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- 107 - Ep. 75 | Humility
Call and Response Ep. 75 | Humility
Q: I just wanted to mention how 2019 was the year of practicing humbleness for me because it was how I understood love, how to get into somebody else’s shoes in order to understand where they’re coming from so that we can all be at peace. Can you speak about humbleness?
“Our inability to really do anything that’s for our own sake, that will be good for us, that would lead us to happiness, to openness, to being a good human being; our inability, so, the strength of God, of the Universe; it’s all from that place that all goodness comes. Of course, that place is within us.” – Krishna Das
KD: Yeah, hi.
Q: So, I have a hard time being in love and when you have, like, a neighbor that hates you or you hate them and trying to find that place of love
KD: You love hating that neighbor. It’s so wonderful, isn’t it?
Q: So, we play your music and the neighbor hates it.
KD: Ah, good. Excellent. Play it louder.
Q: We do. And so, we also have another neighbor that, her father passed away and she came over crying one day that, you know, “thank you for playing your music. So, it was totally contradictory to…”
KD: Well, put the speakers on that side of the lawn. So, you know, I have this friend who wrote to me and she said, you know, she’s breaking up with her husband and it’s so painful and she wishes it wasn’t happening. So, I said, “Well, what’s going on?” She said, “Well, you know, I love your chanting, so I play it in the kitchen. I play it in the living room. I play it in the bedroom upstairs. I play it in the guest room downstairs all the time.” I said, “Turn that music off and save your goddamned marriage.” So, put the speakers only so that one person can hear it. Leave that poor guy alone, you know?
Q: Well, with that in mind, I just wanted to mention how 2019 was the year of practicing humbleness for me because it was how I understood love, how to get into somebody else’s shoes in order to understand where they’re coming from so that we can all be at peace. Can you speak about humbleness?
KD: I don’t know, you know. I’m so humble, it’s hard to really talk about it. People say that to me all the time. “Oh, you’re so humble.” And I say, “Well, I know me.” But nobody gets it. They think I’m humble. It’s so weird. You know, real humility is the whole thing. Real humility is, you know, so I was in India and I was in a little town called Vrindavan and I was walking down the street and I stepped in a hole in the street and I snapped my leg, my knee, like this, and when I woke up in the morning my knee was like, swollen, like huge, right? So I figured I was going to have to go to the hospital. Now, Maharajji had forbidden us to come to the temple before four o’clock in the afternoon because the local Visa guy, Visa official, was harassing Him about the Westerners. It was politics. He just wanted some money, you know. And Maharajji wasn’t going to give it to Him so He was giving Him a hard time, so but I woke up in the morning with this knee and I thought, “I have to go to the hospital down in Mathura which is the town about 20 miles away, but before I go I should tell Maharajji I was going.” So, with great difficulty, I walked to the temple, leaning on a friend of mine, you know and I limped in, you know, like this and He was sitting all alone on, sitting on His cot, a tucket, they call it, in the middle of the courtyard, a completely empty big courtyard and He was right in the middle of it and there was one Indian guy sitting with Him. So, I kind of limped up, you know, and I pranamed and bowed and I sat down but I couldn’t bend my knee so I had to put my leg out straight underneath the tucket, you know? In India, you don’t really do that. You don’t point your feet towards your teacher. So, He didn’t say anything, right? He just looked at me and then after a few minutes, He gets up and He walks towards the back of the temple and the Indi...Thu, 28 Mar 2024 - 15min - 106 - Ep. 74 | Fear, Trauma, Cultural Appropriation, Mindfulness Club
Call and Response Ep. 74 | Fear, Trauma, Cultural Appropriation, Mindfulness Club
“We’re seeing the movie that we are projecting from within. So, we get to see what we have to work with a little bit. And little by little, that movie can be transformed into a screwball comedy from the 30’s. Carole Lombard? Nobody knows who she is. But we can, that movie can change. We can’t change the movie because we are the movie. But the movie can change through our aspiration to be free and the things that we do to help ourselves, to free ourselves from those negative emotions and aspects of our own personality.” – Krishna Das
Yes, the alien. What can I do for you?
Q: Yes, I’m the alien.
KD: Do I speak your language?
Q: Yeah. So, thank you so much for today. I just wanted to share…
KD: Is it over? I don’t think it’s over.
Q: No, no for being here and serving us.
KD: Oh, I’m here. Thank you.
Q: You talked about serving and it made me think of a story I wanted to just quick-share, really short, because I know you don’t want people to talk for a long time.
KD: Which planet is the story from?
Q: Let’s see, Lehra. I was five and an intruder came into our house and I was upstairs with my knees shaking and this man was chasing my mom around the table and he was going to hurt her and she just laid down on the floor and went to go on top of her and he had a knife and everything and she said, she said an angel came to her, whatever, an inspiration and she just looked him in the eyes and said, “What do you want from me? I am your brother.” You know, you were talking about the oneness and we’re all the same blood and connected and he just looked at her and he’s like, “I’ll leave you alone now, ma’am.” And he got up and he walked out and that was sort of a miracle or something.
KD: Yeah, wow.
Q: And I remember then the police came and we were all happy and relieved, the kids in the house, because the authorities were here and I said to my mom, “I hate that man. I want him to die. I want to kill him, mommy.” And she said, “No darling, don’t hate him. He needs love. He’s sick and that’s why he was doing what he did.” And it just struck me, this memory came flooding back just today when you said, “Be of service” and that stayed with me my whole life, to see the soul of everyone. You know? Underneath their pain, underneath their stories and their suffering and their violence.
KD: Yeah.
Q: I just really wanted to share it. That’s it.
KD: Thank you. Because we are so hurt, we don’t let ourselves see the pain of other people too much. And we take everything personally. Whatever programs we have running, I have a friend who’s program is humiliation and he’s always being humiliated by things that happen. Even when they truly didn’t happen to humiliate him the way experiences it as if this person or this situation is humiliating him directly, you know? Or other people are hurt by other people, like that. It’s our programs, you know? And to unravel that program is very difficult. Very very difficult. Very difficult. But you have to start somewhere. Wherever you are, start. And things will, little by little, fall into place if one wants to be free, one can free one’s self. With a lot of help. A lot of help. Yeah.
Q: Hello.
KD: Where are you?
Q: Right to your left.
KD: Hi.
Q: Hi. Long time meditator and I recently have found you and chanting.
KD: I’m sorry about that.
Q: I’m very grateful for it.
KD: Ok.
Q: Over thirty years, I studied under Doctor Jon Cabot Zinn.
KD: I know Jon.
Q: And what, and to this day, I do it. And I’ve added the chanting to it and what I’ve learned throughout the years is how judgmental we automatically are as human beings, which arises a lot of stresses in people.
KD: Yeah.
Q: And one of the methods that Dr.Thu, 21 Mar 2024 - 26min - 105 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD Jan 2, 2021
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD January 2, 2021
“You’ve got to have some courage when it comes down to it. Don’t let anybody tell you what to do that doesn’t feel right to you. Don’t do that to yourself. Listen to your heart. If it feels right? Fine. If it doesn’t? Fine. More than fine. Just listen to yourself. You know better than anybody else what you want to do, and if you’re not doing what you want, how will you get what you want? You’ll always be hungry and never feeding yourself. Desires are not bad. They are not meant to be destroyed. They are meant to be transcended. That’s a very big difference.” – Krishna Das
Thanks for coming today. This pandemic reality of isolation and distancing from other people, on one hand, it’s very difficult. On the other hand, if we pay attention, we can actually feel close to people without the bodies having to be in the same place, and that’s big thing because, in reality, we are all together all the time, and in fact, we are one body.
Maharajji used to go like this, you know. “”Sab ek.” All one.
This is not something that we have to convince ourselves about, you know, or try to talk ourselves into believing. There’s no need to try to, what’s the word, anyway, force ourselves to believe anything. What we need to do is find a way to actually experience this stuff directly. Otherwise it won’t help us in the deepest way.
Our knee jerk reactions to daily life will continue endlessly until we actually find a way to move more deeply into our own being. But that being is the same being, that sense, that very fine, subtle sense of just being here, so to speak, where just existing is the same in everyone. It’s actually where we truly live, but we are so attached to our thoughts and emotions and the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and the programming we received entering into this life, and the programming we have coming from, endless lifetimes of nonsense. It’s not easy for it to wind down.
So, if we feel called to it, we can start paying attention to stuff and start practicing letting go. Letting go is the one thing we can do. Letting go is not pushing away. When I say, “Let go,” like say, you’re feeling like shit, right? Okay. So, “I want to let go of this,” but what are you going to do? You’re going to pick it up and put it over there. Where is it, you know? It’s not something you can grab onto and kill, or move, or dissolve, or evaporate.
But what we can do is notice how stuck we are, and we notice that we are stuck, and in that moment of just noticing that we’re stuck, we’re not that stuck. Of course we get stuck again immediately, but that’s why we add a practice to our lives, any practice, repetition of the name, coming back to the feeling of the breath, any type of practice that forces you to pay attention.
Tightrope walking over a raging fire will definitely make you pay attention. You won’t be thinking about, you know, what that person did to me and what I’m going to do to him. You’ll be thinking of not falling in the goddamn fire. So once we recognize that we are on fire already, then we want to cool that down. We’ve already fallen into the fire.
You know, the Buddha gave a sermon called “The Fire Sermon,” very early in his teaching, and he said, you know, “Hey monks, guess what? The eye is on fire with seeing. The ears are on fire with hearing. The tongue is on fire with taste.Thu, 07 Mar 2024 - 1h 54min - 104 - Ep. 73 | Ease of Heart
Call and Response Ep. 73 | Ease of Heart
Q: Two years ago, you used the phrase, “ease of heart” and I was like, “Whoa,” that’s it. That’s what I got. That’s what I need. That’s what I always needed. And so, I carry it, in my head, you know, all day, kind of. It goes in and out of my mind. Then today when I was coming, I thought, “I don’t know if I really know what you think it is.”
“You can’t cure anger with more anger. You can’t cure hate with more hate. The only transforming power in the universe is Love and real Love means… Listen to me, as if I know… Real love means accepting things as they are and including them.” – Krishna Das
Q: Hi. So, I heard you speak like two…
KD: Where you?
Q: I’m here. Two years ago, you used the phrase, “ease of heart” and I was like, “Whoa,” that’s it.
KD: I used the part… what?
Q: Ease of heart.
KD: Ease of heart, yeah yeah.
Q: And I was, “Whoa, that’s it.” That’s what I got. That’s what I need. That’s what I always needed. And so, I carry it, in my head, you know, all day, kind of. It goes in and out of my mind. Then today when I was coming, I thought, “I don’t know if I really know what you think it is.”
KD: What?
Q: I don’t know if I really understand what it really means to you, but I think it’s what you were just talking about, right?
KD: Yeah.
Q: Ok. That’s all I needed to know.
KD: It comes from the Metta, the Metta Loving Kindness Meditation practice, which was originally given by the Buddha to some monks. He had sent some monks to meditate in a forest and they went to the forest and they tried to meditate but the tree spirits were causing trouble for them and harassing them. So, they came to the Buddha and they said, you know, “Give us a weapon to defeat these angry spirits that are giving us a hard time.” And the weapon the Buddha gave them was the Loving Kindness Meditation and it transformed the whole forest, of course. That’s the only way. You can’t cure anger with more anger. You can’t cure hate with more hate. The only transforming power in the universe is Love and real Love means… listen to me, as if I know… real love means accepting things as they are, and including them. Like, once again, a heart as wide as the world. And so, this practice is really great and right near here in Barry, Massachusetts is IMS, the Instant Meditation Society. Insight Meditation Society. And they teach, they teach that practice there quite a lot along with Vipasana also. But Metta is its own practice and it comes in that phrase. So, it starts off, they teach you four phrases, four phrases, and one is, “May I be safe, may I be happy, may I have good health and may I live at ease of heart.” “At ease of heart in this world and with whatever comes to me.” And you’re asked to offer these phrases to yourself. And the first couple of days of the practice, they describe the whole thing to you and they give you these phrases and they’re doing now and the meditation practice is to sit there and not to struggle with your mind and your thoughts, but to sit there and offer these phrases to yourself, to repeat them, not automatically or mechanically, but to try to connect with them. You know, “may I be safe.” “May I be happy.” “May I have good health and may I live at ease,” and on and on. So, after two days I was ready to commit suicide. I couldn’t feel a damn thing. I was just like getting harder and harder and more destroyed. I was like flipping out. And then they say, now take the phrases and offer them to what they call the benefactor, which is somebody who’s always been on your side. Maybe your grandmother, maybe somebody or a teacher who’s just always been there. Certainly, usually not your partner. Somebody who’s really always been there for you. And then offer the phrases to that person, and you know, in like, in a half an hour you’re flying because you bring that person to mind and of course, “May you be safe,Thu, 15 Feb 2024 - 28min - 103 - Ep. 72 | Family Troubles, Chant Etiquette
Call and Response Ep. 72 | Family Troubles, Chant Etiquette
Q: I was curious if you could speak to having family members that are making choices that seem not helpful for them.
“People are going to do what they’re going to do. There’s not a lot we can do about that. We wouldn’t want anybody telling us what to do and the first step is letting them be who they are, you know? And hopefully, if you are with them in a way that’s not judgmental or you know, they might feel comfortable enough sharing with you what they’re going through and in that process they can open up a little bit. But if you’re going to be the enemy, there’s no way they’re going to be open.” – Krishna Das
KD: Hi.
Q: Hello.
KD: Hi.
Q: Ok. Hi.
KD: Ok.
Q: I was curious if you could speak to having family members that are making choices that seem not helpful for them and…
KD: Or you.
Q: Definitely not for me, I know. I might be about me. But I don’t know if you have some sort of… reaching to people who are not reachable at the moment from family members.
KD: Yeah, well, first thing we say is, “If you want to know how your spiritual practice is going, visit your family.” Nothing will show you your stuff as quickly as that. You know, yeah. People are going to do what they’re going to do. There’s not a lot we can do about that. We wouldn’t want anybody telling us what to do and the first step is letting them be who they are, you know? And hopefully, if you are with them in a way that’s not judgmental or you know, they might feel comfortable enough sharing with you what they’re going through and in that process they can open up a little bit. But if you’re going to be the enemy, there’s no way they’re going to be open. It’s not easy, because we want them to be happy and we think we know how they’re going to be happy and we think we know that what they’re doing is not, you know, good for them but, you know, they don’t know that. There’s a rule in India about grandparents. This is how grandparents have to behave in India. You know, you don’t say nothing and I’m a grandparent now and I try to follow that rule. I mean, you know, I know my daughter, I know where she got her stuff from. Hello. You know? So, how can I get, you know, what can I say? You know? I could just try to be available if anyone is interested, which is almost never. So, if that’s going to hurt me, I mean, if that’s going to make me crazy, that’s not fun. It makes her mother crazy. Ha ha ha. Which I like. No, I don’t. Much. So, you know, it’s a letting, you’ve gotta, you know, but on the other hand, you know, you want someone to feel that they care for them. That they’re cared for by you, regardless of what they’re doing, you care for who they are. So it’s a tricky thing, you know. We get caught in our own wantings for people. On the other hand, you have to think, you have to use your own, you have to trust your own intuition about situations. There are times when you just have to, you know, where it might be helpful to put your hand up. “Stop, now.” Or “Not here.” You know? You have to, if you can create some boundaries that they agree to respect, that’s a big thing, if the boundaries aren’t angry boundaries, you know? It’s not easy because nobody did that for us, right? I mean, not for me. Not my house. I wasn’t allowed to have boundaries so I grew up, it was very hard to learn how to say “no” and it was even to learn how to say, “thank you,” was hard. Because where was I? Who was I? Where was I standing to do that? You know? So, to make boundaries is, but it’s hard. But you know, if someone feels you’ve always been on their side, even if you haven’t been overly, you know, then they can come back at a certain point. You might be there. It might be good. But I’m sure people know better than me, so read a book or something. There must be books about this stuff.
Q: Hi.
KD: Hi.
Q: First I want to say,Thu, 08 Feb 2024 - 9min - 102 - KD Call and Response Special Edition Conversations with KD November 21 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD November 21, 2020
“Whenever you think of it, just take a couple of breaths and let go. You’re washing dishes, take a breath and let go. You’re watching TV. Take a breath in the commercials. If there’s no commercials, just pause the thing, take a breath and then start again. Practice letting go. Practice just letting go.” – Krishna Das
Hi, everybody. Good to be with you again. It’s getting cold and people are stuck inside, which makes it even harder to wade through the mud of the mind, of the thoughts. It’s a good time to practice, and it’s just too easy to be swept away the tides of mental bullshit and the stuff that goes on and on and on and on, and the circular obsessive thinking that goes on all the time. We have to make an effort to release ourselves from that. And when it’s so intense like this, it’s almost easier because it’s so apparent how out of control we are. And actually, we’re always out of control, but we can be aware by remembering to look and remembering to remember. That’s all you can do. You can’t transform yourself. You can’t move to another planet. You know, all we can do is bow to the endless flow of nonsense that goes through our heads, and practice letting go of it. That’s all. That will change the way we live inside of our lives. And that’s what all the practices are about, ultimately. Every path leads to the same goal because the goal is reality, and that’s what lives within us as our own true being.
So, just to continue to pay attention, to continue to remember, to let go, as the day goes on, you know, every time you just remember, just release for a minute, you know, even in the middle of something you’re doing just take a breath or two and let it be.
Q: I am so, so pleased to be here today. Thank you for this opportunity. I’m from Maryland, and found you, I would say, actually, because of this situation that we’re under; home and tinkering around with Ram Dass, and I found you singing on a piece of his, Heart As Wide As The World, and I just was completely enamored.
Yeah. Most people find me by mistake.
It was, but a beautiful mistake.
Yeah. Maharajji trips and then they fall in it. That’s what happens, you know?
Oh, that’s great. That’s really great. Well, the thing I wanted to ask you about is this notion of surrender. And I feel, for me, sometimes we can distinguish it as surrender. It’s almost like a physical experience, like a relaxing, like you say, you know, giving it up, letting it go. And you also speak about finding, I don’t know, I can’t think of how you say it right now, but you know, yourself inside, and I’m wondering if those two things are similar in some way.
There was a great Saint in India, not too long ago, named Ramana Maharshi, and he lived in South India and when he was a young boy, not that young, he was probably 16, He stayed home from school one day because he was feeling a little sick and he felt he was going to die, and he was perfectly healthy, but he felt, “I’m going to die.” And for some reason it didn’t upset him. He just said, “Well, what’s this going to be like?”
And he laid down on the floor. He was alone in the house. He laid down on the floor and he clenched up his body and just wanted to see what, what not breathing would be like, and you know, what, if the body becomes like rigor mortis, and what was happening, actually, his consciousness was leaving the body, leaving the physical plane.Tue, 30 Jan 2024 - 1h 38min - 101 - Ep. 71 | Life Is A Teaching
Call and Response Ep. 71 | Life Is A Teaching
“There’s nothing in this world that doesn’t have some dissatisfaction associated with it. Either you have what you don’t want, or you don’t have what you want, or you have some combination of the two. Or, you just recognize that everything is like that… That’s the way it is. You can’t squeeze water from a stone.” – Krishna Das
Where were we, oh, yeah…
So, India, you know, you walk down the street, you see Durga Travel Agency. You see Krishna Insurance Agency. Sri Ram Carding Agency. Everything is, they’ve got everything, it looks like everything’s Holy until you look a little closer. But in America, you know, we don’t have the… spirituality has infused the culture of India for many thousands of years. Now, who knows what’s going on but at least… but here, our own culture, Western culture’s a few hundred years old, right? Right? Hello. Hello? Anybody home? Am I right? I don’t know. I think so, right? The cultural, so-called cultural revolution or whatever? No, that was something else. The Age of Enlightenment. Ha. What a name, huh? So, you know, it’s a few hundred years old and it’s based on the world of the senses and sense perception, intellectual understanding of all that. As far as India, as the East is concerned, that’s a very narrow bandwidth. A very limited understanding of things. But my point is that, here in the West, being born as who we are, with a very Westernized sense of self, sense of ego, so to speak, when we do these practices, we should understand or we could understand, I don’t like the word “should” because I never liked anybody to say that to me. “You ‘should’ do this.” And I’d just do the other thing. Absolutely. The exact opposite. Which is why Maharajji never told me to do anything, except “go away,” which I didn’t do. Which is why He told me to go away, because He didn’t want me to go away. But He knew that, you know, how it goes. So, yeah.
It would be good if we understood that adding chanting, that we should see practice as adding a new, adding something new to what’s already in our lives. And it’s something that doesn’t necessarily have to be understood intellectually to a great degree. You have to kind of understand why it is you’re doing what you’re doing, but how it works is not, is not, can’t be known in a conceptual way by the intellectual understanding because these practices work under the radar. And that’s an important thing to keep in mind because a lot of times we’ll do practice and we’ll be like, “I’ve been meditating for 18 minutes, I don’t feel a damn thing. Oh, there’s something. Hm. Oh, yeah. Ok. That’s nice. Oh, wait. Where’d it go? Oh my goodness. This is no good. I can’t do this. Wait. Maybe I can.” So, that’s our meditation practice, right there, pretty much. We think. We think. We think. We think. We think. So, what we understand, what we can realize when we add a spiritual practice through our daily lives, that practice is designed to release us, little by little, from the tyranny of our thoughts and our emotions and the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves all the time. The 24-7 kind of critique that goes on all day and all night. And these practices have the ability to do that, whether we understand how they work not, which we really can’t understand. Like, we don’t, if you’re sick and you take an antibiotic, you may not understand how it works, but it worked. Then it screwed up your intestines, but at least it saved you from pneumonia, you know. That’s a good thing. What is the sense of having intestines if you’re dead? That doesn’t make any, that’s not useful. It’s going to be quite an afternoon. Anyhow, so the chanting, that’s why, the way I share this practice is really the way I do it, which is really, I really don’t try to manipulate myself and my emotions into having some particular kind of experience. Like, I don’t try, I’m not trying to get all ecstatic, or all blissful. You know?Wed, 24 Jan 2024 - 39min - 100 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations with KD November 7 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations with KD November 7, 2020
“Do what you can do to let go. It doesn’t have to be while you’re sitting down, cross-legged pretending to meditate. That’s not it. All day long, just let go. “I’m doing it again. Ok. Ram Ram.” Just be at ease. Try to be at ease with life as it is, and then you’ll be at ease in the next moment and the next moment and next week and next month. Right? It’s inner strength. You have to cultivate that.” – Krishna Das
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FULL TRANSCRIPTION:
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the world.
The resolution of any issue or any question that we have in our own minds is always to quiet down and listen to our hearts, feel our hearts, feel what our deepest feelings are. There’s a lot of panic, a lot of anxiety these days, a lot of fear, but that fear does not touch us. It does not touch our true nature. So, the quieter we can become, the less reactive we can become, the better it is, and to keep acting out of unconscious knee jerk reactions is very, it is not a good way to go. It creates more and more suffering for everyone around us and for ourselves. So, in that sense, everything we do for ourselves, we’re also doing for all other beings, because ultimately there are no other beings. We are all one. Maharajji said this, over and over.
“All one.”
There is only one, and we are the cells of that body of one. Everything we need to know comes from within. The one thing that we can share with other people are the techniques of accessing that place within us, techniques to help us release our delusional beliefs about ourselves, that we’re no good, that we don’t deserve love, that we’ll never be okay, that this life is meaningless. All these types of negative atmospheres exist within us. They are not who we are, but we believe them for so long that we take them as real. They’re as real as our ego is. So, our ego is made out of all these delusional beliefs, because the separateness, which we call ego, is also delusional. It’s not true. Ultimately it is not true. And yet, that’s where we live for most of our whole lives. We live in that place of separateness and self-centered actions. But when you recognize the true self, who are you going to hurt? Who are you going to manipulate? And for what reason?
The difference between Maharajji and almost all of the other yogis and saints that I’ve met is that there was no manipulation. He didn’t need anything from us. He didn’t want anything from us. He had recognized his true nature, which is our true nature. And he allowed us to enter into a field of love that was inconceivable to us. And his presence is here. He’s here now. He’s always here, but we don’t turn towards him. We don’t turn towards that place of love, and so we spin and spin and spin and spin and spin around.
There’s no way to find presence or Being. It’s not like something buried in the ground that you can dig and fi...Tue, 16 Jan 2024 - 1h 44min - 99 - Ep. 70 | When the Student Is Ready, The Teacher Will Come
Call and Response Ep. 70 | When the Student Is Ready, The Teacher Will Come
Q: Is it simply just, when the student is ready, the teacher appears, because some of us, I don’t have access to Ram Das except by video and I don’t have access to Krishna Das except every ten years when he comes to Atlanta, so my question is, do you have any suggestions for those of us that live out on the rural area, is it simply, focus on your spiritual technologies and realize that you’re going to be the same person looking in the mirror only with a different perspective?
“You know, the Guru, the issue of a Guru is very, it’s a big story and but, Westerners and everybody, we subtly want somebody to do it for us and whether you have a Guru or don’t have a Guru, nobody’s going to do it for us. We have to do it for ourselves. So, that’s the deal. Nobody can chant for you. Nobody can make you pay attention.” – Krishna Das
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FULL TRANSCRIPTION:
KD: So, yes, you have the mic yet? Pass it up here. Hi.
Q: Hi. I’m Sarah and I was one of the fortunate few to come up and get a picture and a hug last night and I was wondering…
KD: Did you take a shower?
Q: Not since last week. Boy. So, I’m curious, is the performance or the singing, the chanting that you did last night, does that prepare you for all the wanting and the needing or does it feel like that to you to see all these people wanting just a hug and a picture with you, does that fill up your soul more? Or do you kind of have to prepare for that experience?
KD: No. It’s not like that at all. I feel like I’m sitting in my living room with my family, basically, except for some people. You know, it’s just love. There’s nothing to prepare for. It’s nothing like that at all. And it’s not a performance, so there’s nothing going on. We’re sharing our practice. We’re sharing the moment. And that’s the whole deal. Yeah. Good. You got it?
Q: May I ask a question?
KD: Yes, you may.
Q: Well, thank you for being here.
KD: You’re welcome. I tried to be somewhere else but I couldn’t do it.
Q: I’m here now, formally I live out on the West Coast of our country, about 2 hours West of Seattle almost in the Pacific Ocean.
KD: Wow. Beautiful out there.
Q: I recently, or I hear your message today that we’re here and when you’re, when the student is ready, the teacher appears and I have my spiritual technologies that I’ve been able to access in my rural area. We just got our first yoga teacher about eight years ago in my town because I was too busy to be a yoga teacher myself. My question is this, first, let me confirm with you, I saw a post that my sister sent me about you and it said, and you’ve already used the “F” bomb in here, so I know I can use these words without embarrassing people, but your statement, and I want to make sure it was you who said it, you said, “30 years ago I woke up and saw an asshole in the mirror, and today I got up and I saw the same asshole.” And I wonder, when we don’t…
KD: Sounds like me.
Q: It does sound like you and so, and so, my question is…
KD: But I don’t hate that asshole as much as I used to.
Q: Ok, good, because my exposure to Ram Das was when I was a young hippie girl, started traveling around and people had torn pages out of his book, Be Here Now,Tue, 09 Jan 2024 - 33min - 98 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations with KD October 24 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD October 24, 2020
Hello. Namaste everybody. How are you doing?
Let’s take a minute to just calm down and deepen and expand into this heart space that we all share. Everything exists within this vast space, this presence. This is Being, not the verb, but the noun, “Being,” and when we chant, when we repeat the name, we are turning towards this presence. So, here is where we are, and why we do practice is to recognize where we truly are, which is in our own true Being. It’s a vast, vast presence, inside of which we all live. Everything is within this presence. This presence is eternal and spontaneously present, this moment, always. And it’s only our thoughts, our emotions, our attachments and aversions that block our access to who we truly are.
So, it all comes back to remembering. At first, we remember to remember to look, and eventually we actually remember this presence. We re-recognize, we re-cognize this presence. It’s like coming home after being away for a long time. When you first get home, after being away, you fall down on the bed or into a chair and everything let’s go, and you’re just happy to be home. You forget where you’ve been. You don’t think about where you’re going. You just relax into yourself.
When we do practice, it is not important to be evaluating how we’re doing. We’re simply planting seeds, so to speak. We don’t stand over them to watch and see if they’ve grown yet. We plant the seeds, and then we plant another seed, and another, and then we go about our day, and those seeds grow. That action of coming home again, again, and again, keeps working on us through the day, and the magnetism, or the gravity, of our true nature becomes more and more real to us.
All the names that we chant are the names of this place that we live, in which we live, our own true nature. All the different names, all the different traditions, all the different lineages, all the different practices, they’ve only been brought to this world to bring us home. So, whatever you’re attracted to in terms of practice, follow that. See where it takes you. Listen to your heart. If you don’t trust yourself, what will you do? Even if you listen to advice from someone, a teacher, a yogi, a saint, whatever, you’re listening, you’re evaluating, and you’re seeing if you relate to that in your own being. So, if you don’t trust your own feelings, you’ll never be able to trust anything or anyone.
It’s not something that’s easy to live in for us at first, but because it is true, because our hearts do know, it’s inevitable that, as we practice, as we live, as we learn, as our hearts are purified of our attachments and aversions, this is where we move into our own self, our true self, which is the self of all, which is the great self of all, this fast presence.
Q: HI there, KD. First of all, I want to thank you very much for the email that you sent me. You probably get hundreds of them, so you might not remember.
I remember.
You did. Yeah, it helped soften a very unquiet mind since I left the hospital from, septicemia is what I had, but what you said in the email about Ram Dass and how he felt through those first, I think you said two years, might not have been, that he just lost all sense of everything, I lost all sense of everything during that time, and that feeling of being lost was, well, it hit me like a train. I thought, wow, I’m a pretty spiritual person, I thought, “Yeah, you know, I can, you know, taken in by ambulance,Tue, 02 Jan 2024 - 2h 00min - 97 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD October 10 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD October 10, 2020
“You are the protector of sadhus and good people. You are ever a support to devotees.
You even fulfill the desires of wicked people when they take refuge in you.
Why should anyone be surprised by this? It is simply the nature of a true saint.
So please now have that kind of compassion on me and purify my mind and heart.” – Krishna Das, reading from the Vinaya Chalisa
I’m taking over. Good morning, everybody. It’s always morning somewhere, and that’s usually wherever I am.
So, we’re still here. Amazing. How’s everybody doing? I hope everybody’s okay.
Let’s just do the Hanumat Stavan, as we start. As you know, this is a prayer to Hanuman, a short prayer, and it describes many of the qualities that he has and many of the things that he’s accomplished and the things that he did. First, I’ll sing it, and then and then I’ll point another thing out to you at the end.
Pranawun Pawanakumaar khala bana paawaka gyaana ghana
Jaasu hridaya aagaar basahin Raama sara chaapa dhara
Atulita bala dhaamam hemashailaa badeham
Danujawana krishaanum gyaaninaama graganyam
Sakala guuna nidhaanam vaanaraa naama dheesham
Raghupati priya bhaktam vaata jaatam namaami
Goshpadee krita vaareesham mashakee krita raakshasam
Raamaayana mahaamaala ratnam vande neelaatmajam
Anjanaa nandanam veeram Jaanakee shoka naashanam
Kapeesha makshahantaaram vande Lankaa bhayankaram
Ulangya sindho salilam saleelam
Yah shokarvahni janakaatma jaayah
Aadaaya tenaiva dadaaha lankaa
Namaami tam praanjalir aanjaneyam
Manojavam Maaruta tuulya wegam
Jitendriyam buddhimataaåm warishtam
Vaataatmajam vaanara yuuta mukhyam
Shree Raamaduutam sharanam prapadhye
Aanjaneya mati paatalaananam
Kaanchanaadri kamaneeya vigraham
Paarijaata taru moola vaasinam
Bhaavayaami pavamaana nandanam
Yatra yatra Raghunaatha keertanam
Tatra tatra krita masta kaanjali
Vashapawaari paripurna lochanam
Maarutin namata raaksha saantakam
Bolo Bajrangbalee Hanumana Ki Jai
I don’t have the book here, but the last couple of verses really struck me very strongly, powerfully one time, many years ago. It describes Hanuman sitting at the foot of this tree, a special tree called the Parijat tree, which I think is, it’s supposed to be up in heaven somewhere. And it describes him as sitting there with his eyes full of tears, of bhava, of love for Ram, and I understood that this is how he is. He’s always in that feeling, in that flow of grace with Ram. With Ram. And it’s only when he has to do some service that he manifests whatever’s necessary to serve, and to serve Ram, to serve and to destroy suffering, but when he’s not being asked to serve or there’s nothing to do, he’s sitting there, lost in love, all the time.
This prayer is really like a visualization, like they have in Buddhism, Vajrayana, where you visualize a Being and you commune with that Being. So, this is really very much a visualization for Hanuman.
But for me, Maharajji is Hanuman, and someone once asked me, some Baba in India asked me, you know, who’s your Ishta Devata, who do you worship? And I said, “Well, Guru.”
“Oh, very good. Very good.”
So, we see Maharajji as Hanuman. He’s always engaged in helping people, all the time, everything. Dada used to say he has two blankets, an outer blanket, and an inner blanket. The outer blanket hides his body from us,Wed, 25 Oct 2023 - 1h 43min - 96 - Ep. 69 | Maharajji’s Passing, India, Joya
Call and Response Ep. 69 | Maharajji’s Passing, India, Joya
Q: How did you take losing the physical form of your Guru? And how did you cope with it?
“When He did leave the body, I was destroyed. Because the only place I ever felt loved was with Him. That kind of love, I never felt it anywhere and now it was gone. Why live? What’s the sense? You know? I mean, we find reasons to stay alive, but we don’t really believe there’ll ever be any real, real happiness for us. That’s how it felt for me. For a long time.” – Krishna Das
Q: My name’s Christian.
KD: Hello.
Q: How did you take losing the physical form of your Guru? And how did you cope with it?
KD: I didn’t cope with it. I just lost it totally. I had become very attached to His physical presence. He kept me in India two and a half years, pretty much longer than any of the other Westerners. He kept me with Him for two and a half years. Then one day, He looks at me and says, “Ok, go back to America.” “What? I’m just learning Hindi.” “Too bad. You have attachment. You have to go.” So, I went back and then after a few months, He wrote to me, He had somebody write to me and said, one day He looked around and said, “Where’s Krishna Das?” The guy who knows everything. So, somebody said, “Baba, You sent Him to America.” “No. Tell Him to come back. I want to hear Him sing. I want to hear Him sing.” So my friend wrote to me. “You’ve got to come on back. You’ve got to,” you know? So anyway, long story short, I didn’t make it back in time. So, when He did leave the body, I was destroyed. Because the only place I ever felt loved was with Him. That kind of love. I never felt it anywhere. And now it was gone. Why live? What’s the sense? You know? I mean, we find reasons to stay alive, but we don’t really believe there’ll ever be any real, real happiness for us. That’s how it felt for me. For a long time. So then, He left the body in 1973. In 1984, I went back to India. I was in pretty bad shape. I had been strung out on cocaine, freebase cocaine for a year and a half and I had just gotten over that but I was pretty fragile, pretty freaked out. And I thought, “All right, I’ll just go back to the temple. I’ll just go in my room and sleep for a month,” you know? So, I get to the temple and it turns out it’s Durga Puja time, which is this ten-day ceremony honoring the Goddess Durga and they do a fire ceremony every day with the “swahas” and everything. It’s really great, you know? So, I get into the temple and everybody’s “Oh, Krishna Das, you’ve come. This is so good. Come, you’ll sit with us in the puja.” Really? And you can’t say, “No.” They love you too much. So instead of hiding in my room and sleeping, all day long I sat in the goddamned puja with this hot fire, “Swaha” into the fire, sweating with ashes and dirt all over me, you know? Sitting up. I hadn’t sat cross-legged for ten years and now it’s like… aargh. I can’t tell you how horrible it was. It was indescribably horrible. So, there was a morning session and an afternoon session. And there was a couple hours break in between the two sessions, but you had to fast all day, by the way, you couldn’t eat until the last session was over. Terrific. You know? So, and then, so during that break, at the end of the morning session, everybody would come from the yagya shala, the place where the fire is, the sacred fire, they come up to the front of the temple where Maharajji’s cot was, and we’d do aarti, we’d sing this hymn and wave the lights and then everybody would go rest for a couple of hours before the next session. So, four or five days into it, everybody comes up from the fire and we do this puja and I’m just standing there like this, you know? All right. When’s this over. I’m going to go lie down, ok. So, while I’m standing there, the chant was over and everybody bowed down, you know, like this, and then everybody left except one old lady had put her head down on the tucket and she didn’t get...Tue, 26 Dec 2023 - 28min - 95 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD September 26 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD September 26, 2020
“Obstacles are always there. They’re either obstacles or they’re opportunities. It’s up to you how you take it. And always, you have to ask yourself, is what I’m trying to do what I really want to be doing? That’s the main thing. It’s not what you do. It’s why you do what you do. That’s what important. I mean, we have to learn to really listen to ourselves about what we really need and really want in life, and how do we want to go through this life? How do we want to spend our time? What do we want to get? In what way? What’s the best thing I can do for myself and others that I meet?” -Krishna Das
Hi everybody. How are y’all doing?
If you’re here, you’re doing okay.
Q: Hi, Krishna Das.
KD: HI.
Great to be here. Yeah. So, I don’t have a question, but I felt like I just needed to show up in the space, or in my heart, or something. I’ve been getting, staying up till 12 to 2 on a Thursday for the satsang and it’s been amazing, and spending more time with horses, that was something that came up the last time I asked a question on Zoom. So, there’s, I’m sort of quiet, you know, so I just, I felt, I think it was important just to try and you know…
Yeah, you know you can watch the Zooms, the Thursday nights replays?
It’s not the same, because even like where I live, it’s not so private, but like, it’s fine, but I’m singing quietly. Everyone else is asleep and I’m there with the light off, and it’s just like, bliss. I can’t explain it. I just have two hours of, I just feel so happy ,and then not much sleep or anything, and a lot of hard work the next day, but just like no problems, which is kind of strange, actually.
Actually, that’s your true nature. No problems.
No problem. Yeah.
The problems are in our mind and the way we interact with everything, but our true nature is perfectly okay, always, and that’s where we really live. So, we’ve been, because of our stuff, we were locked out of our own house, you could say. We’re like, living on the lawn of our own house, and instead of a bathroom, we have a porta-potty and a bucket to take a bath in and, you know, and the bed’s out there on the lawn, and we don’t even know there’s a house there, and then if we did, we wouldn’t know where the key was.
Yeah. But I feel like I’m kind of, maybe I’m on the porch? And that, and then it’s like, “Oh, it’s so different.”
It’s sort of like, I could surrender a little more, but it’s a bit like, “Is this okay?” Like, am I allowed to feel this okay?
What do you think?
Yeah. I feel it. Yeah.
Well, you don’t need to be allowed, actually, but we do need to allow ourselves. That’s the thing.
Yeah.
And that’s okay. I mean, growing up in this modern world, none of us have been allowed to be ourselves. We become identified with all the programming that, put into us from every possible direction. So, we need to allow ourselves to be at ease with whatever is there, because that’s our true nature. It is at ease. It is okay. And it’s hard to recognize that because we’re, it’s like we’re in free fall, and we’re grasping, we’re trying to hold onto something that breaks off, and it breaks off, it doesn’t work, but if you just lay back into it, it’s perfectly okay.
For me, it comes down to Maharajji, because emotionally,Tue, 12 Dec 2023 - 1h 53min - 94 - Ep. 68 | Maharajji Stories
Call and Response Ep. 68 | Maharajji Stories
I just wanted to ask if you could please share your most favorite experience of spending time with Maharajji. Thank you.
“You know, He knew everything. Oh, Jesus. Every single thing. He knew how many times you chewed your toast in the morning. He knew what you were going to do 50 years from that moment. And He loved you completely. Totally. Every part of you.” – Krishna Das
Q: Hi Krishna Das. My name is Chad and I just wanted to ask if you could please share your most favorite experience of spending time with Maharajji. Thank you.
KD: I don’t know. One time I walked to the temple from, the town’s about a three and a half, four hour walk over the mountains, and I was practicing my Hindi. Over and over I was saying this, trying to learn how to say, “Maharajji, my life is in your hands.” And I was saying it over and over in Hindi, like, for hours, a big moment, you know? So, I got to the temple and I was up, coming down the ridge and I saw He was sitting all alone on His tucket, on His bed. I ran into the temple, I came. I ran up to Him and I said, “Maharajji, your life is in my hands.” He went, “Get out of here, go on, Jao.”
Q: You said it in Hindi though.
KD: Yeah, I said it in Hindi. I said it backwards. Another time, you know, He would get up, you know, He walked like a kid. He’d like, bounce from one leg to the other. He looked like He was ready to fall over. So, people would put their hand out. And He would take somebody’s hand and walk with somebody. So, one day, I always, I happened to be right in front of Him when He stood up. So, I put my hand out. And He looked at me and He laughed and He grabbed my hand and we went walking to the back of the temple and then He stopped and let go of my hand and He took a couple of steps, so I took a couple of steps, and then He looked at me and He said something I didn’t understand, and then He took a couple of steps, so I took a couple of steps and then again, He said something and He took a couple of steps and I took a couple of steps and then He just looked at me like this, and He squats down and He pees. He just wanted like 18 inches to take a piss and I wasn’t going to give it to Him. Ah, Divine Love. Those are the moments that, you know, it wasn’t all the other stuff. It was those moments where it was just too amazing, you know? One time, so after I met Ram Das, I told you last night if you were there, how I came into the room and, you know, I understood that whatever it was that I was looking for in the world was real. It could be found. It was a big thing. So after that, I actually began to dream about Maharajji and all I’d seen was a little black and white picture that Ram Das had, but I dreamt of Him, you know. So I’d had this dream long before to India, where I came back to my elementary school and I walked into the gym where we used to have school plays and used to play dodge ball and you know, do square dancing and all the stuff that people on Long Island did. And there on the other side of the gym, on the stage was, Maharajji was sitting on the bed, on a cot, and next to Him, standing behind Him was this guy with a white shirt and a dhoti, a cloth, and a black vest and he was standing behind him. And I came into the room and I fell down and I did what they call “danda pranam”. I just full out on the floor like this with my head like this. And I was just praying. I was saying, “Please, let me feel something. I have to feel something. Please let me feel something.” This is in my dream. And in my mind’s eye, I saw Him get up and walk down the stairs at the edge of the stage and come over to me and He put His hand on the back of my head and I started to calm down, calm down and as I was calming down, this bliss started to run through my body like, you know, it was unbelievable and it was getting stronger and stronger and stronger and I thought, “I’m going to die” and at that moment,Tue, 05 Dec 2023 - 18min - 93 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD September 12, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD September 12, 2020
“Siddhi Ma once said, ‘In this age, God comes as medicine.’
So, you take medicine, you try to go to doctors, you do the best you can for your health, but you have your mental and emotional and spiritual health too, and you have to spend time on that, and there’s no quick medicine for that. Over time, you develop the faith to accept whatever comes the best way you can, and to keep giving those fears back to God, you know, offering them, you know, offering those emotions and trying to break the glue and dissolve the glue that those emotions come with. – Krishna Das
Hi, everybody. Some of you are becoming regulars. This is very scary.
Yeah, well, we’re still here. That’s one thing. That’s the main thing. When you’re not here, there’s nothing you can do. So, it’s good to be here. The past is gone. The future has not yet arrived. This is it. This is the moment that we have, to meet the next moment, which is just like this moment. This is the moment when we can make some effort to calm our asses down, and to try to be less reactive, and to, like they say in India, “bhajan karo” Remember. “Remember” is the key to everything. Remember to remember. And then when you remember, what do you remember? You try to remember the love that lives within you, within us, and that has many different forms for us.
Each person has their own version of that love and vision of that love, and the names of God are the names of that love. It’s not a name of something outside of your true nature. It’s not something else. It’s not something other than you are, but, actually your true name on the deepest level, ultimate reality. In relative reality, there’s “me” and there’s others, but ultimately, like Hanuman says to Ram, “When I don’t know who I am, I serve you. When I identify with my soul, you are the whole, and I am a part. But when I know who I am, you and I are one.”
So, that’s a statement of reality. It’s not something you have to beat into your head to try to believe, because the limited conceptual mind could never wrap itself around that. It’s not something that needs to be believed with blind faith. It’s something that has to be experienced, or at least moved towards in our daily lives, and ultimate reality, oneness, means that we are all a part of that one, all of us, even the people we don’t like, and so, what we want to do is learn how to treat everybody well, but that also means learning how to treat ourselves well.
Like that guy said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
And that’s a big thing. If we could do that, the world would be a different place immediately. Immediately. But we can’t do that. It’s not easy for us to give up our defenses, our stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, all the lifelong. So, that’s what practice is about. Practices about learning to release that stuff. Let go of it. Weaken the glue that holds our sense of self to those miserable thoughts and feelings and emotions.
Okay. See you next week.
Hi.
Q: Hi. I’m here because I’m singing a lot of kirtans in this COVID period. I’m very happy, and I can’t stop singing kirtans. I thank you very much, and I’m in a very good place now because I turned, in my life, in some reactive things I was making, and it’s a very big change for me. So, I want to sing more, and it was very difficult for me.
It’s very difficult to do that. Wonderful. Keep singing. Just keep singing. And you know,Tue, 28 Nov 2023 - 1h 52min - 92 - Ep. 67 | Siddhi Ma, George W. Bush and Learning to Trust Yourself
Call and Response Ep. 67 | Siddhi Ma, George W. Bush and Learning to Trust Yourself
[Photo: Josefine Barrett]
Q: I had an experience in India with Siddhi Ma. I felt very graced to be with Her before She left Her body and Siddhi Ma is a Saint in India and I was just wondering if you would be willing to unpack some memories from your time with Her and just share a quick story or something about Her.
“She was my Ma. She was my Mother. She saved my ass so many times, you have no idea. One time I said to Her, “Ma, should I meditate?” And She said, “Krishna Das, in 40 years with Maharajji, not once did He ask me to meditate.” She said, “What do you like to do, meditate or chant?” Duh. It never occurred to me that doing something I liked could be good for me.” – Krishna Das
Q: Ram Ram.
KD: Yeah, same to you.
Q: My name is Will and I was just wondering, I had an experience in India with Siddhi Ma. I felt very graced to be with Her before She left Her body and Siddhi Ma is a Saint in India and I was just wondering if you would be willing to unpack some memories from your time with Her and just share a quick story or something about Her.
KD: Siddhi Ma was one of Maharajji’s great great great devotees. She was really a great Saint in Her own right and She took care of all of us for 30, more than 30 years after Maharajji left the body, more than 40 years after Maharajji left the body. She was my Ma. She was my Mother. She saved my ass so many times, you have no idea. One time I said to Her, “Ma, should I meditate?” And She said, “Krishna Das, in 40 years with Maharajji, not once did He ask me to meditate.” She said, “What do you like to do, meditate or chant?” Duh. It never occurred to me that doing something I liked could be good for me. You know? Don’t look down… that’s where I grew up, you know? If you like it, it ain’t good for you. So that was mind blowing. Then She said, you know, and here was a really interesting thing. It’s a kind of a deep thing but I’ll share it with you. She said, “The higher states of consciousness,” which is supposedly what we’re looking for, “Can not be created or can not be precipitated by personal will.” So, think about that. You, we can’t make it happen. The higher states of consciousness. She said, She said Maharajji said that. And He said, “When one is ready, they come naturally.” And how does one ready one’s self? Loving everyone. Feeding everyone. And remembering God. Serving. Love, serve, remember. That’s what He used to say. Now, I don’t know about you, but it seems counter-intuitive that thinking about others was going to be good for me, but it turns out that that’s the way it is. Very strange. Because once again, like we started, we’re so stuck in our stories about ourselves. And we think about ourselves all day long. All lifelong. It’s ridiculous. And we never really pay attention to other people. And we don’t treat others very well for the most part. We treat others as they’re something that’s supposed to make us happy. And if they’re not doing that, to hell with them. So, that guy I just spoke about, He had some good ideas, you know? And one of them was, “Do unto others as you would have them…” If we could treat other people the way we, ourselves, want to be treated and do nothing else but that, our whole lives would change in an instant. Think about all the ways you turn people off all day long and look away from people and judge people and hurt people. Just because. That’s what we do. But you think it’s easy to treat people the way you want to be treated? Try. It’s not easy. That’s what practice is for. To help us. Give us the strength to treat other people the way we want to be treated. And then our lives change because it’s not all about “me” all the time. The burden of “me” is such a heavy goddamned thing to be carrying around. It lightens up. We don’t sit at home grinding it out. “What am I going to do?Tue, 21 Nov 2023 - 15min - 91 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations with KD December 19 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD December 19, 2020
“Wherever we are, we are always held in this vast presence, which is our own true nature, and which is the nature of the divine. A real love. Spiritual practice is our way of beginning to remember how to see this space, how to turn towards it again and again, and by turning towards this, we let go of our stuff. We release our thoughts. We release anything that’s between our seeing what is right here all the time.” – Krishna Das
Hello everybody. If you’re here, we’re still here. If you’re not, well, I hope everything’s okay wherever we are.
So, as we sit here, we’re aware of a lot of things, our bodies, our thoughts, different sounds that we hear. But for a moment, just become aware of the space in the room that you’re sitting. This space is not a thought. It’s not a sense input. It’s not an emotion. It’s something we are aware of without any help from our senses or thoughts or any concepts about what is this and what this isn’t and who am I and what am I and all that shit. This is just a space. Now expand that space to the sky. Just see yourself sitting in the space of the sky, the sky that we feel, this vast space that we sense without our senses. This is like our nature. It’s like our soul. Everything happens within this space. It can’t be anything outside of this space. The space is everywhere. I hear a plane flying through the sky inside of this space.
When we’re lost in thought, when we’re caught in emotional distress and pain, when we’re lost in pleasure, we lose the awareness of the space. Stuff comes and goes like birds flying through the sky, like clouds through the sky. But we are this awareness, this space, and when that space is obstructed by our stuff, we suffer, we’re limited. We’re glued to our stuff. The space is presence, with a capital “P,” being with a capital “B,” and anything we’re thinking about it, isn’t it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not here.
Wherever we are, we are always held in this vast presence, which is our own true nature, and which is the nature of the divine. A real love. Spiritual practice is our way of beginning to remember how to see this space, how to turn towards it again and again, and by turning towards this, we let go of our stuff. We release our thoughts. We release anything that’s between our seeing what is right here all the time. This is Maharajji, always present. This is Hanuman. This is Ram. This is Krishna. This is the essence of all those great beings, and it’s also our essence. The only difference is their awareness is not obstructed any longer. They’re free.
All of our practice is to loosen up the way we hold on to our stuff, where we identify with that stuff and allow us to sit at ease in this presence. We don’t have to make this up. This is who we are. Ram Dass called this, “Loving Awareness.” Loving awareness.
One time, he and I were sitting together after breakfast in Maui at the house, and we started having a great conversation, deep conversation, but surrounded by a lot of space. We’d say something and then there’d be long silences, 10, 20 minutes maybe. And it just so happened I was recording it. I think towards the end, we said, “Wow, this was really intense.” And he said, “Yeah.” I said, “You know, I think I recorded it.” And he said, “Yeah, we could call it Dick and Jeff’s journey to Soul Land.”
Dick and Jeff’s journey to Soul Land. Okay. Well, let’s examine all the bullshit that we use to beat ourselves...Wed, 15 Nov 2023 - 1h 37min - 90 - Ep. 66 | Find Out Who You Are
Call and Response Ep. 66 |Find Out Who You Are
Q: I started thinking, I don’t have a Guru in form, maybe I’m not doing something right. What if the practices won’t be as beneficial because I don’t have a Guru?
“What you’re looking for is your Self. Your true Self. Rama, Krishna, Radha, Sita, these are the Names of that Place inside of you. There’s no reason to manufacture anything or visualize anything other than to be present and the Name itself will reveal your deeper places as you go deeper into the repetition of the Name, as your thoughts allow you to.” – Krishna Das
Q: Hello.
KD: Hi.
Q: Hi. Thank you so much.
KD: Ok.
Q: My question, I’m Katie, and I starred in a movie called…
KD: You’re who?
Q: Katie.
KD: That’s me.
Q: I know, right?
KD: Are we one?
Q: I think that’s were supposed to be right, maybe?
KD: No, you blew it. We’re not one.
Q: Crap.
KD: Ok.
Q: I always do that.
KD: You didn’t really blow it because we really are one.
Q: Ok, so my question is twofold, the first part is, yesterday you talked about the practices opening your heart and really, you do this, paraphrasing, “to love the world so that you can really…”
KD: Did I say that?
Q: Maybe not exactly but in a way.
KD: Oh yeah, ok.
Q: So you can give this love to Maharajji and I was like, at first I was going along with it and then when you said, “To give it to Maharajji,” I was like, I was like, “Oh, he’s not just loving to like, love me, he’s doing it for something greater.” So, I got caught up in that. And so, then I started thinking, I don’t have a Guru in form, maybe I’m not doing something right. What if the practices won’t be as beneficial because I don’t have a Guru? So that’s part one.
KD: That’s part one? That looked like part 10. Somebody else remember this? Did you write this down? We’ll go back and start at the beginning, ok? Why don’t we just, can we deal with one?
Q: yeah.
KD: Because one’s like, huge.
Q: Ok.
KD: And tomorrow come back for number two. Or next year or whatever. What was, ok, start at the beginning. So, ok, so you misquoted me five times in the first five things you said, which was very nice of you, thank you.
Q: Paraphrased, sorry. Not direct quote.
KD: Well, ok, you paraphrased somebody else because I never said that shit.
Q: Ok. Something about the practices, you wanted to open your heart, right? Or learn to love the world?
KD: Well, ok.
Q: And to give that, and you do this so you can give your love to Maharajji.
KD: No.
Q: Ok.
KD: That’s where we go wrong.
Q: Ok.
KD: It’s a misunderstanding. And because, first of all, ok, hm. Jesus. What I was talking about, why I sing, I sing to enter more deeply into the Presence of Love. Ok? For me, I call that “Maharajji.” You don’t have to call that “Maharajji.” But that’s how I got the hit, right? So, for me, He is that love that’s everywhere all the time. It’s not a guy. You know? Not some dude with a blanket. So, but I know that if I say it that way, it’s easily taken just the way you took it, you know, and I kind of apologize for that because I didn’t mean to say that you have to love Him that way, otherwise you know, you’re not going to make it. It’s not like that at all. These great Beings, Rama and Sita, Radha Krishna, Hanuman, these great Beings are manifestations of the love that is who we are also and that who everybody is. And the love in which the universe floats, so to speak. So, when I chant, I’m trying to, by doing the practice just the way I described it to you, when I notice I’m not paying attention, I come back, try to give myself fully to the practice as much as I can, I’m moving more deeply into that open space of love which is everywhere and everybody. Everybody’s inside of that. But we’re identified with the little meat puppet, right?Tue, 07 Nov 2023 - 20min - 89 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD December 5 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD Dec 5 2020
Hi everybody. It’s nice to see some of the same faces, week after week or whatever it is. Somebody wrote to me and said, “Such a nice community has grown up.” Really? You know? Amazing. I never thought of that, but it’s true. It’s true.
One time Sharon and I were doing a workshop weekend maybe, or maybe just one day together in LA and it was such a nice afternoon. It was really great. You know? So, at the end I said, “Oh, this is so great. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all find someplace and be together and we could just be together our whole lives?” And then I said, “Oh, we did that. Earth.”
David Nichtern, my friend, our friend David, he said he was riding on the subway one day and he looked around and he thought to himself, ” What if I had to spend the rest of my life in this subway car, this train car, with these people?”
In New York, you don’t look at anybody, because you look at anybody, they immediately look at you, “Yeah? What do you want?”
But imagine, you know, if you were in a car with 30 people from all over, all different shapes and sizes, and these were the people you were going to spend the rest of your life with, you would need to, and you would want to connect eventually. You would have to connect. So this is where we are on this, as Jimmy Hendrix called it, “this third stone from the sun,” this planet. We’re all together here passing through. Passing through.
Hi.
Hi. Namaste. Ram Ram.
Same to you.
I just wanted to ask a question in regards to, back to when KK told you to give up smoking ganja. I’ve been listening to, over and over again, when you were still smoking weed and then KK Shah said you must give it up.
Actually, it was Maharajji. Actually, it was hash in India and I wasn’t smoking much at all, every once in a long time, but we were standing outside his door, outside Maharajji’s window, and somebody asked him about I guess, about smoking hash, and he said, “It’s not good for you. It destroys your body over time. If it was good for you if it would bring us to God, I’d get a room built and we’d fill it with hash and we’d all go in together and smoke it.”
The reason I ask is, because I’m trying really hard to give it up as a coping mechanism and it’s really hard to surrender into that.
Why do you want to give it up?
Because I have this ridiculous thing in my mind that, to be a good devotee, you have to do all these things.
You have it in your mind that you’re supposed to give up all these things? Is that what you said? Forget about it. Smoke your ass off until you get sick of it and then you’ll just give it up. You won’t like it. Go somewhere where nobody’s going to bother you for the weekend. Get like about a half a pound of the shit and smoke your brains out. That’s why we do it. We’re looking for bliss. You see? We’re looking to be freed of our suffering and our fear and we can’t deal with our shit. So we try to numb ourselves. All that does, is it numbs us. And what, the other thing it does, it actually, over time, it destroys our will. It destroys our ability to actually take care of ourselves and gets us really confused about what we want and what’s good for us. It’s a very confusing situation. You know, there was a great Lama named Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche who said, “What most people call bliss is just a little less pain.”
So,Tue, 31 Oct 2023 - 1h 49min - 88 - Ep. 65 | The Repetition of the Divine Names
Call and Response Ep. 65 | The Repetition of the Divine Names
“Thoughts are going to come because thoughts come. That’s what they do. What we have to do is train ourselves to release them as soon as we notice that we’re stuck with them.” – Krishna Das
How sweet the sound. So, what are we doing? In India, this is called, “The repetition of the Divine Names.” The Names of God. We don’t like the name, “God” here in the West. It’s such a hard sounding thing. Some guy up in the sky with a big beard throwing down thunderbolts at us. Not my idea of a fun night. That’s what I was doing last night. Getting thunderbolts thrown at me. How sweet the sound… so these Names, these are the, what are these the Names of? Some God floating around up in the sky or maybe by Venus or Mars or something? No. At least probably not. Well, maybe. I don’t know. These are the Names of who we really are underneath who we think we are. That’s a big thing to say. Because we spend most of our lives in a very narrow bandwidth of who we think we are. We wake up. “What am I going to do today? Ok. I’ll go there. What’ll I wear? Yeah, I’ll wear that. Then I’ll go do this. I’ll do that. Maybe they don’t like me. Maybe I should go somewhere else. Maybe they don’t like me. Maybe I should go somewhere else. If I do this, maybe they’ll like me. I’ll do that, they’ll like me. I do this. Maybe I’m going to get my…” all day long. The movie of “Me.” We write, direct, and act in the movie of “me.” And we play all the parts in our movie. I’m playing all your parts in my movie. I don’t know who you are. But you know, you sit there like this, “Oh, that guy’s grumpy.” Or something else. The way you hold your hair. I’ve got a version of you and me in my life. It has nothing to do with who you really are or even who you think you are, but in my movie, I know who you are because I’m playing your part. And then, you write reviews which you read and get more depressed. And that’s how we go through our life. Stuck in this movie that we’re creating. So, these names, they come from a place within us that’s deeper than the movie and through the repetition of the Name, gradually but inevitably, the presence within us, the love that lives within us as who we really are is uncovered. It’s uncovered. It’s already there or we wouldn’t be here. It’s not something we get in each one of us, in everybody. So, through the repetition of the Name, that place, that presence within us, that living love is uncovered.
But it’s not so easy to… you can’t stop thinking. That doesn’t work. Thoughts are going to come because thoughts come. That’s what they do. What we have to do is train ourselves to release them as soon as we notice that we’re stuck with them. So, you’re chanting, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,” and then you know, you wind up thinking about what you’re going to buy tomorrow when you go shopping, you know, “Maybe I shouldn’t leave too early, there’s a lot of traffic Monday morning, you know,” and then, “that’s ok, I’ve got Sirius Xm. I’ll listen to the Krishna Das channel.” And then you remember, “Oh, wait a second, I’m supposed to be singing and I haven’t been paying attention,” and so you come back. And that happens every millisecond if you’re actually paying attention. You can’t pay attention for more than two breaths before you’re gone. Neither can I. But we keep coming back. That’s the thing. And that’s the amazing thing, if you think about it. Why do we ever come back from Dreamland? I don’t know. But we do. So, you’re chanting and you know, “Wow, this is so great. This is fantastic. Oh, man. This is great. I can’t wait. You know what, I’m going to lead chanting myself. Yeah, next week I’m going to get people over to come, you know, we’ll vape a little bit, it’ll be great, man, yeah. Yeah, fantastic, you know?” And then you remember, you’re supposed to be chanting, you’re supposed to be paying attention. “Oh shit,” right?Wed, 25 Oct 2023 - 30min - 87 - Ep. 64 | Consciousness, Spiritual Names, Vipasana
Call and Response Ep. 64 Consciousness, Spiritual Names, Vipasana
Q: When you sing other lineages’ Names like “Tara” or “Jesus on the Mainline” like how do you integrate that with all the other Names that you got from the Vedic tradition?
“My parents were about as Jewish as the Pope. So, but still, I didn’t know much about Jesus and then I get to India and He looks at us and says, ‘Hanuman, Krishna and Christ are the same.’ Terrific. Who wants to hear that? I’m in India. You know? But He started talking to us about Jesus and whoa, it was powerful. Really powerful. I have to say, it was more powerful than the way He spoke about Hanuman, Krishna and Ram.” – Krishna Das
Q: Namaste.
KD: Hi.
Q: Hi. Yesterday you were saying that all the mantras are love.
KD: All the what?
Q: All the mantras are essentially love.
KD: Yeah.
Q: And today you were talking about how we get what we need. And I kind of have this theory that I’ve been running with that certain mantras just come to me and I’ve been thinking maybe it’s my Guru sending me what I need and I just wondered if that happened to you or what you kind of thought about that.
KD: I never thought about it. But if that thought works for you and that helps you do your practice more sincerely and more completely, that’s a good thing. But ultimately, it’s another thought. Some thoughts are helpful because they help us let go and they help us enter more deeply into our self, and some thoughts aren’t helpful.
Q: Hello. You spoke about the heart connection to consciousness. Could you touch a little more on that. Just, you said it’s not heart chakra but it’s a different connection?
KD: No. Because I don’t know. I was repeating what I read that Ramana Maharshi said, who was one of the great saints that ever lived. So, whatever He said is cool. So, that’s what He said. He said there’s this consciousness is always present and there’s a spot in the body that we kind of, like a little… that fills up the body with the consciousness. When we leave the body, the body’s just inert. There’s no consciousness in the body itself. It’s just flesh and bone and blood and pus and all that stuff.
Q: Could I ask you anything that you have taken from that for your life?
KD: You could ask whatever. Ask.
Q: From that insight that He gave you?
KD: No. I mean, I don’t think about that stuff. I thought, “That’s true.” And that’s about as far as I went with it.
Q: Thank you.
KD: Ok.
_________
Q: I have a question around, in certain moment you were given the name “Krishna Das.”
KD: Yeah.
Q: But you were born “Jeffrey.”
KD: Yeah. So…
Q: Sometimes I struggle with this thing about the spiritual Names. And I think to myself, “What happens when the spiritual Name is not just given, but you embody it.” Can you share a little bit about that?
KD: It’s just more stuff to deal with. My real name was “Driver.” For a year, Maharajji called me “Driver” because He took Ram Das’s keys away to the van and He gave them to me. “Driver.” Then I was going to kill myself because He didn’t give me a Name. So, finally He gave me a Name. He said, “Arjun. Krishna. Nay. Krishna Das.” I said, “Krishna Das? I’m a Hanuman guy. What’s that stuff?” And He just laughed. He said, “Don’t worry. Hanuman served Krishna, too.” It didn’t change me at all. It just gave me pride which was hard to get rid of. You want a Name?
Q: No. And about singing other lineages, where you have sung, “Tara” or “Jesus on the Mainline…” When you sing other lineages’ Names like “Tara” or “Jesus on the Mainline” like how do you integrate that with all the other Names that you got from the vedic tradition?
KD: I like it. I sing what I like. Right? What’s the big deal? If I don’t like it, I don’t sing it. A Name is a Name is a Name. Right? Different traditions, same God. Big deal. You know? Come on. Argue. Come on.Tue, 12 Apr 2022 - 17min - 86 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD August 15 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD August 15 2020
“Maharajji said, “Repeat the name, whether you feel good, bad, whether you have devotion or not, whether you’re tired, whether you’re angry, keep repeating the name.”
The Name will save you. It’s not your feelings that will save you. It’s the Name that will save you. There’s a big difference, and we don’t even know what that difference is because we are what we are, but Maharajji, when he was leaving the temple for the last time, he said, “I only know two things, ‘Ra’ and ‘Ma.’”
Those two syllables can wipe the destiny from your forehead. This is what we’re talking about. You’re talking about becoming liberated from suffering, free of our ideas about who we think we are, finding out who and what we really are…” – Krishna Das
Q: Hi.
Hi.
I have a question. The question is, I have heard Ram Dass a lot of times, and you spoke about karma, you know, most of your calls, and last time when I had a conversation with you, you said, “You have some karma with your sister and your mother,” and we spoke about your picture, with your mother’s picture on the past Chai and Chat.
My sister and I had karma with my mother. That’s what I said.
Yeah. So, I want to ask you, you said you want to clear this from your heart and everything, so how do we, is it like any family we are born in, we have karma with them? And if it is so, how do we clear this family karma from our heart?
Everything that’s in this moment as a result of our karmas. Everything. This moment through the computer, that’s also a result of our karmas. It’s an effect of the causes that created this moment. So, parents are a very big thing. They imprint us with their stuff, which is also their karma stuff, and they provide us with a form, a physical form, an emotional form also, with which we go through our lives. Most people just accept that and don’t even think about it and then they just live their life the way they live their life, but if we’re on the spiritual path, it becomes obvious that our programming, so to speak, needs some tuning up, that there some fault in the code, in the programming code. We need to clean it up somehow, and that means we need to learn to accept it and love it. That’s the only way karma is released: when we no longer react negatively, so to speak, when we break, when our attachment, our identification with ourselves as a person or as a, as an ego that was programmed this way by that person.
So, you know, it’s not as if our parents do anything to us, necessarily. They’re just being themselves, and we take everything personally and we develop a personality around that. Even if our parents have left the body, we’re still here, and we’re actually made up of their bodies and we’re still carrying their programming with us.
So, if we want to be able to love everyone, that includes our parents and it includes ourself. So, but because our parents are so basic to the way we feel about ourselves, and our parents and our upbringing and all the things that happen to us, we need to forgive and release the negative responses and negative reactions that we have in our own heart about it all, and that takes a conscious effort.
But like Maharajji said, through the repetition of the name, everything is achieved. Through the repetition of the name, you will have a deeper awareness of yourself. You won’t be so attached to your reactions. You won’t be so attached to your stories that you tell yourself about yourself, that you don’t like,Tue, 05 Apr 2022 - 1h 45min - 85 - Ep. 63 | Hanuman, How Chanting Heals
Call and Response Ep. 63 Hanuman, How Chanting Heals
Q: Can you tell us a story about Hanuman? Any story.
“There are certain things that we need that, that Being that is Hanuman allows us to realize in our lives to get what we want. Why shouldn’t we have what we want? God is not your mother telling you, “You can’t have that.” That’s a program. We have desires based on our karmas and many of those desires are good for us to fulfill. Some of them are not. Hanuman boosts up the ones that are positive and removes the ones that are negative.” – Krishna Das
Q: Can you tell us a story about Hanuman? Any story.
KD: What’s that?
Q: Tell us a story about Hanuman. Any story.
KD: Well, stories you can read in books. For us, when we got to India, we noticed that Maharajji’s devotees considered to be Hanuman in the body. Considered Him to be a manifestation of Hanuman. When we talk about these things, it’s very difficult to talk about these things correctly. And even Maharajji used to say, “They say Hanuman’s a monkey.” Hanuman is the flow of grace in the universe. It’s the flow of connection between the individual soul and the supreme soul. The nature of those two supposed things is not different. The Atma is not different than the Paramatma in its quality, except that it’s limited to an individual reflection. For instance, the moon is reflected in many different lakes and pools. It’s exactly the same moon. It’s exactly the same reflection. But it’s limited in some way. That’s the soul. The personal individual soul. And a lake is like a mirror. It reflects the light of the moon, which itself is a mirror reflecting the light of the sun. So, if that lake is covered with leaves and stuff, you can’t see any moon in the lake. Hanuman is what removes those leaves. That dirt on the mirror of the heart. It’s the flow of love, the flow of grace. Hanuman is considered to be the remover of obstacles, the destroyer of problems and suffering. And also, the bestower of the very things we need to get on with our lives. There’s a sloka in Sanskrit which I don’t remember, but it said, “Not only does Hanuman bestow liberation by uniting the Atma with the Paramatma or removing… and he does that by removing the dust on the mirror, not only does He do that, but He also makes it possible for us to satisfy the desires that we have that need to be satisfied.” We’re hungry people. We’re hungry beings. We need to eat. We need to sleep. We need to do a bunch of things. Which I won’t talk about here. And if we don’t do those things, we’re frustrated, and we don’t, our energy doesn’t flow. So, there are certain things that we need that, that Being that is Hanuman allows us to realize in our lives to get what we want. Why shouldn’t we have what we want? God is not your mother telling you, “You can’t have that.” That’s a program. We have desires based on our karmas and many of those desires are good for us to fulfill. Some of them are not. Hanuman boosts up the ones that are positive and removes the ones that are negative. That’s what they say.
Here’s a story you won’t like.
It’s from the Valmiki Ramayana. There’s many different versions of the story of Ram, which is called the Ramayana. So, in the Valmiki, which is the original, Seetha, Rama’s wife, was stolen by the demon Ravana. Seetha is the individual soul. Ram is the Supreme soul. Ravana is the ego. So, He steals the shakti. But He can’t mate with it, because He’s cursed. That if He tries to mate with a woman who doesn’t want Him, His heads will explode. He had ten heads. Every one of them will explode. So, He has to kind of seduce the soul into falling in love with Him, which is impossible. So, anyway, at some point in the story, Hanuman goes, all the monkeys go out to try to find Seetha and Hanuman jumps over the ocean and He gets to Ravana’s kingdom and He’s cruising around looking for Seetha. And one of the places He winds up looking is in Ravana,Tue, 29 Mar 2022 - 27min - 84 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD August 1 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD August 1 2020
“One must try to get what one needs in life. One can not refuse to enter the fight because by doing that, you’ve given up. And if you think you can find God or find real love or be liberated without going through the battle, you’re dreaming. It’s only through getting into the fight, getting into the battle, the battle to be real and be present regardless of what’s going on in the emotional or outside world. That’s the battle, and if we don’t get involved in the battle, we will not be able to ever find any peace of mind or find any real love. We have to get in there and fight so we can see what our issues are.” – Krishna Das
Q: My question is, I was doing one of your courses from your website, and I saw a story where Maharajji asked you to perform puja of your mother when she was at the airport going back home.
Yeah.
I have a mother and an elder sister. I have a hard time connecting to them. Whatever you did, whatever Maharajji asked you to do with your mom at the airport, how did at affect your relationship with your mother?
Whatever it was, it wasn’t instant, really. My mother and I had a, we had a difficult relationship, mostly, until towards the end of her life. Then we got much closer.
He brought her to India in order to purify the karmas between us and to help her, of course, but to also help me. And the puja in the airport was interesting, because many years later there, it was in the middle of the airport… in those days, It was just like an airport hangar in Delhi. At the airport in Delhi in ‘72 was like a cow shed. There’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes there are flying cows also.
So, there I was. She gave the camera, her camera to somebody and I, he told me I had to get down on my knees. He told me I had to get down on my knees. So, I did the arati with the lamp and I said a couple of mantras, and when I look at the picture that was taken at that moment, the look on her face was so extraordinary. I tell you, she looked like the goddess Durga. The love that was coming from her at that moment, when she was looking at me there, she never looked like that. That was the only moment in her life that she looked like that. It was amazing. He had really done a lot for her, really helped her a lot. Although, she had been, she was an alcoholic and she had, at that particular time I don’t think, yeah, she had been through a round or two already of rehab at that point. And then even after she went back, once again, she still had a hard time, went through another rehab, and then finally the last 20 years of her life or more, she was not drinking. So, he really, I believe that was by his grace because there was some kind of karmic black hole in her soul, which I have had, the same thing, have the same thing. And he saved her and then he saved me also from addiction.
But as far as my relationship, it was very difficult. So, what can you do? You don’t have to sit down in front of your mother, kneel down and do puja, but you do have to look inside of yourself and start to release all the negativity around your relationship with her.
You know, in Buddhism, they make a really big point of recognizing that your mother is the most important being in your life, because our mothers carried us for nine months in their own bodies. We’re made up mostly of her body and a little bit of our father’s one night stand or whatever, but the father has very little role after just at that first moment. The mother supports us. We live off of her. She feeds us inside of herself, and if we’re here today,Tue, 22 Mar 2022 - 1h 40min - 83 - Ep. 62 | The Spiritual Heart, Addiction, Longing
Call and Response Ep. 62 The Spiritual Heart, Addiction, Longing
Q: I was curious to hear about your experience with your sobriety…
“If I had to fight with my desire for drugs, I would have lost. That’s the deal. That’s the way I was made. If it had been up to me, every day to fight that desire, I couldn’t have done it. I just, you know, I’m being honest with you. So, I have such respect and honor so much the people who really do have to work with that every day and do work with it. Whether they’re successful every day or not. It’s a fierce battle for survival. And it’s very difficult. And truly, I don’t think anybody can do it on their own. I think if a person is doing it, it’s coming out of some kind of spiritual strength, inner strength which is not ego-based. Which is not based in the separate self, it’s based in the real self and that real self, your own self, your own true nature, is strengthening you to fight that battle.” – Krishna Das
KD: Anybody?
Q: Over here.
KD: Hi.
Q: Hi. There’s some talk in quantum physics community or whatever, for really some years now, maybe 10, 15, 20 years that consciousness is non-local and we are more like satellite dishes and it’s about, you know, your thoughts or absence thereof would be more about tuning into different channels, so to speak, almost like the radio. Like you get tuned to the channel of love or you know, or you could get caught in some just train of thought that is just in the vicinity or just happens to, you know, tune or something and then you could choose to maybe change it if you’re able. I don’t know. Have you heard anything about that? I was just curious if that resonates or anything like that.
KD: Well, Ramana Maharshi who was one of the greatest saints that ever lived, said that, like you say, “Consciousness is everywhere all the time,” but there’s one spot in the body where we connect to it. It’s called the hridayam or the spiritual heart. But it’s not the heart chakra, He says. It’s on the other side, He says. I don’t say because I don’t know. So, that’s what He said. And there’s like a little kind of thing that connects us to the universal consciousness and that, the seed of that consciousness is here and when the body dies then that connection, obviously, dies with it. The body is no longer connected to consciousness. It’s just what it usually is, as in, inert. The light goes off. The light was not in there. It wasn’t coming from the body. It was coming from the connection to the light, so to speak. That’s what He says.
Q: That’s beautiful.
KD: And He says, “That’s the seat of the Self.” That’s where the Atma, the connection to the Paramatma, the Supreme Being, the individual connection is there through that spot.
Q: Beautiful. Thank you.
KD: Yeah.
There’s one over here.
Why are you sitting out there?
Q: Hi. I asked you a couple questions yesterday.
KD: Good because I don’t remember.
Q: It’s ok. I gave you a high five on the beach… and I, instead of asking you about that, I asked you other questions and it was just kind of, I was curious to hear about your experience with your sobriety and like, the longevity you have there, like that, and your relationship to…
KD: I don’t think of myself as sober.
Q: Ok. Yeah, I just want to hear it because I’m going to be coming up on 12 years.
KD: Yeah. Good.
Q: And I don’t really… my relationship with it has changed over the years. In the beginning I was like, proud of it, and now it’s just become part of my lifestyle and I just thought I’d ask you
KD: Sure. When I say, “I don’t think of myself as sober,” it’s not, in other words, it’s not a way I identify myself, in that way. But, in fact, I am sober. Very sober. Sober and boring. For many years. And sometime in the 80’s I was strung out on freebase cocaine for about a year and a half and I was going down.Tue, 15 Mar 2022 - 19min - 82 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD July 25 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD July 25 2020
“Hanuman is a being that not only liberates us, gives us freedom, but he allows us to satisfy the desires that we have that will be useful to us in progressing in life. It is not a renunciant sannysasi path. This is a path very much in the world, seeing God everywhere in everyone, not just in one little place, but seeing, being in the world and yet not of the world. So, as you do these practices and as you grow, a lot of things will happen, and the main thing is really just to have some humility about the practice itself, you know, to understand that it’s a spiritual practice, regardless of what comes to you in your life.” – Krishna Das
That invocation to Hanuman has a secret in it. Those last two verses have this secret.
Aanjaneya mati paatalaananam
Kaanchanaadri kamaneeya vigraham
Then it goes:
Paarijaata taru moola vaasinam
Bhaavayaami pavamaana nandanam
So Hanuman is always sitting at the foot of this tree, lost in love, lost in Ram.
Paarijaata taru moola vaasinam
Bhaavayaami pavamaana nandanam
He’s lost in devotion for Ram.
Yatra yatra Raghunaatha keertanam
Tatra tatra krita masta kaanjalim
Wherever and whenever Ram’s name is sung or spoken, Hanumanji comes there. Whenever and wherever.
So one time, Maharajji went up to the, he was in Chitrakoot with some devotees and they went up to the top of this mountain called Hanuman Dhara, and the story is that, after burning Lanka, Hanuman flew to the top of this mountain and hit the ground and a stream of water came out, and in that water, he cooled his body down because he’d become very fierce, and he’d just burnt Lanka. His whole body was, his tail was on fire as he flew around Lanka. He didn’t feel any pain, but he was cranked up. And so, he then flew to this mountain and cooled himself.
So Maharajji was sitting there at the spot and he said to Dada, “Dada, this is where Hanumanji came to cool off to calm himself after burning Lanka,” and then kind of under his breath, he just said, “But Hanumanji was always at peace.”
So, no matter what he was doing in the outside world, no matter where he was going, what he was doing, he was always at peace. He was always completely in Ram. So this gives us a sense of direction, because no matter what we experience in our daily lives,, it is possible to always be at peace, to always be existing in our natural state, which is peace, which is love. So, every issue that we have dissolves into that peace, into that Ram, into that love, into that space. It’s vast space, huge, vast presence in which everything is held. This is Maharajji’s big form. This is Ram. This is Hanuman at one with Ram.
So, this is why we repeat the name. This is why we do practice, so that we can release the stuff that catches us all life long, and trying to find some reality within ourselves, something deeper than our normal everyday experience.
Which is why Maharajji said, “Go on repeating the name. Go on repeating the name, even without any feelings of devotion or love, even when you’re tired, even when you’re angry, just go on repeating the name and sooner or later, the grace will manifest. The real Ram will show up.”
So, no matter what else is going on in our lives, we really need to be doing some turning within, or we’ll never be able to let go of our stuff. You just can’t. It’s like trying to pick yourself up like this. It can’t be done. You need some leverage to get up. You can’t pick yourself up just with your own strength, with your hands.Tue, 08 Mar 2022 - 1h 15min - 81 - Ep. 61 | Do What You Like, Taking It Personally, As Time Goes By
Call and Response Ep. 61 Do What You Like, Taking It Personally, As Time Goes By
Q: I go to kirtans. I put in music in my car and I chant and I’ve developed a little bit of a practice. I have a daily sadhana, ultimately because of you… But I’m wondering what it looks like… besides going to kirtan or in my car, (what) do you recommend as part of… a daily sadhana of sitting, like in a meditation pose, and chanting and with music on in the background, that I’m chanting to? Or memorizing various… lines? I’ve memorized a few.
“Do what you like. Find out what it is that you like. You’re the only one who knows. Somebody can give you suggestions. Somebody can order you to do things. Somebody can tell you to do things. Somebody can say, “Don’t do this, don’t do that.” Fine. If that feels right to you. See, that’s what’s happening anyway. Even if somebody tells you something, you’re agreeing to either do it or not do it, for whatever reason. It might be you like to be punished, so you can do what you don’t like. I tried that for about 50 years. So, really, in all seriousness, the whole thing is to trust yourself.” – Krishna Das
Q: First, thank you for your music and being you and I’ve told you before, but I guess your music and you really changed my life, ultimately.
KD: Mine, too.
Q: And so, I do have a question. The practicality that, the actual on-the-ground practicality of chanting, I hear from others, just chant, chant the names. Well, I go to kirtans. I put in music in my car and I chant and I’ve developed a little bit of a practice. I have a daily sadhana ultimately because of you and my yoga. But I’m wondering what it looks like besides going to kirtan or in my car. And I chant and I’ve developed a little bit of a practice. But I’m wondering what it looks like, besides going to kirtan or in my car, do you recommend as part of like, a daily sadhana of sitting, like in a meditation pose, and chanting and with music on in the background, that I’m chanting to? Or memorizing various, you know, lines? I’ve memorized a few.
KD: I’m going to give you the secret teaching here. You ready? Do what you like. You have to find out what you like, what works for you, what you want to do, and do it. Don’t do what you don’t like. See how that feels. You might not do what you don’t like and feel bad. So, then you’d better do something. It’s up to you. What does it matter what I say? If I say something, then you’ll do it, maybe, and say “Ah, he’s full of shit, it didn’t work. I’m not going to do that. Good. Do what you like. Find out what it is that you like. You’re the only one who knows. Somebody can give you suggestions. Somebody can order you to do things. Somebody can tell you to do things. Somebody can say, “Don’t do this, don’t do that.” Fine. If that feels right to you. See, that’s what’s happening anyway. Even if somebody tells you something, you’re agreeing to either do it or not do it, for whatever reason. It might be you like to be punished, so you can do what you don’t like. I tried that for about 50 years. So, really, in all seriousness, the whole thing is to trust yourself. Learn how to find what works for you. Now, of course, there are many traditional, many lineages and many teachings already available that have worked for somebody, maybe many “somebody’s”, that doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you right now. It doesn’t mean it’s right for you right now. Only you know. Who else would know?
Q: Thank you.
_____________
Q: Hello, Krishna Das.
KD: Where are you? Hi.
Q: I met you before Jivamukti out in the desert out in California and I’d seen you moping. I saw you. I get it.
KD: Sometimes I mope just to make people look at me. They feel sorry for me, you know, and then they give me stuff and they’re nice to me.
Q: It was all you. It was real and I get it. And we’re both from Long Island and we’ve got the same schtick.
KD: Well,Tue, 01 Mar 2022 - 21min - 80 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD July 18 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD July 18 2020
“The only answers that you need have to come from you. There’s no shortcut there. You have to listen to your own heart about what you want to do and what you need to do, and then you have to have the courage to go do it, if that’s what it takes.” – Krishna Das
The bottom line is that no matter what the issue is, no matter what the suffering is, the real pain is in the mind, because that’s how we’re reacting to the physical, if there is physical issues, and if it’s mental issues, it’s also the way we react, and the only way to overcome or transcend or thin out or leave behind those reactions is to be able to invoke a deeper place within us, the presence of the love that lives within us, in whatever form opens your heart to that; counseling, therapy, talking; every other kind of assistance one can get. All they do is, they help us to let go. And the greatest help that we can get is to train ourselves, to release the stuff and move more deeply into our own hearts and into our own being.
So, Maharajji always said, “Constant repetition of God’s name, even without feelings of devotion, in anger or lethargy, brings out His grace.”
And once this is realized, then there’s no misunderstanding about anything anymore. There’s no… True faith and true understanding arises. But to reach that point, now, this is me, to reach that point where we actually have that experience, it takes some work on our path, on our part. We have to align ourselves, first with the real intention to overcome suffering, the intention to understand where it comes from, and the practice to build up the internal muscles to be able to let go. You can’t let go of something unless you have something else to hold on to. So, we hold on to the repetition of the Name and to, eventually the realization that brings to us directly, to us, ourselves, within us. We hold on to that and then it becomes easier to let go of this stuff.
So, I guess that’s the deal. See ya.
Q: Hi Krishna Das.
How are you doingn?
Did Maharajji ever speak to unscrupulous teachers and… well, let me… a little background, I received the teachings of yoga for the last three years from someone that I just found out was abusing their power as a teacher among my friends and other, and colleagues and my sangha, and my work now is to separate the teaching from the teacher, I think. That’s what I’m trying to do, and what you just opened with is definitely something I can do. But I don’t, I’ve heard you speak about it before, but I thought it was never gonna happen to me. So, I didn’t really pay attention.
So, your yoga teacher has been abusing his or her position as teacher?
Well, regardless of what kind of abuse it is, if it’s something that doesn’t feel right to you, yoga teachers are, there’s like 40 yoga studios on every block. Go somewhere else.
Like Starbucks. Yeah. Oh yeah. I’m definitely going to myself.
It’s no reflection on you that it hurts, that you were part of that group.
What do you want to know? You did the right thing. You left. So, you leave those people to do whatever they have to do. Some people find it hard to recognize abuse and some people find abuse everywhere. So, it’s really up to you, what your experience is with the situation, how you feel about it, and whatever karmas this person has created, they’ll be living through that for a long time. So, there’s no reason for us to be angry, because anger just destroys whatever we have to offer and whateve...Tue, 22 Feb 2022 - 1h 48min - 79 - Ep. 60 | Gurus, Programs and Practice
Call and Response Ep. 60 Gurus, Programs and Practice
“We’re training ourselves to release whatever it is that is pushing us around. It’s not easy to see what it is because we’re being pushed from behind. It’s the shadows in our hearts, the dark corners in our hearts that push us around. So, it’s not easy to see the programs. That’s why, when we sit down to practice, we just keep letting go of anything that pulls us out of that moment of what we’re trying to do, and then come back.” – Krishna Das
So, the poem I was looking for was by Rumi. A Sufi poet. Great poet. One of the Great Beings. It’s called “Love Dogs,” and I’m going to ruin it, but I’ll do the best I can.
So, it starts off, “One night, a man was praying, ‘Allah, Allah’ and his lips grew sweet with the chanting. And then a cynic walked by and said, ‘Why are you calling out? You never get an answer.’ And the man was struck by that and thought, ‘He’s right.’ So, he stopped praying. And that night, he had a dream in which the guide of souls came to him and said, ‘Why did you stop praying?’ ‘Because I never got an answer.’ He said, ‘The calling out is the answer.’ He said, ‘You hear that moan of the dog crying for its Master? That’s the connection.’”
So, the idea is probably that we’re already being called from within to move more deeply into our own true nature, the love that lives within us as who we really are and when we respond, either through a spiritual practice or through caring for others or kindness to others or doing good in the world, we’re actually answering the call of our own hearts. This isn’t something that comes from the outside. We’re not being, there’s no manipulation in love and love is what lives within us so the whole path is to learn to pay attention to our inner hearts and to do that, we have to learn to trust ourselves and listen to ourselves and honor our own truth, our own feelings, whatever they are. You can’t pretend to be who you’re not. It won’t work. So, really, one of the things that spiritual practice does, it gives us the strength to, little by little, overcome the programs that are running within us that tell us we’re not enough, that tell us we’re not worthy of love, that tell us that we can’t love, that things are not all right and will never be all right. And those programs run all the time. So, practice takes some of the energy away from those programs, little by little. If it happens too fast, they put you away. Right? I said, “Right?”
All right, anybody have anything to say? Raise your hand and you’ll be punished.
You’re going to make me talk more?
Yesterday we were talking about Gurus and sometimes I can get a little bit cranky when we talk about Gurus. Because everybody, ok, just a second… everybody thinks I got started already, you can’t stop me. What’s that? Oh, you have it? I ruined it already, thank you.
Q: Hello, Krishna Das
KD: Wait, wait. I’m in the middle of something here. I’m in a program. Don’t kill it. So, yeah, I get cranky about it because I guess I have issues myself with physical Guru and the inner Guru because when I was with Maharajji physically, that was it for me. I didn’t want to be anywhere else, ever. That was home. I got home somehow. I tripped and fell and I was home. But, there was still all this stuff inside of me, uncooked seeds, so to speak. Uncooked desires. Desires that were calling out to be fulfilled and to live through. So, after 2 and a half years in India with Him, and He kept me there. He made it, He actually kept me there. One time, I was at Dada’s house in Allahabad, one of Maharajji’s great old devotees and my Visa, I had a tourist Visa and I had gotten one extension so I had been there about six months and… maybe I got it wrong… but anyway, I had to go and do, get another Visa, extend my Visa so I could stay but I knew that if I went back to this place, they would probably send me back to America. But I had to go.Tue, 15 Feb 2022 - 22min - 78 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD July 2 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD July 2 2020
“All chants are useful. All practice is useful. If it’s not COVID, it’s the fact that you’re going to die of something else, but you don’t pay attention to that. COVID is just making you aware of that in a very nasty way. But yes, death is a part of life. We live every day as if it’s never going to touch us, we’re never going to get sick, we’re never going to die. We just go on piling shit up, getting more stuff. This situation has faced everybody with impermanence, as they say, which is one of the signs of samsara, of the world, that things are impermanent and changing, and it’s a very painful lesson for us, all of us. No question about it. “ – Krishna Das
Namaste. Howdy everybody. We’re here again. Still here. So, let’s recognize that even though we can’t see each other physically, we are still in the same space together, the space of the heart, the sky of the heart, where we always are together. All we need to do is remember to look.
One of the words for chanting is “bhajan,” which means “to remember,” one of the meanings of the word. So, we were trying to remember to remember.
So many of the great saints that I met in India, and even up to this day, all talk about the practice of the repetition of the name and how, how effective it is, and how it’s the real practice for this age. It’s the easiest way to overcome the tendencies we have in our minds and hearts and the programs that run behind the scenes all the time telling us that we’re not enough, we’re no good, we’ll never get what we want, we’ll never be happy.
So, you’ll notice how difficult it is to actually pay attention when you’re singing. You might feel good. You might feel bad. But whatever it is you feel, you should keep the awareness on the presence of the name, on the sound of the name, because that’s what will take us deeper into ourself. We don’t want to go sideways. We don’t want to, it’s not all about what you’re experiencing when you do this practice. All the saints say, all the yogis say that when you’re sitting down, that’s not the only time that the practice is important. It resonates through the day, and when you’re not looking, something arises from within, some understanding, some new way of seeing something will come from inside, and in these particular times now, when it’s, we’re all faced with our mind and our stuff right in front of us, and our emotions all day long, it’s big time stuff. So, this is the most important thing. Practice during this period will bring great fruits to our life, because we are so reactive most of the day, reading the papers, talking to people who are suffering, and our own unhappiness, our own suffering. So, this is the time to plant those seeds.
All right, let’s take some questions. Here’s a long question.
Q: Though the mind can play its own games and have its own irrelevant theories, what does your heart tell you about what Maharajji said about appearing in the body in America?
I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but in the old days, Maharajji said, “I’ll come to you, I’ll come with you to America.”
So, we said to him, “Yes, we’ll bring you in our hearts.”
And he said, “Nay! In the body.”
Well, I’m still waiting. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been here. It just means I didn’t see him. So, you know, there’s no way of capturing him, no way at all, but if you see him, please let me know.Tue, 08 Feb 2022 - 34min - 77 - Ep. 59 | Real Love
Call and Response Ep. 59 Real Love
Q: I just wanted to ask you if you believe in true love and whether you find or think that personally you have experienced True Love. That’s my question. Thank you.
“Love with a capital ‘L’ is a different thing. It’s not an emotion. It’s not a feeling like an emotion. It’s the whole universe. It’s very big. It’s vast presence. It’s like the sky of the Mind in which everything exists. It’s… outside of which there can be nothing, outside of real love. Everyone is included. Love is looking out of our eyes right now. Each one of us. Right now. Love is looking out of our eyes. But we don’t see the love. We see the stuff. We don’t see what’s looking. We only see what the looking sees.” – Krishna Das
Q: Krishna Das, I’m an old hippie from Haight-Asbhury and I turned 70 last year and I’m proud to say that, for the last 31 years, I have had a very strong practice in Sivananda Yoga and the hour that I do every weekday morning is the rock of my life and as a result of that, I’m finding that I’m able to sustain longer periods of bliss consciousness. I think that’s a direct result of my practice. But lovely ex-wife gave me your Kirtan Wallah cd two or three years ago. I have it in the car. I listen to it all the time. I sing along with all the words. I drive along through the English roads singing my lungs out to your wonderful music and what I find with your music is it brings me into Bliss Consciousness almost immediately. And I wanted to thank you for that. It’s a wonderful wonderful gift. And I think the result of those two things, four or five years ago, I found, I fell into a new relationship, funnily enough with an Indian woman named Saraswati. So, the Goddess has smiled on me, largely thanks to your music. But I do have an important question to ask you, which I hope will be of interest to everybody else. Because I think we are all looking for the One. We’re all looking for our Soul Mate.
And I just wanted to ask you if you believe in true love and whether you find or think that personally you have experienced True Love. That’s my question. Thank you.
KD: I’ve definitely experienced true love up to the limit that I could experience it, and that’s with my Guru. And His people who are rooted in real love, they just emanate that. So, definitely. Up to the amount that I’m karmically able to feel at this moment, I felt that with Maharajji. I feel that with Maharajji all the time. Anytime. So, if that’s your question, consider it answered. If it’s not, you can continue.
Q: I’m very happy with your answer. Thank you so much and thank you for your wonderful music.
KD: You’re welcome. I was very much in love with a woman, more than once, but one time, this one particular one, and I was with my Indian father who was a great yogi. I mean, just extraordinary yogi. He was involved in the world. He was a headmaster of a very prestigious school. He had a large family, children, grandchildren. But he was, had been with Maharajji for 40 years and he was just extraordinary. He seemed to know everything. So, I was telling him about this woman and I was going on and on and on for awhile, and he was listening. Finally, I stopped and he said, “My boy.” He said, “Relationships are business. Do your business. Do your business. Enjoy.” He said, “But love? Love is what lasts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Love is our true Being.” You don’t get it from somebody. You don’t give it to anybody. Everybody already has it. I hated him. It took me a year to get over my anger at him for destroying my bubble. Breaking my bubble. Relationships are wonderful. I mean, they are probably the way we can learn the most about ourselves. Human relationships. We’re in relationship to everything all the time. But human relationships between people are really such a powerful of seeing ourselves and seeing our stuff and when you develop a real friendship with someone,Tue, 01 Feb 2022 - 20min - 76 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations with KD June 25 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations with KD June 25 2020
“There’s a way that even through this camera and the computer and the internet, we actually are connecting in a very deep place, and so little by little one learns to be more aware of the places that we are connected and the way we are connected, and those emotions, which once seemed so huge, don’t seem so huge anymore.” – Krishna Das
I’m going to read you something. As you know, this practice that we’re doing is called “The repetition of the divine name or names.” In India, in the east, they understand that the Supreme being is beyond all form, but actually embraces all form as well. So, they said, there’s an unlimited amount, number of names of God, and that every being has divinity within them, their soul, the soul, that reflection. That ray of light that lights up every being is the same in all of us. Each one of us has that same ray of light.
So, a great Saint named Sri Anandamayi Ma, wrote this:
“At all times the repetition of the Lord’s name should be kept up. Through the practice of the Name, enjoyment, liberation, peace, all these will blossom forth. Invoke him by the name that appeals to you most for as much time as you can. The longer, the better. In this way you will, at some auspicious moment, discover the rosary of the mind, the Mala of the mind, the beads of the mind, and then you will continually hear within yourself the praises of the great master, the Lord of creation, like the never ceasing music of the boundless ocean. You will hear the land and the sea, the air in the heavens reverberate with the song of his glory. This is called ‘The all-pervading presence of the name.’”
That’s why I always say, just do the practice and live your life. It’s not up to us to make something happen. All we’re doing is trying to tune into that place where it’s already happening within us.
Remember, try not to attract, don’t get caught in trying to manipulate yourself into one particular type of experience that you feel might be blissful, et cetera, et cetera. Through the practice of the repetition of the name, the presence within us is uncovered. That presence is always here, but we’re not looking. We are not paying attention. Through this practice of the repetition of the name, we’re continually invoking that place within us.
Q: It’s wonderful chanting with you this way, but I find myself missing the ecstatic moments of chant together in person when the energy and excitement really heat up. Do I miss that?
I miss chanting with people, but probably not for that reason. It’s a wonderful experience to be in a room full of people, everybody chanting, and to feel, hear the name, and to feel the presence more deeply.
When you chant, the idea is to focus on the name itself. The name is the name of your true nature, of the place within you that is joy, happiness, peace, bliss, the kind of bliss that doesn’t come and go. It’s the kind of bliss that you are. One can’t see it from here. It’s covered up.
So, if you’re desiring a certain type of experience while you’re chanting, then you’re looking for that experience and you’re not looking at the name itself. The name is a door. We’re in a room full of stuff. We’ve been playing with stuff our whole lives, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, too much of this, less of that. I’ll take this. I’ll throw that away, playing with ways to feed our senses and feed ourselves pleasurable experiences.
The name is a door out of that room into real love,Tue, 25 Jan 2022 - 38min - 75 - Ep. 58 | Life On The Road, Everyone is Your Teacher
Call and Response Ep. 58 Life On The Road, Everyone is Your Teacher
Q: Do you use people, just in general that come up in your life, as your teacher?
“The more at ease you are with yourself, the more you’re willing and able to be at ease with anything that comes to you because it doesn’t force you, it doesn’t push a button that closes you down. So, that’s hard work. That’s how life is our teacher. Are we closing down? Are we protecting ourselves? Or distancing ourselves? Are we judging? And we do all the time. It’s natural. It’s human.” – Krishna Das
KD: Yeah.
Q: I was just wondering what your preference of music is other than singing kirtan. Do you like rock and roll or country music?
KD: I’m an old fart, you know? Steely Dan, Ray Charles, Van Morrison. I like Eminem. I don’t know. I like a lot of stuff. I like jazz. I like rock. I like classical. I like a lot of stuff. I don’t listen to much music, because when there’s finally a moment when nobody’s calling on the phone or trying to get me to do something that I’m actually… it’s just such a blessing.
Q: Thank you.
KD: You’re welcome. There’s a lot of good music out there, but I don’t know what it is.
Q: Hi.
KD: Hey.
Q: I’m from Long Island, too.
KD: Congratulations.
Q: Thanks.
KD: Your next birth will be better.
Q: Thank you. My question is, I saw your tour schedule for the next, I don’t know, six months. I’m looking at you up there and over there…
KD: Oh, I’m up there, too?
Q: Yeah you’re right there.
KD: I’m everywhere. It’s amazing.
Q: I just wanted to know, my son is actually on the road touring with a band right now and he’s having a lot of trouble figuring out how to balance taking care of himself and being on the road and I’m actually asking you how you do that when you’re on the road. Because you have a such a huge schedule coming up.
KD: You know, me being on the road is like being in an ashram, for me. You get up, have some breakfast, go to soundcheck. You sing. Go back to the hotel. Snack a little. Go to sleep. Get up. Pack your bags, get on the plane, get to the hotel. Go to sleep. It’s either eating, singing, traveling or sleeping. It’s like an ashram. That’s it except for the traveling. You know? When I get back to my room and I close the door and there’s nobody there, praise the Lord. That’s just so great, you know? But when you’re young, you don’t get back to the room before you take a few hits or a few drinks or you know, you go down to the bar to see who you can meet. You’re creating your own stuff and it’s difficult. It’s very difficult. You have, we don’t, we’re not trained, taught how to take care of ourselves, so when you’re on the road and you’re touring like that it can be really crazy. But, if you’re asking me, it’s not like that anymore. So, your son is in a band, you say he’s traveling?
Q: yes, but he did pack his yoga mat.
KD: That’s good. He can kind of use it as a pillow.
Q: Hi.
KD: Where are you? Hi.
Q: Hi. I listened to some of your other, oh, it’s really weird hearing myself in this… anyway, I’ve heard a lot of your other teachings, like, via Spotify…
KD: Could you not say “teachings” please? It just freaks me the hell out…
Q: Ok. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
KD: Just say, “stuff” or something like that.
Q: Your stuff that you talk about, when you talk about relationships
KD: Oh, here we go.
Q: I know, I’m like the one that’s going to say it. So, like, there’s something you said, like, “Relationships are like, you do your business and I do mine.”
KD: That’s a quote. I didn’t say it.
Q: That’s a quote. Well, it’s a quote you said. And I just find that, like with, like relationship with like a man or a relationship with your mom, or a relationship with you know, whoever you have in your life and some people are, you know,Tue, 18 Jan 2022 - 17min - 74 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD June 18 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD June 18 2020
“My understanding is that everything in our life is a result of karma, and it’s like waves coming in off the ocean and they crash over us. If we fight with those waves, we create more karma. We are reacting against them. If we allow them to just crash over us, the energy dissipates. So, the way to meet the way we live every day is what’s important, the way we meet every day and every moment that arrives.” – Krishna Das
Namaste. Hi everybody. Welcome back, even though we didn’t go anywhere. I hope everybody’s doing well and holding up in these times, very intense times. This is when the practice that we do and have done comes to our rescue and lessens the intensity of the negative emotions and panic and anxiety and fear. It gives us an opportunity to be more aware and to release that stuff again and again, so it doesn’t push us around too much. And of course, for me, the chanting is the main practice that I do.
Just looking for a poem I wanted them to read to you. I don’t have it with me, but is it’s a Rumi poem. Rumi was an incredible Sufi Saint. He wrote extraordinary poetry, unbelievable, ecstatic poetry, loving poetry.
This one poem goes, so this guy was praying and his lips grew sweet with the praising of the Lord, “Allah, Allah.” Then a cynic comes by and says to the guy, “Why are you praying? Have you ever gotten an answer?”
And the guy thought, “No, I never got an answer.”
So, he quit praying. That night he fell into a deep confused sleep, and in the dream, he saw the guide of souls surrounded by a green foliage.
“Why did you stop praying?”
The guy says, “Because I never got an answer.”
And the guide says, “The calling out is the answer. You hear the whining of that dog in the distance, crying for its master? That’s the connection. The crying out is the connection.” And he says, “There are love dogs that no one knows of. Give your life to become one of them.”
Give your life to cry out so deeply for the love and for the praise and for the love of the Lord, in that ecstasy of oneness. The calling out is the answer, the response.
That switches it around, doesn’t it? We think we’re doing this because we want something, but actually, we’re being pulled within and our response to the pull, our hearts turn within. That’s the calling out. That’s the chanting. That’s the praising. That’s the prayer.
In the 1800s in India, there was a great Saint named Rama Krishna Paramahansa. You might’ve heard of the book that was written about him called, “The gospel of Ramakrishna.” That was one of the first books that I read about this stuff and it blew my mind. In the book, well, I don’t even know if it’s in that book, but I saw a quote from him about the practice of the repetition of the name, which is what my Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, always encouraged us to do. Love everyone, serve everyone, and repeat the name. Remember God.
So, Rama Krishna said that every repetition of one of these names is a seed and, you know, the seed of an Oak tree is very, very small, but inside of that seed, there is extraordinary potential. So, inside these seeds that we plant of the repetition of the name is extraordinary potential, and he says that, the seeds of the repetition of the name may get caught by the wind and blown around, and they may get caught on the roof, land on the roof of an old house, in the middle of the jungle. And in those days, the roofs were made sometimes from clay tiles that were baked in the sun,Tue, 11 Jan 2022 - 40min - 73 - Ep. 57 | Where Do Thoughts Come From, Suffering, Favorite Chants
Call and Response Ep. 57 Where Do Thoughts Come From, Suffering, Favorite Chants
Q: I’ve been coming to see you for many years and the last time I came after I left, there were just these uncontrollable tears for days, for weeks, like someone a sponge and tears were coming out and it felt like grief. And sometimes, when we’re together, when we come here I feel like, collectively there’s that energy of grief and I don’t know if it relates to suffering, you know, it seems like all humans are trying to avoid bad feelings and suffering, and like that’s the thing we push away.
“We’re already being called and when we, when we call out, we’re actually just calling back. When we chant here, we think we’re doing it. We think we made the decision to come here. We made the decision to sit in here instead of going for a walk on the beach. We made the decision to do this, do that. That’s our reality. There might be another reality which is that we were brought here and we were forced to sit down by our own hearts and made to chant because that’s what’s going to connect us. And that’s what we really want inside is to be connected to that love. “ – Krishna Das
Q: Hi. When you chant the song, “Saraswati,” I get that feeling, this like, incredible feeling like you fall in love and then I can’t listen to the chant because I spend the whole time saying, “Oh, I love this chant. I love this chant. I want to hear it, I want to hear it. Then I miss it, and then they have to play it over and over and over again.
KD: Could be worse.
Q: But it’s like insatiable. Like it’s a desire that like something pumps and I don’t know what it is and I’ve tried to listen to that chant with all the same words in a different chant and it doesn’t create the same feeling. It’s only that chant, that time. And so, it’s interesting to me why, like it’s not the words, it’s not the vibration, what it, it’s a crazy desire… and I hardly ever hear the chant because I spend so much time in my head saying, “Oh I love this so much, I love this chant, I want to hear it again and again,” and then I miss the chant. Do you know what I mean?
KD: Luckily we have a tape loop. Just put “repeat”
Q: Over and over again. But how is it that some of the… it’s the same words, you’re the same singer, you’ve sang it different ways, different times, it doesn’t have the same effect but that one, it’s like, “Just take me now.” You know? It’s that kind of feeling, you know? So, how… what are the differences… what’s happening there?
KD: How am I supposed to know?
Q: You sang it.
KD: So, I sang it. That’s all I did. That’s all I did. I sang it. That’s all I know. The rest of it’s your stuff.
Q: But when I hear it, like when you explained that you saw your guru, it’s the same feeling. If that song was, I would be there.
KD: Lock yourself in a room for three weeks with just that chant and see what happens. You might just levitate right out the window. If you do, come see me though. I’d like to know. That’s a good thing. Don’t worry about why, so much. Don’t worry about why. Why’s not necessary. That’s just actually resistance to going into it more. Just keep letting go and hearing it, letting go again and hearing it. Letting go… ok, eventually you’ll be through with that and you’ll be hearing it again. That’s all you do. That’s the practice. That’s great. You’ve found something that really pulls you, that your heart really responds to. That’s a wonderful thing. Don’t spend all of your time thinking about why or how or what is this and how did this work and why is it this way and it doesn’t work that way…
Q: That’s what I do, yeah.
KD: Those are what you call “the things you let go of.” Again and again and again and again. And little by little, you’ll just, you’ll be there. We’re so used to not being here. You don’t understand. From the moment we wake up til the moment we like, crash at night, we’re just gone. Gone,Tue, 04 Jan 2022 - 24min - 72 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD June 11 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD June 11 2020
“All the questions that you asked, they’re all issues that you can become aware of yourself. Don’t give up your practice. Deepen your practice as best you can. Keep it going. Remember, it’s not about what you’re feeling at the time of practice, necessarily. Keep it going whether you’re feeling any devotional feelings, whether you’re angry, whether you’re sad, whether you’re tired, do your practice. Do your practice. It’s the way. If we don’t plant those seeds, those fruits will never grow for us. So, regardless of how difficult it becomes in the world, regardless of what’s going on in your life, try to remember to remember, as often and as deeply as you can. “ – Krishna Das
Namaste. I hope everybody’s okay. Nice to see you again. Of course, I can’t see you, but it’s good to be together again.
As this pandemic continues, as we stay more isolated in our homes, as so many things seem to be blowing up in the world around us, it becomes more and more important to cultivate the ability to take refuge in our own hearts. And these chants that we’re doing lead us into that place within that is shelter from the storm.
Whatever we do in the world, we want to do it well and we want to be able to accomplish our goals, but if our motives are confused and subject to what they call “The Three Poisons,” which I’m not exactly sure what they are, but it’s certainly selfishness and desire-driven motivation and the delusion, and we can’t accomplish what we want.
So, by learning and training ourselves to take this refuge of this time to move inside, we are able to overcome the obstacles within us. And when we can overcome those obstacles, we can be more effective in the outside world. It’s a natural situation. The less fear we have, the better we’ll be able to interact with people, other people and situations as they arise. The rest, the less selfishness we have, self-centered actions, thinking only of ourselves, the more we’ll be able to accomplish in the world, the more people we’ll be able to help and the more we’ll be able to help ourselves.
So, it’s very important to cultivate this practice, any practice. And for those who don’t understand that there is a way to find refuge within, there’s nothing but continued suffering and frustration and trying to squeeze water from a stone. So, the best thing we can do is to learn how to take care of ourselves, and at the same time, that expands to include everyone, because we’re all connected. When we go within, we can feel that connection with everyone and everything. It’s not something you have to think about up here. It’s something you directly experience.
I mentioned the three poisons before that we are subject to in our dealings with our own stuff, and they are officially; ignorance, attachment and aversion. I’m not sure about that, actually, but it’s close. Something like that. Delusion for sure. Not seeing the way things really are. And then second, acting only out of self-referenced behavior, things that benefit ourselves in one way or another, where we are the center of the universe, and then attachment and aversion, which is clinging things and pushing things away.
Q: I’m afraid and sad that I can’t help others as before, because I must self-quarantine to protect the body. How can I still protect others if it’s risky to protect myself and then to be physically present? And if they are too young or intellectually can’t understand?
Well to everything,Tue, 28 Dec 2021 - 31min - 71 - Ep. 56 | Hearing the Name, Chanting the Name, and A Talk About Gurus
Call and Response Ep. 56 Hearing the Name, Chanting the Name, and A Talk About Gurus
Q: Thank you for being here. I want to know about your Guru.
“That Body died in 1973. So, does that mean that for these last years, these last, what, how many years is that? 46 years? That He’s been gone? He’s not available? I don’t have Him anymore? Is that what that means? Because that’s what it would mean if a Guru was a physical body. Gone. But that’s not the case. He’s more present to me now than He was when I was sitting in front of His physical body.” – Krishna Das
Q: What about the idea of humming the chants throughout the day?
KD: Humming the chants? You mean, without the words? Why? Why?
Q: It just seems to come natural.
KD: Well, you think imagining doing headstand is the same thing as doing it? Do you? Ok. There’s your answer. But even when you’re humming, your mind is hearing the chant, right? Yeah. That’s ok. As long as you’re paying attention to what you’re hearing in your head. That’s the mantra going on inside. That’s fine. You don’t have to necessarily sing out loud. Take the mic.
Q: Isn’t that the idea of what to do other than your hour in the morning?
KD: Hour? You do an hour? Wow. I do three minutes.
Q: No. Whatever it is in the morning your practice is. If this is in your head during the day, that’s the idea?
KD: That’s not the idea but that’s good. The thing about doing it out loud is that it adds another way of paying attention. It helps you stay more centered, that’s all. It doesn’t always have to be. The idea is to just be aware of the Name. So, when you sing it, you hear it and that’s awareness. When you hear it in your mind, when you’re repeating it mentally, you hear it mentally. But it’s harder to hold on to that, at least at the beginning. Otherwise, there’s no problem. Ok?
Anybody?
Oh, it always takes so much to get you people here to talk. We should give you coffee. How about coffee? Want some coffee? Let’s all go down to Starbuck’s for tomorrow’s session.
Q: Can you be present and connected to the One, the Divine and still have thoughts?
KD: Can you? I don’t know. I’ll let you know when I get present and connected to the Divine. Maybe next week. Thoughts are not going to stop coming, but they’re not going to grab you once you’re really connected more deeply to your Being. The thoughts will just flow through like birds through the sky. They may poop on you a little bit, but they’re not going to hold you. So, there’s less, you don’t identify with them immediately like we do in our daily lives. But, if at that moment you’re thinking, “Wow, I’m not really attached to that thought”, you were attached to that one. So, when a kid is playing, when a young kid is playing, do you think they’re going like, “Wow, I’m really playing, this is fantastic. I’m totally into it.” No. They’re just totally into it. Those metta thoughts and that that that that… it’s not existing. They’re present, totally involved. And that’s what it’s like when you… you’re not going, “Wow, I’m totally involved. This is fantastic. I’ve finally made it.” Next. You know? Not that.
Q: Thank you.
Q: Yeah. As soon as there’s something you notice, as soon as you notice you’re back, you come back to yourself again. Whatever it is, whether it’s when you’re driving in a car, hanging out or talking to people, the minute you notice that you’re kind of like, “Oh, I’…” you just woke up for a second and then you’re gone again. You can’t old on to that, because you didn’t do it. It’s underneath the you that wants to hold on. You just notice it, let it be and then you’re gone again until it happens again. But doing these practices, all the practices, any practices that brings you back to what you’re doing and where you are, that creates this, this automatic response, this wake-up response that happens all the time during the day.Tue, 21 Dec 2021 - 20min - 70 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD June 6 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD June 6 2020
Namaste everybody. Can you send some chai over from India? I didn’t bring my tea this morning. I’m a train station. Only best jive. So nice to see you all. And anybody have anything to say? How are you? I’m doing good. How are you? Good morning, I guess. Thank you. It’s a little early for me to be a good morning person.
I don’t go to sleep till like three or four. And then when, when everybody gets up and go to sleep, right?
My question, I have at least two questions because I’ve been waiting for a long time, like past giant chats. So the first question was that Ron does in his, one of his talks, he said that eventually not having something turns out we more interesting than having something. Not getting what you want. Turns out to be more interesting than getting what you want.
This is what I’m Gracie will cause wishful thinking.
Um, yeah. So then your question is what my question is, what
So what is the question again, is that I wanted you to know, I can interpret that in my model of thinking, but I, because you are more aligned to who Ramdas was, so you can probably better explain what he meant by that, because I, in my set of morality and the set of values, I can interpret. But I need to know what you think of that.
I think he was talking from a point of view of spiritual practice. When you deny yourself something that you want, or you don’t take it, then you see all your stuff immediately. You start thinking obsessing about it. Then you start thinking about it. It brings up everything in you that wants to grab onto something.
Uh, I think that’s really what he meant. It wasn’t, it was pretty, uh, pretty Maharaj Maharaji used to say you want it, don’t take it like that. So of course who’s, who’s capable of that, not me and most people, but when you don’t immediately take something that you want and you go for instant gratification, when you don’t do that, you see your reactions, you see how attached you are to something, how much you’re invested in trying to grab something outside of yourself in order to get it.
So I think it’s just a practice issue, not really in terms of daily life and going through the day and relationships, but with people and things, but in internally, if you don’t immediately go for something and grab it, you see the part of you that continually obsesses about it and wants it and can’t let go.
And then you start dealing with that place with yourself and that’s good work. It’s good work. So
the second question was about the prayer and it says that yet read the
So that probably means that wherever there is a key than four by one and a mile deep probably shows themselves in one form or another. So in your 50 years of gluten, has anybody ever come up to you and said that they might have seen Maharaji in any form?
You know, people who have their astral eyes open, so to speak, you know, there and can see other planes of consciousness. They always tell me that whenever I sing to her edgy comes and sits right next to me and plays with me and laughs and pushes me around and everything while I’m singing and stuff like that.
But I don’t see them. I don’t have those experiences. It’s nice to hear that. Even if it’s a fantasy, I like it. I’ll take it. That’s all. That’s all I can work upon. You know, I sang in through phenomena, like at the a couple of years I saw that. Yeah. It’s amazing. I was so shocked. They invited me.Sun, 19 Dec 2021 - 1h 32min - 69 - Ep. 55 | The Practice of Chanting
Call and Response Ep. 55 The Practice of Chanting
“As much as we like to think that we’re running the show, it’s always those little epiphanies, those things that (we) all of a sudden understand or all of a sudden, we just recognize something or we know something. It doesn’t come from the outside. It comes from within. It feels right. And if there’s one thing that the spiritual path is about, more than any other thing, or if there’s one thing that the spiritual path requires before anything, it’s that we learn to trust ourselves.” – Krishna Das
Oh, I thought it was a rooster. It’s a baby. Hello baby!
He wants us to keep singing, but that’s just too bad.
Because you can sing and sing and sing but if we… what do we do when we’re not singing? What happens to us? We sink. You don’t sing, you sink. So the issue is, what do we do the other 23 hours of the day when we’re not doing practice? How do we go through that time? How do we live in our lives and how do we find a way to do that in a good way? That’s one of the issues. Life is an issue. When I first went to India, and I had just really gotten there, I was up in the mountains and the town I was staying in had a beautiful crater lake up about 7,000 feet. Beautiful, in the Himalayas, and at one end of the lake there was a very ancient temple to the Goddess Durga. So, at night, I was walking around, and around the lake and I was passing that temple and I heard this chanting coming from inside. I just stopped. I couldn’t move. I had never heard anything like that, certainly not in the temple on Long Island.
Thank you, that was for you.
So, and I was just struck the intensity of the chanting, at how powerful it was and how everybody was completely in it, you know? And I just felt, all of a sudden, I just knew that this was something that I could really do. Something I could really give myself to. You know, some years before, I was up in the mountains in New Mexico and, at the Lama foundation for the winter with Ram Das and we heard that there was this artist from New York who had gone to India and learned how to meditate and now he was living just down the mountain from us in, North of Taos New Mexico. So, a bunch of us went down to visit him and we went into the room with him and we sat there for a while and everybody was asking questions. I kind of hung out in the back. I wasn’t talking because I was listening to everything. And after an hour or so, we were leaving and I was the last one out the door and he grabbed my arm as I was going out the door and he looked at me and he said, “You, you have to find out why it is you can’t give yourself 100% to whatever you’re doing.” And, you ever see like, in those taxidermy shops, you know, the squirrels on the wall? Like this? That’s what I felt like. He nailed me to the wall. Because that was the thing that was killing me, you know? I could never really do whatever I was doing. I was always… I could never really give myself to what I was doing, 100%. Not even 10%. I was just too scattered or whatever and I just didn’t know. I just didn’t know how to get into things. And I can remember that day just like it was yesterday and it was just a few years ago. Like 50. So, when I was outside that temple that night up in the mountains and I heard this chanting, that’s what I knew immediately. That this was something that I could really do. So, I was just standing there and some guy was walking in and he kind of grabbed my arm and he said, “Come in, come in, you must come, you must come.” He dragged me in and I sat down with these guys in the temple and they were just wailing. It was unbelievable. And they came, “Come sing, sing, sing.” I didn’t know what they were singing, you know? Later, it turned out it was the Hanuman Chalisa. I didn’t realize that until much, much later. It was a Tuesday night, which is Hanuman’s day. So, that was the beginning and after that, everywhere I heard chanting,Sat, 18 Dec 2021 - 28min - 68 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD June 4 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD June 4 2020
“We have to find a way to help implement the changes that have to come in our society, the changes that we hope will correct the imbalance of power and the devastating way that people of color are treated and hurt and abused and victimized. We definitely have to find a way to help make that happen, but we can’t allow our actions to come with negative emotions, if we can help it. It’s very hard, very hard, but that doesn’t mean you don’t do what you do. You do whatever you can do to help.” – Krishna Das
Namaste. Welcome back. Hope everybody’s okay, feeling good physically and hopefully able to deal with all the emotions flying around inside and out.
Believe it or not, It’s said that human birth is the best place to be to do work on ourselves, to actually achieve peace, find liberation from suffering, enter into the place within us that is real love, find compassion for ourselves and others and find a way to live in this world in a good way. Because they say that in human birth, we’re right in the middle, between the lower forms of birth and the more subtle planes, and they say in either one of these places, it’s impossible to do practice, because in these two places, we are too consumed with experiencing the fruits of our karmas. In the heaven worlds, in the subtle planes, it’s very pleasant. In the hell worlds, in the lower realms, it’s not very pleasant to say the least. That’s what they say. But here in this world at this time, we have the opportunity to get a vote how we respond to the world around us and how we respond even to our own stuff within us.
But somehow, we have to find a way to get the strength, to release the emotions, the feelings, the knee jerk reactions that we have to everything that we come in contact with, because for the most part, all day long, every day of our lives, we are responding blindly with no mitigating factor of consciousness or awareness to the things that show up in our awareness, in our consciousness.
So, the idea is how do we get a vote and why do we want a vote? We want a vote so that our own actions won’t create more suffering for ourselves and others.
So, in this situation that we’re in now in the world, which seems very intense, it’s a very good mirror for us to look within and see our reactions, see the causes of our suffering, and then we can expand that awareness to the outside world, to social action, to living in the world and to dealing with the issues in our culture and our politics and in the way we treat other beings.
So, the way that I find that space to, when I’m lucky, not react blindly and instantly to everything that comes towards me, is through chanting. Because in chanting, we start repeating one of these mantras, one of these names of God, and then the deal we make with ourselves is that when we notice that we’re lost and not paying attention, we come back. We let go of whatever we’re thinking about. We don’t try to figure it out. We just let it go and we come back, again and again and again and again and again and again, and as time goes on, we begin to feel more comfortable being more present. We’re released from that obsessive flow of constant evaluation and judgment, constant flow of emotion, negative emotions, positive emotions, everything that pushes us around. Little by little we’re released from being the slave to that, and then we can extend that feeling to others and our own actions will extend that feeling in our relationship to every one of our situations in our lives.
Same, same,Fri, 17 Dec 2021 - 47min - 67 - Ep. 54 | Guru Puja Meditation
Call and Response Ep. 54 Guru Puja Meditation
“Every inhalation you’re drawing away the pain and suffering of all the Beings around you, all over the universe, actually, because you have, the center of your heart is the open clear light of freedom. It’s not any kind of a trap. It’s not any kind of a prison. It’s a prism through which all this is completely swallowed up into the vast infinite energy of love in the universe, of all the Krishnas and all the Ramas and all the Everybodys, Buddhas and the Kalkis from the future who conquer all darkness and sadness and injustice and suffering. And you triumph. Your inhalation draws that in and you triumph over it and your bliss triumphs over all that mass of sadness. It does not burn you out.” – Robert Thurman
Bob: Let’s meditate something. Can we meditate something?
KD: Yeah, please.
Bob: Ok. So, please go into meditative mode. In this light I’m moved to ask you to meditate something. And, this comes from the Guru Puja but I won’t read it. I’ll just, from the Guru Puja. The Guru Worship. Mentor Worship. Ok. So, please go into meditative mode. And in meditative mode, take a look at yourself to find your true self. And when you do that, when you use your mind to look back into your own face, what will happen to you is you won’t be sure who you are, if you look properly for yourself. You will find a certain uncertainty about, are the tip of your nose? Are you your face as it looks this morning? Are you your face as it was 20 years ago or 10 years ago or 2 years ago? Or are you something else? Do you have an angelic face inside? Are you, etcetera… You’ll feel a kind of vein like that if you really look intently into yourself to find your self. You’ll feel an uncertainty and if you do it strongly you’ll feel even a little nervous, anxious, maybe insecure, like “who am I?” A sort of Ramana Maharshi sort of routine. And just let yourself melt. Use that uncertainty to kind of melt your self-image about yourself. And as you’re self-image about yourself melts, your picture of the world around you will melt, can melt. You know? Your imagination that you’re in this room in Massachusetts and this and that and Kripalu and this and the other and whatever and just let go of it all. And then, imagine yourself in the best way you might want to be. On a mountain in Tibet. Sitting with Shabkar. Looking at another mountain with the billowing clouds on top of it. Beautiful. With shining sun, blue sky, rainbows in some parts of the vast view that you’re seeing and you’re feeling really alert, you don’t bother, like who you are, you’re in your best feeling and you’ve seen this vision in your mind’s eye. And then you see sort of like He did, His guru on top of that cloud. You see your Guru and if you don’t have a particular Guru, you think of, you could think of a Buddha, you could think of Krishna, you could think of Rama, you could think of Neem Karoli Baba, you can think of anybody you want, whoever you feel moved by, whoever, if they were there on that cloud, you would feel really excited. You know? Like, when you meet some celebrity or some really super person that you love and you’re just in their space and you get all like, keyed-up, you know, and you just feel like that, some amazing person even you don’t know that. A lama or some imagined lama. It doesn’t matter. And that person is sitting there smiling radiantly at you like Shabkar’s guru is smiling at him. And you just imagine that being is there. Like Obi Wan Kenobi’s like a light being. Like a pure light phenomenon. And you can have many beings there if you like. If it’s Jesus that you like, if it’s Moses, if it’s, if it’s Muhammad, if it’s, whatever it is you just… they’re all there together. Krishna. And really there, you know? Or Sita. Or Shakti. You know? Mother Teresa. It doesn’t matter. Because they’re all there and you can have a host up there on top of that cloud formation,Thu, 16 Dec 2021 - 20min - 66 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD May 28, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD May 28, 2020
“Any mantra will work for you if you do it, and any mantra you do will work for you, but we bring so much to the practice, our hopes and fears, our anguish, our desires, all our emotions. We bring our fractured will and a million little pieces. We can’t even do one round of mantra without, you know, thinking about 4 million other things. So, it’s not the mantra’s fault. It’s our fault. It’s our situation. Let’s not blame ourselves because we are who we are, but it’s our situation. It’s very hard to do practice.” – Krishna Das
Welcome back or forward or upside or downside. We’re here again. And, we get a chance to hang out together. If you’ve sung with me before, you know that I always start with a prayer that I introduce as an invocation to the love that lives within us, as who and what we truly are. And, what I’m going to do today is I’m going to tell you the translation of that prayer and tell you what it’s about. It is a prayer to Hanuman, and in India, Hanuman is considered to be the perfect servant of God, of Ram He has no agenda of his own, only to serve Ram’s agenda, which is also very simple, which is compassion for us. To help us overcome our suffering, our negativity, and of course, in the story of the Ramayana, Hanumanji helps Ram win the war against Ravana and his demon hordes, the personification of evil and negativity and selfishness, and if you don’t know the story of the Ramayana, it’s a very wonderful story, and, one of the, one of the two great Indian, well, I don’t want to call it a myth because it’s supposed to be real… It happened at some point many, many thousands of years ago. So, Hanuman is, you know, Maharajji used to say to us, “Who is Hanuman?”
And we would give him all the pat answers, you know, “The perfect servant,” this and that.
And then He would say, “Nay, Hanuman is the breath of Ram, the breath of Ram, the breath of God.”
The breath is very powerful. You know, in the Greek rendering of the gospels, the new Testament, which was written a hundred years after Jesus left the body, it was one of the first times that it had been written down what is now and later was translated as “holy spirit,” in the Greek, it’s “holy breath.” And the breath connects us to life. It connects our bodies to life. Without breath, we have no life. Without prana, we have no life. And the life of our soul is connected to the Paramatman, the Supreme Being, the Supreme Soul through the breath of God, which is Hanuman. And as that breath moves through us, it cleans our hearts, it removes obstacles from our path. It destroys our suffering and mitigates all kinds of calamities and stuff like that.
So, I’m going to read you the translation of this prayer. Much of it has to do with the stories of Hanumanji from the Ramayana, and much of it is description of his qualities, which on the deepest, deepest, deepest level are our own qualities, are the qualities of our real, our warrior hearts to overcome all limitation and merge with love, fully.
This is called the Hanumat, the Sri Hanumat Stavan.
I bow to the son of the wind, which is the name of Hanuman, a fire to consume the forest of evildoers, destroyer of the darkness of ignorance and whose heart resides Sri Ram, the holder of the bow and arrows. I bought to the son of the wind, the abode of immeasurable strength, possessing a body’s shining like a mountain of gold, a fire to consume the forest of the demon race. The foremost among the wise, abode of all virtues, chief of monkeys and the most,Wed, 15 Dec 2021 - 51min - 65 - Ep. 53 | Devotional Poetry of Shabkar and Remembering Geshe Wangyal
Call and Response Ep. 53 Devotional Poetry of Shabkar and Remembering Geshe Wangyal
“Don’t be sad. Look at the mind that feels sadness. The guru is not other than the mind. It is the mind that remembers the Guru. It is the mind into which the Guru dissolves.” – Shabkar
KD: Saint John of the Cross wrote, “In the beginning, the Father uttered one word. That word is His Son and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence. And it is in silence that the heart must hear.” The Father uttered one word. That word is His Son and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence. And it’s in silence that the heart must hear.
Good morning.
What? What? So, this, you know we’ve been talking a little bit about devotion and how that it lubricates the connection to our true nature. It makes it, it helps us access that place. What you love, what we love we will think about. It will be with us and so there was very great yogi in Tibet named Shabkar who was also, He used to sing these songs of teaching songs and this is a poem or song that He wrote. He said, “I was in retreat. One day at noon, when the sky was clear, I walked to the summit of the hill above my cave and I sat there alone. Toward the North, I saw a pure white cloud billowing over a mountain peak like milk boiling over. At that moment, the memory of my precious Guru overwhelmed me and I sang this song of longing. To the North, a single white cloud surges over mountain peaks, white as overflowing milk, when I see this, I think of my Guru’s kindness. Beneath that distant cloud rise the solitary heights of auspicious hermitage. The way my master once lived in that excellent retreat place comes back to my mind. When I think of His kindness, tears well up in my eyes and sorrow in my heart. My mind is dazed, my perception uncertain. All is hazy and unreal. How wonderful if He were here again. I am but an ordinary man, a man with scant devotion, but I still long to meet Him once again. The master dwells now in absolute space and His miserable son is left behind in the mire of samsara. When I see the myriad flowers blooming in the meadows, I remember the sight of my true Guru, then I could see Him in person, inspired. Now, I can’t. As I think of Him over and over again, the Master’s presence fills my Heart. As I listen to the cuckoo’s gentle call, I remember hearing the true guru’s voice, the satguru’s voice, so deep and sonorous. Then, I could listen to His melodious speech. Now I can’t. I think of Him over and over again and the Master’s presence fills my heart. As I see the rising sun spreading radiance all around, I remember the Satguru’s wisdom and compassion. Then, He tenderly cared for me. Now that time is gone. As I think of Him over and over again, the Master’s presence fills my heart. I remember going to see Him, having been away for months or years, the warmth of His welcoming smile comes back to my mind. No matter in what direction I go, I think of the Master. No matter in what solitary place I stay, I think of the Master. No matter what signs I see, I think of the Master. Always. And in all times I think of my true Guru. As I sang this plaintive song, the cloud continued to swell until it took the form of a heap of jewels. At the top, in a tent of five colored rainbow lights, my true Guru appeared performing a graceful dance, His hands in the gesture of protection. He was more resplendent than ever, peerless in loving kindness. He smiled radiantly and spoke these words in a voice like Brahma’s, ‘Noble son, you who are like my heart, do not despair. Listen to your father’s words. We, father and son, who came together by the power of past prayers, are inseparable in the state of luminous absolute nature. Son, from now on, let the length of your practice be the length of your life. Wander from place to place in solitary mountain retreats. By practicing austerities, may you help all fortunate Beings. Don’t be sad. Look at the mind that feels sadness.Tue, 14 Dec 2021 - 30min - 64 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD May 21, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD May 21, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“Nobody’s testing you, nobody’s judging you and nobody’s keeping score. Do what makes you feel good.” – Krishna Das
So, the repetition of the name. People always ask me, you know, what do these names mean?
What does your name mean? It means “you.” You, as you are known by other people in this world and mostly by yourself, too. I’m me. But these names come from within us and they were brought out into this world by great beings who realized the truth, realized real love, were liberated, are free from suffering and stayed in this world, that came to this world to help us find a way to be free from suffering.
So, these names come from within us and the real meaning of these names is our own true nature. Just like you are Frank and there’s Frankness in everything you do, and you call out “Frank, Frank, Frank,” and its just, “Yeah, Frank,” you feel really Frankie.
So, when we call out “Ram Ram Ram” or any one of these names, there is a response, an awareness opens up within us. Most likely, most of us, including myself, aren’t able to actually recognize that awareness at this point, recognize that place within, even though it’s always here. There is nowhere else it could be except here, but we’re not here. Well, we are here, but we don’t recognize that.
So, through this practice gradually, but inevitably that place within us is uncovered. It’s not something we get from doing the practice. It is something we uncover within ourselves through the ripening process that we call spiritual practice.
“Jai Jai Ramakrishna Hari” doesn’t have anything to do with the Saint who lived in India in the 1800s. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. Ramakrishna Hari is a form of Krishna, a form of Vishnu that is a murti, a form of God that lives in a temple in Southern India in Pandharpur. And it’s a very unusual form. Not only do people see it as Krishna, but some people also see it as Ram. They had that direct experience and the great saints who created that temple and created a culture around that around that temple, they came up, this mantra was revealed to them, Rama Krishna Hari. Hari, not Hare, but Hari, Rama Krishna Hari. So, it’s a beautiful mantra.
Every repetition of one of these names is a seed, a seed that we are planting within ourselves in the garden of our hearts. And those seeds will grow just like a tiny little seed can have a huge Oak tree inside of it, the potential inside of it, so does every repetition of one of these names have that same Shakti, that same potential to manifest God.
So, since every thought and action is karma, when we’re doing this, one thing is we’re not creating other karmas. And they say that the repetition of the name is totally sattvic, totally pure, that there’s no negative aspect to it at all. It can’t be negative. There can’t be any negative reactions or karmas that are created from the repetition of the name.
So, since you have to do something, cause we’re all very busy, why don’t we plant the seeds that will develop and grow into what we’d like to experience in our lives, which is happiness, joy, peace, truth, reality.
So, you repeat these names, you do this practice, you don’t have to have any intellectual understanding of the meaning of the names. It’s not required. You can have that. Yes. All of these names have stories out of which they’ve sprung here on this planet, in this world. Kali, Durga, Krishna, Shiva, Ram Hanuman, Ganesh,Tue, 26 Oct 2021 - 36min - 63 - Ep. 52 | Reincarnation, Sci-Fi Buddhism and Devotion
Call and Response Ep. 52 Reincarnation, Sci-Fi Buddhism and Devotion
“He encouraged us to love everyone, serve everyone and remember God, which is to repeat the Names of God. Japa. Ram Nam. Yeah. I always wanted Him to tell me what to do, you know? Give me some like, practice, some mantra. Some “this” that I could do, you know? But He was never, He never encouraged us to do spiritual practice for the sake of our own spiritual benefit, so to speak. He said, “Think about others.” And really, to tell you the truth, I didn’t get it, you know? “What is He talking about? What do you mean, think about others? What about me?” It takes a while to get with the program. Really, it does.” – Krishna Das
Q: You said something about good health is…
KD: Hard to find?
Q: Yeah, that’s true. The joy of your, all of your cells living in harmony, something along those lines, I didn’t get it down right.
Bob: Yes, yes. That’s right.
Q: That’s it?
Bob: Yes, your life force, your health, is joy and bliss in your system.
Q: Ok.
Bob: It’s the nature of reality in your system, exerting itself in your system. This is the new orientation we’re cultivating is that reality is joy.
Q: Right.
Bob: Love is joy. Because love means, the wish for the happiness of the Beloved is what “love” means in these traditions and how can it wish to have happiness for the Beloved if it doesn’t have happiness itself? Right? In other words, ok?
Q: Without making this, you know, a story rather than a question, this has been a lot, my husband has stage 4 lung cancer and he has gone past his expiration date. He’s supposed to be dead now. But he gets out there and he walks the dog every day and then he goes, he rides the exercise bike for 70 minutes and it makes him happy and he comes home happy, and the doctors are saying, “Well, it’s your physical health that’s keeping you alive.” And that one statement just kind of like, whoa, it’s not just that, it’s the attitude. And thank you all.
Bob: Ok.
Q: Could you just say a few more sentences about what I asked you during the break? When we were talking about, you know, going through the transformation of this life to the next life and I know in Buddhism that you can come back as everybody’s mother, or you can come back as a flea or you can come back as a preta…
Bob: Yes
Q: And my thought is if you’re being reborn in the human realm, you’re here already having some compassion so it would appear to me that you would want to, people would naturally continue in a higher state. So how do people fall back so they’re in that cyclical of going down again?
Bob: Well, I think the traditional religious interpretations about that tend somewhat, Oh, that’s really interfering with your head. Ok, we have to get that a little bit away, that’s terrible. Ok. So, they tend to overemphasize the danger of deteriorating in one’s embodiment and, which connects to, which is, I think they overdo that, I think. And this connects to the fact that they so much appreciate the evolutionary achievement of becoming human because it’s really extraordinary in the way that… Buddhist biologists would see, for example, how you would move from being a tigress or a lioness towards some less violent embodiment, would be that lioness that was waiting, chasing the herd of antelopes and saw a really juicy slow-moving pregnant one, really juicy, and sort of all, like, puffed up from being pregnant, and then had a subliminal sense of identification because of having had pups herself and then decided to let it go and swerved and jumped on a stringy old disgusting hobbling old much less delicious one, but enough to feed herself and her family. So how many tigresses, lionesses would have such an impulse, such an empathetic impulse based on not having watched nature movies on PBS? And so that kind of thing, that then teaches,Tue, 19 Oct 2021 - 33min - 62 - Call and Response Special Edition Conversations With KD May 16, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD May 16, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“It would be good to try to find a way to relax. I know that sounds very prosaic, but it’s a very big thing. And that means releasing thoughts, feelings, imaginations about the future. It means releasing a lot of the negativity and betrayals and viciousness of our growing up from the past and allowing yourself to be here just a little bit, you know,… you’re not going anywhere. And certainly, in this this particular situation with the virus, we’re not going anywhere anyway. So… it’s a good time to recognize how clearly you see the things that are floating around in your awareness. “ – Krishna Das
Good morning. It’s getting hot out here in New York. I don’t know where you all are, but it’s hot here.
Oh, something…
Nina: So, Krishna Das, actually I have one question. I’ll just get it in here while people raise their hands. Last night, on talk with David Nichtern, KD spoke about what a real guru is. Is it possible to go deeper into this topic, especially how to cultivate ability to have a knowing that comes from the heart rather than thinking that comes from the mind? Or as Carl Jung, as per the Carl Jung quote, “Where wisdom reigns, there is no conflict between thinking and feeling.” *******
Well, you know, we have to deal with reality, which means we have to deal with where we are at and these ideas if of perfect this or perfect that, that’s not what we’re dealing with. We’re dealing with a big mess of stuff inside of ourselves. We’re dealing with, we can’t find the ground, we don’t know who we are, we don’t know where we’re going. Our feelings are, are at odds with each other, with, with each all the time.
You know, one has to begin to quiet the mind a little bit, or at least begin to pay attention to all the nonsense in our heads. If you don’t pay attention to it, we can never release it. We’re not going anywhere. You know, there’s nowhere to go. There’s nothing to achieve. We shouldn’t see this as an ambitious enterprise, you know? We’re trying to find out who we are. We’re trying to experience a deeper reality within us. And it’s all within us. The guru is within our true nature. The self is within. In fact, they say guru, God and self are not different. They are the same.
So, the real guru is not outside of us, even though he or she might appear in a body at some point if we need that and if we’re ready for that, and if that is what’s going to be best for us. You know, you’ve got to understand, a real guru has no personal agenda whatsoever. They’re only here because we don’t know anything about anything. And they’re here out of compassion for us. And also, they’re here out of the recognition that we are one, we are all parts of one being, little fragments of light that haven’t found their way back home. So, a real guru is available to us to help us find our way home.
You can’t make that happen. You can’t make yourself come home. You can only allow yourself to come home. And that’s, to do that is to learn to trust your heart, and little by little, yyou do experience the difference between thinking, thinking and knowing. Knowing usually comes as a, as a, just a very simple knowing.
Sometimes it’s like an epiphany where we’re like, you know, it’s like a thunderbolt, but other times it’s just all of a sudden, you’d be going through your day and you’ll recognize some reality.Tue, 12 Oct 2021 - 1h 41min - 61 - Ep. 51 | Guru
Call and Response Ep. 51 Guru
“Any yogi or yogini who develops ability to concentrate and become mindful, pushing that mindfulness to deeper and deeper levels, discovers the Realm of Infinite Love, the Realm of Infinite or Immense Love, Immense Compassion, Immense Joy and Immense Equanimity within themselves. So, they have all the heavens in themselves.” – Robert Thurman
Bob: I was just kind of thinking of like, “Where’s my Guru?” You know? “I need a Guru. I want to get serious now, so I want a Guru.” So, people feel that way.
KD: Yeah.
Bob: And that’s good that they feel that way because, in one sense, it is a good thing to think that there’s some way of being that is higher than the way one habitually is and that someone exemplifies that and that person can maybe help one develop dimensions in themself, that there are, that will be new for them, that will be greater how they habitually think of themself as. So, you know, when you said, apart from yourself, but then what you found through the inspiration of your teacher was dimensions in yourself that you didn’t know that were there because your habitual thing was to think of yourself as not having those dimensions. Right? Like, you know, someone asked me earlier about the four immeasurables, as they’re called, which I decided to translate now as “immensities.”
KD: Immensities?
Bob: Yeah, because “immense” means “immeasurable” you know, but it’s a more nice word, you know? “Immeasurable” sounds kind of like, “Oh gosh, I couldn’t swallow it,” or something whereas an immensity is an immensity. So, immense love, immense compassion, immense joy and immense equanimity and those are in Indian cosmology, they are four ways of carving up the layers of the heaven of the pure form. And the Gods Brahma and others dwell in the highest level of equanimity, one, which can also be subdivided into sixteen different levels of heavens and the highest one is called Akanishta.
KD: Akanishta.
Bob: “Not smaller than anything else.” That literally means, “Akanishta.” “Not lesser than anything.” And, that’s where Brahma hangs and the big deities there, all those deities in the form realm have no gender differentiation. They’re all, they’re not exactly hermaphroditic, but they have male and female elements and they don’t have, you know, differentiated genitalia, for example. They don’t have ordinary like desire realm bodies. That’s why it’s called the Realm of Pure Form. And then it’s taught to people in terms of like, cosmology, like, there’s these heavens there. But any yogi or yogini who develops ability to concentrate and become mindful, pushing that mindfulness to deeper and deeper levels, discovers the Realm of Infinite Love, the Realm of Infinite or Immense Love, Immense Compassion, Immense Joy and Immense Equanimity within themselves. So, they have all the heavens in themselves. Not necessarily, it’s not like chakras. It’s like mental mind states and especially if they are, you know, not grasping at the pleasure of those Realms, because when you feel immense love, you feel blissful yourself, of course. You wouldn’t have immense love if you didn’t feel already blissful that you want, that the bliss wants to overflow, where you want to love everybody, you’re capable of loving everybody because you’re feeling so filled with bliss. So, the bliss itself isn’t you, but by letting go of it you want to send it to everyone. Right? So, you find all those heavenly planes in yourself. The Being that is unfortunate in that view is the one who wants to stay and grasp that state and then they become reborn as a deity of that realm, actually. They leave their meat puppet body. They get stuck in some heavenly plane or another. And then once you’re in a heavenly plane then you’re sort of complaining about the other immigrants to your heavenly plane. And you’re like, “Oh, there’s some yogis came from America, and all those American yogis are so annoying.Mon, 04 Oct 2021 - 35min - 60 - Special Edition Conversations With KD May 14, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD May 14, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“Listen, everybody’s doing the best they can. Period. Even you’re doing the best you can. Why dwell in judging other people? It makes you cranky and we’re all cranky enough, you know? Let it go. Let other people be who they are. You find your own way to live in this world in a good way. Don’t worry about other people and other things. Find what works for you and get it together. Don’t spend time worrying about whether other people are this or that, or whether they’re real or not real, or whether this is really spiritual. Who gives a shit? How do you get through your day in a good way? That’s all you need to care about.” – Krishna Das
So, I’ve repeated this many times before, but it’s worth repeating many times. Maharajji said to us over and over, “From the repetition of these names, the repetition of these names, of God, everything is accomplished. Everything is brought to fullness and completion.”
It’s a very powerful statement. There’s so many techniques out there. So many traditions, so many lineages and they all lead to the same place, but this is what, this is my lineage. This is, this is my guru, my lineage. This is what he taught us. This is, this is not something I got from books or heard from other people. This is direct transmission. Through the repetition of these names, everything, all our karmas are ripened. What we need comes to us. What’s not useful to us leaves us. Everything is brought to fullness and completion. So, this is my main practice. Although I do many other things, this is my main practice. And I’m sharing that with you. And I hope that it benefits you in some way like it benefits me. And it’s a practice that will go deeper and deeper and deeper the more you do it. And it cleans the mirror of our hearts so that what we see in the outside world and in ourselves and in our lives, that changes from within, the way we live in our daily life, the way we live inside of our lives, inside of our heads, inside of our hearts. This changes as time goes on as we ripen through the practice of the repetition of the name.
And I’ve been doing this for over 50 years. Basically, I still think I’m the same schmuck I always thought I was, but I think it a hell of a lot less of the time, less often. As time goes on, we spend less and less in negative States of mind. And we don’t notice that. Because we’re not in those negative states of mind. So, we don’t notice that we’re not in, usually, because the evaluator, that mechanism that puts us down, that evaluates us, that judges us, which is our own stuff, that doesn’t work quite as often and so intensely. And we become less and less involved with, with thinking about ourselves all the time, with trying to hold on to stuff we want, to try to push away stuff we don’t want. We become much more open and at ease with ourselves and with whatever comes to us in life. And this is from the repetition of the name.
So, you know, he didn’t, he didn’t give a lot of generalized teachings. He didn’t give lectures. He didn’t write books. When he asked, we asked him, “How do we find God?”
He said to “serve people.”
We went, “What? What about, you know, Kundalini?”
He said “feed people.” That’s how you raise Kundalini.
“Love everyone, serve everyone, remember God.” These are the things he said to us. And over the years, the deeper and deeper and deeper meanings of that, those simple phrases are opened up within as time goes on.
All right.Tue, 28 Sep 2021 - 42min - 59 - Ep. 50 | Sadhus, and Nirvana in Samsara
Call and Response Ep. 50 Sadhus, and Nirvana in Samsara
“For Maharajji, everybody was His near and His dear. Everyone. And in order to stay in that space, you couldn’t hold on to your stuff. It had to go.” – Krishna Das
KD: That reminds me of this story. One time, a wandering sadhu came to Kainchi and came to see Maharajji and he, he was, he didn’t have much stuff. He had like, a pot, a water pot, and just a couple of shawls or something. And he sits down in front of Maharajji and he says, “We’re really disappointed in you.” He says to Maharajji, “What is all these temples and all these people serving you and all this stuff. What is all this opulence? What is all this?” And Maharajji said, “Yeah, yeah, I know. Hey, can you give me ten rupees?” And the guy says, he gets very uptight. “No, no come on. You have, you have hidden in your lungi over there around the left side hanging there in the thing there, there’s, you have some money. Give it to me. Give it to me.” So the sadhu takes it. “Give me it. Give me it.” He takes his pouch of money. He drops it in the fire. All the money. And the guy flipped out. And he said, “What have you done? This was my retirement money. I have nothing and I’ve saved for years.” And Maharajji said, “Oh, what happened? Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” And He takes these long tongs and He reaches into the fire and He pulls out brand new one hundred rupee notes.
Bob: Oh, really?
KD: And hands them to the sadhu like this. One by one. The sadhu just starts weeping, you know?
Bob: Really? That’s so cool.
KD: Yeah, there’s another story like that. You know, everyone who came to Maharajji, in order to approach, for most of the beings who approached Maharajji, you always had to give something up. You had to let go of something in order to really… So one time, Maharajji was walking in the street in Vrindavan. This is a long time ago, even, maybe in the 50s. And He’s walking down the street and coming the other way is this jungly sadhu with the long jutta hair and the ashes, a really fierce guy. And they see each other and they go, “Oh.” And they run to each other and they hug and they jump around and they’re dancing and they say, “Oh, it’s so great to see you after so long!” “Oh, yes, it’s been so many years!” “This is so great!” And it turns out they had spent much time in the mountains many, many years before, you know, doing sadhana together. So, they enjoy their company for a little while and then Maharajji says to the sadhu, “Ok, brother, now you should go now. I have to go.” And the sadhu says, “What are you talking about? After all these years we meet? I’m not going to leave you. I’m going to stay with you.” He said, “Oh, no. You don’t understand. I’m only with householders and worldly people now. You don’t, it’s not good for you. You don’t want to hang out with me. Really.” “I don’t care what you say. I’m not leaving you. I’m not leaving you.” “Ok.”
So, they began to walk from Vrindavan to Mathura, which is about 18 kilometers and it’s the middle of the summer. It’s about 120 degrees. The middle of the day. And in those days, there was nothing. Now, it’s like, built-up. But in those days it was like desert. So, they’re walking. And in the distance, and Maharajji told this to Mr. Tiwari who told me. He said, “We were dying of thirst.” And in the distance, they see a well and they go running towards the well and they get to the well. There’s a woman there getting from the well and Maharajji gets there first and He puts His hands out, and says, “Pour water for me.” So, the lady pours the water from the bucket into His hands and He’s drinking, you know, like this. And then, the sadhu arrives and he puts out his gourd pot, right? And the woman pours water into the pot and as she’s pouring, Maharajji starts chatting her up, because that’s what He does. He talks to everybody, 24-7, 365, all day long. So He says, “Who are you? What’s your name?Tue, 21 Sep 2021 - 17min - 58 - Special Edition Conversations With KD May 9, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD May 9, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“These are all the names of what lives within us as who we are. Already. It’s not something else. It’s not somewhere else. It’s within us. All these names lead to the same place. They’re the names of the same place. All these so-called deities are forms of our own true nature… whatever you sing is fine. It doesn’t make any difference. Sing what you’d like. If you think about it, you’re not doing it. So, I would just do it.” – Krishna Das
Hey everybody.
Let’s welcome each other to our minds.
Let’s, let’s all close our eyes for a minute. So, now we’re united in the space of the heart. This is where we always are together with all beings. It’s just as if we’re sitting in one room together. This room happens to be earth at this moment. Just be with the breath. Take a few deep, long, deep breaths. Let the body relax. All that tension we carry around, bouncing off the walls of our homes, just let it go.
Sharon Salzberg and I once were doing a workshop in LA and we had such a nice time. So, at the end, I said “Wouldn’t it be great if we could all live together?” And then I laughed. I said, “Well, that’s what we’re doing. That’s earth.”
Earth is our home at this point. It just didn’t give us a user manual. We’re having to figure that out.
So, this time that we… we’re so apparently disconnected from everything is… can be very useful, and it is useful, even if we’re suffering and with all the difficulty. It’s going to change the way we sit in ourselves. It has to, regardless of what we think about it, and make us much more aware of our own stuff and everybody else’s stuff, but also aware that we need to care about other people, too, in this world, not just our close friends and family, but everything anyone on this planet does affects everybody. And at some point the amount of toxicity causes suffering for everyone. The main toxicity is the selfishness and the self-centeredness that we carry within us.
So, all the practices that we do are all about one thing, and that’s to release us from the prison of egoistic self-centered actions and considerations. So, there are two paths to that. One is the path of, you could say “devotion” or “loving kindness, caring,” and the other path is a path of jnana or wisdom, which they say it’s more difficult to follow because of our attachment to our bodies. But really there’s only one path and that path is each of our lives. And within that life that we’re living, we need to find a way to become good human beings. And it’s only from following the path of Dharma, the spiritual path, that we can become good human beings, whatever that means to each of us. Our motivations begin to come from kindness and compassion. Our caring about other people increases, so our obsession with ourselves decreases and how we feel and “How am I, how am I now? How am I now? How am I now?” All day long. You know, the movie of “me.”
So how do we free ourselves from this prison of me-ness, of ego, of the belief that we are separate from everybody, and it’s around that sense of separateness that all our suffering revolves. When that planet of “me” dissolves, there’s nothing for the suffering to revolve around, to orbit around. It goes and find somebody else to bother.
So, let’s take some questions and then we’ll just see how the day goes.
Q: Thank you so much for this and for everything you’re doing right now, it’s so wonderful and so nourishing.Tue, 14 Sep 2021 - 2h 16min - 57 - Ep. 49 | How KD Met Robert Thurman
Call and Response Ep. 49 | How KD Met Robert Thurman
“It was a wild time. There were a lot of… the Westerners in India, everybody would go to see teachers, different teachers and then when the seasons changed, all these different people would meet in the cities on their way somewhere else and exchange information and this kind of stuff and then you would go off in a different direction and it was an incredible amount of beautiful seeds were planted in those days. It was amazing, just amazing.” – Krishna Das
KD: She said, I should introduce Bob. Bob and I met because both of our photos are on the wall at the post office. Most wanted. You know? And actually, I first met Bob and Nena on the ridge in Almora in 1971. Right?
Bob: Yes.
KD: 1971. Ram Das and I and a few others were on our way up further into the mountains and somehow, we didn’t have phones, we didn’t have iphones… how did we?
Bob: Well, it was by accident.
KD: It was by accident. Oh. By accident.
Bob: We were there in our van. We had a Volkswagon van at the time and these two kids in the car and we were there shopping, you know, coming down from Crank’s Ridge where we lived without Lama Govinda and you guys were there on your way to…
KD: Our way to Kausani.
Bob: That’s right, Kausani. Where you were having a retreat and there we all met. That was really fun.
KD: Yeah. I spent a rainy season up there.
Bob: You guys were all wearing white.
KD: White, my ass.
Bob: You were like, so pure. We were like, amazed at how pure you were.
KD: I wore white for maybe one minute.
Bob: And we had this car on this thing and there were a lot of hippies there at the time. And so we were actually the local ambulance. Whenever things would go wrong, we’d drive them to the hospital in Nainital.
KD: Yeah, right.
Bob: And I think that was not one of those
KD: Right, right. It was a wild time. There were a lot of… the Westerners in India, everybody would go to see teachers, different teachers and then when the seasons changed, all these different people would meet in the cities on their way somewhere else and exchange information and this kind of stuff and then you would go off in a different direction and it was an incredible amount of beautiful seeds were planted in those days. It was amazing, just amazing. “You saw who? Oh, wow. Yeah, ok. I think I’ll go over there. Ok, yeah. I’m going to go see that one and this one.” It was amazing. Yeah, and great times. And the first waves of Tibetans were coming out of Tibet at that time. Maybe not the first wave, but a very large amount of Tibetans were coming out for the first time and it was incredible. I was in Bodhgaya at that time and I remember Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa just walking down the road from Gaya, you know? It was amazing. Such a wonderful, wonderful time. So, Bob is, Bob is one of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s closest and oldest disciples, especially Western disciples. He’s know His Holiness for so many years and he’s a master of all the different schools of philosophy and when he talks, it’s, what comes, it just comes through, I mean there’s no, I don’t think he’s editing at all. It’s just pouring through and it comes from such a beautiful space. It’s extraordinary. So, I know that you’ll really appreciate that this weekend.
Bob: Well, that’s very kind of you, KD but…
KD: It’s a loving kindness weekend.
Bob: One time I introduced the Dalai Lama at Sanders Theater at Harvard when He first came to America and I gave a big thing about Avalokiteshvara and a thousand arms.
KD: Yeah, yeah.
Bob: I gave a huge thing like that, then He came out, you know, and people were applauding, you know, how after you introduce somebody and He walked and as He walked by me He paused, you know, we shook hands and He said, “Don’t over-introduce me. Don’t over-introduce me,” he said.Tue, 07 Sep 2021 - 17min - 56 - Special Edition Conversations With KD May 7, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD May 7, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“All we have is what’s in front of our faces, which is the ups and downs of life. So, you have to learn to deal with those situations in the best way… and there’s no God outside of your Self, your true Self. And that true Self is the same in every Being. So, if you treat other people the way you would like to be treated, you won’t have any problems at all.” – Krishna Das
“Ram nam karne se sab pura ho jata”
My Guru used to say that to us quite often.
“From going on repeating these Names, everything is accomplished. Everything is accomplished.” A very simple statement. Easy to kind of just say, “Oh, yeah, ok,” but I’ve been thinking about that, or trying to truly believe that for 50 years or so. 40 Years. 45 years. So, if I truly believed that what He said, that from repeating these Names, everything is accomplished, I would probably be giving more of myself to the practice as I’m doing it. But, you know, we have our own karmic predicaments that we live in. Very distracted lives. Very fast lives. Although it’s a little bit slower these days. Although we can fill it up with stuff quite easily.
I remember many many years ago, before I went to India I was up in the mountains of New Mexico with Ram Das at the Lama Foundation for about a month in the winter. It was fantastic. And every day we would spend many hours meeting together, singing, talking, meditating. And we heard about this New York artist who had moved out to New Mexico and lived just down the hill, down the mountain from where the Lama was, and he had been to India and he knew how to meditate. This was Big Time. So a group of us went down to meet with him, to see him. And we spent a couple of hours with him, talking to him. I just sat in the back of the room, listening. And as we were leaving, I was the last one to go out the door. As I was about to go out the door, he grabbed my arm and he looked at me and he said, “You. You have to find out why it is you can’t give yourself 100% to whatever you’re doing.”
Oh.
He nailed me to the wall. That was unbelievable. That was in 19-, the winter of, let’s see, ’69. That’s what? 50 years ago? I can still feel his hand on my arm. You know, if we look at ourselves, we notice how difficult it is to be fully engaged in something. We’re not talking about watching a movie where you’re fully lost for as long as the movie’s on or some kind of entertainment, but whatever you’re doing, being fully engaged. Not thinking about the future, not the past, not this and that, not the chatter that goes on in the brain all the time, but truly present. Truly present and aware.
So, I’ve been working on that a long time. Or, at least noticing how little of myself I really can give to each moment. So, when it comes to chanting or a practice that you do regularly, you create a situation where you’re training yourself to let go and come back. Let go and come back. Over and over again. It doesn’t, it’s not about up here. It’s about in here. And it’s not an intellectual process. It’s not a learning process. It’s a training process. So, little by little your Being gets familiar with these sounds, with these Names in this case, and you begin to relax into the Name. And the Name, as we come to know it, has been brought into this world by a Being who has fully realized the reality of that Name, the reality of what is Named, and has brought that Name into this world for us as a practice, as a doorway into that Name, into the reality, which is our own true nature, which is our soul.
The love we’re looking for exists within us. It lives within us.Tue, 31 Aug 2021 - 53min - 55 - Ep. 48 | Hanuman, Mrs. Hanuman, and Time Machines
Call and Response Ep. 48 | Hanuman, Mrs. Hanuman, and Time Machines
“When you attain that oneness, you’re also one with all Beings in all moments of time, past, present and future. So, because, after all, time is like a space, it’s like a subtler space than space is. You know, time, it’s a space of time, a space of duration, of continuum. Right? And so, everything is past and future. So, when you become Buddha, you’re all in all moments of the future, so then you become aware that everyone else will eventually become Buddha, and not only that but you then manifest to accelerate that process so they can do it as quickly as possible. The really dense ones might take a million lifetimes. The quicker ones, a hundred, etcetera. But You’re going to work on it with them. That’s your attitude. This is the sci-fi idea of Kalachakra, ok?” – Robert Thurman
KD: Yeah. All these practices, all these traditions really are here for us to help us overcome the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, which for the most part are at least limiting, to say the least. So all these practices are so based in love. Some years ago, one of the lamas I study with, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, invited me to sing at one of His retreats where He was going to teach on devotion. Now, in Tibetan Buddhism, devotion is not talked about separately as a subject usually. It’s part of the practices. But Rinpoche was going to discuss that aspect of devotion separately. So, He asked me to sing and so I sang and, but one of the things He said, over and over is that, if we don’t love ourselves, how will we ever really love all Beings? Not to mention, another Being? Real love. And it was very interesting to see some of His students react to that because, you know, Buddhists. What are you going to do with them? You know? So intellectual sometimes, you know? Thinking about stuff and understanding the philosophy and I remember one time, I said to Rinpoche, because I don’t take that many teachings with Him but we became very friendly at one point and I said, “Rinpoche, don’t underestimate the ability of Westerners to not understand what you’re talking about.”And He went… and then, by the next year, He had reorganized His teachings. It was very interesting because I think He realized that we talk a good game, but when it comes to the nitty gritty, we hide. Our issues cloud the sun. Like the clouds, they block the sun, so… and of course, Her Loving Kindness talks about this all the time, you know, how to, how offering Loving Kindness to others heals our own hearts. And Maharajji used to say, “Don’t think about yourself.” You know? When I was going to kill myself that time… I was going to jump in the river behind the temple, you know? It was about six inches deep, but I figured if I got my head, you know, stuck under a rock, I could probably get it done, you know? So He said, “What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Jump in the river?” He said, “You can’t die.” He said, “Worldly people don’t die.” He said, “Only Jesus died the real death.” What is He talking about? Only Jesus died? And He looked, “Yeah. Why? Because He never thought of Himself.” What is the real death? What’s the death of the ego? When thoughts of “me” no longer arise. When it isn’t about “me” anymore. “How am I doing?” “How am I doing now?” “Am I wearing the right clothes?” “Am I sitting straight enough?” “Did I put on enough makeup?” “I got that…” what is it they call that stuff? “acne medicine” it’s been so long since I had a pimple. I don’t remember because I don’t have a mind either, you know? So, you know, He never thought of Himself. Thoughts of “me” never arose in that Being. And of course, all I did was think about myself. And I said, “Baba, all I do is think about myself. What am I going to do?” And He looks at me, “Attachment. Ha!” He wasn’t buying it. So eventually I gave it up for that particular period of time. All right. Let’s sing a little bit. And then we’ll,Tue, 24 Aug 2021 - 23min - 54 - Special Edition Conversations With KD April 30, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD April 30, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“Ram Dass, my best friend, one of my best friends, long-term spiritual friends and elders, just died a month or two ago. He’s so present. Any time I think of him, he’s present. I’m not looking for signs. I feel his presence. And you will feel your people’s presence if you just allow yourself to. You won’t be able to touch them physically. But that doesn’t mean they’re not here. Because we’re attached to our physical bodies. Because we identify with our physical and emotional parts. We can’t imagine something without that. However, there are many Beings, many many more Beings out of the body than are in bodies I’m sure. I’ve heard that many times. And if you want to feel those things, one has to open up to these realities through practice.” – Krishna Das
So, you know, when we add a practice to our day, it changes the way we sit in the moment. It just does.
It just changes the way we sit in the moment and it’s not about whether we’re doing it well or we’re not doing it well or we’re having any particular type of experience. That’s one of our biggest problems. We’re expecting something. We have an idea that we have to get something. You know, I remember sitting in front of Maharajji and I almost laughed out loud because I saw that I was sitting there and I was waiting for something to happen and when I thought about what it was I was waiting to happen, I realized I was waiting for a moment when I would not be here, when I’d be gone. And I laughed because I realized, or I understood at that moment that I would never be gone. There was no time. There was no moment anywhere, ever where I would be gone. There will come a time I hope when I am not attached and identified with my thoughts and my negative emotions, especially. But I’ll only be more here then. More present. So, this whole feeling of wanting to be gone means I wanted to be freed from my unhappiness and my crazy neurotic mind. It was driving me crazy. My self-judging, my self-loathing, all the programs.
So, yeah.
Anyway, that’s the deal. Let’s see some questions.
Q: I would like to ask how to find hope in difficult times.
I know what you mean, but it’s really not hope that you want. It’s faith that you want. Maybe I’m picking at straws here but hope is like blind faith. Faith that you have no reason to feel hope because it’s out of your hands. It’s just like, you know, you put your hope in something else. You imagine maybe some time will come when you won’t feel so bad. But faith is something you get from… Faith means, in a way, it can also mean confidence in yourself. Confidence that you can deal with whatever arises in a good way and that’s a big thing. I was sitting with Maharajji in an apartment building in Bombay. At the time it was called that. Around Christmas 1972. And we’d been sitting for hours. He was lying on the bed. He was lying this way. He’d sit up. Then He’d lie down this way and He’d sit up. And I was just watching Him. Watching Him quietly. All of a sudden, He sits up and He looks at me and He says, “Courage is a really big thing.”
I was like, “What’s going to happen?” You know?
And the Indian devotee there, he was the only one there. He looked at me and he said… He looked at Baba and said, “But Oh Baba, but God takes care of His devotees.” Maharajji just shot Him a glance and He looked back at me and He said, “Courage is a really big thing.”
Courage is a really big thing.
There have been times in my life when… that it was enough to deal with life as it appears to us, as it arrives in our moment, in our life, in our space. So,Tue, 17 Aug 2021 - 1h 10min - 53 - Ep. 47 | Hindu-Buddhist Connections and A Short Discussion of Hatred
Call and Response Ep. 47 | Hindu-Buddhist Connections and A Short Discussion of Hatred
“Once it reaches India, the vajra idea, that’s when it’s coming from, central asia, chariot warriors and so on. They were kshatriyas, you know? But when it gets into India after some time, it comes to mean this infinite, stronger than the thunderbolt is this infinite energy of love and that infinite energy of love is not violent because its, it doesn’t need violence because it’s everything. So, it’s a really wonderful Indian vision, and it’s general, both sides, all sides in India, Jain, Buddhists, Hindu. “ – Robert Thurman
KD: So, at some point, things get very bad and the negative energy gets very strong and kind of get, they all decide to attack the kingdom of Shambhala where all of us will be living at that point.
Bob: Petroleum Industry attacks them, they say.
KD: Petroleum Industry, etcetera.
Bob: They do.
KD: So, they form a big army and they get ready to attack. Now, there happens to be a king in Shambhala, in the kingdom of Shambhala, named Raudra Chakri, which means, “the wrathful one with the wheel”. Now, you know Vishnu, His weapon is the chakra, a wheel. And so He becomes aware of this, the demons and the humans and all the bad negative energy getting together and what He does is He goes into this super long trance and He gathers all His powers and when He comes out, the army of Shambhala goes out to meet the army of the bad guys and now, in the Ramayana, we’re talking about earlier, Hanuman finds Sita, comes back and then Rama goes to beat up the bad guys. And the armies of Rama kill all the other bad guys but they leave the real bad guy for Rama to kill, because He has to kill, only He can kill that guy. So, in the Kalachakra tantra, this battle begins and the king sends his two generals, this is in the text, the king sends his two generals to fight, to lead the fight against the armies and what are their names? Shiva and Hanuman. Hello. Hello are you there?
Bob: You discovered it. I didn’t even notice it.
KD: I found this in a book one day. I opened up this book. It was on a friend’s shelf and I went, “what?” So, this was in the Tibetan text, the generals of the army of Shambhala are Shiva and Hanuman; Sanskrit text, originally, and they destroy the armies, leaving only the bad guy for the king to fight and he kills the guy and then the golden age arises.
Bob: By the way, also the name of the king, Kalki, is also the name of the 10th Avatar of Vishnu.
KD: Yes.
Bob: So, it’s a similar, there’s a similar apocalyptic succession.
KD: The lineage of Shambhalic kings, the lineage of Avatars, the so-called Hindu avatars, and the lineage of the Siddhas, each incarnation is exactly the same and what we’re talking about here is Raudra Chakri, which is the Shambalic King, and then on the so-called Hindu side is the Kalki Avatar, the next Avatar, and Raudri Chakri, and where’s Maittreya in this?
Bob: Raudra Chakri’s the incarnation of Vajra Pani
KD: Vajrapani. That’s beyond my pay grade.
Bob: Vajrapani.
KD: So, then, but it’s…
Bob: Maittreya’s around. That happens later. Thousands of years later.
KD: Oh, I see, thousands of years later.
Bob: This is still Shakyamuni Buddha’s time, you know. So, Shakyamuni Buddha is seeing to it that this planet, it becomes the best platform for people to realize, Beings to realize their own true nature, which is the nature of love and wisdom. Wisdom and love, which everybody already has if they only knew. If we only knew.
KD: It all comes back to the love again. It all comes back to that. Again and again and again. That’s the way we’re made, you know? That’s the way we’re made. We’re made that way.
KD: Funny thing.
Bob: What’s that?
KD: When I was having my nervous breakdown in India, when I was going to kill myself.
Bob: The one in India.
KD: Yeah,Tue, 10 Aug 2021 - 18min - 52 - Ep. 46 | The Meaning of Ram
Call and Response Ep. 46 | The Meaning of Ram
“When you shape divinity, your notion of the Divinity, by saying ‘Ram Ram Ram’ and use the Name for ‘joy’ and ‘enjoyment’, ‘Ramaniya’, ‘to be enjoyed in that form’, you know, it’s a gerundial thing, ‘to be enjoyed,’ ‘Ramaniya’ means. And then, you are saying that, this great power that I want to merge myself with out of my devotion, I want to connect to out of my devotion and I want to feel the presence in me of that, then that is enjoyment.” – Robert Thurman
KD: When we were singing just before, it occurred to me to ask you, so this chanting of the Tara Mantra is, in India, they call this Nama Japa, the repetition of the Names.
Bob: Sure.
KD: So, Maharajji used to say, “Ram nam karne se sab pura ho jata.”
Bob: Ram?
KD: Ram Nam Karne Se Sab Pura Ho Jata. From the repetition of these Names, everything is accomplished. Everything is brought to fulfillment and completion.
Bob: Why not?
KD: Well, I would like you to tell them why.
Bob: Well, I said that in the meditation.
KD: Yeah.
Bob: So, Ram, I mean if you think about Ram…
KD: Just, all the Names, any of the Names. He just meant the Names of God.
Bob: Yeah, but I thought it was especially Rama, though. He said, you can get everywhere just saying the Name “Rama”.
KD: Yeah.
Bob: Ok? So, Ram is a way of expressing divinity. Now a lot of, a number of Hindu theologians today might still go for a Maha Ishwara idea. Which means to say, a creator deity who created everything. But not really. It’s not really at home in India, that idea. Like that Abrahamic type of idea. In other words, that there’s one guy that everything can be blamed on. All the “ness”. It’s not really a comfortable Indian idea, because like the, you know, ok, the Shaivites… I don’t think the Shaivites ever had a war against the Vaishnavites. They had wars against, actually in South India, Shaivites had wars against the Jains and the Jains fought back. I was surprised. They’re big non-violence people. They had bad wars between Jains and Shaivites. They never had a war against Buddhists in ancient times. Now the Tamil, they pretend that it’s a Buddhist and Hindu in the Tamil, in Sri Lanka, but it isn’t really Buddhist. It’s fake Buddhist and it’s stupid terrorist Hindus. It isn’t really Buddhist and Hindu. And many many Hindu kings… I was just in Sri Lanka and I was looking at the history and many Hindu kings from Tamil Nadu and other places came and then they ruled the Buddhists there without suppressing Buddhism. And the Buddhist kings were there and they never tried to suppress Hinduism particularly, but now and then they would have, they would… and the religion would be an excuse. So, I’m saying that India has a very strong idea of Divinity and so does Buddhism. You know, when Buddha was born in the Buddha myth, the two people who gave Him his first bath were Brahma and Indra. You know, Brahma was the Brahminical Deity and Indra was the Vedic Maha Deity, you know the king of the Gods in the Vedic idea, like Zeus. Indra was like Odin, actually, connects to Odin and Zeus and Brahma was like a, kind of a little bit monotheistic type, but really based, having to do with the Vedic ritual. Brahma. And Brahma means the sound of language and all this. There’s a whole story about Brahma. But not really a creator so strongly. And the idea that one Being created everything and is in control of it all is pretty much not the best flavor in India, actually. It’s not the normal flavor. So, the reason I’m saying that is, and I will talk more about that, some Buddhist sutra where Brahma meets Buddha, where they talk together. But, so Buddhists never, Buddhists are not atheists at all, but they just don’t think there’s one creator. That’s the main point. And I think that they don’t really, when they switch back and forth, you know, He, Brahma the Creator, the Destroyer and the Preserver, right?Tue, 27 Jul 2021 - 22min - 51 - Special Edition Conversations With KD April 23, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD April 23, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
Q: Please put some light on how to overpower negative thoughts and anxiety, especially during meditation.
“If you’re meditating, you’re not supposed to be trying to overpower anything. You notice what’s going on and you come back to your mantra or your focus of attention. Where does it say you’re supposed to fight with your thoughts? That’s a misconception. That’s a struggle. Meditation is not a struggle. You just keep coming back again and again, again and again. And you’re training yourself to release those thoughts once you notice.” – Krishna Das
So, that was a half an hour, a half an hour that we didn’t spend as the target of our own obsessive thinking, of our own negative emotions, of our fears, our anxieties, and in the situation that we’re in now, that stuff is bouncing off the walls all day long. So, when we add a practice to our lives, it gives us something to focus on and without recognizing it even, we’ve released so much of those clouds of stuff that are surrounding us in our day.
It’s not necessary to try to manipulate yourself, to have one particular type of experience while you’re chanting. The main idea is to remember to pay attention, to listen, to hear, to allow the chant to flow over you and to allow yourself to flow into it.
This is not a philosophical situation. We don’t have to learn about the name. We don’t have to know all the incredible things that they say about the name, that yogis and saints have been talking about for thousands of years. Not necessary. What’s necessary is to repeat it, to remember, to bring the name to mind, to use the breath, to sing it, to use the breath to say it, to use the awareness to pay attention. Add that to our lives. That’s what we need to do.
And it becomes so obvious in this kind of a situation. This is forced retreat for us. So, we’re faced with all our stuff. So, the need to do practice becomes very strong. So, take this time to cultivate this practice. Do it, do it a few times a day, just for five minutes or whatever, 10 minutes, whatever. Keep coming back to it during the day. When you notice the chat going on in your head, spend a minute with it.
They say that there’s a place within us that these names are always being repeated, are always flowing. And the more you pay attention to the chant and the name, the more you hear that in your mind as the day goes on. You’ll be busy doing something and all of a sudden, there it is. You might actually just notice it, and not even notice that you notice it and then you’re busy with something else. It’s very… the reason it’s such a subtle practice, because even though we think we are doing this, you and me, we think we’re sitting down to sing or do Japa or mantra meditation. We think that we’re doing that, but in reality, it’s the name that’s repeating us. The name goes on repeating us from the inside, moving out, outward, outward, and purifying our hearts as it moves through us.
So, at least that’s what they say.
Q: Are there any religions that teach God is one with you with one or do they all teach God is separate and above?
No, none of the Eastern, so-called Eastern religions teach the God is separate and above us. They, there are some, some religious philosophies that, even in India, that say that you don’t want to merge with God. You want to stay separate to enjoy the bliss of union. If you merge, they say, then you, you don’t have that.Tue, 20 Jul 2021 - 58min - 50 - Ep. 45 | A Meditation With Bob
Call and Response Ep. 45 | A Meditation With Bob
“Why do we want Ram, the Divine Rama, and utter the name, Rama, which comes from a verb that means to play and to enjoy? Actually, Rama does. ‘Ramaniya’ means to enjoy something. And why do we say, ‘Jai Ram’? May Ram triumph. May the Divine triumph. Why do we celebrate that? This is India’s vision, actually, which is the vision of the goodness of the universe. India is really the garden of Eden in ancient time. The richest, most benevolent nature in Eurasia, by far. The ancient civilizations in India were the most peaceful. Everything is relative, of course, in the relative world, but they were. And so, it’s natural that from India, a reassuring prayer emanates throughout history as we know it, that the world is a beautiful thing, that the default situation, if you just let it all go, is all right, you will be embraced, you will be caught in Nirvana. You will be caught in the clear light of the void, as the Buddhists called it. You will be caught in the fundamental bliss energies, Satchidananda, as the Vedantists called it; Being, Awareness and Bliss.” – Robert Thurman
Bob: Shall we try to meditate together a little bit? I would like to lead a meditation if you’d like to go into meditative mode. Those of you who are sitting on the mat, cross-legged etcetera, you’re in good shape. Those of you who are sitting in a chair, you should try to cross your ankles and fold your hands in your lap and touch the tip of your thumbs if you can, although I sort of unorthodoxly like to link my fingers. I don’t know why. I’m not good about that.
And, any way you’re comfortable, and tuck your chin a little and your shoulders a little back so you can sit still for a little while without being uncomfortable. Now, think about your breathing. Put your attention in the flow of breath in the nostrils if you can. Your lips should be loosely closed, tongue on the roof, on the palate behind the teeth, and breathing through the nostrils if possible, and just enjoying breathing. You don’t have to count but just revel in the fact and feel happy at that fact that when you draw in breath, energy comes to you from the universe and when you draw, when you exhale breath, waste product from your physical system is embraced by the universe, especially, in this case, the glorious of plants that are there, so kind to us, producing the energy oxygen that we need, producing from the sun and then taking up the carbon that we exhale and creating their own green leaved beauty, flowers, fruits, grains, all sorts of things that we need. So the fact that you can breathe and do breathe shows that this world is there for you. And, in a way, you are helping this world. Normally, we don’t even think about it. We take it for granted. But it’s a little bit of a clue of what all the great teachers of reality have taught us about the world being a good place, actually. The world being a benevolent place. The world being a fitting place for us. Of the four noble opinions, or facts, or truths, that the Buddha taught, His basic framework, at least. He also untaught them at other times, but He was never dogmatic, but in those things that He taught, the One that is real, most real, is the third One, the truth of Nirvana. The other ones are less real, and so, in a way, the whole gift of India, why do we all love India so much? Why do we want Ram, the Divine Rama, and utter the name, Rama, which comes from a verb that means to play and to enjoy? Actually, Rama does. Ramaniya means to enjoy something. And why do we say, “Jai Ram”? May Ram triumph. May the Divine triumph. Why do we celebrate that? This is India’s vision, actually, which is the vision of the goodness of the universe. India is really the garden of Eden in ancient time. The richest, most benevolent nature in Eurasia, by far. The ancient civilizations in India were the most peaceful. Everything is relative, of course, in the relative world, but they were.Tue, 13 Jul 2021 - 26min - 49 - Special Edition Conversations With KD April 16, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD April 16, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“We don’t know who God is, what God is, but he’s certainly not someone who sits in judgment of us. How could he even fit in there? We’re so busy judging ourselves. There’s no room for him to judge us or her to judge us.” – Krishna Das
Oh, hi.
Welcome back to the new abnormal, as somebody wrote. It’s good to be with you again. I can’t see you, but we’re here together on the planet.
Yeah, so we’ll spend some time together again tonight.
The chanting practice, for me, is the most powerful way that I have to keep letting go, coming back to some useful, reasonable perspective about things. Things tend to get a little intense when you’re locked in one space together, with people or without people. Even alone, it gets very intense because all you see is your own mind and at least when you’re alone, you can’t blame anybody else for your thoughts and your emotions. But when you’re with other people, it can get pretty intense. But regardless, alone or together, or whatever, sooner or later, we have to deal with our mind and our thoughts and our emotions.
As the previous Karmapa, the 16th Karmapa once said, “The only thing you take with you when you die is your state of mind.”
So, now is the time to begin, or continue working with that state of mind, getting to a place where it doesn’t push us around all the time, where we get some vote into how we go through the day, how we sit inside of ourselves.
The meaning of these chants is not to be understood intellectually. And what happens is, the more you chant, the deeper, the more often you come back to the chant. And so, you’re actually acclimating yourself to sit in the chanting and the flow of sound. And inside this flow of sound, many things will come, many understandings, intuitions, flashes of insight come from inside the chant, comes to the awareness, comes to our mind. Those are not thoughts. They are coming from inside the chant, their intuition coming from the heart, the seat of awareness in ourselves, our true nature, our heart cave, or as they call it, “hridayam,” the seat of consciousness in the body. It’s not actually in the body, they say, but it’s attached, it attaches itself to the body and pumps awareness into the body.
The mind is what lights up everything that we see. Just like the sun lights up the physical world, or lamps, flashlights, it’s the mind that lights up everything we see, everything we think. All the objects that we perceive are actually perceived by awareness. And this awareness is part of that Satchidananda, which is the way, one of the ways they describe reality or divinity, real divinity. Truth, consciousness, awareness and bliss.
Happiness is one of those things. Although if you’re from Long Island, you know, you might be disqualified from that last last one, but we’re working on it. Yeah. So as we chant, and Maharajji used to say, from going on repeating these names, everything is accomplished. Everything is brought to fullness.
That’s a very powerful statement and is something that we have to, at least, if not take on faith, not blind faith, but educated faith, if not then at least we have to suspend disbelief long enough to do the practice and get the experience ourselves. If you can’t do the practice, if you can’t look inside, you won’t see.
So, if we’re prevented from doing that by skepticism or by a negative take on reality or a belief that we could never be happy,Tue, 06 Jul 2021 - 59min - 48 - Ep. 44 | Share Your Story
Call and Response Ep. 44 | Share Your Story
Q: Could (you) share some of your story about what was going on before you decided to go to India
“Everyone has a Guru. Everyone has a lineage that they’ve been involved with, especially if you’re interested in this crazy stuff in the first place, and everybody is, every moment, including this moment, receiving the fruits of their karmas. And the motivation for a great saint, they only have one motivation, they only have one agenda, which is compassion for us, because we don’t know what’s going on. So, they’re here for one reason only. For our sake. So, that means that everyone is getting exactly what they need at every moment. There’s no slippage in the system. If you’ve seen, if you’ve met a guru, a real guru, not a wannabe guru, not a “hope it’s a guru” not a fake guru… don’t let me continue, because it gets worse… if you’ve met a real guru then that was the best thing, that was what you needed. If you haven’t, that’s what you need.” – Krishna Das
Q: I guess mine was just asking about if you could share some of your story about what was going on before you decided to go to India that may be whatever it was for you, and also, how did you find your Guru? You land in India and then also, from there, I like those moments, the transition moments of all the things, you know, playing music, you know, doing what you’re doing now, of all the things you could do, how did that, just…
KD: It was either this or pump gas. Those were the two options. Well, I went to India in August 1970. I had already been pretty involved in spiritual stuff for quite a few years. I read all three books on the stuff that were here in America at the time, Autobiography of a Yogi, Gospel of Ramakrishna and Zen and Japanese Culture. Oh, wait, and there was Yoga for Health. Something like that. Unbelievable. Thank you.
So, but you know, I was really, I was very unhappy. I wasn’t really a happy camper. A lot of, a lot of self hatred, a lot of self loathing, a lot of not being able to be happy and get what I wanted in life. It was really not a lot of fun to be me. And then, oh, I moved upstate New York to live on a farm that the brother of a friend of mine had bought. They were Jungian acid head mountain climbers. These people would take 1000 mics of acid and climb mountains like this, straight vertical, they were unbelievable. Very wild. And they had a group, they had a family they called the Vulgarians. Anyway they were great folks and they, one guy, a friend of theirs, had seen Ram Das when he first came back from India in late 1968, yeah. And then they, he gave a talk in New York in early 1969, I think, and this guy met, went there, and then he came up and told his friends about it and then they were going to go drive up to New Hampshire where Ram Das was living on his father’s estate. He was living above the garage. It was a huge beautiful house, but he was living above the garage in like a little… he had come back from India and had camped out there. So, I had just come, so, they said they were going to meet this guy and I, you know, I said, “I’m not interested in any white yogis” you know? Once an asshole, always an asshole. What can I tell you? So, they went off. They were supposed to come back the next day. But they didn’t come back for like, three days, right? And I had just come out of the goat shed. We had two goats, Alice Bailey and Madam Blavatsky, our two goats, and I was holding a pale of milk, right? And they came back and I saw the car cut through the field, it comes around, and he parked it and he gets out of the car and he looks at me, like, and there was light shooting out of his head. I had never seen anything like that. I said, “Write down the directions. I’m leaving now.” I ran out to my cabin and I got my stuff together and I got my stuff together and took off and drove all night. So, I got, I got there around,Tue, 29 Jun 2021 - 26min - 47 - Special Edition Conversations With KD April 25, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD April 25, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“You know, there were people, there were gurus in India, Beings in India that other Westerners went to. They would bounce up and down off the pillows, they would howl like dogs. They would be in bliss and fall over like this.
I sat around with mom Maharajji for two and a half years. Not one fucking thing happened. Except love. Except love that was so deep and so beautiful and so unbearable, so wonderful that I couldn’t pull myself away from that person. Nor did I want to, except when I got pissed off. So, the whole thing is learning to trust yourself.
Take your time. There’s no hurry. You’re not going anywhere. You’re just trying to get here, where you are already. Relax. Let it come to you. Be yourself. Be you. Follow your heart. Trust your heart. Trust yourself. Trust your deeper feelings. But in order to trust them, you have to listen deeply to yourself and then you have to pay attention. You have to honor how you feel. If you don’t honor those deeper feelings, you’re not doing the right thing to yourself, but most people don’t. Okay? But the spiritual path means really following your heart, following your deepest heart. What do you want? What do you really want? Don’t get caught. Don’t spend time getting things that you don’t really need. You might enjoy a little bit, but go after what you really want, which is the same thing everybody wants, which is love. And if you’re not getting what you want from one situation, recognize that that’s the case. That doesn’t mean you have to change anything, but you have to pay attention.” – Krishna Das
So, here we are, everybody here is still here, which is good.
Somebody just wrote from Gangotri? It can’t be. It must be a name of somebody. There’s no wireless up in Gangotri. can go to in India is the source of the Ganges. The Ganga. I don’t think there’s any internet up there.
Q: Okay. I have a little, I wrote it down so I could, yeah. I wrote down my question or just my thought. So, I guess when all this started, I started making choices in my life that felt more safe and secure. I was always doing service work and I needed to quit that I needed to just do service work around here instead, kind of redefining what my thought was on, on service.
Because also, I had all these outer things going on with the world, and also personal things in my life that felt really out of control. So, I wanted to find a little bit of control and I’ve been trying to find that, but there are days where I feel so overwhelmed by guilt or overwhelmed by sadness or overwhelmed by anger.
And I know I should be practicing to kind of get out of my own way, but sometimes. That wave feels so strong. It feels like I’m drowning, and it feels so heavy that it’s kind of like, I know what to do to get myself out of it, but going, getting out of that heaviness is, is so incredibly hard for me. So, I was wondering what your thoughts would be around that. Some, some insight?
I can give you thoughts. I don’t know about insight.
Well, first of all, you’re a human being, I think. So, especially at this time on the planet, it’s a very rough time. No question about it. And not only do we have our own stuff to deal with, but the atmosphere is full of it. Every time we turn on the television or read the newspaper or talk to friends, we’re coming, all that anxiety and fear is coming right into our face, right into us. And it’s floating around all the time. So, it’s,Tue, 03 Aug 2021 - 1h 57min - 46 - Special Edition Conversations With KD April 09, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD April 09, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“One has to set boundaries. They have to be healthy boundaries and we’re not really trained to do that. We’re not really trained. We’re not trained, as children, to have healthy boundaries. Our parents tend to step all over our boundaries and not respect us. We’re trained to do that in life. So, it’s very difficult. So, when we talk about letting go, let’s first talk about it as practice. So, while we’re actually doing the meditation practice, while we’re chanting, that’s when we train ourselves to let go, because we’ve added the mantra into our consciousness and we’ve agreed that we’re going to try to pay attention to that. So that helps us be aware when we’re lost in thought. When we become aware that we’ve been gone, we’re actually already back. We come back to the mantra again. The rest of the day we try to be kind and compassionate and good to ourselves as well by setting healthy boundaries.” – Krishna Das
Satsang is so important. You know, Buddha asked one of His disciples, I think it was Ananda, once, “Ananda, what’s the most important thing in spiritual life?” And I think Ananda answered to Him, you know, “You are. The Buddha. Without you there’s no life at all.”
Buddha said, “No, Ananda. Satsang or Sangha is the most important thing. The community of seekers.” The community of Beings who have gone to the other shore, so to speak, and yet remained here for us so that we would know what’s possible, so we would get a taste. And then the group of us who are trying to find where our asses are actually meeting the ground.
So, company is very important. The company you keep is very important. And, it’s something that one has to keep paying attention to in life, no matter how far along you might think you are.
One time, in Allahabad at Dada’s house, who was a great old devotee of Maharajji, I guess I was reverencing him a little too much, you know. So, at one point, he stopped and looked at me. He said, “Krishna Das, I may be a step or two ahead of you and you may be a step or two of someone else,” he said, “but we’re all on this shore. We’re all on this side of the ocean of samsara, this side of the world. Only He’s gone beyond. Only Maharajji has gone beyond.” So, what does it matter? You know? One has to live in one’s heart as best as one can and try not to take everything so personally. We all take everything so personally, as if it was aimed at us. But really, if we really look, we see that what we thought might be aimed at us or even caused by us in some way or degree, is really just someone’s suffering bursting out of them in all directions. It’s another person’s unhappiness, anxiety, fears, shame. Something motivating, creating that anger or that nastiness that happens in life. But we take it all so personally so it’s very hard to release it, you know? Very hard to release it. Very hard. And especially when we’re locked up like this with people, even that we love. Things get antsy every once in a while. So, we just have to keep letting go. That’s the whole thing. Letting go, letting go, letting go. Letting go allows us to be the best people we can be. It doesn’t mean “not engaging.” It means being able to really engage. Letting go of our subjective bullshit, our completely personal subjective version of reality. When we chant, we’re training ourselves to keep coming back to the sound of the Name, the sound of the Name.
Let me see if I have something here that I want to read to you.
“When a mantra is repeated, if one watches the source from which the mantra sound is produced, the mind is absorbed in That.”Tue, 20 Apr 2021 - 1h 08min - 45 - Special Edition Conversations With KD April 02, 2020
Call and Response Special Edition – Conversations With KD April 02, 2020
Taking time to look back and move forward. Conversations With KD episodes are derived from the recordings of KD’s online events from his home during the 2020/ 2021 days of social distancing and quarantine from the onset of COVID and beyond.
“You know, all this craziness in the world is our doing. Nobody else is doing this. It’s us. We human beings are doing this. All of us. So, we human beings can change it. But not everybody believes that. Not everybody believes that there’s a better way to live. Most people live in fear, shame, guilt and selfishness and greed. And that’s what drives us and when we’re in that mode, it’s us and them and we’ll do anything we have to to protect ourselves and our small circle of people. That’s the kind of thinking that kind of has to go. It has to loosen up a little. Will it happen? I don’t know. I hope so. “ – Krishna Das
It’s amazing how connected I feel these days. Every time I turn my computer on, there’s forty people checking in or putting up something online. It’s really amazing. All my Lamas from, living in Nepal, they’re online today and every day there’s teachings, so many teachings available, it’s incredible. So, really plug into those if you’re home, instead of sitting around worrying and panicking. It’s wonderful to get these teachings from these wonderful Beings, these Great Beings. It’s extraordinary.
So, we’re here. The same place. The next week. And next week. And next week. And next week. The chanting is so important to overcome the habits of thought, the way we, we shutter ourself inside this dark, this dark room that we call ourselves, our emotions. It’s just, we’re brought up that way. Our parents were that way. Our grandparents were that way. It’s very rare that we meet people in our growing-up phase that are at all really plugged into something really deep, you know?
It happens. But so, it’s extraordinary. You know when I was first getting interested in this stuff, there were like three books on yoga and meditation. There wasn’t, I don’t even think there was any yoga studios anywhere. Maybe a few people teaching yoga here and there. So, now so much is available and we need it, as you know. We need it and it’s there. So, use this time to get deeper into your own being and to open your heart and let go of fear and embrace feeling, wishing this world and everybody in it, well. Breaking down the barriers that we have: shame and fear and sadness and betrayal and broken hearts and all that stuff. We’ve got to get over that stuff. We’ve got to digest it. You can’t push it away but we’ve got to digest it and use it as fuel, as food to move on into a deeper, a deeper love. And the chanting, it’s just so powerful, too, because either you’re paying attention or you’re not. It becomes very obvious to you. So, every time you’re not, you keep coming back. And little by little, there’s a, you know, when you drive towards the ocean, like out in L.A., on the Pacific Palisades and you’re driving towards the ocean and the windows were open in the car and I went, “Oh… I smell the ocean.” Just then there’s a street, what was it called? I forget, but it was like, you could, that street was where you could smell the ocean and then you know you’re moving in the right direction.
So, as we do these practices, as we chant and meditate, pray and do whatever we do, we touch that place where we can, we can taste it just a little bit. We can smell that fragrance of sweetness just a little bit. You can’t hold onto it. But you cultivate it through your practice.
So, let me see, there’s some questions here.
Q: How does Ram Das come to me now?
You know, I can’t even say it’s a memory. It’s not a memory at all. It’s a living presence. He’s so, he’s such a natural part of me. We bonded so deeply towards the end and especially in these last years,Fri, 16 Apr 2021 - 42min - 44 - Ep. 42 | Only Jesus Died the Real Death
Call and Response Ep. 42 Only Jesus Died the Real Death
Question: He, so the thing that kind of like I had an epiphany about was He never died, the part about Jesus, you know, “I never died.” I had that experience with Jesus, when He said, “I never died.” Could you say a little bit more about somebody who never died, and that whole idea?
“States of mind have their own qualities. Now, heaven is a state of mind. It’s not a place that you go to. Where are you going to go? How are you going to get there? Right? So, it’s a state of mind. When you’re in it, it’s eternal. That’s why it feels like heaven. “It will always be like this.” Pleasure, beautiful pleasure, unending pleasure, the world of the Gods. Heaven. The lower Gods. The devatas. Indra and the whole posse. But then there’s also hell, which they also say is eternal. But it’s not like it lasts forever. It only lasts as long as your karma puts you there. And when you’re there, it feels eternal. That’s why it feels so bad. It’s always going to be like this. It’s like our normal depression states. We think they’re going to last forever, but then they’re gone after ten or fifteen years. Or until we meet somebody else that knows how to push the right buttons. So, He lost himself in love. That’s how Maharajji said Jesus meditated. He didn’t watch His breath. He didn’t stand on one toe. He lost Himself in love. He immersed Himself fully in the love that surrounds us all the time. That lives within us. That’s who we really are.” – Krishna Das
Q: Namaste, beloved. It’s Karuna.
KD: Hold on, louder please. Just want to get the sound right.
Q: This question has to do with your Guru, Maharajji and the story that you shared at another workshop. It has to do with somebody who came in, a Canadian who came in and ask Maharajji how to meditate. And Maharajji said, “Meditate like Jesus.” And then, the Canadian asked, how would he meditate like Jesus. And then Maharajji closed His eyes, almost as if He went to ask Jesus how He meditate, and a tear, you said a tear came out of His eyes and Maharajji said, “He’s lost in love. He never died.”
KD: He loved everyone.
Q: yeah. So, He, so the thing that kind of like I had an epiphany about was He never died, the part about Jesus, you know, “I never died.” I had that experience with Jesus, when He said, “I never died.” Could you say a little bit more about somebody who never died, and that whole idea?
KD: Everyone in a body, dies. The bodies die. But the Being doesn’t die. The real Being doesn’t die. Jesus left His body, but He never died. There’s a difference. You don’t think you’re think you’re the body, do you? I didn’t think so. In that case, you have nothing to worry about. You won’t die. But you will watch the body go. Because that’s inevitable. One time, Maharajji said, “I’m really old.” I’m like, what? You know? What does He mean by that? You know? And there’s stories about, for instance, one time, we were in Allahabad at one of the devotees’ houses. His name was Dada, which is also funny because Maharajji called him “Dada,” and “Dada” means “elder brother” and then Maharajji insisted that Dada’s wife call him “Dada.” And she said, “He’s not my elder brother.” Maharajji said, “If he’s my Dada, he’s your Dada.” So, she had to call him “Dada.” So, we were singing to Maharajji in the room, in the big room, just singing Sri Ram and He was sitting on the cot, the tucket, they call it. And these two young Indian men came in and sat down in the back of the room. Maharajji saw them and He immediately sent them away. He said, “Go, go, go bring the old lady. Go on, go.” So they left. They came back later and, with a very old woman, and they sat down in the back of the room. The minute they came in, Maharajji got up and He went into His bedroom and He called for them to come in and the old lady’s looking at maharajji and she said, “Baba, how could this be? How could you be here.Sat, 12 Dec 2020 - 23min - 43 - Ep. 41 | Karma and Consciousness, Dealing With Negativity
Call and Response Ep. 41 Karma and Consciousness, Dealing With Negativity
Q: I’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on my mind a lot of my life and to turn that around, I find that quite difficult. I’m a recovered Catholic and I’m trying my best to remove all belief systems. They’re inappropriate. Lately, in trying to find, and this is one of my shortcomings, always the quickest way to get somewhere, and I’m reading quite a few things on YouTube, believe it or not, and I found out that some people believe that there is no such a thing as karma when we reach a certain level of consciousness and I was wondering if this (karma) is a belief system?
“It’s real easy to see the atmosphere you create for yourself when you’re kind to people, when you care about people, when you’re someone that’s open to being with people in a good way. Your life becomes simple and filled with good things. Consciousness doesn’t have to be created. It’s here. Always.” – Krishna Das
Q: I’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on my mind a lot of my life and to turn that around, I find that quite difficult. I’m a recovered Catholic and I’m trying my best to remove all belief systems. They’re inappropriate. Lately, in trying to find, and this is one of my shortcomings, always the quickest way to get somewhere, and I’m reading quite a few things on YouTube, believe it or not, and I found out that some people believe that there is no such a thing as karma when we reach a certain level of consciousness and I was wondering if this is a belief system
KD: A what? A belief system?
Q: That karma is a belief system? And at a certain level, our spirit, when it’s very evolved, can create not having karma or is one with the godliness, the essence of godliness, that they, it can create whatever it wants so it certainly doesn’t want karma except, naturally, the good karma. Is there such a thing as being able to remove karma by just creating, being evolved eventually, etcetera.
KD: Yeah, if you have good karma.
Yeah, so karma, yes, it is a belief system, so to speak. But it’s pretty misunderstood, you know? Karma is actually the key to freedom, because it says, every action has an, every action has an effect, has a, no not necessarily an opposite reaction, not at all, but every action is like a seed that gets planted and that seed will grow, sooner or later. So, if you’re a cranky nasty person treating people bad all the time, you’re thinking always about yourself before others, these are the kind of seeds you’re planting. A lot of happiness doesn’t seem to be able to come from that. If you’re a kind person who’s thinking about others and serving others and taking care of yourself as well, that’s a whole different atmosphere that you’re living in. And in that atmosphere, different things can happen. When you’re living in a very dark, unhappy, cold atmosphere, in a very self-centered kind of way, then you’re creating all those kinds of karmas as well, and the way you’re talking, someone would say, “Well, you have very good karmas, very positive karmas, because you’re already thinking of how to create more freedom, rather than more bondage.” So, even being involved in that process is already very positive, very, there’s sattvic, so to speak, harmonious way of living, because you recognize if you’re treating other people bad all the time, you create a very negative atmosphere about yourself, around yourself, and it’s, it’s not easy to free one’s self from that. And so even, you could say, karma’s just another belief system, like any so-called belief system, but my experience tells me that, regardless of what I think about karma, it seems to be a way of dealing with cause and effect. Because one of the things they say is that nothing can come, nothing can be, exist, without a cause for existence. You know? If you have children, there was a cause for their existence. If you have money, if you have money in life,Sat, 12 Dec 2020 - 30min - 42 - Ep. 40 | Dark Night of the Soul, Gratitude and the Renaissance of Psychedelics
Call and Response Ep. 40 Dark Night of the Soul, Gratitude and the Renaissance of Psychedelics
Q: So Ram Das talks a lot about how, as you awaken or you go on this spiritual journey, the passions of life kind of start to fall away, and for me, personally, it can be such a release some days when I look out and I see people that this is it and that car is it and doing this and winning is it and I kind of see through it, and then there are days when I just want to go back to sleep because I want to be lost in it. It’s so hard sometimes, I mean just to, I don’t know, everybody’s going bowling as Ram Das says in his talks and you don’t want to bowl anymore. It’s just like, “I can take it or leave it.” Are we just supposed to get to that point where the highs are gone, the lows are gone and we’re just here? Now?
“On this path, those moments of darkness, all that energy fuels the longing to be free, fuels the longing to connect more deeply with what we want to connect with. It’s a good thing, ultimately. It’s a dark night of the soul but there’s a morning right after the night.” – Krishna Das
Q: Can you just talk a little bit about the dark night of the soul.
KD: Oh.
Q: I know. So Ram Das talks a lot about how, as you awaken or you go on this spiritual journey, the passions of life kind of start to fall away, and for me, personally, it can be such a release some days when I look out and I see people that this is it and that car is it and doing this and winning is it and I kind of see through it, and then there are days when I just want to go back to sleep because I want to be lost in it. It’s so hard sometimes, I mean just to, I don’t know, everybody’s going bowling as Ram Das says in his talks and you don’t want to bowl anymore. It’s just like, “I can take it or leave it.” Are we just supposed to get to that point where the highs are gone, the lows are gone and we’re just here? Now? Just kidding.
KD: Like, be here now, you mean? Oh, wow, I never thought of that. Yes and no, of course. Dryness of heart is not something that’s useful, so when shit doesn’t work for you anymore, you can start to feel very dry and very disconnected from life and very, you know, you can really feel like, isolated from things and cut off. So, that’s not useful. That’s neurosis, essentially. But the problem is that we’re so used to trying to squeeze water from a stone that everything we see, we try to squeeze and bring out pleasure from it. It’s very hard to break that habit so that when it’s not working for whatever reason, the hands are still going like this but there’s nothing there, you know? That’s why there has to kind of, that’s why, when you have a practice that you’ve been doing for awhile and you recognize that you understand that you’re not supposed to be, it’s not about how you feel. How you feel is irrelevant. You do the practice. If it makes you feel a certain way and you’re still doing the practice in that moment, that feeling becomes the object of awareness and you come back from being lost in how good this feels, then you can also extend that to how bad this feels. You get lost in that. And the more you’re used to letting go, the more you’ve trained yourself not to be identified so strongly with the experience, you come back naturally a little quicker. So it doesn’t feel dry. The dryness is that you still wish there was something coming from that stone, which there isn’t. But when you become aware of that, see, you have to get used to, so what I was saying, It’s not easy. It takes time to cultivate that motion of letting go. So, Sri Ramakrishna was a very very great saint who lived in India in the 1800s and he talked about the way the practice of the repetition of the Name works, for instance. There are other practices, of course. But this one… and he said, every repetition of the name is a seed that gets planted in your mind stream, so to speak, in your heart stream in your life.Fri, 11 Dec 2020 - 25min - 41 - Ep. 39 | Bad Aim and the Importance of Spiritual Practice
Call and Response Ep. 39 Bad Aim and the Importance of Spiritual Practice
“The key to doing a spiritual practice is actually doing it. Every day whether you feel like it or not. Because if you only go with your, “You know, I’m tired today, I think I’ll skip it”, then the habits that are already pushing us around just get stronger and stronger. We have to create new habits that turn us within, that make us more available to our own inner self.” – Krishna Das
KD: Well, so, what are we doing? Why do sing, “Sri Ram Jai Ram”? Why do we do these practices at all? And, ultimately, the reason is that we’re not happy as we want to be. We have suffering in our lives. We have, we don’t know how to get what we want. We don’t know how to get rid of what we don’t want. And the reason for that is that we believe what we think. Very simple. Right now, you believe that you’re hearing what I’m saying, which is pretty interesting. But we believe what we think and we believe how we interpret what our senses, the information our, we, our senses bring in to us through the course of the day, the course of our life. So essentially, we’re living in a prison with one little window way up high, which we can’t see out of. But we can hear and we get some idea of what’s out there but we don’t really see what’s really out there. But we want to. And the prison we live in is the prison made of thought, our thoughts, all of our thoughts, and the way we believe our thoughts and you can’t think yourself out of a prison that’s made of your thoughts and your beliefs, our beliefs. Believe me, I include me in “us.” There’s no way out of it through thinking or emotional manipulation or trying to, you know that joke about not wanting to join any club that would actually let you join? That’s what it’s like. We have some version in our minds of what it’ll be like when and if we feel the way we want to feel and have the experiences we want to have of freedom or God or nirvana or happiness, whatever you want to call it, love, real love. But because we don’t know what that is, conceptually, we all share one major problem: bad aim. That’s the deal. Bad aim. You think it’s over there but you wind up over there. How did I get over here? Bad aim. We go after what we think we want and it’s not what we want when we get it for more than, you know, ok, sixty seconds if you’re really good. So, why, what do these practices do? Well, it’s very simple. You don’t know, I don’t know what who Ram is or what Ram is. But they say that through the repetition of the Names, gradually but inevitably, now that’s the deal. “Inevitably” is the kicker here. Inevitably, what lives within us, our own true nature, who we really are underneath all the things we think and feel and believe, gradually but inevitably, through the practice of the repetition of the Names, that’s uncovered. You can’t know what it is before it’s uncovered. We’re digging. But you don’t know what it is until you hit something. And even then, you just get a little glimpse. You think, it’s like digging out a corpse from underneath the ground. You hit the foot. “Oh, that’s what it is.” No. That’s just a part of it.
That was kind of a gross… I’m sorry.
I can’t help myself.
So, that’s it. So, the idea is you sing and because it’s a spiritual practice, that means that we have one job only, that’s to pay attention. That’s the beginning. Without some attention, there’s no possibility of ever being here or ever recognizing our true nature or ever finding real love or merging with the divine, because it’s all here and we’re not.
We’re lost in our thoughts. We’re lost in our day dreams. We’re lost in our knee-jerk reactions to things. All day long, all life long, boom, then we’re dead.
And we have to do it again in another body. It’s a pain in the ass. And you’ve got to deal with your parents all over again, a whole new set of bullshit, you know? First, you have a Jewish mother,Fri, 11 Dec 2020 - 22min - 40 - Ep. 37 | Maharajji’s Language, Why Is Chanting Important?
Call and Response Ep. 37 Maharajji’s Language, Why Is Chanting Important?
Why is chanting transformative? Why is the chanting of names transformative? Does it require an understanding of what those names, the stories behind those names, in order for the chanting of those names to be transformative?
“These names are mantras. These are sounds that come from a deeper place inside of us and they were brought into this world so you and I could hear them by saints, by yogis who have recognized the truth, have experienced reality through these names and they’ve experienced the reality of these names.” – Krishna Das
Q: Thank you so much. This is just a question about linguistics. Did He speak English? Like when you have all these conversations, how did this actually happen?
KD: No. He could say things like “Quick march.” From the English time. “Quick March.” “Sit down.” That’s it. That’s about all I heard Him ever say in English.
Q: When you speak of all these communications that was all through a translator
KD: There were always Indian people around who spoke perfect English. Not always, but most of the time. And when He had, sometimes He just would make you understand what He wanted, without a word at all. One time, I was walking towards the front of the temple and all of a sudden, I was running towards the front of the temple and He was right at His window, “Come here!” I went there. “Ok.” And I ran off to do something and I was halfway gone when I went “Wait a minute” how did I know what He said? Like that, you know? He didn’t need anything. I mean, He didn’t need to be told anything. He knew everything all the time. It was, it was just extraordinary to be in the presence of somebody like that.
Q: Can I ask one more question?
KD: Yeah. Sure.
Q: I’m just interested. I believe it and I kind of get how it worked, but you often speak of the abuse and anger? And even language, like colorful language
KD: Oh yeah. He cursed. You can’t believe the things He said to people.
Q: Can you expound on this?
KD: Like what?
Q: In Christian background, it’s forbidden. You don’t speak that way. You’re always kind and good.
KD: Really?
Q: Supposedly.
KD: You’d have a tough time proving that in court. Always kind and good, uh-huh. Well… it was a way of changing the atmosphere of, and it was only the close people who were really abused, because they could take it. They loved it. They would look… and we’d be sitting there. We didn’t know Hindi at the time. “What is He saying?” “Sister fucker?” Things like that. The worst shit. You can’t imagine. These village people, this is how they talked. That’s what they do. You know? I was recently with a young Baba in India and I had met Him once or twice before and He’s very wild and very loving, sweet but He likes the abuses so I came there from Delhi and I spent the day, and then in the evening I was going back to Delhi. I said, “Baba I’m going back to Delhi now.” “Why?” I said, “You know, now. I like my comfort. I’ve got my hotel room and everything.” “Ney. That’s not why. You’re afraid to shit in the latrine. That’s why. See this guy? He’s afraid to shit in the latrine. See this guy over here. He doesn’t want to shit in the…” He just was like abusing me in front of all these Indians. They were laughing, they were laughing. So, I had to stay. But that’s love. That’s the way, you know? They’re not afraid. They don’t throw people out of their hearts. We’re all scared shitless that if somebody looks at us crooked, they hate us. And that’s why we’re, that’s why everything’s so screwed up here. They’re not afraid of that. It’s all loose and open and wild. They’re free with that. They know when to do it and when not to do it and who to do it with. And people, like expect that from Babas, too. They expect, especially these kinds of Babas who live in the jungle their whole lives, they’re not,Mon, 07 Dec 2020 - 30min - 39 - Ep. 36 | There’s No Maharajji Outside of You, Committing To A Practice
Call and Response Ep. 36 There’s No Maharajji Outside of You, Committing To A Practice
So, when I try to tap into the energy or the meaning of Neem Karoli Baba, I feel like I’m grasping at clouds because I wasn’t there. He hasn’t written anything that I can read to understand.
“You’re looking to feel something from outside in a sense. You think He’s out there and you want to connect with Him. It’s not like that. He’s not out there, in fact, there is no “out there” there’s only here. But we’re not here, so we’re lost. We’re in dreamland. Sleepy-poo. So, when we wake up, you’ll remember everything.” – Krishna Das
Q: I have my real question, but I have to follow up with one of the questions, one of the topics before. There was actually research done after World War 2 here in the US to see whether or not Americans would also do what the Germans did, this was the Milgram studies.
KD: They said, “wait 50 years, you’ll find out?”
Q: And they found that Americans, you know, for the most part, 80% or so, were willing to kill people in these shocking experiments that they did up at Yale University. So, this was Yale University students. The reason is interesting, I think, because it does tap into our humanity, as you say is you know, to be Beings who are also impacted by our surroundings and I think if I was in Germany I’d be the guard next to you and you know, because our environment, while we have our sense of self and our self we also, through osmosis, take in culture and everything around us. I think it’s part of tapping into our humanity to be open to that angle. So that’s my back question, but now I have my real question.
KD: OK. Now I’ll give you the unreal answer.
Q: So, this is about Neem Karoli Baba, because I’ve thought about it a lot. You clearly respect and admire Him and I respect and admire you and I have many other people who I respect and admire who also respect and admire Neem Karoli Baba and I’ve thought about it myself that, well, I therefore need to respect and admire Neem Karoli Baba and try to tap into that. A lot of people are pointing me and say, “I came from there, that’s a good place. I came from there.”
KD: What do you mean? I came from there?
Q: I came from Neem Karoli Baba. He’s like a lineage of sorts. But when I, He didn’t say anything. So, when I try to tap into the energy or the meaning of Neem Karoli Baba, I feel like I’m grasping at clouds because I wasn’t there. He hasn’t written anything that I can read to understand.
KD: There’s a lot of stories about Him that have been written.
Q: There are the stories and the stories, the stories are of Beingness.
KD: Stories of?
Q: Of being around Him. Of like, He was sort of a Being, but there’s not meaning that is easy for the next generation to hold onto. Like the written word, that’s how knowledge is typically passed down.
KD: Wait a minute. That’s bullshit. First of all, the written word, like the Bible? So, they’ve proven that less than three percent of what’s in the Bible can actually be traced linguistically to the time of Jesus. Three percent. So, what about those people who believe every word that’s in the Bible and if God said it, that’s the truth, and the world was made in, what, a day and a half? Seven days? Whatever. So, you can’t believe anything you read either.
Q: I was thinking books and academics.
KD: The bible’s a book more or less.
Q: That’s true.
KD: So, go ahead.
Q: So, I find myself not able to hold onto what He is.
KD: Your idea of Neem Karoli Baba, which is something outside of you.
Q: yeah.
KD: Someone who was outside of you some years ago and is no longer here.
Q: What wisdom to bring into me from Him? It’s hard to hold.
KD: Yeah. Look in the mirror sometime. That’s the best thing to do. There’s no Maharajji outside of you. There never was. The person next to you is in a body,Mon, 07 Dec 2020 - 42min - 38 - Ep. 35 | Too Little Too Much, Violence and Compassion
Call and Response Ep. 35 Too Little Too Much, Violence and Compassion
I’m searching for understanding of how someone can be on this earth and literally be so unloved that he could walk in and kill people in a yoga studio and take his life. How can we make sure people feel the love that we feel in here?
“Don’t try to make it ok. It’s not ok. Eventually it won’t hurt so much. That doesn’t mean you’ll have figured it out. It just won’t hurt so much.” – Krishna Das
Q: This morning was very profound and I was able, I was really able to feel unconditional love.
KD: I’m sorry to hear that.
Q: I know, right? For like, every being in the universe and I just felt very expansive and then when we got ready to go to lunch, I stood up and I’m like, oh I have to use my legs? Like, all right. And then I just, I was physically shaking like, vibrating, but then I was physically shaking out of fear. So, I’ve really been letting myself be gentle and process.
KD: So, the thing you left out in all beings was yourself, right?
Q: Yeah, and I had shared with you last night so much that is coming from my family. I was raised southern Baptist evangelical and when I came out of the womb was pretty much told I was a wretched sinner. You needed the Lord and that never resonated with me, and my dad actually reminded me, in the middle of an argument, how when I was little I actually came to him and asked him if we could pray for the devil because I only felt love for whoever this being was, I was told. And I thanked him for reminding me of that, because it gave me validation that I am who I know I am and it’s been a really troubling year. This Sunday is my niece’s birthday and I don’t feel safe calling so I have mailed both her and my nephew cards and I’m just going to keep being who I am, but it’s been really challenging, at times, being in my body.
Thank you for the space you create. It’s really beautiful.
KD: Well, we all have our own, each one of us has our own storyline about why we are who we think we are and the beauty of practice is that, as time goes on, less energy is stuck in those belief systems. That’s not something rip off and just throw away and forget because, we’re made up of all that stuff, you know? And without doing some practice, there’s really, we won’t ever get a vote as to how we go through our day. Right now, most of us are on automatic, you know? We’ve been programmed by our lives and we don’t get much vote about how we meet different situations. And the only time that we’ll ever, the only time that there’s a possibility to get a vote is as things arise. But we don’t get a vote as to what arises. We only can get a vote as to how we meet those situations. And right now, usually the wave crashes over us and we don’t even realize we’ve been hit by it until we wake up on the shore and then, you know. So, that’s why they say, do practice when you can. When you remember. Because those seeds that you plant, that we plant in our quiet time, so to speak, those seeds continue to grow through the rest of our lives and most of the real change is off the radar. But we want to know now. So, and that’s just more ego bullshit, you know? Because we want to feel the way we feel. We want to feel good. We don’t want to feel bad. And that’s already too bad. But that’s where we find ourselves. We want pleasure and we don’t want pain. We want pleasant circumstances and we don’t want unhappy circumstances, so we’re screwed.
The great, the third patriarch of Zen, Chinese patriarch of Zen, wrote a beautiful sutra called the “trust in the heart sutra,” which I stole for one of my, the name, the title, I stole for one of my CDs. He said it was ok. And the first line, “The great way is not difficult for those with no preferences.” Oh. Ok can I try the not so great way? You know? But really that’s our whole thing. Maharajji used to, many times, he would sit there and he would go,Mon, 07 Dec 2020 - 24min - 37 - Ep. 34 | Trust In Your Self. Maharajji and Buddhism
Call and Response Ep. 34 Trust In Your Self. Maharajji and Buddhism
When you talk about this incredible love, is it just the simple presence of consciousness that you can achieve through vipassana or different meditation techniques or is it something else? And if it is something else, how do you connect and experience that?
“As you sit and you go more deeply, you know, you shouldn’t think that you’re finished, just because you feel a little peace. That’s good. But you should be with that. You shouldn’t push it away or hold onto it. Be with whatever arises, right? And you’ll have many different experiences over time, lifetimes of practice. And whatever is, whatever your karma dictates, will come to you in the way that it’s supposed to.” – Krishna Das
Q: Thank you, Hi. I’m Dominique. It’s nice to meet you. I’m really enjoying my time here and
KD: It’s just been a few hours. You’ll get over it. Don’t worry.
Q: So far so good. But I’ve been meditating for a while and I come from more of a Buddhist background, and when I meditate, I do feel a great sense of peace and spaciousness and awareness within but when I hear you talk about Maharajji, I hear you talk about this kind of incredible love and this unconditional love and to be really honest, I don’t necessarily feel that when I meditate and I’m wondering how you connect with that kind of…
KD: I don’t feel when I meditate either. So… what can I tell you? But go ahead, sorry
Q: So, my, that’s kind of my question. When you talk about this incredible love, is it just the simple presence of consciousness that you can achieve through vipassana or different meditation techniques or is it something else? And if it is something else, how do you connect and experience that?
KD: Good question. Really good question.
Very good question.
Well because of my experiences, in my life, when I talk about love and talk about presence and being, in my consciousness that’s Maharajji to me. And because of my experiences, that’s the way I experience the love and the devotion and the caring and all that stuff and from that feeds me and then it goes out to other people as well. Because He’s, everybody’s included in that, it’s not just mine. You know? It’s just this feeling of presence and being, and that’s everywhere. And that’s Him for me. That’s who He is for me. So, you have to be with your experiences. And they say that the nature, our true nature is Satchidananda. Truth, Consciousness and disgusting Bliss, ridiculous amounts of ecstasy and happiness. That’s what they say. That’s who we are. So yes, the answer is, as you sit and you go more deeply, you know, you shouldn’t think that you’re finished, just because you feel a little peace. That’s good. But you should be with that. You shouldn’t push it away or hold onto it. Be with whatever arises, right? And you’ll have many different experiences over time, lifetimes of practice. And whatever is, whatever your karma dictates, will come to you in the way that it’s supposed to. So right now, you’re not feeling… I don’t feel any peace when I meditate, so how do you get that? All I feel is His absence because I’m a crazy emotional devotee and half the time He’s everywhere, the other half the time I can’t even find Him, so what can I tell you? It’s better you sit and be quiet and happy than be like me. So, it’s a trade-off. It’s a different path. You know Ramana Maharshi, who was one of the greatest saints who ever lived, he said, there’s two ways to go. Either you go the path of jnana, or wisdom, where you try to penetrate into your true nature through awareness and through meditative practice, or you surrender to God. That’s it. They both go to the same place, but they feel very different while you’re on that path but neither one of those things can actually be achieved through your personal will. You can’t surrender yourself. Love surrenders you when you melt down into it.Fri, 04 Dec 2020 - 21min - 36 - Ep. 43 | Practice Arising By Itself, Dharmageddon and Does the Curriculum Change With Age
Call and Response Ep. 43 | Practice Arising By Itself, Dharmageddon and Does the Curriculum Change With Age
Question: I’m just finding it to be that I don’t have to try so hard because it just happens and what I like about that, it seems like it took a long time to get there. It gets better and it seems like it’s just easy. You just fall into it. Why all the struggles?
“Let’s say you’re home when that happens, you’re just sitting around and you remember the Name, for instance, or the Name shows up in your head. If you’re home, you could, you could go with it for a few minutes, right? You could allow it to surface, really surface.” – Krishna Das
Q: I’m finding out that the older I get, not old, whatever, that the practice comes by itself a lot of times. You’re thinking about it then all of a sudden.
KD: Sure.
Q: And I’m just finding it to be I don’t have to try so hard because it just happens and what I like about that, it seems like it took a long time to get there. It gets better and it seems like its just easy. You just fall into it. Why all the struggles? Oh, I don’t want to do that, it’s too hard. Now its so easy or easier.
KD: That’s good, but you know, so tell me about your experience. Give him back the mic.
Q: Well…
KD: What are you exactly referring to?
Q: Well, it’s just the whole practice in general, I guess.
KD: Meaning?
Q: Just like that? Oh, god.
KD: Like, for instance, a lot of times, the mantra will come back to me during the day and kind of, I’ll recognize that it’s there when I had forgotten, right? I’ve been just driving around or something and then I’ll hear, in a sense, in my head, the mantra, so that comes back to you. Sure. But what do you do at that moment?
Q: Seems to me I try to keep going with it. Yeah.
KD: Right. That’s it. Sure. But, that’s all good. No question about it. But there’s so many levels of sleep, so to speak. There’s so much time we spend asleep. The idea is to kind of gradually shorten the amount of time it takes for us to remember the mantra, for instance, right? And the way that happens, the way that is shortened is by willfully, using our personal will to bring ourselves back. But even, that’s an interesting thing, because ok, so you’re chanting, right? And then you notice you haven’t been paying attention and then you come back to the chant. How did you notice? Ha. You just do. It happens by itself. But we know that nothing happens without a cause. There’s no effect without a cause and no cause that doesn’t have an effect that became a cause, so if you, all of a sudden, woke up, so to speak, and recognized that you hadn’t been paying attention, that waking up is a direct result of practice you’ve done in the past. Either this life or another life. Otherwise you would get born, you’d graduate from high school, you’d drink some beer, and then you’d die. And you’re not here for one moment of your life. How many people do we know? Most of them are in the supermarket when you go there. Look around. Nobody’s home. It’s unbelievable. It’s like, yeah, sure, swimming through, like, water and… so, there you are, singing, and you haven’t been paying attention and then you, you go, “Oh, ok.” And you come back. How did that happen? You didn’t do that. You weren’t here, you were in dreamland. How did it happen that you came back and noticed? Consciousness, you became aware and awareness is something that is always here but recognized more through practice, through remembering. That’s what practice is. Remembering. So, you sit down to remember. “I’m remembering. I’m remembering my breath. Breathing in. Breathing out. Breathing in. Breathing out. Oh, I’ve got to go to the store later. What am I supposed to buy? Did I write it down? I don’t think I wrote it down. Oh, ok. My breath.” That moment when we come back, that is, in itself, an effect of the cause of having done practice before. Already. For instance,Tue, 15 Jun 2021 - 29min - 35 - Ep. 32 | Keep Coming Back and Cleaning Out The Dark Corners
Call and Response Ep. 32 Keep Coming Back and Cleaning Out The Dark Corners
“You don’t have to know anything. All you have to do is be happy. And think about other people once in a while instead of yourself. That’s all. It’s ridiculous how happy you can be when you don’t think about yourself. Ridiculous. Completely absurd. You wouldn’t think that would be the case but it is the case.“ – Krishna Das
So, these are the people who couldn’t get enough abuse last night, right? Very good. I can’t wait. In India they call it “teasing.” Galli, it’s called. It’s when a teacher, not me, but when a Guru or somebody teases His devotees by, you know, like, abuse, flinging abuses at them. Huh?
Q: It’s a sign of love. You love us.
KD: Oh, very much. It means you’re really; it means there’s no, you’re really close, you know? You’re really, there’s no distance or formality, you know? You miserable… How many, there’s no children here today, are there? Anybody under 30?
You see what I mean? It’s going to be a good night. There’s, well, I ‘m not going to go into the curses. I actually learned, you know, Maharajji used to do this all the time and the Indian people would kind of just look down like this, like… and we kept saying, “What’s he saying? What’s he saying?” “Oh, never mind.”
“You naked babies!”
I mean, if you really want to get somebody angry in India, call them a “naked baby.” Oh, my God. So, I had learned all these curse words and abuses that He used to offer to people, so to speak. I had to force myself to forget them because I was using them in the wrong situations.
So, what we’ve just been doing is called the repetition of the Names of God. That’s what they call it. Personally, I don’t know about God. But that’s a Name that doesn’t appeal to me that much. But in India, all these Names have different qualities and different aspects and they understand there’s only One. All One. But it has many Names and can be approached from within each one of us, our own particular shape or form, insanity. And it’s through all that, these Names will pull us through all our stuff into our Self. Another Name for God is “Self” with a capital “S.” The sense of Being. It’s not a Thing. But it’s a, it’s a, the Presence. So, when we sing, we try to pay some attention to the sound of the Name, whichever Name we’re repeating and as soon as we notice that we haven’t been paying attention, we come back to the Name. At least for the next millionth of a second. And then after a while, of course, you notice that you haven’t been paying attention, so you come back again, but actually, the moment when you notice that you haven’t been paying attention, you’re already back. How did that happen? We didn’t do that. We were lost in our thoughts. How did we come back? How did that happen?
Well… first of all, that’s the fruit of practice that we ourselves have done before. That’s the fruit of our own practice. Every time you come back, we’re planting a seed in our own consciousness that continues to grow and that seed keeps bringing us back. The other aspect is that we’re always here, we just forget. And so, when the energy of a particular thought runs out, we’re back because that’s where we were anyway, but we weren’t paying attention. So, that’s why it’s not necessary to create anything or manipulate your emotions or try to feel any particular type of thing, like I don’t care about bliss or ecstasy. Screw it. I just want to be here. And if some of that comes, well, good, I’ll enjoy it. But if it doesn’t come, that’s ok, too. Don’t try to make anything happen. Why would you join a club that they’d actually let you join? I wouldn’t.
So, anything I can create with my mind is going to pass sooner or later. What’s the sense? Just keep coming back and what’s within us will start to be uncovered, and we’ll start to have direct intuitive experience that’s beyond the thoughts and emotions.Wed, 22 Jul 2020 - 36min - 34 - Ep. 31 | Find Out Who You Are, Maharajji and Buddha, Starting on the Path
Call and Response Ep. 31 Find Out Who You Are, Maharajji and Buddha, Starting on the Path
Do you have any advice for… I guess for someone who’s starting off or seeking their spiritual practice or spirituality all together.
“Relax. Take it easy. Watch some tv. Be good. Listen to music. It’s a ripening process. It’s not a learning process. It’s a ripening process and we ripen our hearts when we turn towards that love. And what turns us towards that love is the longing, the longing that’s in there, to really be in that love. That itself is the fruit of practice. The fruit of love is the longing for more of it. To be more deeply in that love. That longing is, it’ll ruin your life. But it saves your life.” – Krishna Das
Q: KD.
KD: Sir.
Q: It’s good to see you.
KD: I can’t see you so I can’t say the same thing. Aha. Hi.
Q: Hi, about six years ago I sat with your chanting and you put my ass down on the ground with your chant. And it’s been really profound because I wasn’t a big fan of kirtan. I was more of a japa guy. But…
KD: I’m a fucking Buddhist.
Q: Yeah, there you go. But the kirtan that’s offered has cause some really interesting things. And one of them is a relationship to the Names of God and all the unfolding that comes within me as we chant. I’m having this really interesting thing go on. I have an issue with Krishna.
KD: Really?
Q: I don’t know why but…
KD: Has He been screwing around again?
Q: Yeah, that’s it. But it’s, I’m afraid of Krishna. It’s so strange. And the question I would have for you is if, as you’ve gone through your practice and your experience, have you seen different aspects of relationship to the Names of God, or is it all just, like you said, grace?
KD: I have no idea what you’re talking about. You know? It sounds like a bunch of stuff to me and I think you should just keep repeating the Name and drop that shit and get on with it.
Q: Cool.
KD: You’re not scared of Krishna. You don’t know who Krishna is. It’s just a fantasy in your imagination. Krishna is not other than you are. And until you know who you are, you’ll never see Krishna. So, relax. Just let go of that stuff. It’s useless. Useless. The Name “Krishna” and Krishna Himself are not different things. So, when you repeat the Name of Krishna, you don’t experience Krishna, so what are you talking about? Find out who you are and as long as you’re dealing with all this fantasy and imagination, you’ll never find out who you are. Just let it go. Whether you sing or do japa or stand on your head or do nothing. You still have to find out who you are and what you are and how to be present in your daily life. There’s not somewhere you get to go where you’re going to find Krishna. He’s not waiting for you up in the sky. If He was, you’d get a rocket ship and go up there. He’s not up there. He’s in there as your own true nature. He’s not other than you. Your own true nature. He knows it. You don’t. So, you know, try to simplify your mind. You’re very complex. And nothing but thoughts and concepts. They don’t lead anywhere. You can’t think yourself out of a prison that’s made of thought and every thought is a prison because you identify with it, you’re stuck in it, you’re glued to it. Drop it. Little by little. Little by little, let go. Maharajji said, “Go on, sing your lying Ram Ram.” One of these days you’ll say it right once, Bam, the real Ram will come and you’re out of here, you know? So, keep lying but don’t think about it so much. Really, it’s not… it’s a dead end. And they’re infinite dead ends. And every thought is one of them. So just relax, take it easy, don’t try so hard. You’ll never understand it because you won’t be here when it is. You’ll be present but your whole schtick will be gone, hopefully.
Sooner than later, I hope.
Give us a break.
Oh, this is a good night. Not too long ago, I was really cranky one time,Tue, 14 Jul 2020 - 17min - 33 - Ep. 30 | Family Karma, KD’s Mom
Call and Response Ep. 30 Family Karma, KD’s Mom
I feel that my dharma is taking me into different direction, that family karma. Karma related to a lot of suffering, a lot of what I would consider tamasic energy, toxic and so if you or Maharajji would have any advice when you feel your dharma is, you know, upholding you and protecting you and…
“We don’t know our parents as people, for the most part, until maybe we get older. They’re people. I don’t know how my mother went through the day. I don’t know what my father… what tortures he had in his life, and betrayals and hidden desires that he couldn’t fulfill. I have no idea what went on with him. All I know is how he treated me and you know, another thing and it’s a theory of mine, I can’t prove it, but I kind of feel like we learn to see ourselves the way our parents saw themselves. Not the way they saw us. But the way they saw themselves, we absorb that. And we mimic that by seeing ourselves the same way. I don’t know, I can’t prove it, but it feels like that to me.” – Krishna Das
Q: Thank you for coming to Encinitas. And I have a question. You mentioned the ripening, ripening of the karma, you also mentioned that when you let go of, you know, being obsessed or identifying with the movie of ourselves, thinking about others you may feel happy, so at this moment, I feel that my dharma is taking me into different direction, that family karma. Karma related to a lot of suffering, a lot of what I would consider tamasic energy, toxic and so if you or Maharajji would have any advice when you feel your dharma is, you know, upholding you and protecting you and…
KD: Is what, opposing?
Q: No, upholding dharma, you know? Holding you? And then the family karma kind of pulls you in the direction and yeah… it doesn’t make me happy to think about what’s happening with the family and this is sixty years. It’s not one year or five years.
KD: Yeah, yeah. Well, there’s family and then there’s family. First of all, we’re made up of our parents. We didn’t come from the sky. We’re made up of them. So, there’s an inner. The outer is not as important as the inner and you can’t really free yourself… Maharajji said, as long as your parents are alive, the greatest worship that you can do is to honor your parents. Forget the temples. Forget the deities. Forget your japa. Serve your parents. He said that. I remember one time, this couple was having a fight, right? They came to Maharajji, and He said to the man, and He said, “It’s ok, just see her as your mother.” And he says, “I hate my mother” Maharajji just couldn’t understand. So, it’s big stuff, you know? Big stuff. And you just, you do what you can. You deal with what you can. That’s all. You don’t, there’s no clock ticking, you have to get it all worked out by 10:30 tonight otherwise it’s over, you know? You deal with what you can, the best way you can and you recognize that parents, somebody did it to them, just like they did it to you. Just like you’re doing it to your kids. So, who’s the victim and who’s the perpetrator? Where was the first perpetrator? How did that start? So, you know, we don’t know our parents as people, for the most part, until maybe we get older. They’re people. I don’t know how my mother went through the day. I don’t know what my father… what tortures he had in his life, and betrayals and hidden desires that he couldn’t fulfill. I have no idea what went on with him. All I know is how he treated me and you know, another thing and it’s a theory of mine, I can’t prove it, but I kind of feel like we learn to see ourselves the way our parents saw themselves. Not the way they saw us. But the way they saw themselves, we absorb that. And we mimic that by seeing ourselves the same way. I don’t know, I can’t prove it, but it feels like that to me.
Q: Thank you and I hear you and I know that honoring the parents is one of the greatest, if not the greatest honor.Tue, 07 Jul 2020 - 22min - 32 - Ep. 29 | The Evaluative Mind, Grace, Dada Mukerjee
Call and Response Ep. 29 The Evaluative Mind, Grace, Dada Mukerjee
“I said to Siddhi Ma, I said, ‘Ma, Maharajji said He has the keys to the mind, so to me that means that I am where He puts me, where He wants me to be. So, Ma, is it grace? In other words, is it His doing, or is it my effort that’s important? What’s the deal?’ So, She said, ‘Krishna Das, it’s all grace but you have to act like it isn’t.’ Which is very far out. It’s a done deal. None of this is happening. It just looks like it’s happening. But because we believe it, we have choices to make, we have practices to do. We have karmas to perform because everything is a karma. Every thought is a karma. So, you want to create the karmas that will bring the goodness into your life and into the life of other people around you also, since everything you do creates some kind of karma. Let’s at least try to create some happiness for ourselves with our actions and others. – Krishna Das
Q: I have a long time- very consistent and super crappy meditation practice that is really consistent.
KD: Terrific. And on top of that, you have a long-term crappy evaluative mind.
Q: So, the idea of aiming at a true life and aiming at my true self I’ve been doing for quite a few years.
KD: Where’s the target?
Q: This is my question. I just want to know, the first time that I heard you sing, I couldn’t stop crying. I felt…
KD: That bad, huh?
Q: That bad. The commonality of the broken heart was just unspeakable and you know, in my unspeakably crappy practice, I just wonder if there’s anything you can say about, I mean the side effects are worth it. You know, the side effects of the practice are certainly worth it. But aiming at the true self, or what you’re seeking, anything you can say.
KD: Where are you aiming? It’s everywhere. It’s you. There’s nothing to aim at. Just be there in your crappy meditation. And as soon as you’re not trying to get somewhere, it won’t be so crappy. Notice all that stuff. It’s the noticing of it all. There’s nothing to do. There’s nothing to accomplish. It happened already. We’re here. Now let’s figure out what this is. Or let’s experience, find a way to experience what this is. It’s not like you’re going to be somebody else when you figure it out. You’re already who you are. That’s enough. So, instead, I don’t know what particular crappy meditation practice you’re doing, but whatever it is, you simply come back to your object of concentration. It’s very difficult to do Nam, to do a meditation practice without concentration at first. You first have to be able to kind of calm your mind and your breath a little bit before you can kind of expand your awareness, so to speak. So you have to develop a little bit of the ability to come back from Neverland, well, not that place. From Dreamland, ok? That’s all. So when you do that crappy practice, just sit there and when you notice that you’re just lost in thinking how crappy this is, give the thought back and come back to the breath or the mantra, whatever you’re using for you anchor. You can use anything for an anchor.
Q: For a very long time, my anchor has been just simple mindfulness and breathing and mindfulness of the body and sometimes it’s very scattered and sometimes it’s very focused and I watch whatever it is, but what I think the disconnect that I feel at the moment is so I notice this, I feel more connected, I feel less connected, the mind settles, the mind doesn’t settle, I pay attention to this, I come back to the breath. But the idea that this, in some way, leads to knowing who I truly am or what I truly am, this is where I feel the disconnect.
KD: The idea that what you’re doing will lead you to yourself, you’re feeling, I don’t understand…
Q: So, the practice is quite, seems quite settled. On some days, the mind settles quietly and it’s what I’d like to call a good sit. And sometimes the mind is all over the place,Wed, 01 Jul 2020 - 23min - 31 - Ep. 28 | Suffering, Gratitude and Burning Out
Call and Response Ep. 28 Suffering, Gratitude and Burning Out
So, I can feel this softening thing happening in my personal relationships and my everyday life. I’m having a really hard time with the world stage, how to not either not run away from it or like, bring just furious disgust and I’m not sure how to handle, like, what do you suggest with that?
“We don’t know what’s going on… Western culture is a few hundred years old. Modern science is a couple hundred years old, maybe, at the most, and we think we know everything about everything. We don’t even know who we are. How are we going to know who anybody else is. So, the best idea is to become the best human being that you can and everywhere you go and everything you do should be from the best place you can do it from.” – Krishna Das
Q: So, I can feel this softening thing happening in my personal relationships and my everyday life. I’m having a really hard time with the world stage, how to not either not run away from it or like, bring just furious disgust and I’m not sure how to handle, like, what do you suggest with that?
KD: Well, what can come from furious disgust except more furious disgust? And what can come from running away? Just keep running? So, neither one is very useful. Now what?
Q: Go on twitter and practice, I guess?
KD: One time, somebody came to Maharajji, you know, Janaka in Indian stories, King Janaka was a raja, a king, also a rishi, a saint, a realized Being. So He was a Rajarishi they called Him. He was a king that was a fully realized being, but he was still a king. So somebody came to Maharajji once and said, “Baba the world is so screwed up.” This was 40 years ago. Can you imagine? “But what’s going to happen in, you know, I wish there was some king like Janaka who could…” Maharajji said, “There’s a king much greater than Janaka.” We don’t know, you know. The ones who know seem to know. All we see are the results of everybody’s negativity.
Q: All the suffering which is so hard to watch.
KD: Yeah. But you know the story in the Ramayana, right? You know the story of Ram. So, Ram was an incarnation of God who took form to destroy the negativity in the world. And the negativity in the world was represented by this one demon king named Ravana, so however, the whole story was essentially written by Brahma, the Creator. The whole, the story about the release of negativity, the destroying of the negativity in the world, this whole story, the drama was written out by Brahma, so Brahma was looking for somebody to play the role of the demon, so there was this great yogi who had just three lives left before he was fully enlightened. And Brahma came to him and said, “Hey man, we need somebody to play the bad guy, and if you agree to do it, Ram is going to shoot you in the heart with His arrow and you’ll be liberated and just, it’ll just be one birth.” He said, “Fantastic, I’ll do it.” So Ravana was actually a great yogi who agreed to play the part of the bad guy so that all that negativity can be destroyed in one shot, so to speak. So, we don’t know who anybody is. We don’t know what’s going on. We have, Western culture is a few hundred years old. Modern science is a couple hundred years old, maybe, at the most, and we think we know everything about everything. We don’t even know who we are. How are we going to know who anybody else is. So the best idea is to become the best human being that you can and everywhere you go and everything you do should be from the best place you can do it from. What else can you do? And the less you react, the less you allow the world, you know someone once asked the Dalai Lama, “Your Holiness, are you happy?” And He said, “Well, I guess you could say I had a really hard life. I had to take the reigns of my country at a very early age. And then I had to watch the Chinese invade and take my country and kill millions and millions of my people,Wed, 24 Jun 2020 - 35min - 30 - Ep. 27 | Spiritual Experiences, Auschwitz and Bernie Glassman
Call and Response Ep. 27 Spiritual Experiences, Auschwitz and Bernie Glassman
Recently I’ve been having a draw to learn or feel more of my tradition and the ancestors and who’s come before me, and what moved me that I saw online was when you were in the barracks in Auschwitz, (you) sat down and sang to the children. My parents survived the holocaust. Their people did not. And when you sang and I experienced that video, I felt you were singing to and for me. I don’t know if that’s what your intent was but if you want to speak to that, please do because I want to know your experience and by way of request, if you want to sing that for our children, please do, Krishna Das.
“I had a great friend named Bernie Glassman who’s a Zen Roshi, who had many deep enlightenment experiences and finally realized that the only thing keeping him and others out of that place was his own fear. So, he began to move towards the places where he had the most fear and where culturally in the world there was a lot of fear. So, one of those places was Auschwitz. And he began going to Auschwitz every year and bringing people to bear witness to the suffering. It wasn’t to just to go and suffer, but it was to bear witness and that’s a practice, to bear witness. And the idea was, in order to bear witness to something, one has to look at it and see it and in order to see it, one has to drop one’s ideas about it. And be with it. To see it clearly, one has to drop one’s stuff.” – Krishna Das
Go ahead.
Q: Jai Ma. Thank you Krishna Das, for being here. I’m just wondering, when you were the pujari of the Durga temple in India, did you have any experiences where you really felt the presence of the Mother.
KD: No.
Q: No?
KD: Of course not. What do you think I am?
Q: You have all of these amazing other experiences that you talk about. I’m sure there’s something.
KD: Like what?
Q: I don’t know. Anything.
KD: Experiences come and go. At my age, I forget them anyway. It doesn’t make any difference But they change you. That’s all. They do their work and then they go. You don’t have to hold onto them. In fact, holding on to them is just destroying them anyhow. Just making a big thing about nothing. If you have some experience that is in some way more opening for you, to try to cling to it and keep it is closing you down right away. Live. All these things pour into you like streams into the ocean. You don’t hold onto the stream. You’re the ocean. It’s not important. It’s not important at all. It’s ok. You can enjoy. But if you’re trying to cling to something, you won’t enjoy it for long because it’s gone already. So just be with it. The more fully you can be with everything, every minute, you know, but we think, we think something has to happen. Somebody’s going to push a button and change everything, you know?
I remember, I was sitting with Maharajji once and I’d taken, washed in the afternoon because I was working in the morning, singing in the morning, so I put on my clean clothes and I went to sit in front of Maharajji and I laughed. At one point, I just laughed because I saw in my mind, I recognized that I thought that enlightenment would be someplace where I wouldn’t be. Why? Because I hated myself. So, there’s no possibility of me being in Enlightenmentland. Right? Because I hated myself. And then I laughed because I saw there was never any place I wasn’t going to be. It was a big thing. It was a big experience. So, experiences come and go and they may help us open our hearts more, but to cling to the experience itself or try to get it back or try to manufacture other experiences means you’re not here in the first place.
Maharajji and all great saints are Love. They don’t love you. They’re not busy loving. They are Love. And so are you.
If you’re busy loving then you’re not Love. You’re doing something. Once I was very much in love with somebody, right?Mon, 15 Jun 2020 - 31min - 29 - Ep. 26 | Resolving Trauma
For my own karma, I would like to resolve those things that I’ve felt that I could have done better. Situations I could have handled better and I just wondered what your thoughts were on that, like, if you’ve hurt people in your past that you want to redress the situation but, I just wondered what your thoughts are, because sometimes people don’t want to be, a situation, you might be in a different frame of mind but they might not be, I’m just speaking very generally, but I just mean with respect to your own karmic situation.
“Well, you know, there’s the inner and the outer. In the outer world, not everybody we’ve hurt wants to forgive us. That’s their problem. Our work is to release all that energy that’s blocked up in those intense emotions and I don’t think we need to try to forgive other people right off the bat. I think we need to first kind of calm ourselves down” – Krishna Das
Q: Thank you. I’m really enjoying being here. My first time experiencing something like this.
KD: Me, too.
Q: I wanted to ask you about karma because you were saying about, when you get a negative thought, you have different options, the way, you know, you can let it go, or get more angry, or just fall into it, so I know for myself and my past, I’ve made some, you know, I’ve been the rollercoaster where I haven’t been really thinking about my emotions and I’ve been reacting rather than going forward and there’s probably a whole lot of people that have been affected along the way.
KD: Everybody.
Q: Yeah. So, for my own karma, I would like to resolve those things that I’ve felt that I could have done better. Situations I could have handled better and I just wondered what your thoughts were on that, like, if you’ve hurt people in your past that you want to redress the situation but, I just wondered what your thoughts are, because sometimes people don’t want to be, a situation, you might be in a different frame of mind but they might not be, I’m just speaking very generally, but I just mean with respect to your own karmic situation.
KD: Yeah. Well, you know, there’s the inner and the outer. In the outer world, not everybody we’ve hurt wants to forgive us. That’s their problem. Our work is to release all that energy that’s blocked up in those intense emotions and I don’t think we need to try to forgive other people right off the bat. I think we need to first kind of calm ourselves down and learn how to kind of get back into our bodies a little bit, because with trauma we’re really blasted into outer space and it’s physical, too, I mean the adrenal glands go on alert and they’re pumping adrenaline into the body and they don’t stop. There’s not an easy way to change that physical response and then around the adrenalized self, a whole, other storylines are built up, but they’re all built up based on that wall of adrenaline so you’re already outside of yourself and building more outside of your Self, our Selves. You know? Just sit down, relax. You’re never going to figure anything out, so it’s ok. Relax. Take it easy. Let yourself Be Here. Because you’re nowhere else, might as well be here. Watch your breath come in and out. That’s going to be there no matter what you’re experiencing. And just be with that. Let it come, let it go. And then you notice it. Ok. You see, it’s not easy. But it’s the beginning of pulling that energy out of the trauma responses, out of those programs and letting it be. Sit inside yourself. And then, you reach a certain point, you may need, you want some help, you need some counseling, somebody to talk to, because talking really helps open up some of those places where we’ve been wounded and hiding from that wound ourselves. So that can be very useful. Or not. It’s completely an individualized, you know, experience. But on the other hand, people can talk all day and never let go. Yeah.
My father was a therapist. That’s how he made his money.Wed, 29 Apr 2020 - 26min - 28 - Ep. 25 | Planting Seeds and The Hanuman Chalisa
KD discusses the importance of practice, particularly the practices of Mantra repetition and the Hanuman Chalisa, and recalls how Maharajji’s Western devotees initially began chanting the Chalisa.
“So, Maharajji said a couple of things. He said, “Hanuman Chalisa, every line of Hanuman Chalisa is Mahamantra.” Second, He said, “Hanuman Chalisa has the power to change fate.” Now, don’t, I have no idea what He’s talking about. But that’s what He said. And it feels to me, you know, we don’t know what’s going to happen, what’s coming to us tomorrow and the next minute and the next second, but not everything is pleasant. There’s sickness, there’s disease, there’s suffering, all kinds of things, so through this practice, those rocks, those boulders in the river of our lives are removed.” – Krishna Das
KD: You know, I don’t know if you know the story about how we came to know the Chalisa. I think I’ve told it a few times, a few million times. We used to come to the temple every day and we were handed this little pamphlet, a little booklet, with a picture of a flying monkey on it, you know? We knew it was a Hanuman temple. We knew that much, so after I had about 100 of these books in my room, these booklets, I just happened to ask the guy giving it out, I said, “Well, what is this thing?” You know? And he said, “It’s a prayer to Hanuman.” And I said, “Oh, really?” So, I thought, if we learn this, then we could sing it to Maharajji because, you know…
The whole, I keep saying this but it’s really, we’ve grown up with one tiny little type of love understanding. You know? That it’s between two people or two things, that it’s a, as my Indian father used to say, “Relationships are business. You do your business. Enjoy. But, love,” he said, “that’s something else that lasts 24 hours a day.” The idea is that real love is who we are. It’s what’s breathing in and out of our bodies. It’s what’s looking out of our eyes. It’s who we are. You don’t get it from somebody else. You don’t get it from anything. You don’t even get it from God. It’s God within us, is the love, is our own true nature. This is a big thing because we can hear this a million times and it just stays in the head, but it doesn’t get into the gut, you know? And even, we talk about compassion and kindness and loving kindness, you know, one of my teachers, Tsoknyi Rinpoche invited me to come sing at one of His retreats where he was going to teach about devotion for the first time. Usually devotion is a part, an integral part of the Tibetan path, but it’s not spoken of separately usually, it’s understood that without devotion, nothing happens. Not like gooey yucky slurpy slimy miserable devotion, but real natural aspiration of the heart to be living in love. And so, one of the things he told his own students, he said, you know, “You think you can have compassion for another person or all beings and hate yourself? How could that possibly happen?” It’s not possible. So, for us Westerners who are so locked inside of our little cell, a little jail cell of egoistic cravings and desires and fantasies and imaginings, for us it’s really the only way to get the key out of that jail cell, is to be kind to ourselves. Try to figure out how to be kind to ourselves. So, think for a second about how your day goes, ok? Where is your head? What are you thinking about? How are you feeling as you go through your day? You wake up, you know? Stagger to the kitchen for a cup of coffee or tea, chamomile tea… but think about how you go through the day. How much of the time you go through your day are you living in love? How much of the day everybody you see is like, full of beauty and grace and their just to bless you by their presence? Huh? How many? One? Your dog?
Joseph Goldstein, one of our good friends and great meditation teachers, was giving a private interview to one of his students, and his student was really struggling with depression and anger and all kinds of stuff tha...Tue, 14 Apr 2020 - 26min - 27 - Ep. 24 | Paying Attention and the Guru
“We don’t know who we are. We don’t know what we really are. We don’t know what’s looking out of our eyes. We don’t know what’s experiencing the things we experience. We just experience, we wake up, drink some beer, go back to sleep and drink some more beer. That’s all we do. So, if we don’t know our Self, how are we going to know guru? How are we going to know God? Well, when your karma is ripe, to a certain point, I guess, the Self recognizes itself in someone that looks like they’re outside of you. Another human. Another Being. Another body. You recognize something in that Being and it’s something that comes from within. A recognition from within that is like coming home, you know?” – Krishna Das
So, what we’ve been doing is called the repetition of the Divine Name. So, The deal is this: we are imprisoned within our thoughts and our emotions so we are imprisoned within our thoughts because we think we’re thinking. Don’t we? And you can’t think yourself out of a prison that’s made of thought. Every thought is the prison. Every thought locks us into identification with our stuff. So through this practice of the repetition of the Name, all we do is we sing and when we notice that we haven’t been paying attention, we sing. That’s the whole thing. Nothing else is required. No visualization, no imagination, no anything, doing anything, trying to make anything happen. You just simply come back. Now, that’s an interesting thing. So there you are, sri ram jai ram jai jai ram and then 20 minutes later, you realize, “oh, I haven’t been paying attention.” How did that moment happen? The moment when you realized you weren’t paying attention? Right? You didn’t do that. We didn’t do that. It happened. We didn’t do that with our personal will. In other words, we didn’t say, “Ok, now I have to pay attention.” We were lost in thought and then we noticed we were lost in thought. How did we notice? Because we didn’t do that. It happened. So how did that happen? Well, that is the fruit, that moment of recognition or waking up from dreamland, is a result of the practice we’ve done in the past, our previous karmas. Or it would never happen. So, that’s what we’re doing. Every time, when that happens, and we notice that we haven’t been paying attention, we simply come back to the sound of the Name going on again and again. Because even while you were singing, the chances are you weren’t paying attention. But since you were singing, there was still a part of you that was doing it. And then you noticed, oh, wow, I’ve been thinking about that girl sitting next to me. Then you come back to the Name. That’s all. Any thought about that situation, you just let it go again and keep coming back and eventually, little by little, we get used to that feeling of coming back home. Coming back. And that mechanism, so to speak, keeps working during the day, the non-practice times. We’re cultivating awareness, presence and these Names that we chant are, they’re the Names of that place, so to speak, within us, that’s always here. The Awake Place. Presence, Being.
When I was with Maharajji, my Guru, He just kept bringing us back. Bringing us back, reminding us, waking us up again and again. And the, being in the presence of this kind of Love, it’s not like He loved us or loves us because He understands, He’s realized the oneness of the universe and we’re all part of that. That might be true. But on a personal level, He loves us because we are who we are. Because we are already who we are. That’s what He loves. He loves us just as we are. I had never met anybody that loved me that way. The people who cared about me, no question about it, but if I looked closely, I could see that they wanted something in return. They wanted some affection in return, some attention, some support. That’s ok, but this was different. So different. And it really ignited a place in me that wanted to live in that love all the time.Thu, 12 Mar 2020 - 23min - 26 - Ep. 23 |Thoughts and Karma
Given that we often refer to our minds as a wild monkey, that thoughts come up that we have no control over, it seems that, to be held responsible for thoughts that come up, that are not coming up because we intend them to come up, if there’s no intention, are we really responsible for the karmic consequences of our thoughts?
“You don’t have to believe blindly in karma… you’re not required to believe anything. Blind faith is not useful in any way whatsoever. But when you look at certain situations, when you look at your own behaviors, you can kind of see where certain things are coming from, you know? You can see where you were born, you can see how you grew up, you can see how your parents treated each other. You can see how they treated you, you can see how they treated themselves, and you can feel, kind of the effects on that, of that, in who you feel you are, and out of who you feel you are, that’s how you will meet every moment that arises, whether it’s a mental moment of thoughts arising or it’s a moment in the physical world of stuff happening. How you greet each moment, every moment, every second of your life is not only an effect of certain causes, but also, becomes the cause of certain effects at the same time.”
– Krishna Das
Q: I want to comment on your remark that our thoughts also instigate karmic responses. Just two quick thoughts, one…
KD: Be careful what you’re instigating.
Q: Given that we often refer to our minds as a wild monkey, that thoughts come up that we have no control over, it seems that, to be held responsible for thoughts that come up, that are not coming up because we intend them to come up, if there’s no intention, are we really responsible for the karmic consequences of our thoughts? A., and B., I tended to think that our thoughts were the result of our karma.
I’ll leave it at that.
KD: Lot of thinking. Well, it’s interesting how you say, “How can we be held responsible?” Who else is having the thought? That person is having a whole different thought. So, the thought you say you’re having, must be individual for you. It must be a part of you somehow.
Q: I accept that but… I’m not intending it. In other words, sometimes a thought will come up
KD: Sometimes? Every thought you have comes from somewhere else. You have no idea… you don’t think them.
Q: And I’ll say, “Stop thinking… that’s a terrible thought.’ You know? And I recognize that it’s some
KD: Negativity…
Q: Yeah.
KD: You have options at that point. You can let it go completely, which is very difficult. You can notice it and work with it, try to release it, release that energy that’s clinging to that negative feeling or you can go out and shoot somebody. All three levels, if not more levels, have karmic consequences. But the thought itself doesn’t come from nowhere. Where does it? Does it come from nowhere? If it came from nowhere, everybody’s thoughts would be more or less the same. They’d come from the same nowhere. Our… each individual stuff is a result of waves we’ve created in the ocean, many… who knows when. And they’re individual for us to some degree. We share also many of the same karmas of being born, the same culture, of speaking the same language or different languages, of being born in, at a time when people view themselves a certain way, you know? Individuals. It might not have been that way a few thousand years ago in another culture. So, somebody born in that culture, wouldn’t, would be, being born in a different culture is a result of different karmic situations in the past. Because, you’ve got to understand, I mean, you don’t have to believe blindly in karma but, you’re not required to believe anything. Blind faith is not useful in any way whatsoever. But when you look at certain situations, when you look at your own behaviors, you can kind of see where certain things are coming from, you know? You can see where you were born,Fri, 06 Mar 2020 - 17min - 25 - Ep. 22 | Meditation and Moping
Call and Response Ep. 22 Meditation and Moping
I don’t like the outside silence leading me to the stuff in my head. But when I feel it with the chanting, I feel like, movement, and I process things. So I’m wondering, is there a difference for you between what we call meditation and now I think mindfulness and I’m wondering if you think there’s a difference between like, mindfulness, meditation, mantra chanting, like all the words?
“I sit down and I start singing and once I start singing, it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except the singing and that, I don’t even know what to call it, that reflex, almost of paying attention, as soon as I’m gone, I wake up, I remember and I come back to the Name. Again and again and again. I don’t analyze what I was thinking. I don’t analyze how I’m feeling, you know? I just let it go and come back. It’s not important. I am not important.
The reason I mope around less is because I and how I feel and all my emotions and “how am I now? How am I now? How am I now? Is it good? Is this good? I think this is better if I do it this way. A little Vaseline over here will make it easier…” becomes unimportant. It’s just not about that. So, be unhappy. It’s ok. Enjoy. “ – Krishna Das
Q: Going back to the moping, I realized I’ve become so good at moping that it has turned into
KD: Your spiritual practice.
Q: Yes.
KD: Excellent.
Q: Thank you for saying that.
KD: You’re welcome.
Q: And thank you for mentioning it, too, because literally, right before you said that, I was wondering “Well, what’s his deal and where does he struggle.” Because if we’re all human, and in relation to that, the advice, suggestions, whatever I always get, is meditation and going back to what you said about the thoughts, like, I do feel like the moping leads to, I create really good thought prisons. And I’m starting to pull out of it and I realize just even being here for a little bit that this has done a lot and that I don’t feel the same weight or I don’t, I might be impatient, but I don’t feel the same way during meditation, which I know means a lot of different things and I’ve been saying that chanting and kirtan is my meditation because when I hear what people talk about what meditation’s supposed to bring, I get that from this and I honestly, I hate meditation. Like, absolutely hate it. So I’m curious as to what, the thing is, I don’t like the silence. I don’t like being completely…
KD: Don’t worry. It’s never silent in your head.
Q: That’s what I’m saying. I guess let me rephrase that. I don’t like the outside silence leading me to the stuff in my head. But when I feel it with the chanting, I feel like, movement, and I process things. So I’m wondering, is there a difference for you between what we call meditation and now I think mindfulness and I’m wondering if you think there’s a difference between like, mindfulness, meditation, mantra chanting, like all the words… I hope that’s a question.
Thank you.
KD: Sure. Well, the best meditation is the one you do. Meditation is a very big subject. There’s a lot of different techniques of meditation. My guru said, “From going on repeating these names, everything is accomplished. Everything is brought to fulness and completion.” That’s what He said. You know, there’s ashtanga yoga, the eight limbed yoga, you know? All that shit. But Maharajji used to say that the westerners were qualified only for the five limbed yoga, which means, “Gossiping, drinking tea, eating, wandering around and talking.” Gossiping, wandering around, eating, drinking and sleeping. That’s what we were qualified for. I believe Him. That’s why I chant. That’s what I’m qualified for. I don’t know what… you know, I’ve done a lot of different practices with a lot of different teachers and wonderful Beings, but the thing that works for me, the thing that I feel I have to do and want to do is the chanting.Thu, 27 Feb 2020 - 20min - 24 - Creativity, Spirituality & Making a Buck
SPECIAL EDITION – Call and Response Podcast – Creativity, Spirituality & Making a Buck
David Nichtern is a senior teacher in the lineage of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. This tradition combines a contemporary, secular approach to meditation with the ancient practices and philosophies of Tibetan Buddhism. David has created and taught meditation teacher trainer programs worldwide. He has also been a business consultant with companies creating a variety of offerings integrating meditation in a larger health and well-being context. As many of you already know, David is also a well known composer, producer and guitarist – a four-time Emmy winner and a two-time Grammy nominee, and often tours and plays with Krishna Das. In this podcast, the two chat about spirituality and making a living on the heels of the launch of David’s new book : Creativity, Spirituality & Making a Buck
If you would like, there is a video version of this podcast to watch.
CLICK HERE
Video recording of KD and David’s discussion.
Transcription:
DAVID NICHTERN: So, the premise of this workshop and, tonight, which is based on the new book is looking at the strands of creative expression, spiritual practice and alignment, inner well-being, and our activity, livelihood. Those three strands. So, why did I write about that? Because I’ve been really, in a way, juggling those three elements in my life for 45 years. I met my teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche, when I was at Berklee College of Music, studying yoga at the same time and it takes time to do spiritual practice. Some people go quite deeply into it. It takes time to have a music career and then we always have, you know, that sort of ongoing relationship to livelihood, what we call in Buddhism, “right livelihood” which we can talk about a little bit more. So I’ve found, in working on that puzzle myself, I would talk to a lot of people, you know, I’m mentoring a lot of students and there’s always, it lights up people’s interest because I know a lot of people, you know, for example, who are trying to start a yoga studio or you know, kind of a kirtan band, for that matter or a fitness, mindful fitness studio; and they often will be at a loss as to how to manage the business aspect of that and what ends up happening is, it runs aground at a certain point. So, lack of relationship to that kind of practical aspect, which we call “earth”. They have a lot of heaven and a lot of vision but not much connection to earth. And then on the other hand, you go to the other part of the world that I occupy and people are very competent and sort of together, like the people you met today, but they may not have much direct connection with creative expression in their lives and also, you know, the idea of meditating or something like that is seen as kind of a waste of time, like why would you do that? Like, I’ve got to address 450 lawyers next week and the people are telling me, “You’d better do it quick. You’d better get to the point really quick. They’re going to want to know why they’re spending even five minutes doing something like this.” So, I see, just from where I sit, these two worlds, it’s like two gigantic ocean liners coming together and they’re about to crash into each other,Wed, 15 Jan 2020 - 1h 08min - 23 - Ep. 21 | Longing, Ripening and Dada Vaswani
{Photo by Krishna Das, Auckland Harbor July 2018}
Ep. 21 Longing, Ripening and Dada Vaswani
The other people who met Maharajji talk about is the experience of His unconditional love, as you said once, “His unbearable love,” and my guess is that for many people, certainly who’ve not had the experience of Baba in the body and who maybe don’t have… my guess is when you speak of that, many people wish to feel that, to feel unconditional love, maybe that’s why they keep coming, I don’t know. And so, after a lifetime of doing this and becoming a teacher, what can you say? You know, what can you say to people about having that experience, finding that experience?
“I would say that the more you long for it, the better it is. Period. You have to be where you are. You can’t be anybody else. You can’t be anywhere else. What you can do is look, be yourself 100% and the longing for that love is what brings towards it. Period. End of conversation. That’s it. Nothing else. That’s my only qualification for any of this, is longing. This insane amount of longing that destroyed my life. It destroyed everything I thought I was going to be in life and replaced it with all this nonsense. It was that longing which I brought into this life and when I speak about this love and my Guru and you feel “I want a guru, I want a guru,” that’s a good longing to have because that longing will not leave you until you find what it is you’re longing for. There’s no easy way to get through this. It sucks. Period. I can’t make it all right for anybody but I can tell you that the more longing you have, the better it is. “ – Krishna Das
Q: Hi. Ram Ram.
KD: Ram Ram.
Q: I’m Annapurna.
KD: Annapurna. Annapurna.
Q: The gentleman who asked about finding, looking for a guru, finding a guru, one of the more compelling things that you and the other MTM’s talk about…
KD: Use words, ok?
Q: the other people who met Maharajji talk about is the experience of His unconditional love as you said once, His unbearable love… and my guess is that for many people, certainly who’ve not had the experience of Baba in the body and who maybe don’t have… my guess is when you speak of that, many people wish to feel that, to feel unconditional love, maybe that’s why they keep coming, I don’t know. And so after a lifetime of doing this and becoming a teacher, what can you say…
KD: I’m not a teacher, thank you.
Q: You know, what can you say to people about having that experience, finding that experience…
KD: I would say that the more you long for it, the better it is. Period. You have to be where you are. You can’t be anybody else. You can’t be anywhere else. What you can do is look, be yourself 100% and the longing for that love is what brings towards it. Period. End of conversation. That’s it. Nothing else. That’s my only qualification for any of this, is longing. This insane amount of longing that destroyed my life. It destroyed everything I thought I was going to be in life and replaced it with all this nonsense. It was that longing which I brought into this life and when I speak about this love and my Guru and you feel “I want a guru, I want a guru,” that’s a good longing to have because that longing will not leave you until you find what it is you’re longing for. There’s no easy way to get through this. It sucks. Period.
I can’t make it all right for anybody but I can tell you that the more longing you have, the better it is. So what, I shouldn’t talk about Maharajji because it makes people unhappy? That unhappiness is a good thing. And that’s what happened when I met Ram Das. This longing was the longing I already had for something that I didn’t even know what it was, it got crystallized in a way. It got concentrated. It got super infused and then nothing kept me away from that. And it just worked out the way it worked out. You know, many of you probably know the story but, so,Tue, 24 Sep 2019 - 21min - 22 - Graveyard Talks With Sacinandana Swami
SPECIAL EDITION – Call and Response Podcast – Graveyard Talks With Sacinandana Swami
Sacinandana Swami was born in Germany to an affluent family and, for 42 years, has been a practicing monk in the bhakti tradition. Over the years, he has significantly contributed to the way modern practitioners of bhakti engage in contemplation and meditation. He is a well regarded teacher of spiritual music and spends time teaching and leading retreats throughout Europe and Asia. His love and passion for the life he has lived has been motivated by his desire to help other people grow just as he felt he grew and learned more about his own unique purpose in life, dharma.
“It’s only through the opening of the intuitive understanding that one can make space for this kind of non-judgmental unconditional understanding, you know? It’s just like the sun. It shines on everything all the time. Everything. It doesn’t measure, evaluate, judge and see who’s worthy of sunlight. It’s just, it’s its nature and it’s the nature of these great beings. It’s the nature of God, of the Lord, of the Divine to be that Love.” – Krishna Das
KD: So, I’m here with my good friend, Sacinandana Swami: in Germany. I’ve been on tour and we are continuing what we call our Graveyard Talks. So, how many years ago was it, in Munich? We went for a walk.
SACINANDANA SWAMI: I think it was about ten years at least and we were talking, we were so much into the discussions that I noted at one stage, “Your program is already starting. It has started.” And then you said to me, “Don’t worry, let’s finish this. The program cannot start without me.”
KD: Yeah, yeah. We were looking… we looked for a place to sit down and we found this beautiful little quiet graveyard with a nice bench and we sat there and spoke and here we are today in another graveyard in Germany outside of Berlin.
SACINANDANA SWAMI: Something that comes to my mind is that time moves in cycles. We were then on a graveyard. We are now in a graveyard, and maybe one of us will be on a graveyard again somewhere.
KD: Fairly soon, you know. In a different way, yeah.
SACINANDANA SWAMI: In a different way. And it’s the question for me is, “What do we consider of the best use of our time in this human life that is really worthwhile to invest and might even outlive the graveyard on which we are eventually, where we are landing?”
KD: You know, I always talk with people about the importance of spiritual practice, but I’ve come to believe that the reason we do spiritual practice is to become good human beings, be people that are kind and compassionate and aware of other people’s suffering and pain and just naturally want to do what they can to help that situation. It takes tremendous strength to break the habit of only thinking about one’s self all the time, and thinking that, and even unconsciously believing that, that what “I think” and what “I feel” is the most important thing in the universe, and not seeing other people. It takes a tremendous amount of work on one’s self to, to even become aware that other people, they’re in their own worlds as well, and if we can’t help ourselves, how can we help anybody else?
SACINANDANA SWAMI: Yeah yeah. And the funny thing is that sometimes who are even trying to escape and help themselves by taking to a spiritual path still remain self-centered.
KD: Yeah.
SACINANDANA SWAMI: We have some dramatic sounds in the back.
KD: Yeah. Thunder. It’s amazing.
SACINANDANA SWAMI: We get to some good subjects and nature gets her drumsticks out and does a thunder roll. Yes, I remember last year I was walking around a sacred mountain, the Govardhan Mountain in Vrindavan and I passed two people, pilgrims who were discussing in Bengali the three essential teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a Saintly personality, and they said, “Yes, Chaitanya bolo, ‘One should attain taste in the Divine Name,Mon, 26 Aug 2019 - 33min - 21 - Ep. 20 | Compassion for Abusers
Ep. 20 ~ Compassion for Abusers
I know the basis of all this is we’re One, we’re Love, we’re Compassion, we enfold. And then I go home and I’m on the periphery of a group that deals with abused animals. And I really have a hard time putting together “We are One, We are Compassion” with how do I go about treating the abusers. Now I know what I want to do, but that would put me in jail. I’m stuck in this place that says, “you shouldn’t do that” and I know that that’s, I know I’m right, and I know that’s my ego and all of what I’m studying or learning or becoming is to get rid of the ego, to let the ego go.
“Ramana Maharshi said, “If you ask the thief to be the policeman, there will be a lot of investigation, but no arrest will ever be made.” So, you’re asking the thief to make everybody else obey the rules whereas you’re already a thief and you’re not obeying the rules yourself. These things you’re talking about, they’re not things to be used to either beat yourself up with or beat other people up with. Nor is it something that you’re supposed to think about. These are things that you realize through practice. In the meantime, you try to get through life doing as little damage as possible to yourself and the people around you.” – Krishna Das
Q: I’ve been meaning to ask you this question but I’ve never gotten up the nerve to.
KD: Next question.
Q: Ok, I go to Bhakti Fest, I come here, I have a Guru, I know the basis of all this is we’re One, we’re Love, we’re Compassion, we enfold. And then I go home and I’m on the periphery of a group that deals with abused animals. And I really have a hard time putting together “We are One, We are Compassion” with how do I go about treating the abusers. Now I know what I want to do, but that would put me in jail. I’m stuck in this place that says, “you shouldn’t do that” and I know that that’s, I know I’m right, and I know that’s my ego and all of what I’m studying or learning or becoming is to get rid of the ego, to let the ego go.
KD: Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
Q: I’m in a lot of conflict.
KD: Who’s going to get rid of the ego? The ego’s not gonna.
Q: So how do I incorporate these abusers?
KD: Ramana Maharshi said, “If you ask the thief to be the policeman, there will be a lot of investigation, but no arrest will ever be made.” So, you’re asking the thief to make everybody else obey the rules whereas you’re already a thief and you’re not obeying the rules yourself. These things you’re talking about, they’re not things to be used to either beat yourself up with or beat other people up with. Nor is it something that you’re supposed to think about. These are things that you realize through practice. In the meantime, you try to get through life doing as little damage as possible to yourself and the people around you. Period. If you’re treating abused animals and abusing people, what are you doing? First of all, every one of your own actions creates a karma in the first place. That’s where you should be focused the most. What is your motivation for your own actions? If it’s anger, what are you going to create with anger? More hatred. More anger. More suffering. So, as that guy said, “Take the splinter out of your own eye first.” Wow. Oh, it’s Shivaratri, of course. We have to talk about Jesus. Take the splinter out of your own eye first, and then things will look different, and then you can operate on everybody else. So, it’s good that you see what you’re caught in, but you’re trying to figure it out, you’re trying to pick yourself up like this. But you can’t, there’s no leverage. You have to quiet your mind, calm yourself down and take responsibility for your actions. Thinking and knowing that thoughts are actions as well. They don’t make as big a ripple in the karmic field as physical action, but it’s also a definite karma. This is a question that everybody’s asking me now. “What I do with that guy in the White House?Tue, 11 Jun 2019 - 10min - 20 - Ep. 19 | Spiritual Love and Worldly Love
Ep. 19 ~ Spiritual Love and Worldly Love
I wanted to ask if you could talk a bit about your relationship with Maharajji and maybe the difference between love as we know it in the sense of a romantic relationship or relationships, and the love you felt when you were with Maharajji.
“He (Maharajji”, being completely free of subjectivity, would mirror what we needed to see for us, what we wanted to see but inside of that subjective take on Him, He would manifest real love.”- Krishna Das
Q: I wanted to ask if you could talk a bit about your relationship with Maharajji and maybe the difference between love as we know it in the sense of a romantic relationship or relationships, and the love you felt when you were with Maharajji.
KD: Thanks for thinking that I know the difference. You know, ok, each of us lives in our own world, each one of us, our own individual worlds. It’s a completely subjective reality. I look out at you and I see you and whatever I see kind of pushes buttons in my head and so I think I know, ok, that’s what that person’s like. That person’s grumpy. That person hates me. This one loves me. You know, this is what we do all day long. 24-7 for our whole lives. And it was no different with Maharajji on our side. We were seeing our projection of Guru. Our version of Guru and He, being the indwelling presence in each, in the Heart of everyone, every being in the universe, that’s what a real Guru is, that’s what God is, that’s what True Self is. Guru, God, and Self are not different. Capital “S” Self. And He being completely free of subjectivity, would mirror what we needed to see for us, what we wanted to see but inside of that subjective take on Him, He would manifest real love. Whereas you know, our lives, that kind of love doesn’t usually come up too much and if it does arise, it doesn’t stay very long because we want something and we need something and so we try to get that love, find that love on the outside as if there is an outside. That’s the funny thing. We assume there is because we have car accidents with cars that are on the outside, we have relationships with people we feel are on the outside, we go through our whole lives as if we’re on the inside and everything else is on the outside. It may not be like that. And Guru is, you can’t even say what a Guru is but I was going to say, the Guru knows that, whether He knows He knows, or He doesn’t know He knows, it doesn’t matter. But the Guru is that indwelling awareness in each Being, Presence, Awareness, Reality, Love. That’s real love. And so being with a Being like that lets you kind of enter that room where the real love lives and that’s within you, within us, it’s not outside. But, because we think it’s outside, we get attached to the different forms of people and I got very attached to Maharajji’s body and I suffered terribly when it disappeared. That was my problem. Not His. He wasn’t attached to my body, in fact, He wasn’t attached to anybody. Not even His own body. So, because He saw that that’s not reality, you know? We, in this room, we all sit here and each one of us probably, if not, don’t raise your hand, don’t let anybody know, but most of us sit here and we think that, you know, I’m Me and you’re You. Right? And based on that we go through our lives. We like some people. We don’t like other people. We want this. We don’t want that. We go through, based on who we think we are. Underneath who we think we are, always here always present, is real love. That’s Guru. That’s God. And to be with somebody who can allow you to feel that, who can open you up to feeling that, is a great blessing.
And you know, there’s a great book called “Love Everyone.” I don’t know if you know about it. It’s a pretty new book about Maharajji and it was compiled from the diaries of many of the old devotees, all western devotees, who were there. And this woman, Parvati, put it together and when you read it,Tue, 14 May 2019 - 25min - 19 - Ep. 18 | How To Develop Faith
Ep. 18 ~ How To Develop Faith
Tell me a little bit about how your faith… and trust in the universe that happened over time… how did it develop for you? How do you develop faith?
“The mind can’t conceive of what’s not a thought. Emotions can’t feel anything that’s not a feeling, an emotional feeling. The body and the senses can’t receive anything that’s not a sense input. Faith and grace, they have nothing to do with the body and the mind or the emotions. It’s a blessing that comes to us due to a combination of our good karmas, the work that we’ve already done in our life and in our lives before if you believe in that, and the kindness of the Saints who have realized what this is all about and we’ve all, if we’re interested in this nonsense at all, it’s because we have a connection with some lineage at some time with our own past already. It’s not an accident.”- Krishna Das
Q: Hey KD, how do you…. You tell me a little bit about about faith, how you… because I know about your, I’ve seen your movies and stuff and you followed Ram Das and then went to India but, and certainly the miracles, but tell me a little bit about how your faith, you know, and trust in the universe that happened over time… how did it develop for you? How do you develop faith?
KD: Next question. You know, there’s a very interesting line in the Bible, what’s his name? That Saint, Paul, he said, “By Grace was I saved through faith.” You don’t, the mind can’t conceive of what’s not a thought. Emotions can’t feel anything that’s not a feeling, an emotional feeling. The body and the senses can’t receive anything that’s not a sense input. Faith and grace, they have nothing to do with the body and the mind or the emotions. It’s a blessing that comes to us due to a combination of our good karmas, the work that we’ve already done in our life and in our lives before, if you believe in that, and the kindness of the Saints who have realized what this is all about and we’ve all, if we’re interested in this nonsense at all, it’s because we have a connection with some lineage at some time with our own past already. It’s not an accident. There’s no accidents. We’re here because we’ve been connected to something and in this life we’re trying to reconnect again. It’s a longing we feel to do that. Where does that longing come from? You didn’t get it from watching TV as a kid. Otherwise I’d have a hell of a lot more. What do I mean,”kid”? I would have a hell of a lot more right now. So those are blessings. It’s all blessing. Blessings. You know, it’s the nature of a true saint, they have no reason to be here except for the fact that we don’t know who we are, so because of our suffering and our pain these Beings who have gone beyond any kind of personal self-interest remain around for our sake. It’s called compassion. And so through the compassion of the Saints, which is a quality of God itself, compassion, kindness, caring, through that presence of those Beings who are once again, no different that who we already are in our deepest Being, not who we think we are, that’s a whole other story, or a million other stories, but who we really are, it’s through those blessings and that grace and our own longing which comes, which is the fruit of our own work on ourself in the past, so those two meet and then faith happens, Now what does faith mean? Faith means that you believe something that you just absolutely can’t fucking prove. There’s no way you can prove it. Why do you believe it? Why do you think there’s anything more to find in life? Stupid. Or, smart. A lot of people would say you’re stupid, but I think it’s the opposite, so it’s that longing inside of us that’s pulling us inside to where it all is and we follow that because there’s a part of us that understands, in may not be this part of us, but it’s a part of us that understands that’s the way to go. And so we go as fast as we can, which is as fast as we can. It’s not a race.Tue, 14 May 2019 - 6min - 18 - Ep. 17 | Grace in The West
Ep. 17 ~ Grace in The West
How do we, in the West live the way you speak of? The way we all want to in our hearts? We need money in this culture… We can’t walk around, as you said, with a wraparound, shoeless and in the East you can. So…. it’s so difficult, how do we compromise in the West? Or, how do we recover peace in the West when we strive for the Eastern culture?
“Once, I was having a dream, I had this dream where I was being reincarnated, I was coming back to a body and I was heading right for India, right for India, and at the last minute I made a left turn and wound up in New York. But, I was impelled by my karmas. This was the place where I would be able to fulfill the things I needed to do. The hungers that I was, in another culture, I might not have been able to get what I needed to have in order to complete certain karmic desires. So, it’s not a mistake that we’re here. But it would be a mistake to try to do it like the Indians do it. We can’t, we’re not born that way. We have a different psychological shape. Very different. But we’re still, we’re no different from anybody on the planet anywhere, inside. So that’s all the same, it’s just the outer shell is different. We have to find a way to look at that and see what that is. Work with it.” – Krishna Das
Q: Hi. Being in the Western Culture, being brought up here, and the Eastern Culture, how do we, in the West live the way you speak of? The way we all want to in our hearts? We need money in this culture to pay bridge, go over the bridge, to get on a bus, so it’s, it is a lot of monetarily, a lot of monetary things that we have to provide for. We can’t walk around, as you said, with a wrap around, shoeless and in the East you can. So, how, it’s so difficult, how do we compromise in the West? Or, how do we recover peace in the West when we strive for the Eastern culture?
KD: Well, first of all, we’re doing it. This is it.
Q: Is this as good as it gets?
KD: I didn’t say that. I said, this is it. This is our attempt at doing that. We found our own forms, you know, people in India, believe it or not, they have to eat, too. They have to work in the fields. They have to find jobs, they have to support their families, you know, not everybody, and these days, sadhus don’t really get supported the way that they have been in the past. So, it’s very different, but it’s essentially the same. We’re human beings, we all pretty much want the same thing and we all have different karmic shape that we have to come to terms with this life. Once, I was having a dream, I had this dream where I was being reincarnated, I was coming back to a body and I was heading right for India, right for India, and at the last minute I made a left turn and wound up in New York. But, I was impelled by my karmas. This was the place where I would be able to fulfill the things I needed to do. The hungers that I was, in another culture, I might not have been able to get what I needed to have in order to complete certain karmic desires. So, it’s not a mistake that we’re here. But it would be a mistake to try to do it like the Indians do it. We can’t, we’re not born that way. We have a different psychological shape. Very different. But we’re still, we’re no different from anybody on the planet anywhere, inside. So that’s all the same, it’s just the outer shell is different. We have to find a way to look at that and see what that is. Work with it.
I once asked Siddhi Ma, “Ma should I meditate?” Because I was doing a lot of these meditation courses with Tibetans and learning all these practices and enjoying it quite a bit. I said, “Ma should I meditate?” She said, “In 40 years with Maharajji, not once did He ask me to meditate.” And then I said, “Well, should I meditate or should I sing?” And She said, “Well, what do you like to do?” It never occurred to me that what I liked to do might be good for me. That’s not what my mama told me.Tue, 14 May 2019 - 8min - 17 - Ep. 16 | Spiritual Practice and the State of the World
Ep. 16 Spiritual Practice and the State of the World
How do we live a spiritual life in today’s political climate?
“When Maharajji was around physically… something was going on, some upheaval, political problems, and one of His devotees came to Him and said, “Oh, if there was only a king like King Janaka”, who, in the history of India, was an enlightened King, you know? “If there was only someone like Janaka to fix up all this political stuff.” Maharajji said, “there’s a King greater than Janaka now who is taking care of all this.” There is somebody running the show. “And if it has to go this way now, let it go.” That doesn’t mean we don’t do everything we have to do in regard to this, but the most important thing is to remember that, when you take your last breath, whatever karmas you have, whatever programs are still running in there, are going to keep running into your next incarnation. So you do your best work right now…” – Krishna Das
Q: When Maharajji was around physically, one of His, something was going on, some upheaval, political problems and one of His devotees came to Him and said, “Oh, if there was only a king like King Janaka”, who, in the history of India, was an enlightened King, you know? “If there was only someone like Janaka to fix up all this political stuff.” Maharajji said, “there’s a King greater than Janaka now who is taking care of all this.” There is somebody running the show. “And if it has to go this way now, let it go.” That doesn’t mean we don’t do everything we have to do in regards to this, but the most important thing is to remember that, when you take your last breath, whatever karmas you have, whatever programs are still running in there, are going to keep running into your next incarnation. So you do your best work right now and difficult times, it shows us a lot, but it’s very difficult. You don’t have to solve the whole thing, but just be aware that there’s an inner and an outer and what you can have some say about, on one hand, is your inner and whatever you can control on the outer, you can do, too. But if you do it with anger, like I always hated John Lennon, “Give Peace A Chance.” He was just an angry motherfucker. He was an angry cranky drug addict motherfucker and he would sing, “Give Peace a Chance,”damn. You know he was arguing with you. I’m telling you, “Give Peace a chance, goddammit.” That’s what it sounded like to me and you know, there’s no peace in that. It was a nice, “give peace a chance and let me shoot up later, ok?” “And if I can’t get my stuff, I’m gonna kill you.” It’s not real. That whole gloss of culture is just completely bullshit, you know? People cover up their stuff and they act like this, but that’s not really helping anybody. He didn’t deal with his demons until much later. Let’s deal with our demons now. And luckily, we’re getting a lot of help with that. So, who knows what’s going to happen. Nobody knows what’s going to happen. It’s horrible. Most people I hang out with agree, it’s not very pleasant, but there a lot of people who are just as happy as pigs in shit. This is what they wanted. They finally got it. It’s kind of humbling, you know, to recognize that so much of America wanted this. Enough to make it happen. So, we’ll do what we can to try to get it back to, or get it forward to another way that we think is better for us and everybody. We’ll do that but at the same time, we can’t lose sight that every minute is right here. If we’re lost in blind reaction to this stuff, we’re just creating more suffering for ourselves and others. Period. You know? I sneak little peaks at things and I go, “Aw, shit.” So, I don’t bring politics into this stuff because I think, this is what I do, right? And everybody’s welcome. If I say, I’m for this one or that one, that’s just my own personal thing, but this is not personal. Everybody should feel welcome to come sing and that’s, I feel very strongly about that. I’m not,Mon, 13 May 2019 - 16min - 16 - Ep. 15 | Our State of Mind Is Everything
Ep. 15 ~ Our State of Mind Is Everything
How does one’s state of mind color one’s world view?
“I remember the first rainy season. Oh, everything was wet. The bed is wet. The hair was wet. The clothes were wet. You sat down, it was wet. You stood up, it was wet. You got on the bus, wet came down on you. There was no place it wasn’t wet. For three months, I was like…
And then, I remember like the second year, wet. By the third year, wet. Nothing. It didn’t, I hardly noticed. It was strange. I go to India now, it’s so hot. I lived there in those days. There was no air conditioning. There was nothing. It was 120 degrees and I don’t remember being hot. Now, it’s like oof. So, it’s, state of mind is everything. Everything. Everything.”
– Krishna Das
We used to sit in front of Maharajji and nothing would happen. You know, we saw people who went to these Gurus down south who could bounce around the room and squawk like chickens and stuff like that. But nothing would ever happen. I kept wanting something to happen. And even though nothing was happening, there was still no place in the whole world I wanted to be other than sitting right there because it was home. And you know, we used to say to Him, you know, “How do we find God?” We figured He knew, He would tell us. He seemed to like us. At least, He let us hang around. “How do we find God?” He said, “Serve people.” You know, what? Serve people? Well, ok. How do you raise Kundalini? “Feed people.” What? Serve everyone. Feed everyone. And then He used to say, “From going on repeating these names,” these Names of God as they call them in India, “Everything is made full and complete. Everything is brought to completion. Everything is made full.”
He said it 100 times and it’s been about how many years? 43 years since He left the body. I still don’t believe it. And I heard Him say it. I mean, I figure, it possibly could be true. Maybe. Ok. I know that He’s telling the truth but I don’t know what He’s talking about. But little by little, the guy who can’t understand what He’s talking about is being worn away. Disappearing. Becoming more transparent. So all those thoughts about like, what the fuck does He mean? Are disappearing. They’re not arising. So when those thoughts don’t arise, you don’t feel a certain way, right? But what you do with thoughts, you can’t stop those thoughts. You can’t stop thoughts. Because all we do is think all day long. All we do. Think think think. Think about this, think about that. Think about me me me me me. So that’s what that means. By cultivating these, opening up these passageways, training the mind to remember to do something else other than think about yourself all the time, little by little, even when those thoughts arise, even when those stories arise, even when we notice that we’re really involved in something, they don’t get us the same way. They don’t grab us the same way. They don’t grab us for so long. And there’s no timeline on this. It’s not written out anyplace we can see it as when we’ll finally figure it out or wake up. You don’t ever figure it out. We’re asleep. One of these days, we’ll wake up. That’s it. But while we’re asleep, in our sleep, there are things we can do, like chanting, meditation, different types of practices. These are the things that slowly move us closer to the edge of the bed, then we fall off and wake up when we hit the ground. So, when we chant, just chant. When you notice that you’re not paying attention, just chant. Let it go. Come back to the chanting. It’s not rocket science. There’s nothing to figure out. Sing. When you notice you’re not singing, sing. That’s it. At least for today, these few hours, and time we’re chanting, that’s the deal. Nothing’s gonna happen. I guarantee you, when you leave here you’ll be the same person you were when you walked in. But maybe, you won’t care so much. At least for a few minutes. Because we’re kind of stepping out of the traffi...Mon, 13 May 2019 - 10min - 15 - Ep. 14 | KD Chats with Bob Thurman
Ep. 14 ~ KD Chats with Bob Thurman
Robert A.F. Thurman recently retired as Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in theDepartment of Religion atColumbia University,President of theTibet House U.S., a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization,Time magazine chose Professor Thurman as one of its 25 most influential Americans in 1997, describing him as a “larger than life scholar-activist destined to convey the Dharma, the precious teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha, from Asia to America.” The New York Times recently said Thurman “is considered the leading American expert onTibetan Buddhism.Inspired by his good friend the Dalai Lama, Thurman stands on Buddhism’s open reality, and thence takes us along with him into an expanded vision of the world, whether the sweep of history, the subtleties of the inner science of the psyche, or the wonders of the life of the heart.He always shares the sense of refuge in the Dharma, which unfailingly helps us clear away the shrouds of fear and confusion, sustains us with the cheerfulness of an enriched present, and opens a door to a path of realistic hope for a peaceful future.“There’s two ways of looking at the sublime continuum, which is to say the Buddha Nature.There’s one way where the Buddha says, ‘Buddha nature is something we teach to reassure people who are frightened when we say ‘selfless’ and they think there’s no soul.’ So BuddhaNature sort of substitutes for soul. But that’s a lower way of looking at it. A higher way of looking at Buddha Nature is, it is Reality Itself in the form of the fact that enlightened Beings,Beings who are truly enlightened, which doesn’t mean every kind of deity, but some of them, maybe, but enlightened Beings feel, they viscerally feel themselves to be everybody else. So, for example, any Buddha, and there are millions of them, but particularly the one who worries most about us at the moment is Shakyamuni, you know, Siddhartha’s last Shakyamuni, He is you, Krishna Das, and Me, from His perspective. He’s us. He actually enjoys being us. He does.”–Robert Thurman
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“Donations are like streams, flowing into the great river of compassion that carries us to the ocean of Love.” ~ KDWed, 08 May 2019 - 1h 04min - 14 - Ep.13 | Remembering Bernie Glassman
Ep.13 ~ Remembering Bernie Glassman
Roshi Bernie Glassman, an American Zen Master affectionately referred to as “Bernie,” was a vibrant character who had a significant influence on American dharma. Along with being a Zen master, was also an aeronautical engineer, a social entrepreneur, an interfaith activist, and a clown. Bernie left his body in late 2018. In this episode, KD shares his recollections on his great friend. At 11:42 KD sings “Hungry Hearts” chant. This chant was recently recorded for
Bernie’s memorial. If you would like to download this chant for your practice, its available in our digital library details are below. You can also find a video of KD and Bernie together on YouTube channel Krishna Das Music, and album recording of Sri Hanuman Chalisa / Gate of Sweet Nectar on the album Door of Faith.
“He was pulled to relieve the suffering, to confront the fear around those situations, to melt and vaporize the arrows of anger and shame and greed and fear that are release in all directions by our egoistic self-serving desires, self-protection, walls we put up, laws we make to limit people’s freedoms, everything that causes suffering was what Bernie wanted to relieve.“ ~ Krishna Das {photo: Peter Cunningham, 2001}
Transcription:
I’m here at the Sivananda ashram in the Bahamas where I first met Bernie Glassman on the eve of the millennium. I arrived here for the first and he had already been here for a few days. I knew about him. I had seen his picture and I’d heard about these Homeless Street Retreats that he took people on. And I looked at his picture and I was scared shitless. There was no way I was going to meet him or go on these retreats, but when I ran into him here at the ashram in the Bahamas, he came up to me, and he said, “You’re Krishna Das?” And I said, “Yeah.” He said, “I’ve been listening to you every day since my wife died.” And I said, “What?” And he said, “I’ve been listening. I put the headphones on and play ‘Namah Shivaya’ over and over and I just do my work on the computer.” And that was it. I fell in love with him and it was love at first sight. He so sweet to me, so kind. And in that closeness that I felt to him, I never felt any awe. It was always perfect at-easement and loving friendship.
Now that he has left the body, even though I miss him so much, mostly I feel awe. He seems to fill the universe. Because there was nowhere he wouldn’t go. There was nothing he wouldn’t face. There was no fear that he wouldn’t confront with love and kindness and caring. Everybody was a part of his family. He greeted everyone equally. He didn’t carry signs and badges to advertise how great a being he was, and the real sign of greatness. My guru, Neem Karoli Baba, looked like somebody’s grandfather. And in fact, one time, He said, “I could have been a really big Saint. I could have been a really big Saint, but I had one fault.” And his devotee said, “Baba, what was that?” He said, “Too much compassion.”
And that was Bernie.
Too much compassion to take anything for himself.
Too much compassion to advertise himself.
Too much compassion to be a great Zen Master.
He cared too much about people.
He wanted to meet everyone exactly where they are.
And that’s the mark of a real Great Being.
Shortly after I met him, I got an email from him with eight lines of a prayer called “The Gates of Sweet Nectar” from the Japanese prayer book, “The Kan Ro Mon”, the Japanese liturgy and apparently this was Bernie’s fa...Thu, 21 Mar 2019 - 20min - 13 - Ep.12 | Krishna Das chats with Lama Surya Das
Ep.12 ~ Krishna Das chats with Lama Surya Das
Krishna Das chats with Lama Surya Das, one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars, and a long-time friend. In this interview, the conversation between KD and Lama Surya Das touches on the subjects of spiritual practice, retreat, death, mindfulness, compassion and more.
At 55:20, KD and Lama Surya Das chant the Buddhist mantra “Om Mani Pedmé Hung” together.
“You know, one time, Maharajji said, ‘I hold the keys to the mind,’ … and then He teased us and said, ‘I can turn your minds against me.’ ‘No Baba, don’t do that.’ And He’d laugh, you know? So I said to Siddhi Ma, I said, “Ma, Maharajji says He holds the keys to the mind, which means to me that I am exactly where He wants me to be at all times, otherwise I’d be somewhere else, mentally, I mean like, spiritually, internally. My experience would be different. So, I’m where He wants me to be. So where does personal effort come in? Is it all grace? Or is it personal effort’” She says, ‘It’s all grace, but you have to act like it isn’t.’”– Krishna Das
Transcription:
SURYA DAS: Talking, shouting at Krishna Das… Badmash… Aap Jao
KRISHNA DAS: SurDas. I’m going to call you Surdas from now on.
SURYA DAS: Ok.
KRISHNA DAS: That was Maharajji’s name for you, wasn’t it? Surdas. That’s amazing. Because you’re a poet, you’re a poet and He knew it.
Nina: Maharajji called him Surdas?
KRISHNA DAS: Yeah, but nobody knew who Surdas was. So Surdas came out. We didn’t know Surdas at the time.
Nina: We should call him Surdas.
SURYA DAS: Surdas, the blind poet devotee of Baby Krishna.
KRISHNA DAS: Baby Krishna, yeah. And you know, they say, the devotion to Baby Krishna is the most complete because there’s no, it’s completely pure with a baby, you know?
SURYA DAS: There’s no interpersonal…
KRISHNA DAS: There’s no interpersonal, there’s no anything. There’s no story line. It’s just that love. And Surdas, who was blind, used to see the Leela’s and just describe them.
SURYA DAS: I have a poster of Him, you know, it’s a famous poster.
KRISHNA DAS: Yeah.
SURYA DAS: And Baby Krishna’s like, in front of Him, looking up at Him.
KRISHNA DAS: Yeah, just like that, amazing. So, just to start it off, my question is this, you know, you did many many years of intense practice and one of the practices in the Ngondro and the preliminary practices is the 100,000 repetitions of the Mani Mantra, and you did that, right?
SURYA DAS: Well, there’s more than that. Hundreds of thousands of different mantras.
KRISHNA DAS: Yeah.
SURYA DAS: The purification mantra and the guru yoga mantras and other things.
KRISHNA DAS: All of it in that practice while you were doing it?
SURYA DAS: In Ngondro. The Foundation practices of Vajrayana Buddhism.
KRISHNA DAS: I’m interested, personally, I’ve never done that kind of personal intense mantra practice. I mean, so I mean, I’ve done a lot, but not that kind of formal…
SURYA DAS: Then half your life is wasted, as they say…
KRISHNA DAS: Yes that’s true. Very nice. I’ve already wasted more than half my life. I’m hoping to waste this next half.
SURYA DAS: No, but you often talk about taking the name, and the name of a God, and repeating the names, and what kind of practice that is. And you know, whether you use words like japa or yoga or mantra yoga or what we call mantrayana and other things, but you do the Name, so if you were counting, you’d probably, you know, you’d do 100 thousands of Ram Nam or Hare Krishna. Especially Ram Nam, you do a lot. Hundreds of thousands of… there’s really no need to count, that’s just a way of… you can do Ngondro, these foundation practices, by number, which is easy, like saying 21 Hail Marys and then you’re done, or you can do by time, like a one-month retreat or a three-month retreat and then you move on to the...Fri, 15 Mar 2019 - 1h 06min - 12 - Ep.11 | Well Being
Ep.11 ~ Well Being
“One time, an old lady came to Maharajji, and she said, “Baba, show me God. Show me God, Baba.” And she was all emotional. Baba said, “Ok, Ma. Not now. Go away.” So later, at the end of the day, see she had come from a local town, and at the end of the day, she had to catch the bus back to her family, so at the end of the evening, she comes back to pranam to say goodbye to Maharajji and catch the bus. So she bows down and Maharajji says, “Ok, Ma, come here. I’m going to show you God now.” “Not now Baba, I have to go home!”
That’s where we are. You know? We want that, but not now, I’m too busy, I have a movie to go to. I have a date tonight, I can’t do that. So, just, you know, be good to yourself. Learn how to do that. Learn how to be good to yourself.”- Krishna Das
Transcription:
Q: In difficult situations, whether we’re out and about or with our coworkers or families, how to, maybe it’s just a momentary thing, maybe, can you offer some suggestions to, like, to bring our mind back to peace other than being with you now, which, as you said, it almost, like when you’re with, in the right situation, it brings you home and there’s that safety there, but when you’re out in the world, what do you do when you’re in a crowded situation to bring yourself back to a better place?
KD: When are you not out in the world? Seriously. When? When you’re home? Our mind is working just the same. So, what I hear is there’s some judgement about you feel less connected to yourself when you’re out with other people and busy and reacting to their stuff. So what? It doesn’t matter. The point is you have to do practice. I’m sorry. Really, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for myself. It’s very important to spend a little time, well, it’s important to recognize what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s a huge thing we’re trying to accomplish here. Look, we’re born, we pop out, we drink some milk, then we get to coffee, then we get to beer, then we die. And we never notice what’s going on. You know, that’s it. Next. So we’re trying to do something that most people in this world are not yet, don’t have the karmas and the situation to arise and the good, the positive karmas to try to find a good way to exist in life. It’s not just out there, it’s at home, too. You know? All the time. So, what’s required is some effort, I think, you know? Which comes from some recognition that we’re totally on automatic all the time. The recognition of that is a really big thing because when you recognize that you’re like, in a speed boat going 1000 MPH towards the waterfall, once you recognize that, then you might be able to take your foot off the accelerator, you know? Before you recognize it, there’s nothing you can do. So let’s imagine that, for the last 300 million births, we noticed that, but just too late, and woosh, over the waterfall, next life, and every life, we recognize it a few feet earlier, and one of these days we’ll recognize it soon enough that we’ll be liberated before the waterfall gets to us, before we go over the edge, before we take our last breath. So what we’re trying to do is a really big thing. A really big thing. And it’s not easy. But it starts with recognizing how out of control we are. And also recognizing everybody around us is out of control also. So, let’s not judge ourselves for that. There’s no reason to do that. We’re just human beings. That’s what we do. That’s why we’re human beings. Because we’re out of control and been out of control. So, once you know that, then you look around for a way to slow down, to calm yourself down. To slow down. To kind of rein in the stuff, to let it relax, let it, let it settle, let the leaves finally reach the ground, right? It takes awhile because there’s so much wind out there. So, there’s no quick answer. You’ll find your way to do it, the more you recognize that it’s your own, and our own inability to find what we want in life. That’s causing us pain.Wed, 06 Feb 2019 - 20min - 11 - Ep.10 | Selfless Service
Ep.10 ~ Selfless Service
One time, Mr. Tiwari, my Indian father, was sitting with Maharajji. Maharajji said, “So, you’re a brahmin, you’re supposed to know everything. What does Krishna teach in the Gita?” So now everybody, if you ask that question, they basically say, “Selfless Service,” right? So, he knew it was a setup, but he said it anyway. “You miserable brahmins, misleading the people. Only God does Selfless Service.” Because God is the whole thing. There is no Self. You know? There’s only That. All of us are just doing the best we can and we’re working on thinning that, that barrier or shell that seems so solid of self.”- Krishna Das
Transcription:
Q: So, I once thanked you for sharing your practice with us and
KD: I belted you, right? Boom. Left hook.
Q: Yeah, and you didn’t appreciate that.
KD: Listen, this is proof that you can sing your ass off and still be an asshole.
Q: No, but this is my question for you, because I’ve actually thought about it a lot, I think that the whole concept of being really cognizant of your ego and letting your ego get fluffed up, for lack of a better word…
KD: Fluffed…
Q: Fluffed. Is, this is important, but at the same time, if what you’re doing is really just a practice to draw yourself closer to your Guru, to your God, to your Self, to your One, isn’t that, and you’ll really think I’m a brat, but isn’t that really in direct conflict with what the underlying message was of Maharajji, which was to serve others? And so, if what you’re doing is just your practice and, but, are you, do you feel like it’s in service of others? Or how do you wrap around, and I’m not trying to be difficult…
KD: You’re just good at it.
I said to Ram Das at lunch, it’s weird to be famous for being humble. People say all the time, “Oh, you’re so humble.” I say, “No, no, I know who I am.” “Oh, wow you’re so humble.” Ok, what can I do? It comes to a point where it’s what, me thinks the lady doth protest too much, you know? Fuck it, I’m just going to sing, no matter what, whether I’m taking it personally or not taking it personally, or its good or its bad or people are singing or not singing or I’m in my bathroom alone or I’m with you, I’m going to keep singing. And I’m not, I always say, I sing to save my miserable ass, right? However, through all the years of chanting, my ass has gotten much wider. And all ya’ll are part of it. Thank you. If I, service, just to serve, it doesn’t mean you have to walk around with a big sign saying “I’m serving.” That’s ridiculous. That’s not service. You’re not serving anybody at that point except your own ego. The real Beings that serve humanity, that serve, they have no, they really do service because, you know one time, Mr. Tiwari, my Indian father, was sitting with Maharajji. Maharajji said, “So, you’re a brahmin, you’re supposed to know everything. What does Krishna teach in the Gita?” So now everybody, if you ask that question, they basically say, “Selfless Service,” right? So, he knew it was a setup, but he said it anyway. “You miserable brahmins, misleading the people. Only God does Selfless Service.” Because God is the whole thing. There is no Self. You know? There’s only That. All of us are just doing the best we can and we’re working on thinning that, that barrier or shell that seems so solid of self, but we don’t have to do it with a big sign, or carrying around a sign, if I was sitting here thinking I’m really doing something for you, then I’d be like, “What should I do now? What should I sing now? Should I make them happy? I should sing faster now. Now louder and faster. Ok. Now I’ll sing a soft one.” Ugh. Why would I think about all that stuff? I just sing. And so do you. And maybe because I’m doing my practice, you could do yours. I don’t kmow. I don’t know how it works. But this is what is, this is what the program is at the moment. So, yeah, it’s not necessary for me to think about this al...Wed, 06 Feb 2019 - 7min - 10 - Ep.09 | Surrender
Ep.09 ~ Surrender
Surrender happens by grace. It’s not an act of personal will. That might be a hard thing to understand because we don’t, you know, grace is such a foreign concept to Westerners, but you know, Ramana Maharshi said, “If you ask the thief to be the policeman, there will be a lot of investigation, but no arrest will ever be made.” That’s the thing about surrender. If you ask your ego to surrender, it’ll make a good job of looking like it’s trying to do that, all the time it’s getting bigger and stronger.” – Krishna Das
Transcription:
Q. Could you talk just a little bit about, in regards to your own personal experience then in regards to how it would apply to the rest of us, the process of letting go?
KD. It might sound funny to point this out but whenever you’re, let’s say you’re sitting or chanting or doing some practice, or let’s say we’re chanting together, so you might feel something for a minute, it might come, it might go after something else. Where is this experience happening? I’ll answer. It’s happening in here. In each one of us. It’s not outside. It’s not somewhere else. It’s happening within each one of us. Having our own experience. Very different from the person next to you. And if you think about it, we go through our whole day, our whole life having our own experience. Each one of us. And that experience, what we experience, we, is and by our stuff, our, who we think we are, the stuff we like, the stuff we don’t like, the things that happen to us in life, the things that didn’t happen to us in life. Everything that makes us, everything that makes me, me, is what’s having these experiences, and that “me” is what spiritual practice begins to dissolve. So that gradually, the subjective bubble that we’re imprisoned in, and it is prison, the subjective buble that we’re imprisoned in begins to melt away. When Maharajji would say, “All one,” what he’s pointing to is that place when the bubble’s broken and there’s no, and you don’t think you’re that person anymore, you experience yourself in a different way. You don’t disappear, but you experience yourself in a much different way, you’re not limited or imprisoned or defined by your thoughts and emotions but you’re very much here, more here than you are when you’re thinking about shit all the time, Much more here. I mean, it’s inconceivable who much more it is, because it’s inconceivable by definition. You can’t conceive of it. It’s not a concept, it’s the experience of Being. And these Names that we sing, they’re calling us. We think we’re calling them out, but they’re actually pulling us into our Self. We’re being pulling pulled into ourself. Human beings experience being pulled within by your own Being as longing. Longing. That’s the killer. Longing is the killer. That’s what ruins your life. Wanting something we don’t, we think we don’t have. The longing for that, to be in that place, to be That. To feel That. That’s what drives us forward. That’s the saving grace, actually, is the longing. It’s a tough one. It’s very hard to just, to really surrender to That. Accept that. We still think we’re going to squeeze out a little bit of happiness. “I know, it’s just around the corner, I’ll grab it, you know, I can do it, yeah, this is ok, but I’ll get that.” Good luck. Good luck.
I mean that. Good luck. I hope you do.
You’d be the first since time began. But you know, anything could happen.
All right, any questions or anything? Anybody want to say anything? Talk about anything?
I know I’m not like Lama here. I’m not very erudite, but I can bluff my way through it.
Sir. Give him the mic.
Q: Could you talk just a little bit about, in regards to your own personal experience then in regards to how it would apply to the rest of us, the process of letting go?
KD: What does that mean? What does letting go mean? Or?
Q: I think we all can understand it in some,Wed, 06 Feb 2019 - 26min
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