In this reflective monologue, Emmett Miller MD honors his late friend Ram Dass by revisiting the core teachings of the spiritual master. Miller emphasizes the practice of "Be Here Now" as a way to step out of ego identification and into the witnessing presence of the soul. He describes how recognizing oneself as love rather than a lover leads to oneness, and how unconditional love is a state of being that does not depend on external conditions. Miller also explores the paradox that relinquishing the desire for power opens the way to abundant fulfillment, and he frames suffering as a training program for wisdom. The talk culminates in a call for greater compassion, suggesting that as consciousness expands, barriers between people, religions, and nations will dissolve.
Chapters
Be Here Now is in each moment Go into the moment. Our minds tend to take us back and forth through time. I teach a moment. And I teach that we tend to identify with our ego. The ego is a mind warp, and most people don't identify with their soul. They're worried about excess meaning. The soul witnesses the ego and witnesses thoughts. Be Here Now gives people an opportunity to re-identify outside of their thinking mind ego and into that thing that's called the soul. It is the perspective from which we could live a life without being caught So much in fear. To re-identify is to change your whole life. We're all just walking each other home. The quieter you become, the more you can hear. Be here. Now. I am not this body. I am in this body, and this is part of my incarnation, and I honor it, but that isn't who I am. It's important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path and to proceed. Be here now and realize when you're already in Detroit, you don't have to take a bus to get there. Be here now. I am not interested in being a lover I'm interested in only being love. If I go into the place in myself that is love and you go into the place in yourself that is love, we are together in love. Then you and I are truly in love. The state of of being love. That is the entrance to oneness. Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying. You are loved just for being who you are, just for existing. You don't have to do anything to earn it. Your shortcomings, your lack of self-esteem, physical perfection, or social and economic success— none of that matters. No one can take this love away from you, and it will always be here. So let's trade in all our judging for appreciating. Let's lay down our righteousness and just be together. The most exquisite paradox is as soon as you give it all up, you can have it all. As long as you want power, you can't have it. The minute you don't want power, you'll have more than you ever dreamed possible. It's important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path and to proceed. The next message you need is always right where you are. As we grow in our consciousness, there will be more compassion and more love, and then the barriers between people, between religions, between nations will begin to fall. Yes, we have to beat down the separateness. Be here now. Your problem is you're too busy holding on to your unworthiness. And if you think you're free, there's no escape possible. Suffering is part of our training program for becoming wise. Unconditional love really exists in each of us. It is part of our deep inner being. It is not so much an active emotion as a state of being. It's not "I love you for this or that reason," not "I love you if you love me." It's love for no reason, love without an object. Inspiration is God making contact with itself. And finally, compassion refers to the arising in the heart of the desire to relieve the suffering of all beings.
