Contents
> Video> Summary> Highlights> Key Insights> Featured> Extended Analysis> Conclusion> Sequences> Related Videos> Transcript
You Can’t Have An Us and Them – Here and Now Podcast Ep. 228
Summary
A transmission on the impossibility of “us versus them.” Ram Dass lays out the necessity of the center, the integration of paradox, the end of polarization, and the primacy of inner work over outward correction.
Highlights
• “Either everybody goes or nobody goes.”
• The center as an evolutionary requirement.
• The trap of spiritual or political fundamentalism.
• The responsibility to work on oneself rather than instruct others.
• Unity consciousness and diversity held simultaneously.
• Addiction as attachment rather than identity.
• Ritual as a living container for awakening.
• The value of conscious community and shared practice.
• The center as an evolutionary requirement.
• The trap of spiritual or political fundamentalism.
• The responsibility to work on oneself rather than instruct others.
• Unity consciousness and diversity held simultaneously.
• Addiction as attachment rather than identity.
• Ritual as a living container for awakening.
• The value of conscious community and shared practice.
Key Insights
• Polarization collapses the collective field; centrism stabilizes it.
• Identity is a construct, not an essence.
• The paradox of “both/and” is a mature spiritual stance.
• Inner clarity shapes social impact more than ideology.
• Addictive behaviors are intense habits, not ontological truths.
• Psychotherapy and meditation complement each other; neither alone is complete.
• Boundaries can coexist with an open heart.
• Identity is a construct, not an essence.
• The paradox of “both/and” is a mature spiritual stance.
• Inner clarity shapes social impact more than ideology.
• Addictive behaviors are intense habits, not ontological truths.
• Psychotherapy and meditation complement each other; neither alone is complete.
• Boundaries can coexist with an open heart.
Featured in this video :
Extended Analysis
Ram Dass maps a path beyond dualistic thinking. He tracks how fear, destabilization, and rapid societal change fuel fundamentalism. He revisits the rise of individualism in the 50s–60s, with its liberating force and its unintended recoil. He frames centrism not as compromise but as clarity rooted in unity consciousness.
He insists on the discipline of setting limits without closing the heart. He underlines the need to meet others beyond ideology, at the level of being, and only then return to the diversity of pathways.
He redefines addiction as a powerful attachment, highlighting the danger of over-identification with pathology. Spiritual practice alone may not resolve deep psychological knots; psychotherapy alone does not open the transpersonal dimension. Freedom arises in the integration of both.
At the core: the dissolution of rigid identity and the maturation of presence.
He insists on the discipline of setting limits without closing the heart. He underlines the need to meet others beyond ideology, at the level of being, and only then return to the diversity of pathways.
He redefines addiction as a powerful attachment, highlighting the danger of over-identification with pathology. Spiritual practice alone may not resolve deep psychological knots; psychotherapy alone does not open the transpersonal dimension. Freedom arises in the integration of both.
At the core: the dissolution of rigid identity and the maturation of presence.
Conclusion
The way forward bypasses rejection and polarization. It requires an integrated center, conscious boundaries, and ongoing inner work. The future belongs to those who can hold paradox, honor diversity, and act without closing their hearts.
.svg)