Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz
"If you think it makes a difference if I have ten thousand sports cars, ten million girlfriends and lead a very flashy life...I don't think you should work with any teacher because you don't know what it is all about yet.
I'm a Zen Master. I'm an occult teacher. I teach people how to become that, how to be perfect.
I think the most miraculous thing is learning. I get out of the way and let the students learn. Then you get to watch this amazing thing happen.
I am a teacher because teaching allows me to observe the universe at work, that moment when wakefulness suddenly occurs.
While I am here I would like to experience as many of the beauties of the world as possible and help others to do the same.
Since there were others, a long time ago, who were kind enough to give me a hard time and allow me to study with them, I try and express the same Buddhist courtesy.
I just felt that it was my responsibility, since so many people had taken the time to help me along, to do the same for others.
I teach meditation and the pathway to enlightenment because I know that there are other people who, like i did a long time ago and continue to, want to climb that mountain to the highest light.
I don't believe in anything, yet I believe emphatically in almost everything. It all depends on what seems appropriate at the time.
I am an expert in the world of the supremely happy because I am happy. I've never met anybody as happy as I am. That, in itself, should make you unhappy.
I personally have fun with enlightenment, the study and the teaching of it. I get a kick out of doing it different ways because I don't think there is a "way".
M y seminars are for you. They are moments, hours and evenings outside of time. A chance, in a highly charged environment, to meditate, find stillness, and remember who you are. A place, with others of like mind, to find and lose yourself in the transcendental light.
I have often discussed the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path in talks I have given about meditation. But, since I also teach Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist mediation, I have a very eclectic approach to the subject.
One evening you may learn about enlightenment, koans, meditation and personal power.
I may discuss contemporary cinema, how to shop at a mall without losing energy, how to use the power of mind to increase career and academic success, the Zen of sports, reincarnation, karma, sex, the experience of "suchness" or a new book by Stephen King.
I teach Zen, tantric mysticism, jnana yoga, bhakti yoga, Tibetan mysticism, occultism and psychic development. I also teach poetry and literature, film and many other different things.
I am very interested in the enlightenment of women. Very few teachers of advanced self discovery work with women, and if they do it's usually in a very second handed way. They treat women as second class citizens.
While I enjoy teaching people on the basic and intermediate levels to work them up to advanced levels, my real talent is for the advanced students. You could say that I'm like a ninth-degree black belt in martial arts.
The way advanced meditation is taught, the way I teach it, the way all enlightened people teach it, is through transference. We transfer light and power to someone else.
Transmission does not have to take place physically. The student doesn't have to be sitting across from you. But it's easier if they are because the vibration of the teacher is strongest in the physical proximity of the teacher.
Many of the people I work with I've worked with in other lifetimes. I moved to California because I knew that many of my students from past lives were in California.
I'll go to a city, a school, and give a lecture because I can feel someone there. I inwardly see first their is someone there who is waiting. Where they'll show up or not, I don't know. That depneds upon many factors..
I was a traditional teacher for a time, but my students would ride the energy. I wanted to free people not give them a placebo.
I can take an individual and i can change their awareness. That’s easy. But how long will it last?
Their whole life will begin to shift, from their first physical contact with you.
Sometimes their immediate reaction is to want to run away because they realize inwardly that the transpositions their life will go through will be remarkable, change everything.
A Part of them has grown very attached to a certain way of life.
I've moved a lot of my students into a high state of mind, but they don't do the things I have shown them how to do. So then, they drop down into a lower stage of attention.
It is the Teacher’s job to point out mistakes so that an individual doesn’t continue to hurt themselves or others.
Unfortunately the student often feels guilt for not living the type of life that their Teacher suggested, or they feel that they are intrinsically bad and incapable of leading a higher life.
Often, in the student’s confusion, she or he directs angers at the Teacher, blaming them for the pain they are experiencing, or for their own mistakes.
Some come to a teacher for power. They still have all the desires, angers and jealousies of an unevolved person. Consequently, they become destructive both to themselves and to others.
I no longer teach meditation, only software design.
I consider those persons to be my students who come and meditate with me on a regular basis, who, in spite of the hardships and difficulties on the path of knowledge, still continue to try, and who respect me as I respect them.
You only find your Teacher once in many lifetimes. Never be afraid to see them and meditate with them. Your Teacher always understands and always forgives.
I'd love to find some people to teach advanced meditation to. I've been looking for many years. There are a few around. Once in a while I run into another one. It's a very limited league at this time, in this world.
When someone says to me "I want to be enlightened." I immediately take a vacation because I know that the person isn't serious.
If I ever write an autobiography about teaching meditation in the West, I'll call it "Pissing In the Wind - Teaching Buddhism in America".
It's very funny. People do not want to achieve liberation or be happy. This is the basic guideline they teach you in Spiritual Training School.
People love misery, they love to feel sorry for themselves, and they definitely don't want to be enlightened. That's the first thing they tell you at boot camp, in the higher worlds.
Don Juan, in the teacings of Carlos Castaneda, makes the same point. You have to fool people into seeking knowlege. People will not do it of their own volition.
There are some great stories in The Second Ring of Power about how Don Juan and Don Genaro found their apprentices and what they went through to fool their students into seeking light.
I’ve never met anyone who's serious about enlightenment.
The next best thing is to work with those who are not quite there yet to bring them up to that level.
If you want to be liberated, if you choose to be what I am, then you've chosen freedom. You can do this.
That's my sole purpose in life is to sit here today and tell you that you can do this, in any life. You can do this in one of your past lives, in a future life, or right now. I prefer now.
I select people to work more closely when they are prepared to, and I see that. They don't have to tell me. I know. I will give them a task of some type, and that task becomes the koan between us.
A teacher had two types of students. One type of student is a close student. The other is also a close student, but not in the sense of physical proximity. The close students rotate a lot.
Most of the teaching I do is not verbal. It's in every movement of my body. It's in my dance. It's in the way I lift a glass of water. It's in my voice tone. It’s in every aspect of my life - because it isn't my life anymore.
When I sit with my students and meditate with them, I channel the kundalini directly into them. I bring them to plane after plane of consciousness. What they would do in 100 years of meditation, I can do in an hour with them.
The kundalini comes in two primary forms when it comes forward from a spiritual teacher.
The highest octave kundalini is the golden light which occurs in the supraconscious; it is the supraconscious. It's what they call Sat Chit Ananda - existence, consciousness, bliss...full consciousness.
The mystical kundalini is very different. It is a much more intense transformative energy which, when used, allows a person to make tremendous spiritual leaps in a short period of time.
The mystical kundalini is something that I normally use when we're on field trips, when we go to a place of power.The mystical kundalini is aided by that place.
For most persons, the mystical kundalini energy is easier to initially perceive, unless you're extremely sensitive. It's more of a rush, a flash. There's an electric quality to it, a burning heat.
There's lower mystical kundalini and higher mystical kundalini; there's ranges within the range.
The mystical kundalini energy has some, I don't know if you'd call them limitations, but there are certain operational factors which you should understand about it.
When you are subjected to this light, depending on how strong the dose is, you will have two or three days in which you can make tremendous changes within your self, in the structure of your being.
This light unglues the formation and structure of the being for a certain period of time. It will reassemble automatically.
After two or three days, the door will close and you will not be able to make those changes as easily.
A human being can only absorb a small amount of the mystical kundalini, you can be exposed again and again to it, but it won't really make a difference.
The higher octave light that comes from samadhi, the kundalini of samadhi, this you can absorb continuously. You can never overload. It can never hurt you.
Neither is detrimental, but the mystical kundalini is a bit more raucous.
Not all teachers utilize both forms of light.In certain circles, those teachers who can manifest the light of samadhi but not the mystical light have put down the mystical light.
They have said this is a lower level. Ridiculous! They're really both the same light, just two different forms.
If you had to pick between one or the other, I can't say which one is better, but I would certainly say, in my orientation, the light of samadhi is all-pervasive. Samadhi will free you.
Samadhi is the highest octave spiritual light. Not the best, but the highest octave.
When I enter into nirvikalpa samadhi, most can see this light, or feel it. This light creates very powerful, steady spiritual transformation. The reason you are here is to sit in this light.
Occasionally at a Center Meeting, not that often, every couple of months, I'll break down and demonstrate a little mystical kundalini; but not that often, simply because it wouldn't be that effective.
You can increase your capacity to absorb the mystical kundalini. I have 3 or 4 students who are on the path of mysticism, they can absorb more of it.
You don't need to be able to absorb a tremendous amount of the mystical kundalini to realize God.
Tonight I have inundated you with the mystical kundalini. Now, of course, I'm moving into the supra-conscious; it's kind of a doubleheader this evening.
As you sit in this light from week to week, you will transform and grow and develop. It washes away the samskaras, the past-life tendencies. It washes away the karmic tendencies from this life.
When I meditate, people see manifestations of light when I go into samadhi and through the samadhis. Sometimes the energy of enlightenment is so clear that people don't realize that their attention has been elevated.
It has been my exprience that repetitive nights of exposure to the kundalini energy followed by longer periods of reflection and pyschic networking create the fastest transitions in awareness.
It is important to have intensive blocks of time together. During our nights together there is a tremendous interchange of knowledge, power and awareness.
It will take about a month for that awareness to be fully absorbed and modify someone's attention field. During that period of time, a person who studies with me will meditate on their own, and apply those things that they have learned to their daily lives.
Our field trips are an opportunity for you to enter into the world of mystical power.
As far as miracles are concerned, I'm not aware that I perform miracles. After many years and lifetimes of meditation, I am able to use the kundalini energy to alter other people's awareness and aid them in their search for light and certainty.
I know some teachers say that you shouldn't display the psychic powers and other powers referred to as the siddhas, but as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't really matter. There are no absolute rights or wrongs in spiritual practice
I like Miracles. They inspire me. Miracles are the fun of enlightenment. When a teacher does a miracle, and everyone sees it, they have faith in what the teacher has to say about self-discovery.
There is this school of thought that says the usage of all mystical and occult powers is bad. I find that thought is usually propounded by people who don't have any powers. It's kind of a sour grapes attitude.
There is no such thing as a miracle. A miracle is just what somebody else doesn't understand. If we went back into the Stone Age and we lit a match, they'd say:"Ahh miracla, miracla!"
The vast majority of the students I have taught have become self-sufficient and confident individuals who enjoy their lives.
Every day I get letters from people thanking me for helping them to become successful, whether because of their personal growth or because of economic rewards. A few of my former students have even become millionaires.
Naturally, the Zen Master Rama philosophy is to have a high state of awareness and material success.
Of course, there are the old hardcore teacher types like me who sit around and tell jokes, realizing, what's the difference anyway - it's all timeless.
How do you become enlightened? I don't know: Luck, karma, skill, friends in high places, friends in low places.
The word "Guru", as it is used in the contemporary American scene, is someone who takes all your money and tells you what to do with your life. You assume no responsibility. A lot of people want that free ride.
I don't think of myself as a guru but as a teacher. If one means 'guru' in the original sense a 'dispeller of darkness' then that certainly is my purpose.
Today in the west the word 'guru' has come to mean someone who leads a cult, someone who deprives others of their intellectual or spiritual freedom and rips them off financially.
It really doesn't matter to me whether a person has a lot of money or a little bit of money.
What matters is that they are curious about life, energy, truth, and themselves and that they haven't sold out to the establishment powers that tell us what to think, what to wear, how to behave, what to believe in and what goes beyond the line of rational and irrational thought.
The cult phenomenon is definitely journalistically 'in'. But if we were to apply for a financial aid grant as a cult, I'm afraid we would be turned down for lack of proper qualifications.
I don't engage in brainwashing, I don't dictate forms of lifestyle, I don't perform mass marriages or even singular marriages. I don't tell people what to believe,
I don't dictate particular styles of dress. I do teach classes in self discovery.
We have a spiritual community but everyone lives where they want to. I recommend certain areas to live because of their power.
People get together and go to the movies or on hikes, but everyone maintains their own independent domicile.
Some people harbor the idea or belief that all teachers should teach for free. Obviously these people have never been teachers, particularly in the twentieth century. Teaching meditation is a very expensive hobby.
I try to teach people to continually search and question the meaning of everything they are taught and everything they believe in. My job is not so much to impart a philosophy but to train people in the methods of self discovery.
I show people the techniques for gaining knowledge, and this inspires them in their search for truth, freedom and happiness. I also try to show people that truth exists as much in this world as it does in any other world.
Everything that I teach as an enlightened Buddhist teacher is towards directing an individual to happiness, a balanced wisdom and knowledge that is sometimes just bubbly and euphoric or just very still and profound.
There is no best teacher. Life itself is the teacher. There is no best method. All that matters is that it works.
My teaching -- of what is perceived to be a complex and foreign-sounding religious philosophy -- has become the target for people's prejudice and religious intolerance.
Many people who help me encounter a lot of resistance from other people and from forces.
Certainly, I am aware that there have been a number of articles written about me and television shows in which I have been featured and referred to as a "cult leader."
I don't think there is anyone in public life today who can escape the inevitable onslaught of the media. It seeks to pry into and often grossly distort aspects of one's personal and professional life. I guess it just comes with the territory.
When you combine a media -- bent on exploiting tabloid-type stories to boost ratings and circulation by innuendo and titillation -- with unhappy or opportunistic individuals who have nothing going for them in their own lives, you get a bitter brew.
A well known Los Angeles newspaper referred to a small group of gentlemen who live up on a mountain and practice Zen as 'the Zen cult'. The cult phenomenon is definitely journalistically 'in'.
I find it ironic to read stories about myself which have never occurred and are simply so absurd that they are comical. At other times, it is very painful to be so misinterpreted and vilified.
All I can say is that these cult stories are totally untrue, are without any foundation, and trade on a deep bias against Westerners who dare to embrace an Eastern belief-system.
Unfortunately, in self-discovery, you get the culty types who want the father figure or mother figure to tell them everything to do. They don't want to do any work. They want to hang on your energy and try to drain it.
The source of their motivation ranges from what you might expect -- from the seeking of money and publicity, to those who genuinely suffer from chronic personal problems and have fixated on me as the cause of their frustrations and failures.
Every new movement or group of people who seek to explore awareness is considered a cult. The United States was founded by several cults. They felt that Protestantism had become much too lax, so they came to America and set up a hard line religious cult.
It is inevitable that, in the process of teaching an Asian religion in a Western country, many of the teachings will seem strange or unusual -- in the same way that Christianity and Judaism may seem strange and unusual to people from the Far East.
Obviously, following my convictions has come at a personal price, but they are important enough that I have been willing to endure the abuse.
Perhaps my own struggle against the negativity created by these so-called critics has enabled me to develop a more resilient, peaceful, inner strength which I, in turn, have attempted to communicate to others.
It is one thing to teach a dynamic Oriental philosophy and religious code; it is quite another to put such a discipline to the test by successfully living it in the face of ridicule.
I don't really have a problem with the pain of life. Perhaps that is because I am a martial artist and I am used to dealing with pain. Or perhaps I adjusted to pain because there has been a great deal of it in my life.
I think that pain gives us appreciation of joy - it's a package deal. And I definitely think that the joys of life far outweigh the pain.
As an enlightened teacher of Buddhism, I'd like to welcome you to the pathway to enlightenment. I'd like to encourage you to be more positive, to engage in the practice meditation, to learn how to do this wonderful thing - make your mind still in a crazy world.
I am a liberated teacher. A person who meditates with me, even though they may be thousands of miles away, will draw that light into them.
I feel a number of people who will never be students whom I'm corresponding with inwardly.
My teenage freinds when I was growing up, they have no idea that I attained liberation but I help them. They don't need to know. I can send them energy and light and help them in their evolution.
There are people I feel in other parts of the world who will never meet me or hear my name. They are probably better off. I help them inwardly. I feel their souls seeking light, and I help all who come.
You can focus on me or on any spiritual teacher. Spiritual teachers who have left the body, who are no longer on earth can help you too.
When I leave the body someday, I can help people just as effectively if they focus upon me.
I am a Teacher. I am the keeper of mysteries. You seek knowledge and power, Truth, Light, and happiness. I am happy to aid you in your search.
It's not my light to begin with, in a sense; it's the light of God, the light of eternity. So take all you want! "
- Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz
www.ramaqutoes.com
