Be Here Now

This summer I have not read as much as I usually do...I didn't even compose a summer reading list. One night, I was on the phone with a friend and we began discussing his favorite book - Be Here Now by Ram Dass. He repeatedly said it wasn't my type of book, yet the more we talked about it - the more intrigued I became. I ended up borrowing this book from him and getting lost in it for 2 days.

There were so many things I took away from this book - things I sometimes struggle with...and I must admit, I would have NEVER picked this book up and read it on my own. I am grateful to have been introduced to something outside of my comfort zone. But are you surprised the most poignant parts (to me) relates to love and passion?!

Here are a few of my faves:

He learned how to listen with a still heart, with a waiting, open soul, without passion, without desire, without judgment, without opinions. - Hesse

Love has to spring spontaneously from within: and it is in no way amenable to any form of inner or outer force. Love and coercion can never go together: but though love cannot be forced on anyone, it can be awakened in him through love itself. Love is essentially self-communicative; Those who do not have it catch it from those who have it. True love is unconquerable and irresistible; and it goes on gathering power and spreading itself, until eventually it transforms everyone whom it touches.

The cause of suffering is attachment or desire. 

He who clings to the void and neglects compassion does not reach the highest stage. But he who practices only compassion does not gain release from the toils of existence.

The more you talk about it, the more you think about it, the further from it you go. Stop talking, stop thinking, and there is nothing you will not understand. Return to the root and you will find the meaning. Pursue the light, and you lose its source. Look inward and in a flash you will conquer the apparent and the void. All come from mistaken views. There is no need to seek truth, only stop having views. - Seng T'san

And with all that being said, I am exhaling...maybe I will delve more into that in a later post...maybe I won't...but I am definitely getting back to basics.