Be Here Now

by Ram Dass

“Don’t think about the past. Just be here now.” Silence. And I’d say, “How long do you think we’re going to be on this trip?” And he’d say, “Don’t think about the future. Just be here now.” I’d say, “You know, I really feel crumby, my hips are hurting . . .” “Emotions are like waves. Watch them disappear in the distance on the vast calm ocean.”

As they say in the Sikh religion—Once you realize God knows everything, you’re free.

Vivekananda’s book “Raja Yoga” and I realized that he had been teaching me Raja Yoga,

“WARNING: if you don’t have room in your livingroom for an elephant—don’t make friends with the elephant trainer . . .”—Sufi mystic

Answer: A teacher points the way. A guru is the Way. In the course of your awakening you will have thousands of teachers. Throughout all of this teaching, the guru waits, beckoning from

“You can’t rip the skin from the snake.

It will shed its skin when it is ready.”—Hari Dass Baba

The world is won by those who let it go.

This technique is known as tapasya or “straightening by fire.” “If a man gives way to all his desires, or panders to them, there will be no inner struggle in him, no

“I realized in this place that people feared silence more than anything else, that our tendency to talk arises from self-defense and is always based upon a reluctance to see something, a reluctance to confess something

to oneself.

a yogi’s stomach should be half full of food, one-quarter full of water and one-quarter full of air.

OM ANNAM BRAHMA RASO BISHMUR BHOKTA DEBO JANARDANAHI AWAEM GYANTWA TO YO BHUNKT ANN DOSHORN LIPYATE

am Lord, not of light alone, But of darkness also, For I the One am all-pervading.”—Book of Tokens “I, the Lord, destroy with darkness. But with darkness do I also create. The wise discern this. Fools, deluded by outward appearance, Create a demon out of the web of their folly.”—Book of Tokens

Using the stuff that makes up your daily life as the vehicle for coming to Union is called karma yoga.