Ram Dass "On Love & Death"
Ram Dass “On Love & Death”
CREATED BY GARY YOST & ADAM LOFTEN 8:10 mins 2020
“Death does not have to be treated like an enemy for you to delight in life.” Sit with spiritual teacher Ram Dass in a soul to soul connection a year before his passing as he shares his perspectives on love and finding peace in death.
If you’d like to spend a full half hour in darshan with Ram Dass in his garden, the link to that experience is here.
Watch on VR Headset on Oculus
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Watch below on YouTube 360° : For the best experience, set quality to 4K 2160 and turn up your volume. Next click on play and then click and drag on the video to explore and play with your point of view.
Discussion Guide:
Ram Dass shares “Death does not have to be treated like an enemy for you to delight in life.” The “enemy” is a common metaphor for death.
Do you view death as an enemy to be battled, conquered or retreated from?
Does your feeling about death prevent you from fully delighting in life? Or does it bring you more into the preciousness of each moment?
Ram Dass shares “I perceive myself and the universe as love and I’m immersed in the ocean of love. And nature shows the cycle of life, death, life, death, life death… we are on that cycle.” Ram Dass holds his philosophical truth of the universe being composed as love while simultaneously acknowledging the biological truth that nature’s cycle is a wheel of life and death, repeated over and over.
Do you make sense of the Universe and its cycles through metaphysical philosophy, scientific/empirical evidence, or both?
Try and describe your own feelings about death in one or two sentences.
Ram Dass states that “death is not an error, it’s not a failure... it’s taking off a tight shoe.”
What do you think he means with the analogy that death is like “taking off a tight shoe?” What does the “shoe” represent to you?
Ram Dass believes “As a soul, I have no fear. If you approach death as a transition for the soul, nothing’s to be scared about.” The foundational aspect of Ram Dass’ not fearing death is that he believes his soul is going to transition when his body is no longer alive.
Do you fear death? What do you believe happens when your body is no longer alive?
Ram Dass gives us a mantra at the end of the experience, to repeat “I am loving awareness.”
Mantras have dual purposes, one of which is to focus the mind on meditation and the other is to affirm something important to ourselves spiritually.
What Ram Dass is doing is not rhetorical… he really wants you to use this mantra. Find a comfortable quiet moment, close your eyes and repeat the mantra “I am loving awareness.” for a couple of minutes. Reflect on how you feel afterwards.
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