Be Here Now

by Ram Dass

But what all this boils down to is that I was really a very good game player.

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

(Buddha and other high beings have noted that the best time of day to work on oneself is between 4 and 7.)

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.

To break your identification with your own thoughts is to achieve inner freedom.

“Bad company is loss, and good company is gain; . . . In company with the wind the dust flies heavenwards; if it joins water, it becomes mud and sinks.”—Tulsi Das

Truth gets you high. There is no doubt about it. Lies bring you down. To lie to another person you have to see them as “him” or “her” or “them”, i.e., as an object.

“Indeed we are running away all the time to avoid coming face to face with our real selves, and we barter the truth for trifles.”—Way of a Pilgrim

“What makes a man unworthy of the Temple is the cowardice which prompts him to avoid the experience of shame, for this avoidance breeds oblivion. For shame accepted is the greatest treasure. The Door will open before your eyes when you have understood this: the only thing that is humiliating is helplessness. The cause of such helplessness lies in ignorance of your errors; awareness thereof, on the contrary, attracts you to the power of your God. If you deny the existence of your fault or error, it will strengthen its hold over you. If you recognize it, your awareness will destroy it.

“Illusions are like mistresses. We can have many of them without tying ourselves down to responsibility. But truth insists on marriage. Once a person embraces truth, he is in its ruthless, but gentle, grasp.”—Rabazar Tarzs

“Can he rectify false weight whose own scales are uncertain? Can you enlighten your neighbor while you yourself have no light?”—Ramakrishna

That is, you understand protest as a form of social communication among US . . . and that “where it counts” there is only US.

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

But do it without attachment. 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. Such identification with roles may fill bellies, but it increases human distance. A conscious being knows that there is neither giver nor receiver . . . there are only empty bellies, storehouses of wheat . . . and effort required to move the wheat from the storehouses to the belly. It is OUR wheat, OUR belly, OUR effort. And when all this energy has been transferred, a conscious being realizes that nothing has happened.

Certainly you must drop out . . . but the drop-out is internal, not external. One drops out of one’s attachments; one drops out of one’s identification with the illusion of separateness.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”—Jesus

“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.”—Samuel Johnson

the manner in which you obtain the energy from others affects them. Because we are all interrelated, what affects another person affects you.

You will know him because the simple dance that may transpire between you—such as handing him change as you board the bus—will strengthen in you the faith in the divinity of man. It’s as simple as that.

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.

For when you say “I fell in love” with him or her you are saying that he or she was the key that unlocked your heart—the place within yourself where you are love.

Reflect on the thought that if you are truly Here and Now— (a) it is ENOUGH, and (b) you will have optimum power and understanding to do the best thing at the given moment. Thus when “then” (the future) becomes Now—if you have learned this discipline—you will then be in an ideal position to do the best thing. So you need not spend your time now worrying about then.

This is your last party. Speak to everyone there, tell them all about yourself, about your mistakes and your suffering, about your love and your longings. No longer do you need to protect yourself, no longer do you need to hide behind a wall or a suit of armor.

Each time we can “let go”—of goals, of our ego-image compulsions, of controlling, of driving ourselves—and BE instead of DO, we die (as ego) and are reborn (as Self, as Buddha). Use a signal (the name Ram, a mantra word or phrase, a mandala image) to trigger that death whenever you are aware of your body being up-tight in the shape its desire-tension holds it in;