Be Love Now

Our karmic calamities, the grace notes of circumstance, the twists and turns of this path, are an unfathomable mystery. Exploring its dimensions with Ram Dass, chuckling over the illusions, missteps, and potholes along the way, is a delight. Change is the only constant; the more things change, the more they stay the same.
It’s only love. There is nothing more. May we all be loved, and be love, now.

turns of this path, are an unfathomable mystery. Exploring its dimensions with Ram Dass, chuckling over the illusions, missteps, and potholes along the way, is a delight. Change is the only constant; the more things change, the more they stay the same.
It’s only love. There is nothing more. May we all be loved, and be love, now

In 1975 Hilda Charlton, a teacher in New York who had introduced us to Swami Muktananda, met a housewife from Brooklyn who had experienced a transformation while learning yoga at a Jack LaLanne studio and was (supposedly) in communication with Maharaj-ji. Her name was Joyce; Hilda called her Joya. Hilda introduced Ram Dass to her by telling him Maharaj-ji was living in Joya’s basement in Brooklyn. Ram Dass was soon inducted into the inner circle and began receiving the accelerated esoteric course

In early 1970 the Bountiful Lord’s Delivery Service at Lama mailed out several thousand copies of a twelve-by-twelve-inch corrugated box, the contents and printing of which were financed from the proceeds of Ram Dass’s lectures. It was distributed at no charge. In the box was a core book from the transcripts called From Bindu to Ojas (Sanskrit for “From Material to Spiritual Energy”). It was printed on brown paper and hand bound with twine. Included were a booklet about Ram Dass’s journey to the guru titled HisStory, a section of spiritual practices called the Spiritual Cookbook, holy pictures to put up on your refrigerator or altar (some of which are reproduced in this volume), a book list called Painted Cakes, and an LP record of chants and spirituals from the contemporary scene. It was a true do-it-yourself kit for a spiritual journey

and presence that accompanied his talks.
Ram Dass spoke with self-deprecating humor, using his own missteps as counterpoint to the intensely serious journey he was illuminating. His self-revealing honesty in facing his personal demons and his delight in the absurdity of a Harvard psychologist encountering Eastern mysticism became hallmarks of his presentations

The confluence of his psychological training, his openness from psychedelics, and his synthesis of Eastern religion made him a perfect resource for consciousness evolving during the upheaval of the 1960s

As Ram Dass spoke of the interior transformation he had undergone, I began to experience one too. Subjectively it was like a figure-ground flip when, in one of those high-contrast images, you suddenly see the space instead of the shape. In my case I went from being the center of my universe to seeing myself as just one spark of awareness among billions. I understood in that moment that we are all on an evolutionary journey toward realization through infinite time and space