Be Here Now (Reduces Anxiety and So Much More)

Ram Dass taught it. But how to understand it?

Ram Dass’ teachings were my introduction to eastern spirituality. I got hugs from him a couple of times in the late ‘70s - 80's when he was speaking in Austin.

I read and studied several of his books, wondering if he was a little crazy and if I was a little crazy to be intrigued by a philosophy that was not Western or Christian. From Ram Dass (and other Eastern philosophy) I encountered and (conceptually) embraced teachings of universal love for humankind along with caring and concern for all of the planet’s life. I had not encountered that message in my American culture or within the Presbyterian church I attended as a kid. “Love thy neighbor …” came with conditions and literally had meant “thy neighbor.”

I was never a practicing hippie, nonetheless I still feel an affinity for the counterculture. Not to say that the flower children or any of us necessarily practiced Universal love - it being more of an ideal than a felt experience. But this was a time when we were open to the collective consciousness which pushed our culture out of rigid social structures surrounding gender identity, minorities, religion, and authority. (Obviously this was only a beginning.)

Ram Dass’ popular book and famous quote was “Be Here Now.” I thought I was following his practice, but I was interpreting his words from the doing/ego mind because that’s all I knew (and all I knew to do.) This is the irony of teachings about higher consciousness: one can only understand words in terms of one's abiding consciousness, i.e., you don’t know what you don’t know.

Ram Dass was telling me/us how to wake up, but my understanding was coming from the doing/ego consciousness. So, if I was feeling especially tense, I would “bring my mind to the present moment” by focusing my thoughts on what was immediate in my surroundings at that time.

Here’s an example I remember: I see the green philodendron hanging from the ceiling in my office. I admire it, notice it’s shiny green leaves and how much it has grown.

I am relieved momentarily because I’m not worrying about all the items and action plans on my “to do” list which are in danger of being behind schedule.

I think: "I really see this plant like Ram Dass says. It's so green. It’s leaves are large and healthy.

Oh, there’s a leaf I should trim off. Wonder if it needs a drink?”

In my understanding “Be Here Now” was a way to relax and a kind of meditation. (And - I surmised - "... maybe something magic happens if I get good at meditating.")

Plato’s cave analogy is apropos: I was the one sitting in a cave, staring at the shadows on the wall in front of me, mistaking them for reality. Meanwhie the real world was all around me, and it hadn't yet occurred to me to turn around.

Using one’s mind to reduce stress and improve one’s overall health by “being present” fits right into the zeitgeist of cognitive psychology which has become popular and can provide good balance for our stressful lives. But my thinking mind had never imagined and actually could never imagine a reality beyond itself. Ram Dass was expressing consciousnss beyond the mind. I was stuck in thought. I was 'present' or practising presence, but I was not in the 'Now.'

It was quite a few years after my mistaken practices with Ram Dass’s teachings that I finally “got it” when I read Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now and A New Earth. Here is not a physical space. Now is not psychological/mental time. In Now - stillness - behind and beyond thought exists awareness.

Aware of what? Aware of awareness.

From Tao Te Ching #1

The tao that can be told

Is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named

Is not the eternal Name.

PS: I've recently discovered a meditation by Ram Dass that has been set to music: "Sit Around The Fire" by Jon Hopkins. It's so '70s and quite beautiful and soothing at the same time!