Musings

BE LOVE NOW: a review

BE LOVE NOW:  The Path of the Heart
(Harper One: 2010)
A review by Jim Burklo

“A saint’s heart melts like butter.  No, it melts even more than butter.  Butter only melts when you put it near the fire, but a saint’s heart melts when anyone else’s heart comes near the fire.” -  Neem Karoli Baba

The heart of Richard Alpert, a Harvard psychologist, melted upon meeting Neem Karoli Baba, his Maharaj-ji, in India in the 1960’s.  Alpert had discovered bhakti yoga, the Hindu discipline of devotion.  It was a spiritual path that led him farther than the short but stunning trips he’d taken on LSD back at Harvard.  Richard Alpert became Baba Ram Dass, servant of Ram, the name of God that his Maharaj-ji repeated as a constant mantra.

BE LOVE NOW makes saints out of its readers.  My heart flowed like melted butter while reading Ram Dass’ stories of the bliss he felt in the presence of his guru.   The book is a window into the hearts of Neem Karoli Baba, the hearts of other great saints of India, and the hearts of their devotees.  Ram Dass includes gentle cautions about abuses that happen in the guru-disciple relationship, but they are couched in his ultimate trust that bhakti will deliver the soul into union with the divine.

The book revisits much of the material Ram Dass recounted in his book, MIRACLE OF LOVE (1995), and many of his pearls from BE HERE NOW (1971), which did so much to open young Americans (and I was one of them) to the spiritual wisdom of the East.  The heat from Neem Karoli Baba’s fire radiates still, as the new book attests.

The foreward by Rameshwar Das, his long-time friend and fellow American adopter of Hindu spirituality, is touching.  It recounts the influence Ram Das had on a generation of spiritual seekers.  Rameshwar Das helped substantially in the writing of this book, given Ram Dass’ ongoing challenges as a result of the devastating stroke he suffered in 1997. 

“Jesus used the metaphor of the fisherman.  When you first feel that depth of joy, you are caught in the net of pure love by the divine fisherman; you’re hooked on that love,” writes Ram Dass (p 5).  It is hard not to take the bait that he offers in this book; a life awash in the warmth of divine love.

Creeds for Christians

*****
God is Love, the cosmic creativity present everywhere and in everything,
Gently urging all toward the good.

To Love we raise our awestruck praise!

Jesus embodied the Love that is God. 
He loved the poor, the sick, the outcast,
He loved the unpopular, and even his own enemies. 
He loved so completely, he loved so dangerously,
That it cost him his life.

As Christians we aim to serve humbly, as he did,
Resurrecting his life of Love through communion with others.

The texts and traditions of Christianity give voice to our souls,
 so that we may support each other in our quests of compassion.
Love is the measure of what is worth following,
And what is not, in all religions.  
So we pray for a Holy Spirit of discernment
To express our faith afresh in new times and places.

 

*****

I worship and adore God,

               source, essence, and aim of all things,

               spirit that enlivens all beings.

I follow the way of Jesus, who found God in himself

               and shared a way for others to find God in

themselves.

               He was born through love,

               He lived for love,

               He suffered for love,

               He died for love,

               But love never dies.

I submit myself to the leadings of the love that is

God,

               that I may be compassionate to all beings,

               that I may live and serve in community with others,

               that I may ask for and offer forgiveness,

               that I may praise and enjoy God forever.  Amen!

What's Missing?

His hands feel his legs as he lifts
and shifts them.
His legs don't feel his hands
any more than his shirt feels his chest.
He wears his legs like his legs wear pants:
pants that can't dance.
"I forget what it was like to walk," he says.
His legs have become long toenails
needing periodic maintenance,
but are not part of his body's conversation.
They are deaf at the symphony,
Blind at the art gallery.
They don't know what, or whom,
they are missing.
In the accident, he lost part of himself,
including the part of what he lost
that would enable him
to feel that it was gone.

To what unfeeling things am I attached?
What weighs me down from dancing?
What am I missing
that would enable me
to know what I am missing?