Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast Be Here Now Network

Jackie Dobrinska and Bruce Damer chat about insight into ourselves and outsight into the world in this recording from the Ram Dass Explorers Club.

The Ram Dass Explorers Club is a free virtual group wherein members delve into pivotal movements within the psychedelic renaissance while paying homage to the enduring legacy of Ram Dass. Join HERE to embark on explorations of expanded consciousness, guided by the themes of awe, transcendence, union, and beyond.

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In this episode, host Jackie Dobrinska speaks with Bruce Damer about:Ram Dass’ work and how he continues to inspire othersHow Bruce came to know Ram DassThe way that Ram Dass hits on the center of thingsAlbert Einstein and thought experimentsEntering flows of connection and timeThe etymology of psychedelicsHow we create our own realitiesComing into embodied wisdom and the serpent of the internetRam Dass as a beacon to the reality we needNavigating psychedelics and having adequate preparationKnowing that we are always held by loveAbout Dr. Bruce Damer:

Dr. Bruce Damer is a scientist, psychonaut, and humanitarian. Dr. Damer is Chief Scientist at BIOTA Institute, UC Santa Cruz. He is an astrobiologist working on the science of life’s origins, spacecraft design, psychedelics and genius. Dr. Bruce has spent his life pursuing two great questions: how did life on Earth begin, and how can we give that life (and ourselves) a sustainable pathway into the cosmos? A decade of scientific research with his collaborator Prof. David Deamer at the UC Santa Cruz Department of Biomolecular Engineering resulted in the Hot Spring Hypothesis for an Origin of Life published in the journal Astrobiology in 2019. Dr. Damer also has a long career working with NASA on mission simulation and design and recently co-developed a spacecraft to utilize resources from asteroids. You can keep up with Dr. Bruce Damer on Twitter.

About Jackie Dobrinska:

Jackie Dobrinska is the Director of Education, Community & Inclusion for Ram Dass’ Love, Serve, Remember Foundation and the current host of Ram Dass’ Here & Now podcast. She is also a teacher, coach, and spiritual director with the privilege of marrying two decades of mystical studies with 15 years of expertise in holistic wellness. As an interspiritual minister, Jackie was ordained in Creation Spirituality in 2016 and has also studied extensively in several other lineages – the plant-medicine-based Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, Sri Vidya Tantra, Western European Shamanism, Christian Mysticism, the Wise Woman Tradition, and others. Today, in addition to building courses and community for LSRF, she leads workshops and coaches individuals to discover, nourish and live from their most authentic selves. 

Learn more about Jackie’s work at asimplevibrantlife.com.

“We can create our realities. We’ll determine whether we are constricted or opened at every moment by our choices of what we produce for our fellow humans.” – Bruce Damer

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Moving through the senses, JoAnna Hardy guides listeners in a meditation to acquire stillness of the mind.

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In this episode, JoAnna Hardy guides us through:The benefits of having clarity and a still mindThe breath-body central focusGaining self-trustPaying attention to the sounds and sights around us without assigning meaningWorking the muscle of awarenessReengaging with the breath when the mind gets busyThis recording is from the Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center: Mindfulness for Educators.

About JoAnna Hardy: 

JoAnna Hardy is an insight meditation (Vipassanā) practitioner and teacher; she is on faculty at the University of Southern California, a meditation trainer at Apple Fitness+, a founding member of the Meditation Coalition, a teacher’s council member at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a visiting retreat teacher at Insight Meditation Society, and a collaborator on many online meditation Apps and programs. Her greatest passion is to teach meditation in communities that are dedicated to seeing the truth of how racism, gender inequality and oppression go hand in hand with the compassionate action teachings in Buddhism and related perspectives to social and racial justice. 

“It’s important that we start that way, with this breath-body central focus, to really collect, gather, and sustain the capacity of our mind to be more still. From that stillness, this really beautiful self-trust comes. We can trust ourselves more because we are not at the whimsy of that chaotic mind.” – JoAnna Hardy

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Distinguishing commentary from direct experience, Gil Fronsdal helps us break free from the conventions and comparisons that the mind makes.

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In this episode, Gil Fronsdal speaks to listeners about:Paying homage to those who have purified their heartsDirect experience versus attempting to describe thingsThe way that comparison arisesSelf-image and appreciating our own suchnessResting in the part of ourselves that is not an idea or a conceptThe conditioning that can happen from societyWisdom from sitting with physical painLiving in the present moment instead of the stories we tell ourselvesLetting things be as they areSeeing God in our simple, direct experiencesComing back to the breath and practicing all throughout the dayThis 1998 talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

About Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

“Most of us know the wonderful smell of a rose, but if you could try to describe in words what that fragrance is, you’d have a hard time I think. The actual sense, the direct experience of smell, is something we can all experience; seeing this flower as it is. In Buddhism, there is a lot of emphasis on seeing things as they are.” – Gil Fronsdal

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Nina Rao interviews Nani Ma about her deep devotion to serving her guru and her service work with Ganga Prem Hospice.

If you are interested in donating to Ganga Prem Hospice, you can do so through a donation to End of Life Care International with a memo specifying you would like it to go to Ganga Prem.

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This time on the Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast, Nani Ma shares with us:Her religious upbringing into ChristianityBeing pulled to India from a young ageSeeking liberation from suffering and painThe story of meeting her guru, BabajiThe beauty and power of the Ganges riverHer daily routine and how she meditatesHow to deal with difficulties by watching our breathReaching one-pointedness through chanting single-worded mantrasMoving through the physical death of a guruForming cancer clinics in India and Ganga Prem HospiceAbout Nani Ma:

Nani Ma is from the United Kingdom and sought spiritual enlightenment at a very young age. One day, she realized that serving the multitude and helping the needy is also an aspect of spiritual practice. So, she started taking care of the terminally ill cancer patients in the hospital, guiding the people who are suffering from pain and death to embark on a new journey. Together with Dr. A. K. Dewan, she established the Ganga Prem Hospice. Ganga Prem Hospice is a spiritually-orientated, non-profit hospice for terminally ill cancer patients. The Hospice has been constructed at the foot of the Himalayas on the bank of the river Ganga.

Krishna Das is offering two benefit kirtan concerts in Rishikesh October 2024 - details on KrishnaDas.com/Events

“When we watch our breath, it slows down. The breath and the mind are connected. Either the breath slows down and the mind slows down, or the mind catches hold of one thing, which is the name, and the name has its power by itself. The name has its own power.” – Nani Ma




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Guiding listeners through the seven factors of enlightenment, Trudy Goodman shows us the play of awakening in daily life.

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In this episode, Trudy Goodman holds a talk on:Loosening our grip on self-involvementLiving lovingly and joyfully in our daily livesThe seven factors of enlightenmentThe things that torment us and connect usHow nature offers metta to usRemaining poised amidst little catastrophesEquanimity and being balancedTrusting in the unfolding of realityAbout Trudy Goodman:

Trudy is a Vipassana teacher in the Theravada lineage and the Founding Teacher of InsightLA. For 25 years, in Cambridge, MA, Trudy practiced mindfulness-based psychotherapy with children, teenagers, couples and individuals. Trudy conducts retreats and workshops worldwide.

This 2011 talk was recorded at Spirit Rock Meditation center and originally published on Dharmaseed

“Being a Buddhist or practicing these Buddhist teachings is to live lovingly and joyfully without getting so caught or identified with the suffering self. And not just out in some fantasy mountain cave that we might imagine ourselves in or on meditation retreat at luxurious Spirit Rock or in the monastery, but in the midst of whatever we’re doing.” – Trudy Goodman

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Taking us on a pilgrimage through Buddhist teachings, Gil Fronsdal describes meeting the dharma in ourselves.

This recording from Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on Dharmaseed.org

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This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Gil Fronsdal teaches on:Meeting the dharma in ourselves through direct experiencesGoing into the world with a phenomenal capacity for non-harmingLooking at what really motivates and drives usThe story of the Kalama SuttaRecognizing what brings welfare vs. what brings harmBreath as a form of assurance and how our easeful, relaxed breath can be our teacherHindrances and what keeps us removed from ourselvesComing home to our selves, our bodies, our sensationsAllowing the flow of experience to move through usReleasing all of the things we hold ontoAbout Gil Fronsdal:

Gil Fronsdal is the co-teacher for the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California; he has been teaching since 1990. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana in the U.S. and Asia since 1975. He was a Theravada monk in Burma in 1985, and in 1989 began training with Jack Kornfield to be a Vipassana teacher. Gil teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center where he is part of its Teachers Council. Gil was ordained as a Soto Zen priest at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1982, and in 1995 received Dharma Transmission from Mel Weitsman, the abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. He currently serves on the SF Zen Center Elders’ Council. In 2011 he founded IMC’s Insight Retreat Center. Gil has an undergraduate degree in agriculture from U.C. Davis where he was active in promoting the field of sustainable farming. In 1998 he received a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University studying the earliest developments of the bodhisattva ideal. He is the author of The Issue at Hand, essays on mindfulness practice; A Monastery Within; a book on the five hindrances called Unhindered; and the translator of The Dhammapada, published by Shambhala Publications. You may listen to Gil’s talks on Audio Dharma.

“It is so simple and so basically human, the capacity to recognize that we’re suffering or that we’re happy. In relationship to grand religious philosophies and ideas, it can seem maybe inconsequential to base one’s religious life on being able to recognize where is harm and where is welfare. But that relates at the heart to what the Buddha was pointing at. It points to something that we are able to experience and see and know for ourselves directly.” – Gil Fronsdal







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