Welcome to Being Here Now!
Have you ever wanted to experience the teachings of Ram Dass but weren’t sure where to start?
Are you ready to go to the source material that has influenced dozens of the leading teachers in the transformational community?
Being Here Now is a special Sounds True “dream project” that gives you a single, in‑depth program to guide you through the full landscape of Ram Dass’ teachings.
To realize this vision, Ram Dass’ closest friends and colleagues came to our aid, delving into the enormous treasure trove of content available. They selected and edited the very best teachings from his live event recordings.
Then they organized these gems into Ram Dass’ central topics and sequenced them into an unfolding series of sessions—in essence, an extended two-month retreat with this legendary teacher.
Our goal?
To make available for the first time ever a whole new way to experience the full breadth and depth of Ram Dass’ teaching legacy in a truly immersive way.
With Being Here Now, we think we’ve far exceeded our hopes.
This in-depth, nine-session online program invites you—whether a curious newcomer or lifelong fan—to embark upon an extraordinary adventure into the heart of your true Self.
What, exactly, will you explore? Have a look below and join us to experience your own transformation through this wisdom!
Seven Reasons to Experience His Teachings
in a Whole New Light
Many of us never had a chance to experience Ram Dass at his best—teaching “in the moment” at live gatherings across the globe. Now, for the first time, Being Here Now makes available a way to experience the full landscape of this luminary teacher’s insights, humor, and inspiration spanning many decades. This online immersion invites you to:
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Rejuvenate Your Meditation or Yoga Practice
Discover the missing ingredient that Ram Dass calls “loving awareness,” the merging of heart and mind so often missing from our mindfulness training routines.
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Move Beyond the Limits of Your “Somebodyness”
Ram Dass had a singular way of sparking our attunement to the vast, true Self beyond the little ego—and he does it again and again in these legendary sessions.
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Flow with Your Greatest Challenges and Crises
Physical and emotional pain are inevitable, but when we learn to stop struggling and invite grace, they become valuable “grist for the mill.”
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Re-Envision Your Relationships
Our connections with others are the ultimate “yoga,” or vehicle, and the stories and insights here will radically shift the way you relate to your family, friends, and colleagues at work.
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Find the Love and Wonder within Dying and Death
Ram Dass’ tender accounts of being with the dying—and of consciousness beyond the physical body—reveal to us the natural flow of beginnings and endings that we’re all a part of.
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Discover the Liberation and Joy of Service
If you’re a devoted spiritual practitioner who’s felt little pull toward humanitarian service, Ram Dass’ stories and insights will leave you eager to start helping others in need, not out of obligation but with heart-centered compassion and desire.
When Ram Dass first went to India in 1967, he was still Dr. Richard Alpert, an eminent young Harvard psychologist and psychedelic pioneer with Timothy Leary. Dissatisfied by the temporary glimpses of higher consciousness offered by psilocybin and other mind-expanding drugs, he ventured eastward. In India, he met his guru Neem Karoli Baba, affectionately known as Maharaj-ji. Maharaj-ji gave Ram Dass his name, which means "servant of God."
From there, everything changed—his intense
dharmic life started, and since the 1970s he’s
written, taught, and led gatherings, becoming
a pivotal influence on our culture.
Be Here Now, Ram Dass’ influential book—conceived in a spiritual commune and first
printed on brown wrapping paper—remains a perennial bestseller to this day. It’s a
highly readable Western illumination of Eastern philosophy and how to live joyously
100 percent of the time in the present, and continues to be the instruction manual of
choice for generations of spiritual seekers.
In February 1997, Ram Dass suffered a debilitating stroke that left him struggling to
continue traveling and speaking. Today, Ram Dass resides on Maui, where he leads
retreats and conducts online webcasts, seminars, and courses.
For more than 40 years, his life has served as a spiritual laboratory, where he has
explored many paths from both East and West in his attempt to understand the nature
of consciousness. Along the way, Ram Dass has touched countless seekers with his
personal search for greater truths.
“Be here now” is still his simple yet life-transforming message.
We hope that you’ll join us in the immersive experience and celebration of Being Here Now with this beloved and gifted teacher!
Perhaps no other teacher in the West has had a greater impact on a generation of spiritual seekers than Ram Dass.
Since the 1970s, millions experienced their first spark of awakening in the pages of his spiritual classic Be Here Now or at one of his live gatherings.
He’s inspired those from all walks of life, including luminaries like Jack Kornfield, Joan Halifax, Lama Surya Das, Wayne Dyer, Sharon Salzberg, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Rachel Naomi Remen, and many more.
If you’ve never had a chance to experience Ram Dass in person—or you think you’ve heard everything he has to say—you might be wondering:
Why is he regarded as one of the most gifted and beloved conduits of
Eastern spirituality in the West?
Are his insights still relevant today?
And what, exactly, makes him stand out from all the other spiritual
teachers out there?
Many would say it’s his uncommon sincerity, wit, and depth of spiritual insight.
Or his gift for teaching in person—the way he weaves traditional teaching stories and his own often hilarious true life accounts to transform abstract wisdom into real world insight.
But, by far, what most elevates Ram Dass is his uncanny gift for taking us on the journey from our heads to our hearts, whatever our age, cultural roots, or spiritual upbringing.
Week 1—Identifying with Our True Self, Shifting Our Point of View
From the moment we incarnate as a human being, we are identified with our bodies, feelings, and thoughts. Yet, beyond our thinking mind and sensory perceptions, there is a vast realm of the soul which is pure consciousness, love, joy, and peace. In this opening session, Ram Dass explores how our individual souls are part of that unitary consciousness—and how small, subtle shifts in our point of view can remind us of our true nature of being.
Week 2—Witnessing the Incarnation, Becoming Awareness
The gateway to our true Self is awareness. Here, we’ll learn to become an impartial observer of each instant of our incarnation—to become more present in the moment and at the same time to extricate ourselves from our desires, thoughts, attachments, regrets about the past, and worries about the future.
Week 3—Meditating to Purify the Mind
Ram Dass’ teacher Maharaj-ji said, “Bring your mind to one point, then wait for Grace.” And Patanjali, the sage who wrote the Yoga Sutras, begins with, “Citta vritti nirodha, consciousness arises when thoughts dissolve.” In this session, Ram Dass encourages us to bring the mind to one point, to quiet the cacophony of our thoughts.
Week 4—Dealing with Suffering and Challenging Emotions
Physical, emotional, and mental crises come up constantly to disturb the essential peace of the heart and mind. They’re part of life and we can’t avoid them. But how we experience these challenges profoundly magnifies or reduces their impact. In week four, we’ll learn about ways to engage with difficult emotions and physical pain as well as how love, when combined with awareness, serves as the great neutralizer of suffering.
Week 5—Cultivating Love and Compassion
In this session, we delve into the topic of love. It’s the phenomenon of merging, of becoming one. Ram Dass explores compassion as the most direct manifestation of our interrelatedness—being with another’s suffering—and how it opens our hearts more than any other experience. He also guides us through a Loving Awareness meditation and how to begin loving ourselves as the first step in authentically loving others.
Week 6—Relationships and the Spiritual Path
“The yoga of relationship is by far the toughest,” muses Ram Dass. “Don’t believe me? Go stay with your parents for a week.” Here, we explore the difference between attachment and unconditional love, why honesty is our greatest ally, and the immense courage required to bring radical truth to our closest relationships.
Week 7—Karma Yoga
“Love others. Serve others. Remember God in all forms.” This is the essence of what Ram Dass’ teacher Neem Karoli Baba taught. Karma
yoga—the transformation of everyday work and activity into spiritual practice—affects us not through the intellect but in action. According to the Bhagavad Gita, “We bring our lives into ultimate harmony by surrendering the fruits of our actions to the divine.” In this session, Ram Dass draws upon many traditions and true stories to show us the power of seva or “selfless service.”
Week 8—Love and Death
“In our Western culture,” Ram Dass reflects, “death has come out of the closet, but it’s still not openly experienced or discussed.” Because of the identification with our body, our ego fears annihilation. Living in faith that we are truly a soul helps transform that fear. And the grief of losing a loved one yields to the certainty that though bodies pass away, love does not die. Informed by his experience in being with many people in their dying process, in this session Ram Dass helps us to resolve our fears of death and the loss of those we love.
Week 9—SPECIAL BONUS
Ram Dass met with his friends Krishna Das and Raghu Markus to create this exclusive video session for those of us participating in this program. Here, he reflects on his evolving insights on “being here now,” finding grace within suffering, and more.
- Nine weekly, in-depth sessions exploring Ram Dass’ major wisdom themes—over 40 years of inspiring wisdom from a luminary who continues to delight generation after generation
- More than an hour of audio and video teachings each week, lovingly selected by Ram Dass’ friends, colleagues, and Sounds True’s producers
- Companion reading to reflect upon each week’s theme—coauthored by Ram Dass and Rameshwar Das, who wrote Polishing the Mirror together
- Complete downloads of the sessions—all the videos, audios, and written teachings to support your ongoing evolution of the awakened heart-mind
Plus
Three Bonus Gifts—Free with Your Registration
Register now and you’ll also receive the following special bonuses, a $68 value:
Experiments in Truth
A Collection of Classic Ram Dass Lectures from the
'60s to the '90s
(Regular price $48.97 FREE)
In this audio program, you will join this pioneer of engaged spirituality in America and master storyteller for eight inspiring lectures, each one a gem of humor, insight, and intelligence about the spiritual journey today. Here is real-life wisdom for people of all faiths and all walks of life. (Audio download: 7 hours 42 minutes)
The Impact and Legacy of Ram Dass
A Video Interview Series with Tami Simon
(Available exclusively to Being Here Now participants)
An intimate glimpse into Ram Dass, the person behind the legend. This program features Tami Simon in conversation with five modern day luminaries as they share Ram Dass’ impact on their teachings and on their lives. Join Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Lama Surya Das, and Krishna Das as they recount how they met Ram Dass and grew spiritually as friends and contemporaries. (video download)
Ram Dass: Fierce Grace
A Film by Mickey Lemle (video download)
(Regular price $19.99 FREE)
Filmmaker Mickey Lemle—who has known Ram Dass for more than 25 years—weaves vivid footage from hippiedom's glory days with intimate glimpses of Ram Dass today as he continues to remake his life since being—in his words—“stroked” in 1997. Named by Newsweek as one of the Top Five Non-Fiction Films of 2002, Ram Dass: Fierce Grace is an engrossing and poignant meditation on spirituality, consciousness, healing, and the unexpected grace of aging. (Video download: 1 hour, 33 minutes)
“Heartbreaking and inspiring.”
—Stephen Garrett, Time Out New York
“Profoundly moving.”
—William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Order now and receive:
- Eight archival audio and video sessions—12 hours, 55 minutes of Ram Dass teachings
- A 45-minute bonus video session—exclusive to this online course, Ram Dass in conversation with Krishna Das and Raghu Markus
- Original weekly readings by Ram Dass and Rameshwar Das, coauthors of Polishing the Mirror
- Complete audio, video, and PDF downloads—including full transcripts of the recordings—to enjoy in your ongoing journey
- Experiments in Truth—An eight-session audio program with Ram Dass (a $48.97 value)
- The Impact and Legacy of Ram Dass—A video interview series with Tami Simon
- Ram Dass: Fierce Grace—A film by Mickey Lemle
(a $19.99 value)
We unconditionally guarantee your satisfaction with all Sounds True products for one year when purchased via our website. If you are not 100% satisfied with Being Here Now for any reason, simply return it with receipt for a full refund or exchange—whichever you prefer.
Sounds True, Ram Dass, and his friends
invite you to sign up to be part of the Being Here Now online course
You Save $100
We unconditionally guarantee your satisfaction with all Sounds True products for one year when purchased via our website. If you are not 100% satisfied with Being Here Now for any reason, simply return it with receipt for a full refund or exchange—whichever you prefer.