Mindrolling with Raghu Markus

This week, we pause to remember the life, presence, and artistry of a friend of the show who will be deeply missed.
Recorded in 2021, this conversation features Grammy-winning artist John Forté in his first appearance on the podcast. John and Raghu talk about the spirit of music, the highs and lows of success, and John’s experience headlining the Ram Dass Soul Land Music Series.
John Forté (January 30, 1975 – January 12, 2026) is survived by his wife and two children. If you’d like to offer support, a donation link is available here: Honoring John Forte by Supporting His Family
This special episode features an inspired conversation on:
Community as the spirit of music: John Forté’s Brooklyn upbringing in the economic downturns of the 70s and 80s
The emotional, mental, and physical hardships of struggling to get by in an underserved community
Perseverance through love: John’s inspiration for his musical career
John’s highest highs, lowest lows, & what it is like to start over
John’s friendship with the iconic Ms. Lauryn Hill, linking up with The Fugees, and their co-creation of a Grammy-winning, multi-platinum record, The Score
John's stint in prison, where in his cell, his refuge and musical rebirth came in the form of an acoustic guitar
Music as internal alchemy and Ram Dass’s influence on John’s song Gong Guru from his album Riddem Drive
Venturing further into spirituality: John’s deep affinity for wisdom teachers like Ram Dass, Terence McKenna, Alan Watts, and Abraham Hicks
Listen to John’s other visit to the Mindrolling Podcast on Ep. 405 and a conversation about resonance, integration & catharsis on this special Ram Dass Fellowship with host, Jackie Dobriska, available on Ep. 124 of the Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast.
About John Forté:
John Forté is a Grammy-winning recording artist best known for his work with the hip-hop group, The Fugees, writing and producing songs on their multi-platinum record The Score. After a stint in prison while riding the volatile waves of success and failure, John coupled his refuge of music with messages of wisdom and love from inspirational spiritual teachers. Listen to John’s album Riddem Drive, and don’t miss him on the Soul Land Music Series: Songs & Stories Inspired by Ram Dass.
“My journey with music has been the relationship of having it, experiencing it, seeing it morph and take on different colors and shapes. It showed me from a very early age that collaboration was going to be the key for the source of my continued inspiration—working with others, finding that harmony—that’s the spirit of it. The spirit of music is community, it’s communication, it’s air itself.” –John Forté
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Author and nonviolence practitioner Kazu Haga explores why fierce vulnerability is a vital practice for inner and outer transformation.
Read an excerpt of Kazu’s book, Fierce Vulnerability, and purchase your own copy HERE.
This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and Kazu Haga chat about:
Kazu’s difficult upbringing and how meeting Japanese Buddhist monastics transformed his life
Combining social action and spirituality
The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and addressing both inner violence of the spirit and outer systemic violence
How an “us vs. them” worldview fuels division, suffering, and ecological destruction
Healing childhood trauma and collective trauma by integrating the fractured parts of ourselves
How getting vulnerable opens up our capacity to heal
The Seven Fires Prophecies from the Anishinaabe people
Rebuilding the world through spiritual practice rather than material accumulation
Remembering that personal healing is inseparable from collective healing in an interdependent world
Listening deeply and being comfortable with uncertainty
Check out the book Hospicing Modernity for more powerful insights on social action
About Kazu Haga:
Kazu Haga is a trainer and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice, a core member of the Ahimsa Collective and the Fierce Vulnerability Network. He is a Jam facilitator and author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm and Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging from Collapse. He works with incarcerated people, youth, and activists from around the country. He has over 25 years of experience in nonviolence and social change work. He is a resident of the Canticle Farm community on Lisjan Ohlone land, Oakland, CA, where he lives with his family. You can find out more about his work at www.kazuhaga.com.
“The work of nonviolence has to start by looking at the ways in which we hold internal violence of the spirit, that unhealed anger, hatred, resentment, delusion, as well as our unhealed traumas, and understanding how all of that is the source of external violence in the world. Yes we need the social movements, but if we’re not grounded in some sort of inner work and introspection a lot of the violence we want to change out there gets replicated in our own work, in our own communities.” –Kazu Haga
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Longtime friends David Silver and Raghu Markus discuss Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and the legacy of Dzogchen maintained by his four sons.
Grab a copy of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s memoirs, Blazing Splendor, for a deeper look into his magnificent life.
This time on Mindrolling, Raghu and David have a discussion about:
The life and teachings of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, one of the greatest Dzogchen meditation masters of the 20th century
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s sons and how they continue to spread Dzogchen wisdom to the West
Core principles of Dzogchen philosophy, including the nature of mind and nondual awareness
Understanding cognitive emptiness and the illusion of a solid identity
Why contemplating death and impermanence can be a path to liberation
Working consciously with loss and mortality before the end of life
Not falling into the trap of believing this life is permanent
Viewing dreams and meditation as parallel practices for awakening
The patience and discipline required to form new spiritual habits
Living fully while recognizing the inevitability of death
Learn about dealing with the bardo of dying in the book In Love with the World by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche or hop into The Bardo Guidebook by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche
About David Silver:
David Silver is the former co-host of the Mindrolling podcast. He is a filmmaker and director, most recently coming out with Brilliant Disguise. Brilliant Disguise tells the unique story of a group of inspired Western spiritual seekers from the 60s, who in meeting the great American teacher, Ram Dass, followed him to India to meet his Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, familiarly known as Maharaj-ji. Two days before he left his body, Maharaj-ji instructed K.C. Tewari to take care of the Westerners, which he did resolutely until the day he died in 1997. Silver’s #1 charting MGM/UA/Warners film, “The Compleat Beatles” is the critically acclaimed biopic movie about history’s most famous band. The term ‘rockumentary’ was first applied to this two-hour movie. Rolling Stone recently described the film as a “masterwork.” Silver’s Warner Brothers’ feature film, “No Nukes” also started the whole trend of music/activism feature documentaries.
“Urgyen and his sons and all Dzogchen people believe that dreaming is as important as meditating. Dreams are fluid, anything can happen in a dream. You can fly, you can walk through a wall. What Mingyur says is that is the perfect analogy for life itself; life is as fluid and as transparent as that dream, but we don’t know it because we think it’s solid because we can’t put our finger through our hand.” –David Silver
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In this music-filled re-release, Raghu Markus is joined by spiritual musician Jai Uttal to chat about opening our hearts through the magnitude of melodies.
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In this episode, Raghu and Jai Uttal discuss:
The formation of melodic structures and how music is as boundless as an ocean
Letting go of the idea that we must master an instrument in order to create music
Getting into the flow of devotional music and honoring God through our presence rather than perfection
The friendship between Jai Uttal and Ram Dass and Jai’s journey to India
The Baul’s of Bengal and mystical, spontaneous verse
Jai’s single, Holy Mad Men, inspired by Bengali-style music
More Bengali-influenced music by The Band
The dotara, an Indian folk instrument Jai frequently uses
Musical creation as the legacy of satsang and a path to continued connection
Check out Ali Akbar Khan to hear some classical Indian Ragas and the sarod instrument that Raghu and Jai discuss.
About Jai Uttal:
Jai Uttal is a Grammy-nominated sacred music composer, recording artist, multi-instrumentalist, and ecstatic vocalist. Having traveled extensively in India, he met many great saints and singers and Bhakti Yoga became his personal path. Jai has been leading, teaching, and performing kirtan around the world for nearly 50 years. He creates a safe environment for people to open their hearts and voices.
“Music is way more vast than any one human person can understand.” –Jai Uttal
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Anne Lamott, Raghu Markus, and RamDev reveal that letting go of how life should be opens the door to compassion, healing, and contentment with reality.
This Dharma Session was recorded at the December 2025 Ram Dass Open Your Heart in Paradise Retreat. Learn about upcoming community events HERE.
This week on Mindrolling, Raghu, Anne, and RamDev hold a talk on:
Standing in presence with change and impermanence
Ram Dass’ eye-opening story of a farmer and his son
How investing in that which changes leads to suffering
Collective healing through all the grief in the world
The negative emotions that arise when we resist change
Creating an intimate, compassionate relationship with the sense of loss
Anne’s experiences of radicalizing change in her own life
Wise Hope: taking leaps of faith and hoping that things will work out as they should
About Anne Lamott:
Anne Lamott is the New York Times best-selling author of many books, including collections of essays, novels, and long-form non-fiction, including the classic writing manual Bird by Bird and child-rearing memoir Operating Instructions. In addition to being a novelist and nonfiction writer, Lamott is also a progressive political activist, public speaker, and writing teacher. Keep up with Anne on Instagram.
“It's very hard to be human here; it's scary. I feel like Cindy-Lou Who sometimes, like this tiny little being. ‘Be still my heart and wait without hope’–what I hope is that things will sort out the way they should for the common welfare.” - Anne Lamott
About RamDev:
RamDev Dale Borglum is the founder and Executive Director of The Living/Dying Project. He is a pioneer in the conscious dying movement and has worked directly with thousands of people with life-threatening illness and their families for over 30 years. In 1981, Dale founded the first residential facility for people who wished to die consciously in the United States, The Dying Center. He has taught and lectured extensively on the topics of spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, on caregiving as a spiritual practice, and on healing at the edge, the edge of illness, of death, of loss, of crisis. Check out RamDev’s podcast, Healing at the Edge, on the Be Here Now Network.
Learn more about The Living/Dying Project at livingdying.org
“When we’re in the heart, it gives us the possibility of being with grief and change in a way that leads to healing. There is a profoundly wonderful line by Rumi where he says ‘grief is the garden of compassion.” –RamDev
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