Be Here Now

by Ram Dass

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.” He had just sort of wiped out my whole game. That was it—that was my whole trip—emotions, and past experiences, and future plans. I was, after all, a great story teller.

Now

“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.

Perception

(All evil vanishes from life for him who keeps the sun in his heart.)—Ramayana

Sun

One of the manifestations of pran, or life force, in the human body is breathing. By working with your breath you are able to tune in to the larger energies of the universe. Furthermore, there is an intimate relationship between thought and breath. When you calm your breath, there is simultaneous calming of the mind. When you succeed either in stopping the breath altogether or in stopping all thought, then you are in a state of samadhi or super-consciousness. The two are so intimately related that to stop one is to stop the other also.

Pranayam breath

So the simple rule of conscious participation is: YOU MAY PROTEST IF YOU CAN LOVE THE PERSON YOU ARE PROTESTING AGAINST AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF. You may disagree with all his values, but behind all of them . . . HERE WE ARE . . . all manifestations of the Spirit.

Protest without polarization

The method of gaining your livelihood must not, by its very nature, increase the paranoia and separateness in the world. A dishonest or exploitive venture would be a case in point. Most means of gaining livelihood do not, in and of themselves, increase the illusion of separateness. However, the beings who do the work do it—because of their own level of involvement—in such a way as to increase the illusion. When you are involved in such vocations, then it is your work on yourself which makes the particular vocation a vehicle for bringing man out of illusion and into yoga.

Livelihood

“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move towards higher levels.”—A. Einstein

Thinking

“I didn’t arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”—A. Einstein

Rational

1. Ask yourself: Where am I? Answer: Here. Ask yourself: What time is it? Answer: Now. Say it until you can hear it. 2. Set alarm clocks or design your day or put up notes on the wall so that a number of times during the day when you are in the midst of various occupations you confront yourself with the questions: (a) Where Am I? and then answer (see answer below) (b) What time is it? and then answer (see answer below) Each time you do this, try to feel the immediacy of the Here and Now. Begin to notice that wherever you go or whatever time it is by the clock . . . it is ALWAYS HERE AND NOW.

Where am i