Be Here Now
On December 28 2006, I read Ram Dass’ book, Be Here Now
I had heard of Ram Dass from a whole lot of people, and picked up snippets of his philosophy, the main one being the title of his book - BE HERE NOW. It left me a little skeptical, mostly because of how many people worship his writings. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed, it’s that spiritual leaders with blind followers suck.
But I gave the book a chance anyways, figuring there’s something worthwhile in everything popular, it’s just a matter of cutting through the BS to get to it. So I began by reading the first few pages to get an idea of Ram Dass’ point in the book.
It turns out, he was a very successful (by stereotypical American standards) phsychiatrist working at Harvard before he took an extreme spiritual path. He owned a plane, a large house, fancy cars, the whole nine yards. He was frustrated with his life, though, and felt instinctively something wasn’t right. He had so much, yes, but he still felt empty, and all the things he had weren’t adding up to enough.
Then he met Timothy Leary and decided to take psylocibin as phychiatric research. What happened when he took psylocibin changed his life.
He realised that his life was just a game that he was playing very well. Beneath that surface game lied something deeper, more profound, and more worthwhile than just worldly pursuits. He was intrigued, and knew he was onto something. He never had such a profound undertanding so quickly.
So he got more involved with psychedelics, and eventually realized he couldn’t continue with his egotistical pursuits at Harvard. At the same time he also realized he couldn’t achieve true spiritual power while relying on a psychedelic drug to get him closer to a more profound experience. He decided to take the spiritual path of following a guru.
Now, here’s where I get upset. The whole guru thing. The idea that one person has achieved something so profound spiritually they’ve grown above it and assume they can teach better than the best experience - personal. To me, spirituality is something so important that we can’t let someone else tell us what is and what isn’t. We must experience and know for ourselves.
But he followed his guru anyway. And he came upon some profound lessons. Lessons that are found in every religion to some extent. That’s because every lasting religion was started by people experiencing the same thing under different circumstances - the eternal in the now in the eternal now.
What the hell does that mean?
Be here now. This moment we are currently present in is the only real thing we ever have. It’s never going to become something else, it’s never going to stay the same. Wherever we are, we’re interpreting our experience. If we interpret pain is unbearable, it is, if we interpret pain is fleeting, it is. Whatever we decide to interpret as real becomes real.
Be here now. Surf the moment to death. Our lives can end at any point in time. Nothing is a given, the only given is this moment we find ourselves in right now.
Experience the beauty and appreciate every breath.
Couldn’t every religion break itself down into that one sentence? At it’s most basic form, every religion is saying the same thing:
Be here now.
In other words,
Experience the beauty and appreciate every breath.
The desire for a beautiful, amazing life filled with an incredible lover and thousands of friends isn’t real. The only thing that is is the moment we are in right now. Why let this moment be spoiled by petty desires that aren’t real? Surf the current moment to the end instead, in a constant state of gratification and presence. By focusing completely on the current moment, we can experience the eternal. We can focus on truly helping. There is no attachment, there is no death, there is only what we feel what we know right now. The future holds nothing, doesn’t exist.
Does that scare you?
It should. Because it’s so profound and so simple. And because it’s provable by daily experience. When you wake up, you immediately begin interpreting your reality and deciding what to focus on. Are you focusing on the process of awakening, or are you worrying about problems in your life that haven’t affected you yet?
It’s a simple step. The most profound wisdom is always the simplest. Start now… be here now.
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January 5th, 2007 20:28
A singing teacher is a guru who helps you use your own voice to make better vocalizations. This guru can’t give you a voice that you don’t already have.
That’s the same principle that applies to all gurus. They help you find the road that you wandered away from, and can only help you bring forth what is already inside you. In the end, it’s really about you, and the guru is just your coach in the process.
Parents and teachers are our gurus in this sense. Some of our friends would also qualify.
When you read or hear an item that appears to have taught you something (like the Ram Dass book mentioned in this post), all that’s really happened is that a truth you already believed in has surfaced for a few moments.
Our goal is to surface these truths as often as possible and for as long as possible. Enlightenment is a state where you get to be in that place all the time.
A guru is very important when you’re starting out or need reinforcement. But the goal is to be self-sufficient.
I would not denigrate another guru or others’ use of gurus. It’s a little egotistical to do that because the implication is that one is above such spiritual assistance.
On the other hand, I’d probably walk away from a self-advertised guru because that person is making assumptions about his or her own abilities and talents which may not be true. Especially when the services seem to require the exchange of money or favors.