Be Here Now

by Ram Dass

“Quietness is master of the dead.”—Tao Te Ching “Those who know do not talk And talkers do not know.”—Tao Te Ching

“Oh Lord, Thou shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise.”—Bible

1. Don’t eat too much. The traditional way of saying this is that at the conclusion of a meal, a yogi’s stomach should be half full of food, one-quarter full of water and one-quarter full of air.

different kinds of foods at different stages of his journey. When he is first shedding his habitual meat diet he may wish to substitute whole grains, such as brown rice and whole wheat, along with vegetables, some fish, fruit, honey instead of sugar, nuts and dairy products.

Abstain as much as possible from strong (hot, spicy or pungent) foods. Also go light on stimulants such as coffee, tea and “spirits.” Certain spices are useful in digestion and these may be used in moderation.

“If a person eats with anger, the food turns to poison.”

Daily Exercise Working with one of the books containing the words of a realized being (e.g., the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, the words of Jesus in the Gospels, Sayings of Ramana Maharshi or Ramakrishna, the I Ching, etc.), take one passage—perhaps a phrase—certainly no more than a page. Read and re-read and re-re-read it. Then let your thoughts work around it. Paraphrase it. See how it applies to others and to yourself. Note if and how it differs from the way in which you usually think about things . . . different assumptions, etc. What are its implications regarding your own journey? Read it again. What laws of nature is it reflecting? Then, sitting quietly, let your mind associate to the passage. And then be quiet. Certainly a half hour a day is not too long to spend on this exercise.

Excerise 2

they are not doing asanas as a means of union with the One. A

It’s going to start by relaxing yourself, just with breathing. Spread your arms wide, take in a breath, and then bring your arms across your chest and let the breath out. Let the breathing happen naturally, becoming deeper as you relax your arm movements more. Arms across your chest and then out, and then across your chest and then out. Breathe through your nose. Continue for a minute or two.

It is more usual to evolve to the point where one eats what one needs with enjoyment, though without attachment.

As this happens with more and more desires, that is, as they fall away, you at first experience loss, emptiness and despair in your life . . . a deadened meaninglessness.

If your energy were all localized in the third chakra, then it would still be simple . . . all power. You would see each person only in terms of whether that person could be used to enhance your ego.

You would experience fear and hatred of those who held power over you. Your behavior would be subservient or officious or benignly paternalistic. You would be unable to see another human being as a peer but only as superior or inferior to you in one dimension or another.

Thus the first chakra is associated with survival, a jungle or animal mentality.

The second chakra is associated with reproduction and sexual gratification. The third chakra concerns power and mastery.

It is only when we arrive at the fourth chakra, the heart chakra, that we enter into a realm which starts to transcend the ego. This fourth chakra is primarily concerned with compassion. The fifth is concerned with the seeking of God. The sixth (located between the eyebrows) is concerned with wisdom (the third eye); and the seventh, with full enlightenment or union.

Though we may realize intellectually that the spiritual journey requires the transformation of energy from these preoccupations to higher centers, we find it difficult to override these strong habits which seem to be reinforced by the vibration of the culture in which we live.

The alternative is to continue to arouse the second chakra energies and to attempt to direct these now manifest energies into spiritual realms. This technique is known as sexual tantra.

And there he would manifest himself in 16,000 forms—one for each gopi—and proceed to make love to each in the way most desired by her. This brought all the energy contained in the desire for merging that exists between a lover and the beloved (as two, i.e., dualism) into the service of union in total love with God. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “Do what you do but dedicate the fruits of your acts

The practice starts with meditation together and after perhaps the sharing of a cardamon seed. Slowly the dance evolves . . . the dance in which every breath . . . touch . . . movement . . . even thought . . . is totally savoured (compassionately understood) by the one consciousness that you are sharing. You are both man and you are both woman . . . and there is an act in which two bodies are involved, but the act (like two hands clapping) is a unity experienced by a single consciousness.

an acceptance of “how it is” . . . an ability to see the divine plan in everything . . . even in your failings and the failings of others.

them . . . and of man and woman. To be “not caught” means to be unattached. To be unattached does not mean to be uninvolved, it means to be involved “without attachment.”

YOU MAY PROTEST IF YOU CAN LOVE THE PERSON YOU ARE PROTESTING AGAINST AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF.

The effect of “conscious” protest is that it reduces the polarization and the paranoia and thus allows each side to hear the other’s concern more clearly because there is less fear and anxiety.

To be attached means that you identify with your role as the GIVER of help. This in turn casts the other person in the role of the RECEIVER of help.

Buddha says: “As long as you think there is a ‘do-er’ you are still caught in the wheel of birth and death.”

He meant that you do what you do, but you do not identify with the doing of it. All “doing” is happening as part of the dance of nature . . . and though your body and mind speed about their business, you remain in your calm center . . . HERE . . . “where we all are.”

The method of gaining your livelihood must not, by its very nature, increase the paranoia and separateness in the world.

It is difficult because it starts with an action which you are initially performing for an end of maintaining your individual ego, and it overrides or converts that motivation into one of service to the higher Self which transcends ego. In order to perform karma yoga, there is a simple general principle to keep in mind: bring a third component into every action. If, for example, you are digging a ditch, there is you who is digging the ditch, and the ditch which is being dug. Now add a third focus: say, a disinterested person who is seeing you dig the ditch. Now run the entire action through his head while you are digging. It’s as simple as that.

The witness is always in the Here and Now. It lives in each instant of living. It

“In regard to every action one must know the result that is expected to follow, the means thereto, and the capacity for it. He, who being thus equipped, is without desire for the result, and is yet wholly engrossed in the due fulfillment of the task before him, is said to have renounced the fruits of his action.”—Gandhi

‘And yet there is something. When I am about to make such a stand, I guard against any diminution of my vital power. I first reduce my mind to absolute quiescence. Three days in this condition, and I become oblivious of any reward to be gained. Five days, and I become oblivious of any fame to be acquired. Seven days, and I become unconscious of my four limbs and my physical frame.

“Love has to spring spontaneously from within: and it is in no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together: but though love cannot be forced on anyone, it can be awakened in him through love itself. Love is essentially self-communicative: Those who do not have it catch it from those who have it. True love is unconquerable and irresistible; and it goes on gathering power and spreading itself, until eventually it transforms everyone whom it touches.” The specific object of love which concerns

That is, each partner in love must always strain to see through the veils of personality and body to see the Divine Essence within—within himself and his partner. And he must come to see the veils as veils . . . as maya, the

Evenings the men gather, squatting or sitting on the ground in a circle with their chillums (pipes) and a harmonium, a set of tabla (drums), perhaps a serangi or violin (stringed instruments) and cymbals . . . and they take turns singing the stories of the holy beings such as Krishna and Ram. Night after night they participate in this simple pastime, keeping themselves close to the Spirit.

“God respects me when I work But he loves me when I sing.”—Tagore

Find a comfortable position where your head, neck and chest are in a straight line. You may lie down if reclining doesn’t lead to sleep. You may wish to use earplugs if there is much erratic external noise. They are not necessary, especially if you can find a quiet place or time of night in which to do

Exercise 3

That is, can you use the rational mind to transcend itself? The answer is yes. And the technique is known as jnana yoga, or the path of knowledge arrived at through reasoning and discrimination. As with the use of sexual energies in sadhana,

works with data derived from the senses and the associative processes of the intellect (the memory). It works by analysis, a systematic processing technique that is based on the laws of logic.

It is interesting that in the autobiographical accounts of the great breakthroughs in man’s understanding of the universe, the role of intuition, or some mysterious comprehension, led to the breakthrough rather than any systematic analytic process. “I didn’t arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”—A. Einstein

“Make your will one! Don’t listen with your ears, listen with your mind. No, don’t listen with your mind, but listen with your spirit. Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but the spirit is empty and waits on all things. The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind. It is easy to keep from walking; the hard thing is to walk without

Psychedelics as an upaya at first seem to hold infinite promise. But as one works with them further, one comes to realize the possible finiteness of the method. At this point, however, the individual may have become so attached to the experience of “getting high” that he doesn’t want to continue on his way by finding other methods. At this point he is being dishonest with himself, conning himself. Such a tactic is a short-term strategy at best and usually produces negative emotions. “A man who has attained certain powers through medicines, or through words, or through mortification, still has desires, but that man who has attained to Samadhi through concentration is alone free from all desires.”—Vivekananda “But when the King came in to look at

The goal of the path is to BE high, not GET high.

that state. 3. Sadhana is a bit like a roller coaster. Each new height is usually followed by a new low. Understanding this makes it a bit easier to ride with both phases.

It would seem wiser to start your sadhana from exactly where you are, and then let any changes occur in your style of life and environment in a slow and natural fashion.

Create a quiet corner in your home . . . an Om Home . . . a launching pad to the infinite . . . a meditation seat . . . a shrine. Bring to it that which is simple and pure: a mat, perhaps a candle, maybe a picture of a realized being whose life has turned you on—Buddha, or Christ, or Ramakrishna, or Ramana Maharshi, possibly some incense. Create a seat in which you can sit comfortably with spine straight out and turn off your body. Those who have developed the triangular seat of padmasa (full lotus), siddhasa (half lotus), or even sukhasa (the easy pose) . . . remember, no suffering. In this corner establish a regular ritual for purification, for reflection, for calming the mind. Just as water wears away stone, so daily sadhana will thin the veil of avidya (ignorance).

Meals are a sort of meditation, in silence, with as little noise as possible.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a manual of practices for dying, and being re-born. There