Dear Friends!

These days it takes some effort to stay cool, on all levels. I hope you're in good spirits, enjoying life, your beloveds and communities. 

Looking around, I sometimes lose my cool, but then I remember that losing it never helped. In these moments, I’m grateful for music.

I’m very excited about the release of Genoa Strings’ first single- KK’s Theme, now on Bandcamp and all platforms! Genoa is Genevieve Walker of the Krishna Das band and me, and this is her composition celebrating our dear friend KK Sah- Ram Dass'  brother from India. The track is made mostly of layers of violin and cello, both written and improvised, with a little piano and flugelhorn as well.

Please consider supporting us and our music by listening and downloading the track. Streaming platforms don't support musicians! But if you must, here’s a link to all platforms

Enjoy the sounds!

Beautiful drawing of Ram Dass and Maharaji by my brother Jeremy Hoffeld

This month was Ram Dass’ 94th birthday. Happy birthday Ram Dass! Not everyday, but when I’m open to it and can escape the mad busyness of life, I can feel him here. A timeless presence, a glow, some added space in my mind, like a much needed extension on a too-small house. He reminds me that there’s much more to this moment than whatever might be weighing on my mind at the time.

RD himself didn’t care too much about birthdays. He said he lived in the soul, not the ego, and that souls are timeless. They don’t have birthdays!

Egos are caught up with the storylines of their existence. Identified with our ego- believing we are the one who’s thinking the thoughts we’re thinking- we believe we are the individual we imagine ourselves to be, with all of our ups and downs, glories and mishaps, our smallness and our moments of expanse. We believe in ‘us and them,’ a world of divisions, in a separateness that is our primal wound.

Souls on the other hand don’t begin, or end. They are always here and now. As a soul, Ram Dass said, he witnessed the mellow-drama of life, of his own incarnation. He beheld all the ups and downs and didn’t get caught by them. Rather, as a soul, he loved himself, and everyone, and everything. He loved it all unconditionally. But how did he get there? How did Ram Dass go from believing he was his ego to experiencing himself as a soul?

I think that’s a crucial question.

Because without it, we’re left with helpless thoughts like, “Wow, Ram Dass was a great guy. Too bad he’s not here now.” But in fact we have power- the power to investigate what brought him to his soul, so we can reach in the same direction in our own lives, opening up our little, tiny houses to be big, expansive ones inside ourselves.

Whether you believe in the soul or not, the space that Ram Dass described exists in all of us. I felt it when I was with him, and he tried to teach me to inhabit that space as well. With direct and repeated instruction, he kept pointing me towards that extra room inside myself, no matter how many times I insisted on returning to my everyday, narrow mental landscape. His very being exuded a loving, relaxed spaciousness that was contagiously yummy. Being by his side was like swimming in an ocean, the ocean of the soul.

Ram Dass told me that by being here now, and witnessing my thoughts and the events of my life, I could cross the shore from the ego to the soul. As a Bhakti Yogi, he also told me that the heartspace is like a stepping stone to the soul. The more we come into Love, the closer we are to merely slipping off the edge into the soul. I feel this when I play cello with Krishna Das. Maharaji’s love is so present in the mantras and bhav that my heart opens more and more. The soul is just a hop skip and a jump away.

But it’s easy to lose sight of all of this magic in the midst of a busy life, each busy day, each busy second. Magic takes time. Spiritual practice- even mindfulness practice without a spiritual framework- opens up a doorway to the magical realm of being, far away from the land of doing. It’s in that space that the soul comes knocking on our door.

When we rush through everything, and are constantly thinking while doing- even while washing dishes we’re planning the next thing- we miss the moment. Because souls exist in the here and now, we miss our opportunity to be fully alive. To be who we truly are.

‘Be here now’ was Ram Dass’ motto for a reason. It’s the cornerstone of the whole spiritual house. If we’re not here and now, where are we? It takes a kind of reeducation though, the kind that only regular practice can give us, a patient and persistent rewiring of our whole system, and this goes against the grain of the world’s busy madness. Everyday now, I’m inviting myself into this new home, a home where I’m present to the magic of the moment.

We can all learn to be here now, and to come into our souls. If Ram Dass did it, and so many others throughout the ages have done it, we can do it too. Life is waiting for us. The moment is waiting for us, inviting us to feel it, be present in it, to live fully in our full selves, and to find home.

To be here now.

If you’d like to learn more about how I can help you to begin or deepen your meditation practice and be more in the here and now, click here

Portrait of Ram Dass by my brother Jeremy Hoffeld

It’s been five years since Ram Dass left his body, but it still feels like yesterday. I remember the pain of getting the news shortly before Christmas, in a text message from a buddy in the Krishna Das band, and the hole it left in my heart. Later that day, friends gathered to chant and hold each other in a space of love and mutual support to get through it. It wasn’t easy. But we had RD’s guiding love and presence to help us through. And his wise words echoed through us. At that time, his famous phrase, “We’re all just walking each other home,” was especially poignant for me, ringing for days in my inner ears.

Where is that home that he was talking about? I know I’m far from there yet. Some days I even question my ability to get there at all. And I question my capacity for walking others there or being walked! When I’m shut down, and find myself living inside my own thought-world, sticking my head in the sand to avoid facing the suffering in others and on the earth at large, I’m not available for a walk.

What would Ram Dass say?

As far as I can tell, RD spent his life opening his own Heart. By the time he reached his golden years, although bound to his wheelchair from the stroke, the guy was really ready to walk others home, and be walked too. All the work he did on himself, through his sadhana and service to others, by opening himself to his guru Maharaji, brought him from a place of tight narrowness to one of complete openness. Maharaji told him to “love everyone and tell the truth.” When I first met him in person in 2016, RD told me with a smile that for almost 50 years he’d “been working with that.”

Those two commandments could have been engraved on two tablets for us when Ram Dass came down from the holy mountain of India. Each would have plenty of space on there and we could think clearly about each one, without getting lost in the complexity of having ten to work on. Who can remember them all anyhow? Those two commandments say it all.

Ram Dass did us the great service of broadcasting those messages to us. That was a huge part of his gift to the world. It’s really interesting just to settle down into those two phrases (or any of the teachings he shared) and think about their implications for our own lives, meditating on the words, contemplating the ways they might inform our own personal journey. Asking not what they mean for everyone, but what exactly do they mean for me? Where have I begun living them, and where am I not even close? At the turn of the year now, it’s a good time to reflect with a little intensity on such questions.

For me, I know I have plenty of room for growth in both areas. A long, long way to walk! I can see my own nasty tendencies on full display every single day. It seems strange to me that I’m still more invested in my own self-interest than in being open and available for helping others. I guess that’s a testament to the staying power of bad habits. The good news is that I still feel Ram Dass’ presence with me to help me walk forward, and I know he’s there for anyone else who wants to feel him and be walked home too.

He’s there, patiently holding our hands, despite our own resistance to growth, or to even opening ourselves a little bit to being held and helped.

What would Ram Dass want for us at this trying time in history? What would he say to help us all through? I wish he were here to give us guidance and perspective, or even just be present with us to make us feel better and laugh a little bit. He was so good at that. But even though he’s not here to speak, I believe we can look back at all he said and wrote and have a good guess at what he might come out with. Like his presence, his words have a timeless quality that makes them as relevant now as when he said them, even as far back as in Be Here Now in 1971.

As 2024 draws to a close and we’re cozily awaiting Kris Kringle to arrive, an interesting meditation might be to just sit quietly and imagine Ram Dass with you, maybe coming down the chimney and beating Santa to the punch. If you imagine hard enough, I know he’ll be there with you for real. Once you’ve tuned into his presence and feel him with you, holding your hand and smiling, feel into what he has to say. What’s his message for you right now, at this time on the planet and in your life? What gifts does he bring?

You might hear some words, or maybe just a gentle sense of something. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s just enough, just right for you right now.

Thanks for reading. I’m gonna go sit and try this meditation for myself now. Let me know how it goes for you in the comments below, and we can compare notes.

Happy and Healthy 2025 to you, and may Ram Dass always be present for you, walking you home and helping you to walk others too.

In Love,

Noah

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