Spirituality Be Here Now

Ram Dass (aka Dr. Richard Alpert) was a psychology professor at Harvard where he, Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, John Spiegel and a few others conducted the Harvard Psilocybin Project. He got fired for allegedly giving psilocybin to an undergraduate student. He went to India, found a guru and came back to the west as Ram Dass, and wrote "Be Here Now".

Its 108 pages of teachings. It talks about psychedelics, the trip to becoming enlightened, whats really important in life, and the nature of the whole thing. Who is God? What does it all mean? Who am I? What should I do? How do I do it?

This book is as much art as it is literature and food for the soul, the drawings that accompany the words seem to work together so beautifully that it only makes the message that much stronger. Potent symbolism is rampant. Its just a great book. There is no story, just anecdotes, ideas, and art.

Here's an excerpt as best as I could translate it from its original form to text... its only 50% there though, its missing its art and form...

Originally Posted by Ram Dass

What calming the mind is all about
What meditaition is all about
Is to cool you out so you
RE-MEMBER
so you see how it all IS

Try sitting around when you're full of self pity
You sit down in front of your puja table
And you take a picture of meher baba
And he's smiling at you like he's
the other Marx Brother and he's saying
LET ME
HELP YOU

OH I WISH YOU WOULD, MEHER BABA ITS SO HARD
(Wow! Dig that self-pity isn't that exquisite. Full bloom! What an extraordinary colour. It must be a new brand of self pity, a particularly fragrant variety. I just really want to smell that one, to sit and smell it for ever so long. Such a good one.)

I mean: I wish I could have time to groove w/
you but I've got to get on w/ life.
I have important things to do today.
All right Baba!
I'll sit here with you for one minute. Okay?
Here we are. You've got one minute.
Do your thing. Forty seconds left!

This is a book for anyone interested in psychedelics, a higher meaning, or really nice art in the form of words intertwined with drawings.

Reputation Comments on this post:

fantastic review, thanks