Ram Dass’s Teaching on ‘Somebodyness’ vs. ‘Everybodyness’

We are not just the tip of the iceberg.

Ram Dass and Neem Karoli Baba

The photo above comes from my desktop, with Ram Dass on the left and his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, on the right. They’ve been sitting there 24/7 for several years now.

Actually, that’s not true. Whenever my octogenarian Louisiana in-laws visit, they stay in my office which doubles as a guest bedroom. My wife always puts the photos in my desk drawer for those visits, thinking they would freak her parents out. Which they might.

God knows, my kids all think I’m crazy for having photos of two weird-looking, bearded guys staring at me all day. I just keep telling them that these are two of my favorite people who’ve ever lived. Because they are.

My latest Ram Dass binge

Needless to say, I’ve embarked on another of my periodic Ram Dass binges. That means listening to his talks from the 1970s and 1980s which I’ve done for the past week.

If you want to listen to some of the wisest, most accessible spiritual talks you’ll ever hear, go to ramdass.org and check them out. You won’t be disappointed.

I find Ram Dass’s words as compelling as any spiritual teacher I’ve read or listened to. Eloquent and wise do not begin to describe the totality of his work.

This was on full display a few days ago when listening to a talk he gave in 1986 at the Omega Institute in New York. In it, Ram Dass did his usual by drilling down to the core of the spiritual path.

He said:

“It’s about again and again letting go of who you think you are to become who in fact you are. Each time you let go of your ‘somebodyness,’ you can hear more clearly your ‘everybodyness.’”

Let’s take those two sentences one by one.

Who are we?

What does it mean to let go of we think we are? Let’s all do this right now. Without thinking too much, who do you think you are? Take thirty seconds and write down what comes to mind.

I’ll go first. I think I’m David Gerken. Male. A funny guy. Good athlete. Dad of three kids, husband to Stephanie. Worked in politics in Washington and as a writer in Hollywood. Writer of all things spiritual. Five feet, ten inches tall. (I’ll omit weight if that’s okay with you…)

What Ram Dass is saying, and he’s right, is that that is not who I am. It is a tiny part of who I am. All those things combined comprise the part of me that is the tip of the iceberg protruding through the water.

We are NOT the tip of the iceberg

The important part of the me, the essence of me, is the vast mass of the iceberg standing below the water. That is the conscious me. The divine me. The me that arose from The One Source and that will return to that source when I leave my body upon death.

Am I going deep enough?! Yikes, it feels weird even typing those words…And yet, I believe them wholeheartedly.

Because after fifteen years of immersing myself in all things spiritual, I’ve learned that that is what it all comes down to: Realizing that the vast bulk of who we are is that iceberg below the water line (our consciousness) and not just that tiny part popping through.

Thinking that the totality of who we are is, in my case that funny, male, athletic writer, is the central malady afflicting humankind. We get that taken care of and it truly will be a wonderful world.

How to let go

How do we let go of who we think we are to become who we really are? As I’ve written ad infinitum previously, we do the work of quieting down inside and observing that ego that we think is us…Again and again and again.

Now to the second sentence of Ram Dass’s teaching:

“Each time you let go of your ‘somebodyness,’ you can hear more clearly your ‘everybodyness’”

This one goes even deeper, believe it or not. How?

I’ll explain by relating something Neem Karoli Baba often said, usually apropos of nothing. It was two short words in Hindi:

“Sub ek.”

It means “All one.” What does that mean?

It means we are all one. We all come from that same One Source I referenced earlier.

And this isn’t some kumbaya “let’s all come together and live as one” hippie BS, either. I sense deep down that it is the truth of the universe.

We’re vessels for consciousness

That core essence or consciousness that we all share experiences life through us in countless ways due to our unique eyes, ears, genes, environments, parents and on down the line. And so at our deepest level, we truly are all one.

But thinking we are our egos, or our ‘somebodyness,’ as Ram Dass puts it, makes us feel separate. And alone. And scared.

Eckhart Tolle uses the metaphor of the lonely ripple in the middle of the vast ocean that is scared…because he doesn’t realize that he is part of the ocean. That he is the ocean. Such is the case with the mass of humanity.

But, Ram Dass said, the more we let go of that somebodyness, the more we sense our part in the everybodyness; that is, that we are all one.

The takeaway

The bottom line on all this? We are so much bigger, better and deeper than what we think we are.

Our life’s work lies in quieting our minds enough that we can know and live that reality.