Be Here Now

Be Here Now: Ram Dass

 

At the end of calendar year 2019, just after the winter solstice the great teacher, Ram Dass passed from this world into the next.  I was saddened to hear of his transition but I was equally aware that he had a phenomenal life and gave every ounce of his being to the Divine and to raising consciousness on the planet.  He was a premier example of the healthy balanced masculine at work in the world.   Ram Dass, former professor at Harvard, partner in crime with Timothy Leary, inspired a generation in terms of conscious raising through their experimentation with LSD.  Before Ram Dass was Ram Dass, he was Richard Albert and he and Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner collaborated on a book called, The Psychedelic Experience.   It was published in 1964, another, LSD, was published in 1966. These were pivotal years- the cracking of an egg, a big egg of consciousness,- like no other period in the history of the consciousness movement.  Ram Dass went on to meet his  root teacher, Neem Karoli Baba, in India and to take the sacred path the year the book, LSD, was published.  He brought yoga and meditation to the United States, he wrote many books about consciousness and meditation, he walked his talk. Even when he could no longer walk. 

After he had a seriously debilitating stroke, he recognized his own need to surrender to receive , to receive nurturing from others.  He often said, he had been ‘stroked’ by God and he wrote about this near death experience.  His realization that while he had been busy giving and serving he also needed to learn about receiving. The last decades of his life, he taught by example from his wheel chair.

Once I was at an event in Santa Fe where he was speaking. Before he took the stage, I was compelled to leave my seat, and stand up in the back of the theater. With my back to the wall watching whomever was on before him, I looked down and noticed a man in a wheel chair next to me.  Ram Dass!  I have thought about that close proximity to greatness many times, I am not sure which of us was there first but it was remarkable in its ease. We looked at one another briefly. I was so surprised to see him by my side, where the light was dim in the recesses of the hall.  It continues to be a touchstone for me, while everyone was focused on the stage, the teacher was in the shadows, observing. 

In his book, Living the Bhagavad Gita, he wrote about the ideas of non-stealing and non-killing and other areas we should avoid on the path to enlightenment:   “They all sound like reasonably good ideas.  The question is, what happens, if we try to live by them?”  

He helped the imprisoned, literally and figuratively, to open their hearts and consciousness to love. His teacher imparted the wisdom that we are here to love and serve and he followed that direction throughout his lifetime. Some of his work, in service to humanity, was to encourage convicts to use meditation, the Prison Ashram Project. It was started in 1973 by Bo and Sita Lozoff in cooperation with Ram Dass. Ram Dass had asked them to take over his role of writing to prison inmates and over time they developed workshops to offer yoga and meditation to inmates.  In an interview with Sun Magazine in December 1981, Bo Lozoff said, 

“there is no difference between me and the other people in the room; I’m no freer, no more fortunate; all those roles are parts of the stage characters.  Backstage there’s nothing to do except to be.  It’s a vehicle for being in love together with the prisoners who want to be with us in that consciousness. When I walk into a prison room and see ...prisoners expressing their desire for this love just by coming to the workshop, the purity in the room starts blowing me away before the thing even begins. ....By the time I’ve sat down and cleared my mind and opened my eyes, it’s like looking at so many angels in front of me, beyond space and time.  When we sit in this love together, there’s no prison and no inmates and no me and no...nothing other than love.”

We have an opportunity to consciously connect to the space of the infinite in each moment. We can connect with Mother Nature on the inside.  Raising the energy within our own auric field and allowing for more abundance and ease happens when we get quiet.  When we meditate and bring our attention to the midline of our bodies, into our heart center and connect with the energies within, our frequency automatically lifts.  The teacher waits in the shadows, observing,witnessing at our side. 

Ram Dass, quoting his guru, said, “The guru is not external.  It is not necessary for you to meet your guru on the physical plane.”  But there may be gurus along the way, to show us the way. The way to opening to love, to the deep stillness that comes from the practice of meditation and other forms of connecting with essence.

There is nothing to grasp onto other than the still place within each deep breath, the place of connection to the Higher Self. Sometimes when I feel lonely, fearful or confused and I want to cling to dark chocolate, shopping or something else that isn’t necessarily in my best interest, the best medicine is to sit quietly and ask myself, "what's really the matter?" If I am impatient or I am bouncing around unaware that I even have an issue with balance and harmony, I can slow down.  I can take time in self-awareness, find my breath, then I can usually find a healing solution that is healthy and inhale my better nature. The teacher is always there, right beside us.

 Thank you Ram Dass!!