trying to understand a world of 3 dimensional shapes. I just don't know how any enlightened person could possibly be so "sure" of any one spiritual way...to the point of elucidation that it could be described to operate as such.

[@matthewmercury1]

Randall Schoverling

[@spacetonic]

+Randall Schoverling every experience changes us, some more and some others less. That is the point of experience, otherwise life would be empty! Definitely LSD (or psilocybin) is an extreme experience and brings abrupt change, that comes to choice after all.

[@Majnun74]

I just found out for myself last night 😉👅🌈

[@blackjack5676]

+Randall Schoverling LSD is the ammunition, your mind is the gun. The gun also matters.

[@orrza1]

+Randall Schoverling LISTEN to him!! You're off topic side face :/

[@robertemerson6090]

Ram Dass, the best friend I never met.,🙏

[@robertemerson6090]

What a wonderful interviewer. So engaged and gracious.

[@ozgursenturk11-11]

13:22 I didn't get the point when he say " can you sell soap with it" what does it mean?

[@RS-mj3pm]

He is asking: But what practical value is this to someone living in a civilised society? He is asking, how can we merge your insights and perspectives with the reality of having a job, having to pay bills, and make our way in the social order.

[@jesulaughs]

What is this piano at the beginning?

[@redvanontherun]

It's 'Pictures at an exhibition' by Mussorgsky (min. 10 aprox)