#babaramdass

“Love everyone, serve everyone, remember God, and tell the truth”

Change is often uncomfortable and when we’re in a place where we are looking to grow and thrive spiritually, we have to realize that sometimes where we thought we would be or what we thought we wanted will change and evolve too and that’s okay. 

You may have decided when you were younger that you were going to be a musician or marketing executive and you had your whole life planned out - the school you’d go to, the jobs or companies you’d apply to, the kinds of gigs and performances you would want to attend or take part in...a neat little timeline. 

Then something happened...a shift, and those initial plans don’t sit right with you anymore. They don’t seem to fit or make you happy. Even if you don’t know exactly what it is, you know you’re supposed to be doing something else. I want to challenge you to embrace those feelings. Rather than meeting the change (or feelings like something needs to change) with criticism, judgement, or scrutiny, I want to challenge you to choose curiosity instead. 

If you feel like you just really want to create and more than that, you really want to paint, DO IT! You daydream about yourself at an easel, you feel like even if you can’t paint, you could easily (and happily) fill up a sketchbook, or you create a secret Amazon wishlist where you save all of those supplies you’ll buy, “one day”. One day. Say no to “one day” and just….do it. Follow it. Allow yourself to go with the flow of change.

Your path is not set - no matter what anyone says. You do not have to live your life set to predetermined standards that stifle your growth, happiness, and peace. It is safe and okay for you to say, “No” or change your mind and follow yourself on a whim. It is safe and okay fo your to evolve. 

Walk The Fool’s journey and do it with childlike wonder. Take delight in your change and growth. 

Set alarm clocks or design your day or put up notes on the wall so that a number of times during the day when you are in the midst of various occupations you confront yourself with the questions: (a) Where Am I? and then answer (see answer below) (b) What time is it? and then answer (see answer below) Each time you do this, try to feel the immediacy of the Here and Now. Begin to notice that wherever you go or whatever time it is by the clock . . . it is ALWAYS HERE AND NOW. In fact you will begin to see that you can’t get away from the HERE and NOW. Let the clock and the earth do their ‘thing’ . . . let the comings and goings of life continue . . . But YOU stay HERE and NOW. This is an exercise to bring you to the ETERNAL PRESENT . . . where it all is. For specific periods of time focus your thoughts in the present. DON’T THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE. JUST BE HERE NOW. DON’T THINK ABOUT THE PAST. JUST BE HERE NOW. Reflect on the thought that if you are truly Here and Now (a) it is ENOUGH, and (b) you will have optimum power and understanding to do the best thing at the given moment. Thus when ‘then’ (the future) becomes Now — if you have learned this discipline — you will then be in an ideal position to do the best thing. So you need not spend your time now worrying about then. Reflect on the fact that you can plan the future in the Here and Now as long as when then is Now . . . you are fully Here and Now. Seem paradoxical? Of course! Keep reflecting! Answers:    (a) HERE     (b) NOW Excerpt from Be Here Now by Ram Dass

CULTIVATING THE PRACTICE OF 'BE HERE NOW'⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

"What’s changed now is that much more of the time, when I am ‘here,’ this is it, I am here, and when I’m not here, I’m not here.

⁣⁣⁣⁣It’s interesting how when you give another human being, your family, or your business, the fullness of your being at any moment, a little is enough; while when you give them half of it because you’re time binding with your mind, there’s never enough. ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

You begin to hear the secret, that being fully in the present moment is the greatest gift you can give to each situation.⁣⁣"⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

- Ram Dass