That was awesome and really motivational. I thought my ipod messed up because there was no way an hour went by, but I was just caught up in it.

As the stomach breaks down and digests food so does the mind and when you find yourself thinking about something repeatedly or arguing with someone in your head it's because the mind hasn't been able to fully assimilate the information so break it down into smaller bites so it's easier to digest.

Great podcast Duncan. Keep it up.

Just starting this one now. Great for morning iced coffee/thc combo meal.

So excited, cant wait. Got goosebumps before its even started

WOW! Duncan and Rhagu Markus, thankyou! That was a great listen and I agree that it went really fast, I had to listen to it twice. Would love to hear more about the trip to India if possible. So much to think about it...

Ram Dass was on a podcast from last week, I can't remember who posted it or where, but thankyou to whoever did...
Sounds True Podcast interview with Ram Dass

Also, it's already been posted here a few times but in case anyone wants to find out more, I'd highly recommend "Fierce Grace" it's a beaaautiful and very moving documentary about Ram Dass.

Does anyone know the name of the song in the end? btw great fucking podcast!!!

this was an amazing podacst.. u asked some perfect questions, reminded me of India, did you go to Rishikesh as well Duncan? I didnt have bhang lassie, but got some hash and didn't have anything to smoke it with so ate it.. . I was not prepared for the results!! haha the purple popes, family hour peeps should have a meet up in India in 2015 or something, if the Mayans aren't right and the singularity hasn't occurred... would be cool to all meet in in one point in the multiverse in the future!!

Solid episode! Love it when its not all just comedian guests.

This podcast is really becoming one of the best podcasts out there... in my opinion =)

rodrigo said:

WOW! Duncan and Rhagu Markus, thankyou! That was a great listen and I agree that it went really fast, I had to listen to it twice. Would love to hear more about the trip to India if possible. So much to think about it...

Ram Dass was on a podcast from last week, I can't remember who posted it or where, but thankyou to whoever did...
Sounds True Podcast interview with Ram Dass

Also, it's already been posted here a few times but in case anyone wants to find out more, I'd highly recommend "Fierce Grace" it's a beaaautiful and very moving documentary about Ram Dass.

Fierce Grace was an excellent documentary, really got me familiar with Ram Dass. I'd seen some Richard Alpert footage before, but was never really familiar with his post Maharaj-ji teachings.

Looking forward to it, just saw it was 53minutes. I wish it was 2 hours and 53 minutes.

the first time I ever did mushrooms I had a telepathic moment with a friend. I remember when we'd look at each other we'd both think of the word "home". It was like we both already knew what was in each others head without saying it, then we both said "home" at the same time and freaked out.


BLANKET MAN!

Thanks Duncan! Loved it. I am glad to see I am not the only cynical person about this. I believe, read a ton of books and yet have a hard time of just letting go and taking that final plunge.

I am a tad disappointed in the Ram Dass website, as it seems to always be wanting to sell me some shit. I guess I get it as I doubt just being an awesome human being sustains him or his organization, but I have such a hard time with capitalism that it has been a turn off to me. Locally (Lincoln, NE) it seems like the Buddhist groups want you to join, but first you have to give them $100 or more cash. All this has been a block I feel to furthering myself along....

Anyways, thanks again! You have the best podcast ever.

I was just getting to the end of reading these posts, thinking of how to sum up my feeling listening to this episode, when i read AdrianTheAlchemist's post. So..

What he said ^

Keep spreading the love Duncan! It even reaches all the way out here to Scotland :)

I think you got a contact-high @Duncan ! Awesome podcast.

It sounded like Raghu Markus may have had a moment of awakening when he met Neem Karoli Baba. There is a trap that you can fall into here and I fell into it myself, so I'm going to share some knowledge that may be beneficial to others:

When we awake, we realize that we're awareness, we're the whole thing, we're one, etc... It's free, easy, and effortless when it happens. We recognize that we have the understanding of Buddha or Jesus or whoever. We say to ourselves "Oh! It's all true!"

But just because we begin to wake up, it doesn't mean the ego is immediately obliterated, never to return. The egoic mind is a pattern recognition machine. It will build a new egoic identity and structure around that moment of awakening. The 'I' that thinks it had the awakening experience is not the 'I' that existed in that moment of awakening. The deception here is extremely clever. Much more clever than you would imagine yourself to be or give yourself credit for.

All that matters is whether or not you are awake right now. Everything else is egoic structure. Once the egoic mind thinks it has glimpsed some form of awakening, it wants nothing more in life than to achieve it. The egoic mind will build up massive structure in an attempt to get back to that experience.

These types of awakenings are like free samples from the Self. It's establishing a way in. The door cannot be closed once it is open. You get that free treat and then you're plopped back into egoic consciousness. Like Cinderella when the clock strikes midnight.

You now know, on some level, that it's all real. Enlightenment is real and it is achievable now. You don't have to wait 20 more lifetimes to get it. It is available to all conscious beings right now.

It's my opinion that the whole point of these free sample experiences is so that you know that you can completely let go of all egoic identity. It says to you that there is something present behind that egoic identity. You can let go of all of it and know that it's going to be OK.

To wake up is to die as the self you think you are. Awakening that comes on gradually is sometimes not a pleasant experience for the ego. It is death as real as the ego can imagine it.

It's fun to dance around the spiritual fire. Holding hands and singing and dancing in a circle around this giant flame of truth. But when you get too close to the thing, the fire can leap to your clothes. This can be a frightening thing to the ego. It's a very small fire and you think maybe you can put it out. The fire continues to spread and it now covers your entire torso. You panic. It spreads to your arms and legs. The fire cannot be stopped. It will consume you until the you that you think you are no longer exists.

To awake is to allow yourself to be consumed by the fire of truth. For the ego, this is not pleasant. It is often more pleasant for the ego to build up an identity as a spiritually-minded person. "I'm a better person!", it says. Kinder to others, more compassionate, more caring, more sharing, and so on. The ego can disguise itself as a compassionate ego.

You do not get to be enlightened and still hold onto any of that egoic structure. Raghu Markus mentions it in the Podcast that he realized there was no person there when he talked to Neem Karoli Baba. It's a strange thing to communicate with someone that either has no egoic structure or who completely disbelieves any egoic thoughts and so does not give them any attention. This is what Raghu Markus was likely sensing.


All of these positive qualities we associate with spirituality arise naturally out of recognizing the true nature of your being. To imitate these positive qualities is to allow the egoic mind to build itself a new identity. The ego is just as happy to be a saint as it is to be a murderer. As long as it can maintain the illusion of the egoic 'I', it cares not for anything else.

Find out what you are and all the beneficial qualities we associate with spirituality will follow naturally.

Allow the ego to imitate how it thinks an enlightened person acts and you will remain in the trap.

But really, what was the music at the end of this podcast? Was it Crystal Gayle?

What an interesting podcast. While I've always had a level of interest with eastern philosophy it has yet to evolve into anything more than reading the literature. This on the other hand gave great insight to the concepts that I should start practicing. What's even more exciting is that I live on Maui and am strongly considering registering for the Ram Dass Pilgrimage.

I wish I would of had this access to information in my anthropology classes about India in college. Thank you once again Duncan. If you had a cult you'd have many followers.

That was awesome Duncan, thank you. Be Here Now was the most powerful book in my life. How much do you have to donate for the heart-to-heart with him? It wasn't clear on the site.

I fucking love this podcast. I know that's a common thing to say ...but I truly LOVE it!

KHAN said:

It seems to me the greatest truths are so obvious and boring they are systematically ignored. So enlightenment becomes not something you obtain but rather something that is already there that you need to brush away the filth and excess to recover.

winning said:

I wish I could find the motivation to really try, with a guide, yoga and meditation. Maybe one day, when I can afford to pay for someone to show me. Thanks for the podcast.

It's my opinion that enlightenment is our natural state of being. Enlightenment is not an altered state of consciousness. It is an unaltered state of consciousness.

When I say enlightenment, I mean the natural state of consciousness that allows one to recognize what they are.

You are not what you take yourself to be. If you believed me when I say that you are not what you think you are, you would just wake up right now. If you do not believe me, you must look for yourself. Meditation is one way of looking for yourself to see if what I say is true.

Are you after truth or are you after mystical experience?

Bear with me for a second and assume, hypothetically, that enlightenment is your natural state of being. No effort, no discipline, no control, no manipulation necessary. What are you if you let all of that stuff go? What kind of meditation should you be doing if that's the case?

If enlightenment flows naturally, do you need to learn some new technique that will get you there?

If enlightenment flows naturally, do you need to learn how to breathe or concentrate your focus?

If enlightenment flows naturally, do you need to learn postures and mantras and chants and rituals?

If enlightenment is an unaltered state of consciousness, how would you get there?

"But if I don't do something, enlightenment won't happen!", you say.

Don't get sidetracked by mystical experiences or altered states. If you meditate in the popular ways, hard for 30 years, you'll be lucky to have a handful of experiences where you experienced some altered state or some profound thing. These are distractions. Don't get caught up in them.

How many people are practicing some form of meditation for years and years and getting nowhere? Even people that have meditated for 30 years and had multiple profound experiences along the way will tell you that the mental chatter is still there when they're not meditating. Learning concentration, breathing, postures, etc... these are like putting tape over someone's mouth to get them to stop talking. What happens when you stop the concentration or the breathing exercise or the posture or whatever?

If the mind is quieted through control, as soon as that control ceases, the tape comes off the mouth and the chatter comes back.

"But if I don't do something, enlightenment won't happen!"

If enlightenment is your natural state of being, what do you need to do?

What happens if you allow things to be as they are and you don't try to control anything?

Allow everything to be as it is.

Allow everything to be as it is and ask yourself "What am I?". This is not a mantra to be chanted like "what am I? what am I? what am I?". Investigate the answer to that question while accepting everything as it is occurring. Let go of any control. If you already have a practice where you focus on the breath or watching your mind, that's fine, but you must know when to let go. Let go of that control.

You can still use those tools to calm things down in the beginning but you must very quickly let go of them as well. Something like focusing on the breath or mantra chanting can serve a valuable purpose but you can usually let go of them fairly quickly. The letting go point can come much sooner than you think.

Alan Watts recounts the tale where Sabro Hasegawa was once asked over dinner, "How long does it take to obtain our understanding of Zen?"

He said, "It may take you three minutes; it may take you thirty years. I mean that".

Control of your mind can be useful to get you there, don't get me wrong. But you must recognize when to let go of this control or manipulation. What happens when you let it go and allow all to be as it is?

Effort and control are like learning to ride a bike. They can help you get your balance on the bike and get enough momentum that you won't fall over. Once you get to that point, you can stop pedaling. This is the hard part for people to understand. You think the bike won't go if you stop pedaling. Stop pedaling. You may find that the bike goes much faster and balances more beautifully when you stop trying to guide it.

Meditation is simple, easy, and effortless. Not lazy or foggy-brained, but effortless. Meditation is vivid. Present, aware, vivid, but effortless. Feel your way through it. You don't need rules and controls. Close your eyes or don't close your eyes. Take up a posture or don't take up a posture. Remain present, aware, vivid, but effortless.

Your goal is not peace or stillness. Allow everything to be felt. If peace comes, allow peace to come. If memories from the past come that make you angry or fearful, allow it to come. Do not suppress it. Present, aware, vivid, but effortless. See everything as it comes.

You will understand how to feel your way through because it is your natural state of being.

Find out what is true. Everything else in spirituality is a carnival sideshow. Look for yourself and find out what is true.

Love how your podcast is progressing. The one with Raghu Markus was the shit!!
Felt the urge to join your community.
Om Shiva Shankara Hari Hari Ganga!

//Nic

This podcast is pure magic.