Are you here

Are you here
Am I here
Who’s here
What’s here
In this body
Just present
Here now
What is it
Is it you
Am I this
Are we here
Right now
Conscious
That we are
And you are
That I am
Who I am
What I am
Conscious
What is it
Who is it
Can it be
All around
Within all
Without
Breath in
And out
Let go
Relax

“Calm Mudita joy” — are you here?

How the heart grows wise on the spiritual path

Ram Dass suffered a major stroke in 1997. “After almost a year of rehabilitation he was able to talk, though haltingly, and he still groped for words. At the end of the day his wheelchair was placed on stage so he could speak… Ram Dass addressed his predicament and the question of identity.

“For years I practiced as karma yogi, the path of service. I wrote books about learning to serve, about how to help others. Now it is reversed. I need people to help me get up and put me to bed. Others feed me and wash my bottom. And I can tell you it’s harder to be the one who is helped than the helper!

“But this is just another stage. It feels like I died and have been reborn over and over. In the sixties I was a professor at Harvard, and when that ended I went out with Tim Leary spreading psychedelics. Then in the seventies I died from that and returned from India as Baba Ram Dass, the guru. Then in the eighties my life was all about service — co-founding the Seva Foundation, building hospitals, and working with refugees and prisoners. Over all these years I played cello, golf, drove my MG. Since this stroke the car is in the driveway, the cello and golf clubs in the closet. Now if I think I’m the guy who can’t play cello or drive or work in India, I would feel terribly sorry for myself. But I’m not him. During the stroke I died again, and now I have a new life in a disabled body. This is where I am. You’ve got to be here now. You’ve got to take the curriculum.”

Quoted from After the Ecstasy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield, p. 184-185

Here I am; and I love it! Where are you?