Becoming Nobody
A film by Jamie Catto
I was familiar with Ram Dass I had listened to a few of his recordings. He is a teacher in the school of non-duality. There are many teachers of the school and essentially the teaching comes down to the titles on the teachers' books, for Ram Dass that is ‘Be Here Now’.
The message is ‘Just be’ yet many of us seem to need to know ‘how’. That has spun, movements, communities and everything that goes with such enterprises.
Jamie Catto’s film which in 80 minutes tries to encapsulate the essence of Ram Dass teaching summed up like the books in the title of the film.
I have been reading Catto’s book ‘Insanely Gifted’ which in the darkness of Winter Solstice led me to his website. From there I ventured unto his zoom gatherings and from there to a few of his workshops. He is an easy character to identify with as despite his successes he chooses to be what I would call ‘spiritually naked’.
It was only a matter of time before I watched his film.
I had the strange sense after watching it that I kind of knew Ram Dass. I believe that was due to knowing a little of Catto. It is as if Jamie introduces you to his friend Ram Dass. His spiritual nakedness is right there with Ram Dass as he interacts with someone who Netflix’s calls ‘A Spiritual Icon’.
Four key messages take you through the film
- The next message you need is always right there
2. Treat everyone you meet like God in drag
3. We are all just walking each other home
4. Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama
In between, there is film footage of Ram Dass at different stages of his life recalling as a Harvard professor his LSD experimentation with Timothy Leary, finding his Guru and losing his ego to a life of teaching ‘Becoming Nobody’.
It is interspersed with conversations between him and Catto which for me returns us to spiritual nakedness.
g
