Be Here Now — Ram Dass

Be Here Now is a mediation, yoga, and spirituality book written in 1971 by Ram Dass. The book’s title was taken from a comment that Ram Dass’s guide (Bhagavan Das) made while he journeyed around India.

Reviews and Comments About “Be Here Now” by Ram Dass:

Describes one man’s transformation upon his acceptance of the principles of Yoga & gives a modern restatement of the importance of the spiritual side of human nature. Illustrated.The book is divided into four sections:Journey: The Transformation: Dr Richard Alpert, PhD into Baba Ram DassFrom Bindu to Ojas: The Core BookCookbook for a Sacred Life: A Manual for Conscious BeingPainted Cakes (Do Not Satisfy Hunger): Books

A Lama Foundation Book. Describes one man’s transformation upon his acceptance of the principles of Yoga and gives a modern restatement of the importance of the spiritual side of man’s nature.

With the simple words “There are three stages in this journey that I have been on,” Dr. Richard Alpert began the book that would open the door for many spiritual seekers to the East, guru devotion, the riches of Hinduism, and the different paths to God. Part One covers “The Journey: The Transformation of Dr. Richard Alpert, Ph. D., into Baba Ram Dass.” It covers this Harvard scholar’s dissatisfaction with the intellectual life and his exploration of altered states of consciousness with drugs such as LSD. Something new and different was set in motion inside him when he traveled to India in search of spiritual teachers who might share with him the ways to enlightenment. In the Himalayas, he met and studied with Neem Karoli Baba who gave him the name Ram Dass.

Be Here Now was the original “Now” book 20 some years before Eckhart Tolle’s Power of Now, written in 1971 amidst the backdrop of the Beatles, Beach Boys, and the Woodstock era. It was also the era of Vietnam, Wounded Knee and Watergate. It was in these tumultuous times my formal entry into spirituality and mysticism began with reading Be Here Now, along with Carlos Casteneda’s Don Juan trilogy.

Wisdom Film — Ram Dass — “Be Here Now”

Be Here Now — Ram Dass

Ram Dass Quotes:

“Unconditional love really exists in each of us. It is part of our deep inner being. It is not so much an active emotion as a state of being. It’s not ‘I love you’ for this or that reason, not ‘I love you if you love me.’ It’s love for no reason, love without an object.”

“Pain is the mind. It’s the thoughts of the mind. Then I get rid of the thoughts, and I get in my witness, which is down in my spiritual heart. The witness that witnesses being. Then those particular thoughts that are painful — love them. I love them to death!”

“Your problem is you’re… too busy holding onto your unworthiness.”

“My guru said that when he suffers, it brings him closer to God. I have found this, too.”

“We come into relationships often very much identified with our needs. I need this, I need security, I need refuge, I need friendship. And all of relationships are symbiotic in that sense. We come together because we fulfill each others’ needs at some level or other.”

“Working with the dying is like being a midwife for this great rite of passage of death. Just as a midwife helps a being take their first breath, you help a being take their last breath.”

Originally published at Mystical Talk — Spiritual, Mystical, and New Age Community.