Reflecting on Ram Dass’s core teachings, Hanuman Dass and Raghu Markus discuss the immense power of love, service, and compassion.

Check out There is No Other for more of Ram Dass’s teachings on the path to harmony. Also, stay tuned for the release of Hanuman Dass’s forthcoming book Be Yourself, formed out of his conversations with Ram Dass.

This week on Mindrolling, Raghu and Hanuman Dass have a conversation on:

• Hanuman Dass’s experience growing up in a deeply connected, matriarchal family
• Living spirituality in everyday life, household puja, and devotional practices
• How karma dictates our lives and puts us right where we are supposed to be
• Hanuman Dass’s relationship with Ram Dass and becoming inspired to serve through food donation
• The Upanishads, self-inquiry, and Ram Dass’s perpetual devotion to Maharaj-ji
• Compassion as the direct road to enlightenment
• Empowering those we help rather than impoverishing them or pitying them
• Reflecting on the dharma of humanity and our shared responsibility to one another

You can now watch Bridge of Grace to learn more about KK Sah, a Maharaj-ji devotee and close friend of Ram Dass. Click here to learn more.

About Hanuman Dass:

Hanuman Dass is the founder of the UK-based charity Go Dharmic (GD). GD’s core mission is global hunger relief, supported by their humanitarian crisis response work and campaigns for environmental action, poverty alleviation, education, and plant-based and organic diets. Hanuman Dass was inspired into service through his relationship with Ram Dass, whom he met in his 20’s. GD's founding ethos is based on the philosophy of Sanatana Dharma. Their mission is to “Love All. Feed All. Serve All.” Check out the GD website for more information and stay in touch with Hanuman Dass on social media. Pick up a copy of this guide to the Hanuman Chalisa created with Hanuman Dass

“I feel lightest here, I feel happiest in service and love…drink is nice, you go up and down. Drugs might be nice, you go up and down. But, love is forever, you can stay in that space.” –Hanuman Dass

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This week, we pause to remember the life, presence, and artistry of a friend of the show who will be deeply missed.

Recorded in 2021, this conversation features Grammy-winning artist John Forté in his first appearance on the podcast. John and Raghu talk about the spirit of music, the highs and lows of success, and John’s experience headlining the Ram Dass Soul Land Music Series.

John Forté (January 30, 1975 – January 12, 2026) is survived by his wife and two children. If you’d like to offer support, a donation link is available here: Honoring John Forte by Supporting His Family

This special episode features an inspired conversation on:

• Community as the spirit of music: John Forté’s Brooklyn upbringing in the economic downturns of the 70s and 80s
• The emotional, mental, and physical hardships of struggling to get by in an underserved community
• Perseverance through love: John’s inspiration for his musical career
• John’s highest highs, lowest lows, & what it is like to start over
• John’s friendship with the iconic Ms. Lauryn Hill, linking up with The Fugees, and their co-creation of a Grammy-winning, multi-platinum record, The Score
• John's stint in prison, where in his cell, his refuge and musical rebirth came in the form of an acoustic guitar
• Music as internal alchemy and Ram Dass’s influence on John’s song Gong Guru from his album Riddem Drive
• Venturing further into spirituality: John’s deep affinity for wisdom teachers like Ram Dass, Terence McKenna, Alan Watts, and Abraham Hicks

Listen to John’s other visit to the Mindrolling Podcast on Ep. 405 and a conversation about resonance, integration & catharsis on this special Ram Dass Fellowship with host, Jackie Dobriska, available on Ep. 124 of the Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast.

About John Forté:

John Forté is a Grammy-winning recording artist best known for his work with the hip-hop group, The Fugees, writing and producing songs on their multi-platinum record The Score. After a stint in prison while riding the volatile waves of success and failure, John coupled his refuge of music with messages of wisdom and love from inspirational spiritual teachers. Listen to John’s album Riddem Drive, and don’t miss him on the Soul Land Music Series: Songs & Stories Inspired by Ram Dass.

“My journey with music has been the relationship of having it, experiencing it, seeing it morph and take on different colors and shapes. It showed me from a very early age that collaboration was going to be the key for the source of my continued inspiration—working with others, finding that harmony—that’s the spirit of it. The spirit of music is community, it’s communication, it’s air itself.” –John Forté

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Author and nonviolence practitioner Kazu Haga explores why fierce vulnerability is a vital practice for inner and outer transformation.

Read an excerpt of Kazu’s book, Fierce Vulnerability, and purchase your own copy HERE.

This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and Kazu Haga chat about:

• Kazu’s difficult upbringing and how meeting Japanese Buddhist monastics transformed his life
• Combining social action and spirituality
• The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and addressing both inner violence of the spirit and outer systemic violence
• How an “us vs. them” worldview fuels division, suffering, and ecological destruction
• Healing childhood trauma and collective trauma by integrating the fractured parts of ourselves
• How getting vulnerable opens up our capacity to heal
• The Seven Fires Prophecies from the Anishinaabe people
• Rebuilding the world through spiritual practice rather than material accumulation
• Remembering that personal healing is inseparable from collective healing in an interdependent world
• Listening deeply and being comfortable with uncertainty

Check out the book Hospicing Modernity for more powerful insights on social action

About Kazu Haga:

Kazu Haga is a trainer and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice, a core member of the Ahimsa Collective and the Fierce Vulnerability Network. He is a Jam facilitator and author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm and Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging from Collapse. He works with incarcerated people, youth, and activists from around the country. He has over 25 years of experience in nonviolence and social change work. He is a resident of the Canticle Farm community on Lisjan Ohlone land, Oakland, CA, where he lives with his family. You can find out more about his work at www.kazuhaga.com.

“The work of nonviolence has to start by looking at the ways in which we hold internal violence of the spirit, that unhealed anger, hatred, resentment, delusion, as well as our unhealed traumas, and understanding how all of that is the source of external violence in the world. Yes we need the social movements, but if we’re not grounded in some sort of inner work and introspection a lot of the violence we want to change out there gets replicated in our own work, in our own communities.” –Kazu Haga

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Longtime friends David Silver and Raghu Markus discuss Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and the legacy of Dzogchen maintained by his four sons.

Grab a copy of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s memoirs, Blazing Splendor, for a deeper look into his magnificent life.

This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and David have a discussion about:

• The life and teachings of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, one of the greatest Dzogchen meditation masters of the 20th century
• Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s sons and how they continue to spread Dzogchen wisdom to the West
• Core principles of Dzogchen philosophy, including the nature of mind and nondual awareness
• Understanding cognitive emptiness and the illusion of a solid identity
• Why contemplating death and impermanence can be a path to liberation
• Working consciously with loss and mortality before the end of life
• Not falling into the trap of believing this life is permanent
• Viewing dreams and meditation as parallel practices for awakening
• The patience and discipline required to form new spiritual habits
• Living fully while recognizing the inevitability of death

Learn about dealing with the bardo of dying in the book In Love with the World by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche or hop into The Bardo Guidebook by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

About David Silver:

David Silver is the former co-host of the Mindrolling podcast. He is a filmmaker and director, most recently coming out with Brilliant Disguise. Brilliant Disguise tells the unique story of a group of inspired Western spiritual seekers from the 60s, who in meeting the great American teacher, Ram Dass, followed him to India to meet his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, familiarly known as Maharaj-ji. Two days before he left his body, Maharaj-ji instructed K.C. Tewari to take care of the Westerners, which he did resolutely until the day he died in 1997. Silver’s #1 charting MGM/UA/Warners film, “The Compleat Beatles” is the critically acclaimed biopic movie about history’s most famous band. The term ‘rockumentary’ was first applied to this two-hour movie. Rolling Stone recently described the film as a “masterwork.” Silver’s Warner Brothers’ feature film, “No Nukes” also started the whole trend of music/activism feature documentaries.

“Urgyen and his sons and all Dzogchen people believe that dreaming is as important as meditating. Dreams are fluid, anything can happen in a dream. You can fly, you can walk through a wall. What Mingyur says is that is the perfect analogy for life itself; life is as fluid and as transparent as that dream, but we don’t know it because we think it’s solid because we can’t put our finger through our hand.” –David Silver

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In this music-filled re-release, Raghu Markus is joined by spiritual musician Jai Uttal to chat about opening our hearts through the magnitude of melodies.

Get your copy of All In This Together, the latest book from Jack Kornfield!

Let this new book be your guide, as Jack reveals how to navigate our human experience with wisdom and care. Inside you’ll find a beautiful collection of stories, inspiration for conflict resolution, and powerful teachings on healing, justice, and human kindness—anchored in the teachings of the Buddha and poetry from luminary voices like Mary Oliver. Click here to learn more!

In this episode, Raghu and Jai Uttal discuss:

• The formation of melodic structures and how music is as boundless as an ocean
• Letting go of the idea that we must master an instrument in order to create music
• Getting into the flow of devotional music and honoring God through our presence rather than perfection
• The friendship between Jai Uttal and Ram Dass and Jai’s journey to India
• The Baul’s of Bengal and mystical, spontaneous verse
• Jai’s single, Holy Mad Men, inspired by Bengali-style music
• More Bengali-influenced music by The Band
• The dotara, an Indian folk instrument Jai frequently uses
• Musical creation as the legacy of satsang and a path to continued connection

Check out Ali Akbar Khan to hear some classical Indian Ragas and the sarod instrument that Raghu and Jai discuss.

About Jai Uttal:

Jai Uttal is a Grammy-nominated sacred music composer, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist, and ecstatic vocalist. Having traveled extensively in India, he met many great saints and singers and Bhakti Yoga became his personal path. Jai has been leading, teaching, and performing kirtan around the world for nearly 50 years. He creates a safe environment for people to open their hearts and voices.

“Music is way more vast than any one human person can understand.” –Jai Uttal

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Anne Lamott, Raghu Markus, and RamDev reveal that letting go of how life should be opens the door to compassion, healing, and contentment with reality.

This Dharma Session was recorded at the December 2025 Ram Dass Open Your Heart in Paradise Retreat. Learn about upcoming community events HERE.

This week on Mindrolling, Raghu, Anne, and RamDev hold a talk on:

• Standing in presence with change and impermanence
• Ram Dass’ eye-opening story of a farmer and his son
• How investing in that which changes leads to suffering
• Collective healing through all the grief in the world
• The negative emotions that arise when we resist change
• Creating an intimate, compassionate relationship with the sense of loss
• Anne’s experiences of radicalizing change in her own life
• Wise Hope: taking leaps of faith and hoping that things will work out as they should

About Anne Lamott:

Anne Lamott is the New York Times best-selling author of many books, including collections of essays, novels, and long-form non-fiction, including the classic writing manual Bird by Bird and child-rearing memoir Operating Instructions. In addition to being a novelist and nonfiction writer, Lamott is also a progressive political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher. Keep up with Anne on Instagram.

“It's very hard to be human here; it's scary. I feel like Cindy-Lou Who sometimes, like this tiny little being. ‘Be still my heart and wait without hope’–what I hope is that things will sort out the way they should for the common welfare.” - Anne Lamott

About RamDev:

RamDev Dale Borglum is the founder and Executive Director of The Living/Dying Project. He is a pioneer in the conscious dying movement and has worked directly with thousands of people with life-threatening illness and their families for over 30 years. In 1981, Dale founded the first residential facility for people who wished to die consciously in the United States, The Dying Center. He has taught and lectured extensively on the topics of spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, on caregiving as a spiritual practice, and on healing at the edge, the edge of illness, of death, of loss, of crisis. Check out RamDev’s podcast, Healing at the Edge, on the Be Here Now Network.

Learn more about The Living/Dying Project at livingdying.org

“When we’re in the heart, it gives us the possibility of being with grief and change in a way that leads to healing. There is a profoundly wonderful line by Rumi where he says ‘grief is the garden of compassion.” –RamDev

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Looking through a Jungian lens, Psychologist Dr. John Price and Raghu Markus have a discussion on the mechanics of awakening.

This week on Mindrolling, Raghu and John chat about:

• What we can learn from the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• Jungian philosophy and creating balance within the psyche
• Attraction to the arts, music, and alternative ways of being
• Comparing youth and coming of age today versus in the past
• The growth and learning that happens through adversity
• Cultivating trust with those who are wounded
• Making compassionate response our default state, especially when dealing with children
• Leaving one’s culture to truly understand where we come from
• Various ways of cultivating non-ordinary states
• How society often stifles our experiences of mystical events
• The current psychedelic revolution and therapeutic utility of entheogens

Check out William Blake’s The Book of Urizen for a deep dive into mystical literature

“That’s obviously one’s religious and spiritual experience that is totally, uniquely yours. We know the definition of a mystical experience: it’s ineffable, it’s transitive, it’s a unitive experience. I’m willing to say that most of us have had these kinds of experiences, and yet because our culture doesn't support that world view, we write them off as what you can call the ‘nothing but’.” –Dr. John Price

About Dr. John Price:

Dr. John Price is a Jungian psychotherapist, co-founder of The Center for Healing Arts & Sciences, and host of The Sacred Speaks podcast. John’s journey from touring musician to single fatherhood reshaped his understanding of human transformation. John’s work bridges ancient wisdom with modern psychology—offering tools for shedding the adaptations that once saved us but now imprison us. Learn more about John’s offerings on his website.

“Jung would call this the inferior function given that I’m so feeling-oriented and intuitive. To actually get into the thinking and sensing function is something that I’m very much trying to counterbalance. That’s my inferior function. From his philosophical orientation, it’s a way to create wholeness where you counterbalance the one-sidedness of our psyche.” –Dr. John Price

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