The more you identify with your ego instead of your spirit, the more you will view the world based on your own experiences, biases, and judgments, and see yourself as alone and vulnerable in an unfriendly world. From this vantage point, suffering is a negative, unavoidable, and intrinsic part of life.

Thinking of yourself as separate from everyone and everything else inevitably leads to suffering. Why? At the root of this psychological illusion is not only a feeling of separateness, but qualities of that separateness: smallness, unworthiness, and inadequacy, which give rise to fear, anger, and other self-destructive emotions. Ultimately then, separation leads to upsetting emotions, which lead to suffering, which leads to more upsetting emotions and a greater sense of separateness.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• How the concept of Original Sin is related to separateness
• Our tendency to protect and justify our separateness
• The 3 cultural strategies for dealing with the forces of the universe
• How viewing yourself as a separate being blocks your path to the Divine
• The conflict between righteousness and truth
• The unity that lies behind the diversity
• Why separation is a learned belief
• Why everything within time and space functions lawfully

Q&A With Rameshwar Das Lytton

Rameshwar Das (James) Lytton met Ram Dass in 1967, soon after his return from India, and spent time with Neem Karoli Baba in India from 1970 to 1972. His principal vocation has been photography, working primarily on a freelance basis, including for the New York Times. He’s taught photography and photojournalism, and has also worked as an environmentalist and writer. Over the years, Ramesh has collaborated on several projects with Ram Dass, including the original collection of manuscripts that became Be Here Now and the Love Serve Remember box set of recordings. He is the co-author of Ram Dass’ newer books, Be Love Now and Polishing the Mirror. He lives with his wife and children on Long Island in New York.

You can only escape from the prison of separateness — and the negative emotions it generates — through the doorway of your heart. Beyond that door lies the unitive nature of the universe and freedom from the heavy, confining chains of the ego. Only then can you experience the preciousness, the grace, the sweetness, the interconnectedness of life.

To the extent that you free yourself from attachments, you will be freed of your disturbing emotions. Enlightened detachment flows out of heightened awareness and the conviction that life is unfolding as it should. You are fully engaged in life while humbly acknowledging that a greater wisdom than your own is at work.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• How the process of purification frees you from illusion
• The power of allowing yourself to be beautiful
• How to relinquish your belief in your separateness
• Why more is never enough
• The journey from total illusion to total oneness
• Why as long as you have desires, you’ll suffer
• Why happiness must embrace sadness, and love must embrace hate
• Why fear is the frightened child, and love is the flame of holy remembering

Q&A With Lama Surya Das

Lama Surya Das is one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars. The Dalai Lama affectionately calls him “the American Lama.” He has spent over 40 years studying Zen, Vipassana, Yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism with many of the great old masters of Asia, among them some of the Dalai Lama’s own teachers as well as Neem Karoli Baba. He is an authorized lama in the Tibetan Buddhist order, a leading spokesperson for Buddhism and contemporary spirituality, a translator, poet, meditation master, chant master, and spiritual activist. He is the author of the bestseller Awakening the Buddha Within and 12 other books.

Becoming aware of your awareness and identifying with your spiritual essence instead of your body-bound ego enables you to “step out from behind your eyes” and serve as a conscious, impartial witness to your own life. The instant you unplug from reacting out of pure emotion and begin objectively observing a situation, your fears and anxieties loosen their steely grip and you start to regain your mental clarity. Power and focus are then transferred from your all-consuming emotions to the witness aspect of your being.

Just as you don’t need to forgive nature for a rainstorm, you don’t need to forgive yourself for your disruptive emotions, which are a part of being human. Instead, by elevating your consciousness and observing your emotions from the balcony of detachment, they lose their power over you, and you are free.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• The importance of cultivating the heart-mind
• Two strategies for healing the emotional body
• The futility of trying to change your personality at the same level of consciousness in which you experience unpleasant emotions
• Why shifting your perspective is a key to emotional freedom
• Why forgiveness is a bridge between the separate self and the awakened soul
• The cost of holding onto resentment and anger
• The wisdom that opens up to you when you free yourself from the drama of your emotions
• Why the level of your freedom is inversely proportional to the level of your investment in your personality

Q&A With Mirabai Bush

Mirabai Bush is co-author, with Ram Dass, of Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service, and the forthcoming book, Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying. She is a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba and spent time with him in India from 1971 to 1972. She is also Senior Fellow and founder of the Center on Contemplative Mind in Society, which encourages contemplative practice and perspective in American life in order to create a more just, compassionate, and reflective society. Mirabai has also worked with Google on a workplace course called Search Inside Yourself and with the U.S. Army on a program for chaplains and medics. She formerly directed the Seva Foundation Guatemala Project, which supports sustainable agriculture and integrated community development. She is editor of Contemplation Nation, co-author of Contemplative Practices in Higher Education, and author of the audio, Working With Mindfulness. She lives with her partner in Western Massachusetts.

When you realize that you are here, on this planet, at this time, in this body because you wanted this learning experience, you can begin the next leg of your journey toward oneness with the Divine. Only when you accept the distortions and imperfections in your life can you rise above them.

When you come to embrace and befriend your suffering instead of running from it, you will understand the alchemy of how suffering is transformed into wisdom. Suffering then becomes a springboard for growth and self-discovery that ultimately enriches your life. View suffering as an enemy and you distance yourself from the richer, more fulfilling life that waits patiently on the other side of pain.

In this module, you’ll explore:

• The necessity of embracing the dark as well as the light
• The distinction between detachment and dissociation
• The wisdom of seeing people as you see trees
• How to appreciate the horrible beauty of the universe
• How therapy and spiritual practice can both be used to address psychological issues
• How a personal issue can be simultaneously relevant and irrelevant to you
• Why you have to become somebody before you can become nobody
• Why we often push against freedom when we approach it

Q&A With Raghu Markus

Raghu Markus currently is the Director of Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation and the host of the Mindrolling Podcast on the Be Here Now Network. Raghu spent two years in India with Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass. He’s been involved in music and transformational media since the early 1970s when he was program director of CKGM-FM in Montreal. In 1974, he collaborated with Ram Dass on the box set, Love Serve Remember. In 1990, he launched Triloka Records and Karuna Music in Los Angeles, California. Triloka established itself as a critical leader in the development of world music, and for 17 years was home to artists such as Krishna Das, Hugh Masekela, Walela, Jai Uttal, and transformational media projects featuring Ram Dass, Deepak Chopra, and Les Nubians. He owns Yatra Media and lives with his wife in Asheville, North Carolina.