Ram Dass Now

A great yogi once was asked what’s the secret to enlightenment, he replied “when I’m happy I laugh, when I’m sad I cry, when I’m hungry I eat and when I’m tired I sleep.”

Simplify everything. Our egos and emotions want to complicate it to no end making us think that our issues are somehow the defining factor in our experience. That may be true as it relates to our perception but the trick at getting through our issues and being here and happy right now is to simplify everything. This is not an original thought I know, I’m just saying it because it rings true to my heart at this moment and I need to feel that.

I’ve always found that my tendency is to want to go “through the doorway too fast.” My intellectual mind wants there to be some trick to being on the path like I have to learn all of these complicated mantras, I have to be a level 3 yogi, I have to be a scholar of the vedas, etc. All of these things are great I guess but most of the time I think it’s ego that’s driving my motivation to do all of these things faster and better. My favorite beautiful yogi teacher Saul David Raye always reminds his students that the ancient yogi mystics never heard of Level 3 yogis, that we made that up. And I’m learning that all of the conflicting motivation makes it hard to deal with my issues (or with others) a problem. Matters of the heart when infused with ego sure does make for some confusing realities.

I feel that there’s a little misunderstanding with how eastern spirituality is being practiced in the west. Because of the explosion of yoga and bhakti there is a whole new world that is being exposed to us in the west. So many new ideas, texts, asanas, chants, teachers and traditions. We get so hungry to learn them all but as we all know the far out thing is that they are all telling us to Be Here Now. That it’s all ready within. Just don’t go “through the doorway with your ego” (pg 98). That’s it. Again, simplify everything.

It’s so frustratingly perfect that Maharaj-ji would constantly reply to queries with “love people. feed people. remember God.” I can see it now – all of these smart westerners coming to him with all of these complicated problems and questions and then he would just look at you and say that. Over and over again. Ram ram ram ram ram. Over and over again. Ram ram ram ram.

It all sort of lies in the “funny about that” place. Whenever I find myself in conflict I just want to reply “love serve remember” or repeat the maha mantra. I want to go there so badly but I have to learn that even though I want things to be that simple I must understand that everybody else’s experiences are different. We are all unique and are in different spots on the path. Furthermore I’ve also learned that if you try to force your trip on somebody who doesn’t want to hear it then you just make matters worse. When in suffering or conflict finding that delicate place where there is beautiful common ground is the sacred dance. That’s the place where you realize that most of the conflict you may be in is actually quite small and insignificant. You go through so much struggle to realize that love really is such a sweet solution.

We are nearing the end of our blogging journey. Only one more post left. I feel that this week is inspiring me to report back on how this book can be applied to my daily life. What it did for our culture is immense, what Maharaj-ji was like is very interesting but how we can apply this to our lives and be better people needs to be said. It’s my hope that I can contribute in a small way.

Being in love, sharing sacred song

Pages 79-87 is my second favorite section of this book. If you read my post last week, where I was frustrated about worldly/spiritual and sacred/profane, you will totally understand how these pages resolve much of my difficulty. I am trying to think of things to write about these wonderful pages, but honestly I can’t. I like what is written on these pages much better than any serious restatement I could make or digestion I could render. So naturally, I thought I’d write a silly poem.

Be Here Now: the poem.

Don’t have a cow. Remember BE HERE NOW.
Or have a cow if a cow you’ll allow.
But make a vow to steer your bow
to this moment, this presence, to the now.
You ask all these questions,
saying how? how? how?
Don’t you see, you are she and she is thou?
All there is is here and now.

Believe oh believe that you are well-endowed
As human, a mind, a cat, a meow.
But the mind makes bombs go POW! CRAUOW! BLAOW!
Well, we do the best we can when we’re here now.
But the newsman shouts “Housing is down, and so is the Dow!”
And there is nothing to do. So BE HERE NOW.

Don’t get attached. Sure, say “Wow!”
And don’t go so far as to tell world “Ciao”
The Tao is the way and the way is the Tao.
So, like, here we are. Like, sooo here and now.
Dig your roots or learn to plow
But always remember, BE HERE NOW.
Read this poem, f-f-f-f-furl your brow?
Knock knock. Who’s there? NowNowNowNaNaNaNowNow.

- bt

_________________

PS
I just can’t help but hear The Grateful Dead’s “The Wheel” when I read this section of BHN:
The wheel is turning and you can’t slow down,
You can’t let go and you can’t hold on,
You can’t go back and you can’t stand still,
If the thunder don’t get you then the lightning will.

Won’t you try just a little bit harder,
Couldn’t you try just a little bit more?
Won’t you try just a little bit harder,
Couldn’t you try just a little bit more?

Round, round robin run round, got to get back to where you belong,
Little bit harder, just a little bit more,
A little bit further than you gone before.

Small wheel turn by the fire and rod,
Big wheel turn by the grace of God,
Every time that wheel turn ’round,
Bound to cover just a little more ground.

“Because if you’re truthfully here and now there’s no more you . . . That’s the way it works” (Pg 46).

We’ve all been truthfully here at some point. And we’ve all experienced the grief of losing that center, and the longing for it to return. We’ve all chased it, given up, then stumbled on it, often landing face first. And it doesn’t always hurt. Nor does it always smell of roses or jasmine.

The other day, I saw a pink balloon at the base of my stairs, it was barely inflated, just a small sack of air with a pink ribbon. I decided to pop it, pick it up, and toss it in the trash. So I stepped on it and felt it pop, and was thrust into a moment of clarity . Nothing dramatic . . . Just the simple realization that we are all balloons of skin, filled with spirit . . . with the word of God, breath of Maharaj-ji, Jesus, Buddha, etc . And either we slowly deflate and allow our spirit-breath to return to the wholeness of it all, or somebody/something comes along and pops us, freeing our spirit-breath. Either way, we always return to “non-you-ness” somehow . . . and it does not need to be at the moment of our death.

I meditated after this. I didn’t totally dissolve, but I did become more present. I did re-member that being fully in the now means the acceptance that everything co-exists at the same time: Now.  Where fully present means that you are fully connected with everything, everywhere.  When you are literally that connected (and we all really are–read up on quantum physics if you need the science of it), there is no separation from God because you ARE God–you may still be in a pink balloon,  but “it’s all the same stuff,” so there’s no “you” to experience, no set reference point for observation of anything.

You don’t stop existing, you just stop thinking that you do . . . then you may be on the way to freedom; your thoughts are free to roam (since you have a brain while you’re in your balloon); your spirit can mingle with “whoever-ji” (thanks Blake).

So, Hail The Goer. . . then Hail us All. We’re all already gone, we’re just visiting in a balloon, often thinking that we’re separate (ie ‘not here’) and sometimes suffering, sometimes content as a result. Until we either deflate or pop. I never considered a balloon a teacher until the other day.

Great teachers and sages (Jesus, Ghandi, Meher Baba, Yogananda, Maharaj-ji, Ram Dass, etc) fill us in a way that helps us all float so high that we pop, or just as beautifully, land in some new place where we can deflate peacefully. What a great flight! Thank you, Ram Dass, for filling balloons, and for popping them. Namaste’.  _/|\_

Jon

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Are you guys ready?

If you’re just joining us we’re spending this week around pages 29 thru 35 of the center section of Be Here Now.  Yin and yang. Remember, cops create hippies. Hippies create cops. I create my dad in opposition and then I don’t. Last night I thought about both of my parents and thought, okay, I’m no longer your kid. You’re no longer my parent. And ahhhhh! Now I can love you better! We’re not the opposing tear drops in the yin yang circle. Quote:

THEY ARE ONE

THE SPIRIT

IS

THE SPIRIT

THE WAY

IS THE WAY IS

THE WAY

The way is the harmony of the universe. When one comes into the spirit, when one sees how it is, one understands that behind all the individual differences . . .

. . . HERE WE ARE

HERE & NOW.

THAT’S ALL THERE IS

and if it isn’t beautiful, man, there’s nothing.

Time passes

end quote. (p. 30)

and here we still are. My hair grows. I change. I age. I manifest. I get sick and then get better. And all evening as I’ve been typing these words, the Pandora station I’m hearing is synchronistically lining up lyrics to go along with my finger strokes. Long Time Gone is playing now. Time passes.

And still, within, as you sit here and read, if it’s quiet enough in your mind, you can tell that there is something inside that doesn’t change. You can feel it when you hear a great song, see a tree bragging at a summer plentiful with rain and sunshine. “And it appears to be a long time . . .”

Wanting not to want is still wanting.

The cravings, the desires, they are a part of this human thing. They are a part of the thing dances and takes walks and gets to interact with those bold trees and to hear music, to play music, to write . . .

I wouldn’t trade those things. My desires pull me forth from within to create.

I see this human trip as 6,867,217,046 – and counting – fingers on the hand of God. Individual and infinite possibility. The creator is making 6,867,217,046 – and counting – ways to experience this human trip. This combination of elements that every human shares and then the infinite combinations of individual unique characteristics. Continue reading