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Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe Be Here Now - Ram Das Whole Earth Catalog - Stewart Brand Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace Savage Continent - Ke

• deadfall 13y ago
  Ram Das has such great lectures. I have yet to read his books. I am reading The Power of Now and I wonder how different it is to Be Here Now.
  • DonGateley 13y ago
    The message is pretty much the same but the presentation is considerably different. After the wordy introduction which is more or less the story of his transformation from Richard Alpert to Ram Dass, Be Here Now is as much a work of art as it is a book. It tries to reach around your intellect. I haven't had a copy for many years and just ordered one from Amazon because you made me think about it fondly again. I first read it shortly after it was published in '71 and it's time to read it again. :-) There is a trap in the thinking that it took me a long time to understand. The present is a consequence of past behavior that cannot be safely ignored. The future is a consequence of present behavior and cannot be safely ignored. Discarding that caution brought me a lot of trouble I would have been better off avoiding. This is obvious but excess enthusiasm for mindfulness of the present can easily lead one to places that one wouldn't want to be.