Mirabai Bush and Raghu Markus join Ram Dass to celebrate the release of Ram Dass and Mirabai’s new book, Walking Each Other Home. The group shares a conversation about how embracing death can allow us to live more fully.

Walking Each Other Home Pick up your hardcover copy of Walking Each Other Home and learn to embrace the mystery of death with compassion and love:

Show Notes

Coming Home (Opening)

The group discusses the journey of putting Walking Each Other Home together. Mirabai talks about her part in writing the book. She reflects on what makes the content of Walking Each Other Home so special.

“We realized that Ram Dass has been writing about dying since Be Here Now. The words are all there from the very beginning, but as he aged and had so many life experiences. He knows about death and dying in a different way now than he did then. We thought that maybe in conversation we could capture the subtleties around the difference. In knowing and holding it more deeply and fully than when we started out this journey.” – Mirabai Bush

Listen to Mirabai’s conversation with Melanie Moser about writing Walking Each Other Home on Ep. 23 Shakti Hour Podcast

Opening the Doors of Perception (6:50)

Ram Dass reflects on the role that psychedelics have played in changing his perception of life and death. He relives his introduction to psilocybin and how they revealed an inner world that Ram Dass knew to be home.

“The first time I took psilocybin was with Tim and Allen Ginsberg. I left them, the living room was dark and I sensed somebody in the corner and that somebody was me, it was my social role. I looked down and the couch was all there, but my body wasn’t there. And I said, ‘I’m home, I’m home, I’m home,’ because the home was inside of consciousness and love; I met myself there” – Ram Dass

Practicing for Life (18:45)

How does embracing the reality of death allow us to live life more freely? The group talks about the important lessons that death can teach us about our lives.

“Your soul has experienced death and birth. And death and birth. The soul experiences death as a transition.” – Ram Dass

Fear of Change (31:20)

Ram Dass speaks about how cultivating spaciousness, awareness and clarity relieve the fear and anxiety around change. He looks at the role of the witness in facilitating this shift in our perspective of impermanence. Ram Dass shares advice for being with another person during their process of dying.

Respect for the Mystery (41:05)

What teaching does the mystery of what happens after death hold for us? The group talks about how respecting this mystery opens us to embrace life more fully.

“It’s about dropping into the moment. If you are in the moment and open to whatever is going to happen it doesn’t really matter what happens after you die. It is embracing the mystery, not being afraid of the mystery; being able to live with it and just enjoy.” – Mirabai Bush

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This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of 1440 Multiversity – California’s newest retreat destination which hosts a faculty of thought leaders in fields including mindfulness, neuroscience, relationships, the creative arts, and more.