Title Be Here Now

Author Ram Dass

Year Published 1971

Kind of Book Spiritual/Religious/Philosophy

How strongly I recommend it 8/10

My Impressions This book sure scared the shit out of me…“To him who has had the experience no explanation is necessary, to him who has not, none is possible.”  ie: if you’ve had a spiritual awakening/enlightenment/rebirth (whatever you want to call it) everything in this book will make perfect sense. If you haven’t, it will read like the scribblings of a madman. Even though my experience was mostly the later, there were fragments of wisdom I could glean and I absolutely loved reading the introduction where the story is told of how Richard Alpert (a nice Jewish Harvard professor) became Ram Dass (the spiritually enlightened yogi). I'm definitely eager to reread this at some point of time in the future.

Date Read circa 2019

Practical Takeaways

  • Be here now

  • You don’t need to go to anywhere else to find what you are seeking

  • Get rid of your attachment

  • If you are in doubt of whether or not to follow a particular guru, don’t

  • Just relax and trust the process

  • Trust the messages coming from your heart and intuition

  • If in doubt about the next step, just listen. And if still in doubt, wait. When it’s time to move, you’ll know.

  • Work on yourself between 4-7am-Buddha

  • When you fall, Don’t sit around and feel guilty and wallow in self-recrimination. Just get up.

  • Just accept where you are in the here and now and proceed full speed

  • Don't speak for a few hours a day. Eventually work up to one day a week.

  • Conserve your powers-Sri Yukteswar

  • Roam in the world as a lion of self control; don’t let the frogs of sense weakness kick you around-Sri Yukteswar

  • Go to bed early and get up early

  • Sleep on a firm surface (on mat, floor, or a thick mattress)

  • Sleep on your back or left side

  • Meditate for a few minutes before lying down to sleep

  • Sleep without a pillow or a small pillow under your neck. Keep your spine as straight as possible

  • Get out of the habit of thinking about things when you are going to sleep

  • When you first lie down relax your body progressively from feet to top of head

  • Make sure your stomach is half full of food a quarter full of water and a quarter full of air

  • Eat light, healthy, unadulterated foods which are easily digestible

  • Abstain as much as possible from hot, spicy, pungent foods

  • Go light on the caffeine

  • Abstain from food which entails violence or killing (ie. meat)

  • Eat bland foods at first to sensitize your palette

  • Don’t eat with anger

  • Bless/consecrate the food before eating it

  • Spend time with those who “know”

  • Spend time with those who are seriously working on themselves

  • Work with one of the books containing the words of realized beings (eg. the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, the I Ching, the Gospels of Jesus) take one passage-perhaps or one phrase. Read and reread and reread it. Let your thoughts work around it. Paraphrase it. See how it applies to others and to yourself. Ask yourself what laws of nature it is reflecting. Then sit quietly and let your mind associate the passage. (Do this for a half hour every day)

  • Take an introductory course in Hatha yoga

  • (when meditating) Don’t force your body

  • Listen carefully to the information your body gives you

  • Bend from as low in your back as possible

  • With each exhalation go a little bit deer into the posture

  • Let it be-Paul McCartney

  • Come out of sleep into mantra

  • Don’t share your mantra with anyone less spiritual than you

  • Do breathing exercises on an empty stomach (3hrs after eating 1hr after drinking)

  • Do breathing exercises first thing in the morning

  • Sit in a chair upright with your spine straight

  • As you breathe in imagine that you are breathing in pure life force and consciousness

  • As you breathe out imagine you are breathing out the impurities of body and mind

  • Rule of thumb: if you are wondering whether to use a power or not…don’t

  • First cast out the beam in thine own eye; then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the more of thy brother’s eye-Jesus

  • Take care of the present (the future will take care of itself)-Osborne

  • Whatever stage you are in, accept it

  • Set alarms to go off throughout the day. When they go off ask yourself “where am I?” Here “what time is it now?”

  • Hang up post it notes around the house that say “be here now”

  • Maintain the body as a temple

  • Keep the home calm and free of chaotic inputs

  • Don’t trip too far too fast

  • Don’t sacrifice relationships with your children for what you may think is spiritual necessity

  • Surrender completely and absolutely to the spirit

  • Live consciously

  • Die consciously

  • Throw away all your baggage and go forward

Big Ideas

  • When the student is ready, the teacher will present himself

  • If the student is not ready for the guru, he will not find him

  • The more you talk about absolute truth/infinite knowing the further you go from it

  • In order to obtain absolute truth/infinite knowing stop talking and thinking about it

  • Those who know the absolute truth/infinite knowing say almost nothing

  • Those who don't know the absolute truth/infinite knowing say much

  • You must literally be alive before you literally die

But

  • In order to truly live life you must first die (a figurative death) and be reborn (ie. Have a spiritual awakening)

  • Analysts during psychoanalysis write down little notes whenever the patient talks about his mother (or other things they believe are relevant

  • This "trains" the patient to say certain things that the therapist wants to hear, so that they will please the therapist

  • It is impossible to use language to explain a subjective/spiritual experience to a person who has not had a similar experience

Because

  • Language is a tool that is incapable of translating subjective/spiritual experiences

However

  • It is unnecessary to use language to explain a subjective/spiritual experience to a person who has had a similar experience

Because

  • People who have had similar subjective/spiritual experiences are able to understand each other without using language

  • Every psychedelic trip takes us to the same place of being/awareness/consciousness

  • As soon as you let go of wanting something you can have it all

  • As long as you want power you can't have it

  • As soon as you give up wanting power, you'll have more than you ever dreamed possible

  • Once you give up wanting to move mountains you will be able to move mountains

  • People who think that they alone are Christ/God are wrong

Because

  • We are all Christ/God

  • Enlightened beings can live on light alone

  • The first three chakras are the focal point for most of the energy presently used by man

  • The first three chakras are concerned with using energy to maintain the ego

  • Freud was the spokesperson for the 2nd chakra (chakra associated with reproduction and sexual gratification)

  • Adler was the spokesperson for the 3rd chakra (chakra associated with power and mastery)

  • Jung was the spokesperson for the 4th chakra. (chakra associated with seeking compassion)

  • During (tantric) sex each 2 individuals becomes one (ie. Each individual is both man and woman)

  • Caves insulate yogis and meditators from subtle vibrations that may be distracting out in the world

  • If you take care of the present the future will take care of itself

 

Surprising Facts

  • Sanskrit is the root of the Indo-Aryan languages of which English is a part.

  • [Sanskrit] is a language that was evolved consciously ie. Each sound syllable resonates in a specific chakra. Pg35 section 3

 

Memorable Quotes

“To him who has had the experience no explanation is necessary, to him who has not, none is possible.”

 

"You must live before you can die, but you must die before you can live."

Unknown Terms

Brahmacarya: 1) a concept within Indian religions that literally means "conduct consistent with Brahman" or "on the path of Brahman". In Yoga, Hinduism and Buddhism it generally refers to a lifestyle characterized by sexual continence or abstinence. 2)sexual continence- a specific process of taking energy you might otherwise use in second chakra acts and moving the energy up the spine into the higher chakras. 3)What Napoleon Hill calls Sexual Transmutation

Hatha Yoga:  1) a branch of yoga. The Sanskrit word___ literally means "force" and thus alludes to a system of physical techniques. In India, it is associated in popular tradition with the Yogis of the Natha Sampradaya through its traditional founder Matsyendranath, who is celebrated as a saint in both Hindu and Buddhist tantric and haṭha yoga schools. 2)(ha translate to sun; tha translates to moon)

Koan: a paradox to be meditated upon that is used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon ultimate dependence on reason and to force them into gaining sudden intuitive enlightenment(eg. What is the sound of one hand clapping?)