Remember, Be Here Now
by Ram Dass
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Book Reviews of Remember, Be Here Now
Book Review: Cracks Through Reality
Summary: 5 Stars
Back in 2005, I came across this book via a friend who had recently and unexpectedly passed away. Her own family wasn't very close with her and gave us, her group of spiritual friends, the reigns in commemorating her life. One of the things we did was hold a memorial service and give away all her books to anyone who wanted them. Out of the hundreds that were on the tables, this book -without reading any excerpts from it- caught my attention, and I took it home with me. Little did I know how truly life-altering all these events were at the time.
When I read this book, it started out like any other... a story of the relevant parts of Richard's life preceeding his trip to Inida. That itself was fascinating to me, as I enjoyed reading about his LSD trips and spiritual meanderings. But nothing had prepared me for the experience of reading the comic book like center pages of this book. I found my sense of reality cracked and shattered by what I read there. For weeks, I could not feel connected to the illusions I'd never even questioned previously. Everything changed; I saw what lies beneath and the stupidity of this life I was living. Nothing made sense anymore; except what I'd been exposed to by this cracking up of my existence.
This book forever changed the direction of my life. I was what I termed "spiritual but not religous" before that, but even that illusion was shown to be superficial. It was not long, a year or so more, before I came across a mystic of our own times. And I didn't even have to travel to India to find him. When the student is ready, the teach always comes.
Book Review: Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) is a "Finder."
Summary: 4 Stars
There are seekers, and there are finders. Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) is a 'finder'.
He was a self-described bi-sexual college professor, and a colleague of Timothy Leary, when he got caught up in the drug scene (esp. LSD), which gave him a look at chemically induced 'enlightenment.' Just enough to whet his curiosity. The trouble was, he always "came down." so he went to India. He wanted something more permanent.
While he was there on his spiritual quest, he was led to a little Indian 'Guru,' who showed him the way--demonstrating powers that blew Alpert away! For one thing, he took a dose of LSD that would have stunned an elephant, and never batted an eye. He had something stronger--the real thing.
I met Alpert when he returned to the United States, intent upon spreading the good word. By then he had changed his name to Ram Dass ('servant of God'). I heard him speak in Santa Cruz, as well as in Monterey. He has charisma, and he has a message in which he truly believes.
This is one of his best books (he has written several.) I recommend it as a primer for any seeker who is interested in the Eastern philosophies; especially Hinduism, which is the original source of Ram Dass' message, and specifically the Vedanta (the culmination of the Hindu scriptures, the earliest forms of which date back perhaps 3,000 years.)
Joseph Pierre,
author of THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS: Our Journey Through Eternity
Book Review: A Shroom-Inspired Self Help Book
Summary: 3 Stars
"Only that in you which is me can hear what I am saying," is one of many thought-provoking one-liners found in Baba Ram Dass's psychedelic self-help book. The book is generally entertaining, complete with creative illustrations, interesting stories, and spiritual enlightment. Some (a lot) of the book reads a little nonsensically, surely due to the gnarly LSD and magic mushroom trips this guy was on while writing it.
In a nutshell, it is the story of the author - a successful psychology professor who taught at prestigious schools, lectured, wrote books, had nice cars and lots of money. Professor Richard Alpert (as he was then called) was dismissed from Harvard University after researching and experimenting with "magic" mushrooms (psilocybin) and LSD. His research was done in collaberation with other well-known psychedelic pioneers such as Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg. After leaving Harvard, Alpert traveled to India and became a Hindu spiritualist, changing his name to Baba Ram Dass.
This book may be valuable to you if are tripping, or just really, really high. Aside from some commentary about yoga, meditation, etc, I could see how it may seem no more than a cluttered, random, mess of hippie words and ideas to anyone who isn't in touch with their psychedelic side.
He may have tripped on mushrooms with Aldous Huxley, but this book is definitely no Brave New World.
Book Review: Good Advice, Weird Delivery
Summary: 4 Stars
"That's it, then you'll know, that's the whole trip man, and you gotta get in there, in that state of knowing man, to be really free, but you cant think about it, because then you wont know."
This is the sort of "wisdom" that you will encounter in this book. Some of it's good, some of it is kinda out there.
The book is divided into three sections - Ram Dass's journey, spiritual enlightenment writings, and lastly how you can go down the path to enlightenment. He has a good message. The only moment you will ever be in is the here and now. He is a Buddhist, and keeps in line with their philosophy of enlightenment through cutting your attachments to your ego, your thoughts, and desire.
While a lot of this advice is good, I don't wholly subscribe to the Buddhist philosophy that to be pure you must drop your ego and all desires and merge yourself with the universe. Is one human after one does this? Unless you plan to be a monk and meditate all day and have no personality, I don't think this is very realistic.
All things in moderation, you can take away something good from this book. Most of our unhappiness comes from our attachments to desires, trying to control the future, and letting our thoughts control us. When we step back away from that, we feel more at ease. So just be here now.
Book Review: Better than I thought
Summary: 4 Stars
At first when I started reading this book, I was disappointed. In the middle are many pages illustrated opposite each other like fold outs, with strange pictures and some big or little scrawling words; they reminded me of psychedelic posters from the '60's hippie era. The book just seemed a little strange. Then one night I was leafing through it and some of the poster messages really helped me get through some challenging moments. Sometimes I find myself reading the illustrated messages when I need a pick me up to remind me that This too Shall Pass, or that we must Come as Little Children, or maybe a Buddhist version of those kinds of thoughts. I really love this book now that I have stuck with it or it has stuck with me on my bedside table. I have realized that it is a book full of wisdom--all three parts, the narrative part at the beginning, the poster part in the middle and the ingredients part at the end. Remember, Be Here Now is a very helpful tool to remind me to live in the present moment and not worry about necessarily finding something in life because whatever I need will be led to me once I'm ready. I haven't finished it yet, but that's the kind of book it is. I may never finish it. Instead, I feel very free to leaf around as I wish. Each time I read some of it I come up with a tidbit that is very tasty to my soul.