https://www.amazon.com/Still-Here-Embracing-Aging-Changing-ebook/dp/B00FPWS4ZG
Preface:
Be Here Now was first published in 1971. It recorded the two major experiences I had Had during the Sixties; one of them was psilocybin mushrooms, and the other was my Guru, Maharajji. Both of them - mushrooms and Maharajji - did many things for me, one of which was to give me a familiarity with other planes of consciousness. They showed me that there's much more in any given moment than we usually perceive, and that we ourselves are much more than we usually perceive. When you know that, part of you can stand outside the drama of your life.
There were a number of transformations in Richard Alpert (my name at birth), which were inspired by mushrooms and Maharajji, and the best, I think, is the one that opened my heart and gave me a chance to serve. For me, the way the compassion seemed to express itself was showing people what I had done, how I had approached my experiences, and so opening avenues for them where their own spirit could emerge. I felt incredibly fortunate because of all the things that had happened to me in the Sixties, and I wanted to spread the grace around. So there were lectures, there were books, there were tapes, and there were videos - a patchwork of different means for sharing my life with people. Ghandi once said, "My life is my message." That's what I aspire to.
As I opened my heart, various forms of suffering in my fellow human beings presented themselves, and I decided to dowhat I could to help. Prisoners read Be Here Now, and then wrote to me, and through corresponding with them I realized that many people can do deep spiritual work in prison. So I started the Prison Ashram Project.
Then I noticed how frightened we are of death in our culture, and what a lot of suffering that was creating. That was in contrast to what I'd seen in India, which has a much different understanding of death than we do because of their knowledge of the continuation of the soul. I wanted to find ways of sharing that, so I instituted the Dying Project. I started hanging out with people who were dying - including my mother, my father, my stepmother, people with AIDS and cancer, many, many people over the years, who I've been with as they died. To each of these individuals and situations I brought what I had to share - my acquaintance with other planes of consciousness, and the way that affects how we perceive our living and our dying.
I started to look at the social institutions in the world around me, to see weather the spiritual tack I was taking might be commensurate with social action. A couple of friends were starting the Seva Foundation, and invited me to join them to do work with doctors and activists, doing work in India, Nepal and Guatemala, and with American Indians and in the Inner Cities of America. Other friends had wondered how business, which is the institution which has the most power in out society, might become more informed bu Spiritual Awareness and I Started the Social Venture Network. They are compassionate business people who invited me to work together with them. I joined the board of Creating Our Future, which was an organization for teenagers who wanted to inform their lives with spirit. These organizations were trying to prevent suffering in areas in which I felt a personal connection. For some people, it's world hunger or literacy. For me it was seeking spiritual answers to many of our problems.
My interest in aging came from a personal direction. I was getting older - ans so were the baby boomers, who were fast approaching fifty. In this youth-oriented culture, aging is a profound source of suffering, and that is what I was responding to when I decided to turn my attention to conscious aging workshops, and to writing this book.
One evening in February, 1997, I was in bed at home in Marin County, contemplating how to end this book. I'd been working on the manuscript for the past eighteen months, weaving together personal experiences and from talks I'd given around the country on conscious aging, but somehow the book's conclusion had eluded me. Lying there in the dark, I wondered why what I'd written seemed so incomplete, not quite rounded, grounded or whole. I tried to imagine what life would be like if I were very old, not an active person of sixty-five, traveling the world incessantly as a teacher and speaker, caught up in my public role - but as someone of ninety, say, with failing sight and failing limbs. I fantasized how that old man would think, how he would move and speak and hear, what desires he might have as he slowly surveyed the world. I was trying to feel my way into oldness. I was thoroughly enjoying this fantasy when the phone rang. In the process of my fantasy, I'd noticed that my leg had seemed to fall asleep. As I got up to answer the phone, my leg gave way under me and I fell to the floor. In my mind, the fall was still part of my "old man fantasy." I didn't know that my leg had fallen asleep because I'd had a stroke.
I reached for the phone, on the table near my bed.
"R. D. ? Are you there?
I heard the voice of an old friend in Santa Fe. When I didn't respond coherently, he asked. "Are you sick?" I suppose I still didn't answer, so he said, "If you can't speak, tap on the phone. Tap once for yes and twice for no." When he asked if I wanted help, I tapped "no" over and over again.
Nonetheless, he contacted my secretaries, who live close by, and the next thing I knew they rushed into the house and found me on the floor. There I was flat on my back, still caught in my "dream" of the very old man, who had now fallen down because his leg wouldn't work. My assistants seemed very frightened; they called 911. My next recollection is of a group of young firemen, straight out of central casting, staring into the old man's face while I observed the whole thing as if from a doorway to the side. I'm told I was immediately rushed to a hospital nearby, but all I remember was being rolled down the hospital corridors, looking up at the ceiling pipes and the concerned faces of nurses and friends. I was fascinated by what was happening.
Only afterward did I learn that I had a stroke and realize how close to death I had actually been. The doctors told my friends I had a massive cerebral hemorrhage, and only a ten percent chance of survival. I noticed the looks of deep concern on the faces of the doctors and my friends, but the thought of dying was nowhere in my mind, so I was perplexed by their grave expressions.
Three hospitals and hundreds of hours of rehabilitation later, I gradually eased into my own post stroke life as someone in a wheelchair, partially paralyzed, requiring round-the-clock care and a degree of personal attention that made me uncomfortable. All my life I had been a "helper"; I had even collaborated on a book called How Can I Help? Now I found myself forced to accept the help of others, and to admit that my body needed attention. Because I'd spent my adult life concentrating on the realms of the spirit, I'd always been able to rationalize the distance I'd maintained from my body by saying that my detachment was a spiritual witnessing of the physical form. But that had only been partly true. The truth is that I distanced myself from my body. I saw my body as merely a vehicle for the soul. I ignored it as much as possible and tried to spiritualize it away.
From a physical perspective, the lack of love I had shown towards my body contributed to my stroke. I was negligent about taking my blood pressure medicine, and a month before the stroke, ignored an unusual one-side hearing loss while scuba diving in the Caribbean. Before the stroke, although I was in my 60's, I saw myself as young and powerful, with my MG, golf clubs, surfing, and speaking gigs. Illness had shattered my self image, and opened the door to a new chapter in my life.
READ MORE IN THE ACTUAL BOOK...
Memorial Service Video: Joan Baez and Bob Weir Sing Amazing Grace. Bob tells the Story of Meeting Richard Alpert for the First time...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=eXghn7xJWbc&feature=emb_logo
****** (~);-} ******
Great Backpacking Trips in Northern California
Hetch Hetchy: A level path goes around the lake. A good place to camp about 5 miles in. We used it as a base camp for "free climbing" granite. Be careful of accidentally slipping into the river... I did upstream of Wapama Falls. That Morning we ate LSD and Peyote and Smoked Marijuana. Since we were Stimulated and Filled with Electric Energy given by the LSD, We were able to Climb Up a Chimney. The Granite Rock Was Split Vertically and I Was able to climb with my Left Boot on one side and my Right Boot on the other side. I felt as if I was Spiderman... Never Before or since have I been able to climb like that. After wandering around above Timberline we went down to look at the river. It had carved a large pool with a Short waterfall flowing into the pool and a Large Waterfall flowing OUT. I did not NOTICE the REALITY of the WET GRANITE and I slipped right in. Swimming in a river with a powerful current That was out of my control. I was forced underwater and I gave up and accepted Death. Then by a Miracle, The river Bubbled me up at a place where I could climb out. We walked back to camp and I spent the rest on the trip IN my sleeping bag, asking my friends to bring me beverages, food and weed... I cannot say that I had any Cosmic Revelations with my Near Death Experience... No Great Wisdom... Except NOTICE REALITY!
A friend of mine That I Met at AA in Chico FAILED TO NOTICE REALITY. She did not notice that her car was driving directly into the front of a Loaded Logging Truck. She was Driving while Blind Drunk. So, she went head first thru her windshield and... after that... She was not very Smart anymore... She was a Nice, Pretty Young Mother but, Brain Damaged.
One thin we all can di is Learn from our Elders. Try to Not make the same mistakes as our Parents. For Example: My Mother Held a Resentment Against Her Sister for Sixty Years. Mom refused to talk to my Aunt and They Took That Fight TO THEIR GRAVES. We had a great time at my Aunt's Funeral because I did not know much about her and I got to talk to her children that we never saw... ever... My Cousins Lived about a hundred miles from us but we had No Contact for Most of my life. WELL, I'm not going to make that mistake in MY life. I made an effort to Make Amends with everyone I Hurt and Forgave Everyone that hurt me. It's a Step in Alcoholics Anonymous... That's a Smart Task!
The belief system of AA has some similarity to Ram Dass' Teachings. Compare "Be Here Now" and "One Day at a Time." I remember Having a Group Discussion about the idea "Be Here Now"at an AA Meeting in Bidwell Park Chico right next to the creek with the little birdies chirping, etc etc etc... There we were with friends in one of the most beautiful parks in the world and... I Came to the realization that it's pretty easy to "Be Here Now" when You are Having Fun but MUCH MORE DIFFICULT when Your Dentist is Drilling... ahhh... It's All Just Grist For The Mill... https://www.amazon.com/Grist-Mill-Awakening-Ram-Dass/dp/0062235915
Link to Google Map of Hetch Hetchy: GO THERE!
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hetch+Hetchy+Valley,+California+95321/@37.9429661,-119.765467,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x80971f8a91c736fd:0x423983ee122b8b47
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wapama_Falls
https://www.amazon.com/Be-Here-Now-Ram-Dass/dp/0517543052
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Gods-Original-Knowledge-Evolution/dp/0553371304
Preface:
Be Here Now was first published in 1971. It recorded the two major experiences I had Had during the Sixties; one of them was psilocybin mushrooms, and the other was my Guru, Maharajji. Both of them - mushrooms and Maharajji - did many things for me, one of which was to give me a familiarity with other planes of consciousness. They showed me that there's much more in any given moment than we usually perceive, and that we ourselves are much more than we usually perceive. When you know that, part of you can stand outside the drama of your life.
There were a number of transformations in Richard Alpert (my name at birth), which were inspired by mushrooms and Maharajji, and the best, I think, is the one that opened my heart and gave me a chance to serve. For me, the way the compassion seemed to express itself was showing people what I had done, how I had approached my experiences, and so opening avenues for them where their own spirit could emerge. I felt incredibly fortunate because of all the things that had happened to me in the Sixties, and I wanted to spread the grace around. So there were lectures, there were books, there were tapes, and there were videos - a patchwork of different means for sharing my life with people. Ghandi once said, "My life is my message." That's what I aspire to.
As I opened my heart, various forms of suffering in my fellow human beings presented themselves, and I decided to dowhat I could to help. Prisoners read Be Here Now, and then wrote to me, and through corresponding with them I realized that many people can do deep spiritual work in prison. So I started the Prison Ashram Project.
Then I noticed how frightened we are of death in our culture, and what a lot of suffering that was creating. That was in contrast to what I'd seen in India, which has a much different understanding of death than we do because of their knowledge of the continuation of the soul. I wanted to find ways of sharing that, so I instituted the Dying Project. I started hanging out with people who were dying - including my mother, my father, my stepmother, people with AIDS and cancer, many, many people over the years, who I've been with as they died. To each of these individuals and situations I brought what I had to share - my acquaintance with other planes of consciousness, and the way that affects how we perceive our living and our dying.
I started to look at the social institutions in the world around me, to see weather the spiritual tack I was taking might be commensurate with social action. A couple of friends were starting the Seva Foundation, and invited me to join them to do work with doctors and activists, doing work in India, Nepal and Guatemala, and with American Indians and in the Inner Cities of America. Other friends had wondered how business, which is the institution which has the most power in out society, might become more informed bu Spiritual Awareness and I Started the Social Venture Network. They are compassionate business people who invited me to work together with them. I joined the board of Creating Our Future, which was an organization for teenagers who wanted to inform their lives with spirit. These organizations were trying to prevent suffering in areas in which I felt a personal connection. For some people, it's world hunger or literacy. For me it was seeking spiritual answers to many of our problems.
My interest in aging came from a personal direction. I was getting older - ans so were the baby boomers, who were fast approaching fifty. In this youth-oriented culture, aging is a profound source of suffering, and that is what I was responding to when I decided to turn my attention to conscious aging workshops, and to writing this book.
One evening in February, 1997, I was in bed at home in Marin County, contemplating how to end this book. I'd been working on the manuscript for the past eighteen months, weaving together personal experiences and from talks I'd given around the country on conscious aging, but somehow the book's conclusion had eluded me. Lying there in the dark, I wondered why what I'd written seemed so incomplete, not quite rounded, grounded or whole. I tried to imagine what life would be like if I were very old, not an active person of sixty-five, traveling the world incessantly as a teacher and speaker, caught up in my public role - but as someone of ninety, say, with failing sight and failing limbs. I fantasized how that old man would think, how he would move and speak and hear, what desires he might have as he slowly surveyed the world. I was trying to feel my way into oldness. I was thoroughly enjoying this fantasy when the phone rang. In the process of my fantasy, I'd noticed that my leg had seemed to fall asleep. As I got up to answer the phone, my leg gave way under me and I fell to the floor. In my mind, the fall was still part of my "old man fantasy." I didn't know that my leg had fallen asleep because I'd had a stroke.
I reached for the phone, on the table near my bed.
"R. D. ? Are you there?
I heard the voice of an old friend in Santa Fe. When I didn't respond coherently, he asked. "Are you sick?" I suppose I still didn't answer, so he said, "If you can't speak, tap on the phone. Tap once for yes and twice for no." When he asked if I wanted help, I tapped "no" over and over again.
Nonetheless, he contacted my secretaries, who live close by, and the next thing I knew they rushed into the house and found me on the floor. There I was flat on my back, still caught in my "dream" of the very old man, who had now fallen down because his leg wouldn't work. My assistants seemed very frightened; they called 911. My next recollection is of a group of young firemen, straight out of central casting, staring into the old man's face while I observed the whole thing as if from a doorway to the side. I'm told I was immediately rushed to a hospital nearby, but all I remember was being rolled down the hospital corridors, looking up at the ceiling pipes and the concerned faces of nurses and friends. I was fascinated by what was happening.
Only afterward did I learn that I had a stroke and realize how close to death I had actually been. The doctors told my friends I had a massive cerebral hemorrhage, and only a ten percent chance of survival. I noticed the looks of deep concern on the faces of the doctors and my friends, but the thought of dying was nowhere in my mind, so I was perplexed by their grave expressions.
Three hospitals and hundreds of hours of rehabilitation later, I gradually eased into my own post stroke life as someone in a wheelchair, partially paralyzed, requiring round-the-clock care and a degree of personal attention that made me uncomfortable. All my life I had been a "helper"; I had even collaborated on a book called How Can I Help? Now I found myself forced to accept the help of others, and to admit that my body needed attention. Because I'd spent my adult life concentrating on the realms of the spirit, I'd always been able to rationalize the distance I'd maintained from my body by saying that my detachment was a spiritual witnessing of the physical form. But that had only been partly true. The truth is that I distanced myself from my body. I saw my body as merely a vehicle for the soul. I ignored it as much as possible and tried to spiritualize it away.
From a physical perspective, the lack of love I had shown towards my body contributed to my stroke. I was negligent about taking my blood pressure medicine, and a month before the stroke, ignored an unusual one-side hearing loss while scuba diving in the Caribbean. Before the stroke, although I was in my 60's, I saw myself as young and powerful, with my MG, golf clubs, surfing, and speaking gigs. Illness had shattered my self image, and opened the door to a new chapter in my life.
READ MORE IN THE ACTUAL BOOK...
****** (~);-} ******
Memorial Service Video: Joan Baez and Bob Weir Sing Amazing Grace. Bob tells the Story of Meeting Richard Alpert for the First time...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=eXghn7xJWbc&feature=emb_logo
****** (~);-} ******
Great Backpacking Trips in Northern California
Hetch Hetchy: A level path goes around the lake. A good place to camp about 5 miles in. We used it as a base camp for "free climbing" granite. Be careful of accidentally slipping into the river... I did upstream of Wapama Falls. That Morning we ate LSD and Peyote and Smoked Marijuana. Since we were Stimulated and Filled with Electric Energy given by the LSD, We were able to Climb Up a Chimney. The Granite Rock Was Split Vertically and I Was able to climb with my Left Boot on one side and my Right Boot on the other side. I felt as if I was Spiderman... Never Before or since have I been able to climb like that. After wandering around above Timberline we went down to look at the river. It had carved a large pool with a Short waterfall flowing into the pool and a Large Waterfall flowing OUT. I did not NOTICE the REALITY of the WET GRANITE and I slipped right in. Swimming in a river with a powerful current That was out of my control. I was forced underwater and I gave up and accepted Death. Then by a Miracle, The river Bubbled me up at a place where I could climb out. We walked back to camp and I spent the rest on the trip IN my sleeping bag, asking my friends to bring me beverages, food and weed... I cannot say that I had any Cosmic Revelations with my Near Death Experience... No Great Wisdom... Except NOTICE REALITY!
A friend of mine That I Met at AA in Chico FAILED TO NOTICE REALITY. She did not notice that her car was driving directly into the front of a Loaded Logging Truck. She was Driving while Blind Drunk. So, she went head first thru her windshield and... after that... She was not very Smart anymore... She was a Nice, Pretty Young Mother but, Brain Damaged.
One thin we all can di is Learn from our Elders. Try to Not make the same mistakes as our Parents. For Example: My Mother Held a Resentment Against Her Sister for Sixty Years. Mom refused to talk to my Aunt and They Took That Fight TO THEIR GRAVES. We had a great time at my Aunt's Funeral because I did not know much about her and I got to talk to her children that we never saw... ever... My Cousins Lived about a hundred miles from us but we had No Contact for Most of my life. WELL, I'm not going to make that mistake in MY life. I made an effort to Make Amends with everyone I Hurt and Forgave Everyone that hurt me. It's a Step in Alcoholics Anonymous... That's a Smart Task!
The belief system of AA has some similarity to Ram Dass' Teachings. Compare "Be Here Now" and "One Day at a Time." I remember Having a Group Discussion about the idea "Be Here Now"at an AA Meeting in Bidwell Park Chico right next to the creek with the little birdies chirping, etc etc etc... There we were with friends in one of the most beautiful parks in the world and... I Came to the realization that it's pretty easy to "Be Here Now" when You are Having Fun but MUCH MORE DIFFICULT when Your Dentist is Drilling... ahhh... It's All Just Grist For The Mill... https://www.amazon.com/Grist-Mill-Awakening-Ram-Dass/dp/0062235915
Link to Google Map of Hetch Hetchy: GO THERE!
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hetch+Hetchy+Valley,+California+95321/@37.9429661,-119.765467,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x80971f8a91c736fd:0x423983ee122b8b47
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wapama_Falls
https://www.amazon.com/Be-Here-Now-Ram-Dass/dp/0517543052
Great Book: "Be Here Now" by Ram Dass AKA Dr. Richard Alpert... Autobiography and Illustrated Eastern Religion... with amazing art created using rubber stamps for letters and symbols...
At the Rainbow Gathering in California, I spent an afternoon at Ram Dass' Tent... Just relaxing with other people and enjoying some marijuana... There was a long line of people that wanted a personal meeting with Ram Dass and I declined to wait in that line... This tent was at an intersection of two main trails at the Gathering and so there was a lot of interesting looking people walking by... and the Rangers were providing free car rides for disabled people. Right next to us there were a group of Teenagers that were begging for Candy... Well, why not? They used the Slang word DZUZU... Once I found out what that word meant, I threw small bags of M&M Candy at them... and they cheered... Chocolate falling out of the sky! Later I met a DOG and had a long Conversation because I fed him some Summer Sausage... That got the dog's attention... free meat! and he refused to leave me alone until I Hid the Sausage in my Backpack... Then, since he could not see the meat, he believed it was all gone and walked away...
The next day, there was Live Music at the Ram Dass Tent... and they played the most CONSONANT music I have ever heard... Very similar to Christian Music... where they play Major Chords and never stray into Minor Chords or 7ths... I wandered away because I wanted to be part of the July 4th OM at Main Circle... I took this Photo and then Put the Camera in my Pocket, Held Hands and Chanted... Sometimes it's best to ACTUALLY LIVE LIFE instead of DOCUMENTING LIFE... and then Years later someone on the Internet wrote the slogan... and Potatoshopped it into this Photo... THANKS! I was just surfing the web when Surprise! I saw My Photo with words written on it!
The next day, there was Live Music at the Ram Dass Tent... and they played the most CONSONANT music I have ever heard... Very similar to Christian Music... where they play Major Chords and never stray into Minor Chords or 7ths... I wandered away because I wanted to be part of the July 4th OM at Main Circle... I took this Photo and then Put the Camera in my Pocket, Held Hands and Chanted... Sometimes it's best to ACTUALLY LIVE LIFE instead of DOCUMENTING LIFE... and then Years later someone on the Internet wrote the slogan... and Potatoshopped it into this Photo... THANKS! I was just surfing the web when Surprise! I saw My Photo with words written on it!
Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution.
by
Digital Yin Yang Locket Necklace
This Rainbow Hued Hexagon
Yin Yang is Hidden by the Lid but...
it's available on other necklaces...
Two Different Color Schemes
on Two Different Necklaces.
Yin Yang is Hidden by the Lid but...
it's available on other necklaces...
Two Different Color Schemes
on Two Different Necklaces.
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