May 14

Haven't gotten into Lama yet. Hafta get out of Brentwood Manor Board-and-Care Home. Today I'm going to Kashi (Ma Jaya) Ashram on Huntley St. in West Hollywood for kirtan & yoga. The vibes are so bad at the bored-and-care, with the fascist Mexican staff always yelling at you and lying to you. I have to go back there for lunch in 20 minutes.

The night before last Mark Barasch, my classmate from Yale in 1967 was in town to sign his book, Field Notes On a Compassionate Life. He has a Buddhist teacher. He's suffered a lot; his first book was about having cancer--later books were about it's remission.

I'm reading The South Beach Diet and I know I've really got to lose weight since I have both heart disease and diabetes if I don't want to wake up dead with a heart attack. Every body at Brentwood Manor gets the classical prediabetes pot belly from the bad food.

I looked at Kashi's website and she had a quote from Neem Karoli Baba, her and Ram Dass' guru, to repeat, "Ram, Ram, Ram" over and over and at first you may not do it with devotion, but later you will. I'm going to try to mentally repeat the word "Ram" all the way over to the ashram (where I've never been) on the bus.