'Off the Mat'

Maybe you can tell from the large quote on my HOME page, that I'm an admirer of Baba Ram Dass.  He popularized the quote, Be Here Now.  Be Here Now was the title of his 1971 book on spirituality, yoga and meditation.  After its publication, the phrase caught on like wildfire. Much like Meher Baba's "Don't worry, be happy," it became a popular meme.

And of course, good Yoga practice typically stresses the importance of remaining present as one goes through the practice.

Ram Dass, (born Richard Alpert) and whom many of you probably know, was a Harvard prof who got very interested in psychedelic research along with his colleague, Timothy Leary, and their graduate student, Ralph Metzner.  (I was actually very blessed and honored to be exploring the inner realms in group form during the 90s with Metzner who became a very influential teacher in my life.) Ram Dass, who passed in December of 2019, wrote Be Here Now after coming back from India. He went to India after being dismissed from Harvard and became a disciple of the Hindu guru, Neem Karoli Baba, who irrevocably changed his life and who gave him his spiritual name, which essentially means 'servant of god.'

I've always admired Ram Dass as someone who also took his inner work out into the world. He co-founded the Seva Foundation, an international non-profit, in 1978 with Dr Larry Brilliant and the humanitarian activist, Wavy Gravy, to prevent and treat blindness around the world.  Steve Jobs, a good friend of Dr. Brilliant, served as an early adviser and major contributor. Dr Brilliant also wrote an incredible personal account of his own spiritual journey in India with his wife and he was essentially the man in the World Health Organization who helped eradicate smallpox in India. His autobiography, Sometimes Brilliant, is a wow of a read! I highly recommend it if you want a thoroughly intriguing literary spiritual adventure.
 
Since I have been teaching, I haven't done anything as large scale as these accomplishments, but I did start a yoga studio with my wonderful partner in life, Tom... Yoga Jones in Ventura, in the early aughts with the belief that if practiced earnestly and diligently these practices do make a difference to one's evolution.  Kaiut Yoga and all practices worth their salt, stress the value of continuing to show up, feel, be present, honest and be respectful. Another Ram Dass quote that I particularly like...When asked if he could sum up his life's message, he replied, "I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people ... to me, that's what the emerging game is all about."

Autumn is a harvest season.  I'm wishing all of you a time of self gathering and reflection.  I encourage your OWN PATH and leave you with a poem by David Wagoner.

LOST

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

–David Wagoner