Falling Into the Heart — Presence, Surrender, and the Grace of Living Fully
Podcast Recap: Do You Feel Heard? – Episode 26
Guest: RamDev Dale Borglum, spiritual teacher and founder of the Living/Dying Project
Theme: Presence, surrender, healing through compassion, and meeting life (and death) with an open heart
What does it mean to live from the heart?
In this moving episode of Do You Feel Heard?, Derrick sits down with RamDev Dale Borglum to explore the deep terrain of presence, surrender, and the radical act of opening ourselves to love in all its forms.
Through stories, wisdom, and humor, RamDev shares how his decades of teaching, working with the dying, and learning from great spiritual masters have shaped a way of being that is both practical and profound.
Living Presence: Here, Not Elsewhere
At the core of RamDev’s teaching is presence—the choice to be here, now, in this very breath.
“We spend most of our lives trying to get somewhere else. But freedom is here, at this moment.” – RamDev
By bringing attention to the body, to sensation, to breath, we reconnect with life as it is—rather than the stories we build around it.
Healing Through the Heart
RamDev speaks about the heart not as a metaphor, but as a lived space of awareness where healing and compassion arise naturally.
- The heart is where forgiveness takes root.
- The heart is where we can hold grief without drowning in it.
- The heart is where separation dissolves.
“When you fall into the heart, you discover you can hold everything—the joy, the pain, the loss, the love.”
Surrender vs. Control
So much suffering, RamDev explains, comes from our need to control. Spiritual maturity comes when we recognize the futility of control and practice surrender—not passivity, but a trustful opening to what is.
He draws on lessons from his own teacher, Neem Karoli Baba, and from Ram Dass, who embodied surrender through humor, compassion, and presence.
“Surrender is not giving up—it’s giving in to grace.”
Death as Teacher
Having guided countless people through the dying process, RamDev offers a unique perspective: death is not the end, but a profound teacher of how to live.
Facing mortality—our own or others’—brings clarity about what truly matters. It’s an invitation to let go of pettiness and open to love.
“If you’re not ready to die, you’re not fully ready to live.”
Practical Tools for the Path
Throughout the conversation, RamDev grounds the spiritual in the practical, offering tools that listeners can use in daily life:
- Breath awareness as a doorway into presence.
- Body scans to release tension and come back to the moment.
- Heart focus meditations to anchor awareness in love.
- Compassion practices that soften judgment and fear.
Favorite Quotes from Episode 26
“Freedom is always in the present moment.”
“The heart is big enough to hold everything.”
“Control is the great illusion—surrender is the great liberation.”
“Death teaches us what really matters: love.”
“Healing begins when we stop running from the truth of now.”
Final Reflection
The heart is not just an organ.
It’s a doorway.
And when we step through—into presence, into compassion, into surrender—we discover that freedom has been here all along.
Fall into the heart. Live from there. Die from there. And everything changes