Be Here Now

by Ram Dass

I looked up at them and I laughed and did a jig and went back to shoveling snow. And they closed the windows and then I looked up and inside they were smiling too. That was my first experience of giving a contact high!

“To him who has had the experience no explanation is necessary, to him who has not, none is possible.”

where they would look at another person and see the way in which the other person was similar, rather than different from themselves.

“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. I had been through many years of psychoanalysis and still I had managed to keep private places in my head—I wouldn’t say they were big, labeled categories, but they were certain attitudes or feelings that were still very private. And suddenly I realized that he knew everything that was going on in my head, all the time, and that he still loved me. Because who we are is behind all that.

I think the message is that you don’t need to go to anywhere else to find what you are seeking.

“If a pickpocket meets a saint, he sees only his pockets.” Then he’d get up and leave. Or he’d write, “If you wear shoeleather, the whole earth is covered with leather.” These were his ways of teaching me about how motivation affects perception. His teaching seemed to be no teaching because he always taught from within . . . that is, his lessons aroused in me just affirmation . . . as if I knew it all already.

“Snakes Know Heart.”