I am watching a Mind Rolling podcast filmed a few weeks after the passing of Ram Dass, and a celebration of the movie “Becoming Nobody” when it was released on DVD. It is a classic as Raghu Markus and friends reminisce about their years of experience with Ram Dass.
I encourage all of you reading these words to see the film “Becoming Nobody.” I have the DVD but you can buy it on YouTube, as well.
There is more than enough training in the world as to how to become somebody, starting almost immediately after birth. People will bask in the miracle of birth before the somebody training begins.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Is an example of somebody training. Ambition, wanting to be the best at everything, is an example of somebody training.
Ram Dass is our guide on how to become nobody. Part of becoming nobody is to let go of anger, for instance, not work through it, or give it any space, but to mirthfully release it. Anger is a reaction that limits, and arises as part of somebody training. Anger is a backlash when a person wants something to be different than what it already is, and works in a spirit of deprivation.
Becoming nobody has no time or space. It is a metaphorical consciousness where we live from as our somebody training drops away.
Embracing our nobodyness is one of the ways we can prepare for the passing from this life into the next. Ram Dass explains how living from the heart chakra and shifting away from taking life so seriously, is a shift into nobodyness, away from our overthinking about everything. Our neuroses are still there, but now in nobody consciousness, we can make friends with them. All of them.
And laugh much more often. OM