Be Here Now

by Ram Dass

It was wise, rather than just knowledgeable.

The seeds of the ability to be able to confront, and even disagree with, an existing institution and know and trust that inside place that says it’s all right. It’s something I could never have done without anxiety until that moment—until that day.

were. We were developing a language among ourselves. If Admiral Byrd and an exploratory party are going deeper and deeper into the polar region, the things they think about and are concerned about and are interested in become less and less relevant to somebody living in New York City. This was our situation.

cult is a shared system of belief.

There was a kind of probablistic hierarchy of experience, so that the most likely experience everybody had was a heightened sensitivity to all of their five senses and speeding up of the thought process.

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

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

“Raja Yoga” and I realized that he had been teaching me Raja Yoga, very systematically—an exquisite scientific system that had been originally enunciated somewhere between 500 BC and 500 AD by Patanjali, in a set of sutras, or phrases, and it’s called Ashtanga Yoga, or 8-limbed yoga—and also known as Raja or Kingly yoga. And

To the ego, it looks like it’s miracles and accidents.

The most exquisite paradox as soon as you give it all up you can have it all

Because: You that lives and dies is you ego And fear of death only comes through

Are you going to be here Or not? It’s as simple as that!

And you realize that every moment you are a full statement of your being, and you’re sending out vibrations that are affecting everything around you,

You can only protest effectively When You love the person whose ideas you are PROTESTING AGAINST You’re creating opposites

The first one concerns the fact that life always has in it the element of unfulfillment:

Birth Old Age Sickness not getting what You want getting what you don’t want even Getting what you want in this physical world Is going to be suffering because: You’re going to lose it! It’s always in time ! Anything that is in time is going to pass away.

The Second Noble Truth is: The cause of suffering Is desire

The opposite of craving is saying Baby, this is the way it is yeah ok here & now this is it I Accept The Here & Now Fully • as • it • is • Right at this moment !!!

The cause of suffering is attachment or desire They all say

But if, for the sake of attaining a definite aim, he struggles with the desires that hinder him—he will then create a fire which will gradually transform his inner world into a single whole.—Ouspensky —In search of the miraculous

You and I can always starve together if we’re backstage in the here & now if we’re not in the here & now no matter how much food we put in our bellies it’s never going to be enough and that’s the feeling of western

The Subtle Mother And every time you step back one step from Your own melodrama the cosmic humor gets Higher and higher The absurdity of it all! The extreme beauty of it all!

the jungle path So Ram’s brother Can see Ram Ram is god Sita is Ram’s wife & Laksaman Is Ram’s brother & they’re going along A jungle path & It is god who is Ram & Sita behind him & then the brother Laksaman & Laksaman can’t see his brother who is god Because of this woman Sita who walks Between them Every now and then she just moves Just a little To one side So Laksaman

Divine nature walks behind god

Divine Mother Kali She is my mother She is my father She is my brother She is my lover She is my sun She is my moon She is my child She is the grass She is the dew Look at how much she can teach Her tongue dripping blood a circle of skulls around her neck a dagger in one hand giving birth in the other the whole process of nature how exquisitely subtle

Do it without attachment.

see through all that veil . . . through all your own desires. . . . . . Beyond sita walking in the path

There’s a sikh story about a holy man who gave two men each a chicken and said: “Go kill them where no one can see.” One guy went behind the fence and killed the chicken. The other guy walked around for two days and came back with the chicken. The holy man said: You didn’t kill the chicken?” The guy said: “Well, everywhere I go, the chicken sees.”

When you know how to listen everybody is the guru Speaking to you

The best I can tell you about karma is: If you are Pure spirit You are not matter!. . . . . .you are that Eternal Spirit. . .

it is the stillness the calmness the fulfillment when you make love and experience the ecstacy of unity. . . That’s the place!

When you experience a great achievement, and you feel a moment of exhilaration. . . That’s the place! When you see a moment of poetry in a flower or in words • or in art • the way its supposed to be.. This is the place! Right here! It’s Buddha consciousness It’s Christ consciousness

My thinking mind is a perfect servant and a lousy master I am watching he-who-speaks

So long as one feels that he is the doer he cannot escape from the wheel of births and deaths

this return to the roots is called quietness quietness is called submission to fate

where you see that behind all this there is all this in its om in its unmanifest form always eternally you perceive that nothing is really happening at all nothing ever happens nothing is going to happen there’s nothing you’ve got to do there’s no doer to do it anyway

“He who clings to the void and neglects compassion does not reach the highest stage. But he who practices only compassion does not gain release from the toils of existence. He however who is strong in the practice of both remains neither in Samsara nor in Nirvana. He neither remains in the void nor in the world.”

With desire . . . with anger..greed..lust . . . fear.. is only creating more karma, which is keeping you in the game . . . on the wheel of birth and death once you see through that. . . Desires can’t help but fall away

And suddenly I dig who I am at that moment when I’m stoned! High! I am Out of time! I am out of space!

Suffering is great. It’s like straightening-by-fire It’s purifying

funny thing . . . want another paradox? This trip requires total suffering but: It’s got to be suffering that is no suffering

that when Christ is lying there and they’re nailing the nails in He’s saying, “Oh man, does that hurt!”? He’s probably looking at the guy who’s nailing him with Absolute Compassion He digs why the cat’s doing it. What he’s stuck in How much dust covers his eyes Why he’s got to be doing it

That’s the way it is He said the night before: “Well, tomorrow is the big trip. Yeah-right-these are the nails Wow! Look at that!” Am I he who is being pained? No! that’s the thing. Once you know that then: pleasure & pain loss & gain fame & shame are all the same They’re all just happening

Eventually, it turns out that SADHANA IS EVERYTHING YOU DO.

“We are born into the world of nature; our second birth is into the world of spirit.”—Bhagavad Gita

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”—Jesus

All you can do is purify yourself in body and mind. Each stage of purification will make you sensitive to new levels of perception.

The message may be in the form of a teacher or a lover or an enemy or a pet or a rock or a chemical or a book or a feeling of great despair or

Exercises

Exercisse to be done

“By letting it go it all gets done The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try The world is then beyond the winning.”—Tao Te Ching