Hello, beautiful humans and welcome to the mental Wellness. Wake up, show a weekly podcast where growth minded creative people, come to learn, best practices from both spirituality and psychology that create lasting well-being. I am your host mental Wellness, expert improvised acting teacher therapist and Coach, Don McMillan. Let's get to it. It. Alright, you wonderful amazing beings you. What I want to talk about today is ROM Das.
So the logic of this podcast, if there is any is what is occurring for me in my world either because of my own inquiry or because of what's being brought to my attention by friends, family clients the media. And I trust the process that as we are going through this journey of life. Together that we can be of service to each other by exploring our own understandings and sharing them. Yeah, so I'm on a Ram Dass trip
right now. So in case you don't know who rhombus is, let me just give you a brief overview. So Ram Dass was born, Richard Alpert, he was educated as a psychologist. He got his PhD at Stanford. Whoo. And then went to go work at Harvard while he was at Harvard. He got entwined with Timothy. Leary, who at the time was exploring the effects of psychedelics. For cert for several years, they worked together on what do psychedelics do for Consciousness. What is their purpose?
How do we use them? Ultimately wronged us ended up going to India where he became a devotee of someone whom he calls maharajah. Maharaja, which I believe means great, king, Maharaja was born named karoli, Baba and was a devotee of bhakti-yoga. So Ram Dass becomes this spiritual devotee and over time becomes the spiritual teacher and one of his gifts was as a Westerner who had done really the mainstream Western thing, right? Went to college went to graduate school.
Became a Harvard, Professor was a good translator of Eastern philosophy to westerners in his later. Life, he did not renounce, I could Daleks but begin to understand that their point was as a tool and a stepping stone, so that people from different walks of life.
Particularly westerners who don't have the same spiritual Traditions as they do in the East, we get a glimpse of what is possible through the use of psychedelics and then do the inner work, the yoga to be able to achieve those states without the psychedelics. So in his later life, he Pretty much didn't use psychedelics as much and became more interested in the practices of yoga of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, and doing spiritual practices and being a spiritual teacher.
Okay, he became even more well-known after a while because he was one of Wayne Dyer's teacher. And if you don't know who Wayne Dyer, is because we're going back, 50, 60, 70 s 80s. If you don't know who Wayne Dyer is Wayne Dyer is A nerd, a spiritual teacher and kind of is a member of like that new age royalty by writing books in the 70s and 80s and teaching into the 90s, okay? So that's who we're talking about, we're talking about ROM Das who you know was born in 1931 and died in 2019.
So you had a very long teaching life and he created this Foundation or I believe he created Adam have been created after his death. I'm not Called The Love server member foundation and currently the love surf, remember Foundation has a podcast where they curate talks of ram. Das has on certain topics. So I really enjoy this this podcast, because it allows me to go deep on one thing.
So, they'll take a sample from one speech and another speech and put them together in a way that really works. For me. What I am tripping. Out on right now, is one from December on enlightenment? Yeah. Enlightenment. This is my quest. And if you know me personally like Dawn, you gots a long way to go factual, but one of the understandings that I have come to, is that, you know, persistence often pays off, especially in recovery And in the pursuit of higher, Consciousness and better
functioning. So here I am doing what I can to become a more whole more complete, more evolved human being. And so Along Comes. This Ram Dass podcast and he says, something in the context of this podcast, which keeps blowing my mind. And I cannot stop thinking about it. The freezes desire creates the universe. Okay, more context. Yeah, so it comes in the context of him being taught because he was a Perpetual student as well
as a teacher. And his teacher said that desire, Is, you know, desire, meaning craving is a problem that it is a form of, what's the word? I can't even words right now, but that desirelessness is Moksha is freedom. And the idea being that when we are completely enslaved to our Cravings, we are not free and that freedom comes from desirelessness. If you're listening closely, you're going to recognize a part of the teachings of the Buddha. Right?
All life is suffering. And the way you get out of suffering is to let go of craving and the way you get out of craving is to follow the Eightfold Path. So westerners specifically really struggle against this. What do you mean life is suffering? We can be happy all the time. Well yeah, once you reach enlightenment, Happiness, the kind and the Moksha, and the freedom. That these spiritual teachers are talking about is not the happiness. That goes, there comes from suppressing.
Your negative feelings, put slapping a smile on your face and wandering through life getting your ego needs gratified. So, when we talk about desirelessness, we're not talking about, like, never having preferences, never liking things, never wanting things. What desirelessness me, Means in this context and this is where language gets tricky. Because there's not necessarily a good English word for it. So that's why I like the word
craving. We're talking about non-attachment to craving to we're getting the thing. Great. But not getting the thing. Doesn't have to be a disaster. So that's the context in which this phrase popped up, desire creates the universe. and I think for the kindergarten version of that teaching, is Desire. Craving wanting seeking pursuing attaching creates your Universe, my universe, the ways in which I am controlled by my Cravings, is creating the universe that I
experienced. I was talking with someone recently, who is really just upset about something. And as you know a good therapist I was guiding them through. What are you believing to be true? That is creating your suffering. We don't respond to the stimulus in our world. The thing that happened, we respond to our interpretation about the thing that happened. So as we were working through that, this particular person began to see, oh my, interpretation of this event is
that it is so awful. I Recover from it. And changing that interpretation to this is not something that I prefer. And I can move forward from this was very freeing. So, okay, can you here come the doggies. We've got, Bertram, whining, and panting. And then we have eggy with the pitter-patter of little doggie, feet crashing into things with her cone of shame after her surgery. I'll be fine guys. And we good, we say hello. Okay, let me know if you need something.
So desirelessness. Is about not being so attached that hold please. So where were we desirelessness? Is about not a non-attachment non-attachment, not being detached like, I'm holding myself apart and I don't care about anything but being non-attached. Let's take a side rant care, Look up the definition of care and ask yourself if that's what you want to be doing. Okay? So non-attachment means that, you have your preferences and you enjoy the heck out of them
and can you be at peace? If things go differently. Can you recognize that there is a Perfection at the center of everything? What there's a Perfection at any through the Bubba? Okay, maybe. But what if you pretended like there were I don't know the capital-t truth about the world and the universe and how things go and neither do you. So the question becomes, what is helpful, what is useful? We can get so rigid in these are facts when 99% of the time, the things to, which we are most
attached to our opinions. And those opinions create suffering. So what if you operated as if there's a Perfection at the center of everything that cleaning up? Puppy poop off. Your carpet is equally as valuable equally as peace, inducing equally as rewarding as finding a surprise hundred dollars in your pocket of your winter coat. Right. This is this is what we're talking about that what is occurring in the outer world. Is not sufficient to completely destroy your peace.
So non-attachment is freedom which gets us back to desire creates the universe. So the surface level understanding, based on all the things that I've just said, and some basic spiritual teaching is that desire is creating your Universe. Now, the first objection is going to be if desire recreating My Universe. I would have a much nicer house, a much nicer car more. Gorgeous spouse. I'm kidding.
Some of you think that though I would have this amazing life and I don't so this response to that is what are you? Attached to. What are you attached to our, you more attached to your story about who you are and how life works? Then you are to having peace of mind. Are you attached to the idea that a good life equals being rich and famous? Are you attached to the idea that beauty means thinness or low body fat or muscle nests or whiteness? Our Thomas. What are you attached to?
Is it possible? Is it possible that if you changed your level of attachment to what you think things are supposed to be? You might discover that the way things are is perfectly peaceful. That is the first level in my understanding, right? Told you, I don't have answers this time. I'm just exploring this question. Desire creates the universe so Ram, Dass goes on to say, I'm going to lose some of you here, I think, but stay with me. Stay with me, be an anthropologist exploring with
these crazy. Spiritual people think surround us, goes on to say that. The reason that we are in form is because there's a some part of us that desires to be Yes, this is based on the idea that we are infinite beings having a specific set of experiences and that after this body will do other experiences. So that desire creates the universe, the reason that we are experiencing a physical universe is because we have chosen to in some way that we desire to in
some way that we are. Experiencing this experience because we are somehow attached to this experience and that if we wanted and these words are so paltry. But that lets lets for the purposes of this conversation, this life is not your only life. This body is not your only identity. So then afterwards, you could experience an entirely different kind of universe.
You could experience an entirely by early different kind of existence an entirely different kind of being That you could be, I don't know a demigod of some kind and some kind of universe. You could be an energy being, it could be light being, you could have Anna you know instead of a four-dimensional universe could be an 11 dimensional Universe, I don't know. That's the question desire, creates the universe. I don't think ramdas has the capital-t truth either.
He's a person exploring like the rest of us. that is a very evocative thing to have said, Desire is entrapment desirelessness, his freedom hopping over to Buddha the way to freedom is to follow the Eightfold Path. and, Desire creates the universe. So what would plays in my mind is if that were true, if my desires are creating my universe and a lot of law of attraction to people are going to be like
yeah of course. But I think that's I think that is a not complete understanding because that gets us into victim-blaming. Which some people are fine with. Some people are fine with desire, creates the universe. So anything that is happening to you you created with your personal desire and therefore that's your experience they don't buy that. I think it's more complicated than that. I think when you have eight billion people wandering around somewhere, interacting with each
other. That there is something beyond our personality. Something beyond what happens between our two ears that creates our experiences. like, I'm not a puppet master. I my personality me Dawn did not make the dogs come in here and make noise. Like that's I don't think that that's how the universe works. I think they're little beings. I'm a little being lots of people with heart beats on this planet right now.
So I don't think it's a completer or complete understanding to say that your personality your Go your brain. You the personality are out here creating everything that happens to you. That just doesn't track because they're things that happened. That no rational being would choose. Yes, I know. We're irrational. Okay now, I'm babbling, desire creates the Universe. I don't know what that means, but I do know the fact that it is sticking in my head means that there's a lesson there for me.
If it is true that desire creates the universe, What do I do with that information? And how do I take action from it? If it is true that craving creates suffering, that is what the Buddha meant by all life is suffering. We are craving an attached and non craving creates Freedom. How do I release?
We're craving. In order to achieve Moksha Freedom. So that the universe that is created is a universe of Freedom Universe of Enlightenment, Universe of connectedness a universe of being one with everything. That's the question. And what coincidences is Professor life bringing me to help me along my path. My friend row has a newsletter and that always starts with a quote and the most recent one I read had a wronged us quote in it and like coincidence,
deductive, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot dot. so I guess, my my offer to you is If craving creates suffering and non-attachment creates freedom. And our attachment or non attachments desires are creating our universes. What would you like to do, to create the universe? You are currently experiencing? Okay, y'all. That's what I got. That's what I got.
You might want to pop into the love serve, remember foundation, and maybe read some Ram Dass, maybe check out Wayne Dyer or maharaji and see if anything of their teachings pops for you. desire creates the universe, such a provocative thing to think about, and with that, I trust that you being whole perfect and complete as you are and being worthy and deserving as all the good that there is. I'll find a way forward that is beautiful and amazing, and joyful, and peaceful, and
enriching and fulfilling. And delighting and even more fabulous. Then your ego mind can imagine. Okay. Until next time. I am so honored that you share time with me. If you've listened this far, then something here was a value to you. Would you please be a friend of the podcast and share it with at least one other person? The podcast is available on most platforms including YouTube and I need your help to get the word out.
So please like, subscribe, and share, and a five star review on iTunes, would be glad chefs kiss. Thank you so much. See you next time.