I just read Ram Dass's "Be Love Now."
It's sort of a sequel to his classic Be Here Now which was published in the early 70s. Be Love Now was published in 2010. Have you read this book? What are your thoughts on it?
In the Hindu faith, followers are taught that God is in everyone. For that reason, it is thought that one of the paths to union with God is to love everyone. I think that is called bhakti yoga, but I'm not sure that is the correct term. It's something like that. It is, of course, a spiritual love, and has nothing to do with sex or possessive love like most relationships. Love, devotion to God, is the path that Ram Dass has been on since he met his guru about 50 years ago. His name literally means Servant of God.
I have been an agnostic for my entire life. I'll be 44 in a couple of weeks. I have read a lot about religion in my time including mysticism. I have never been touched by a religious work like I've been touched by Be Here Now and Be Love Now. A part of that has to do with the origins of my interest in finding the answers to the mysteries of life. It started out when I was 20 years old and experimenting with psychedelics. Ram Dass, formerly Richard Alpert, started out on his spiritual journey in a similar fashion. He was good friends with Timothy Leary when he discovered LSD and psylocibin back in the early 60s and was a part of popularizing those drugs. However, after he met his guru in India, Ram Dass decided that he was done with the drugs unlike Leary.
I'm still sort of an agnostic. I have my doubts about miracles that have been alleged to have occurred. But what I am attracted to are the ideas that God is consciousness, consciousness exists outside the human form, and that to love everyone is a path to spiritual enlightenment. Just think if you went around every day seeing God in everyone you met.
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