http://fredericklenzfoundation.org en-us ℗ & © 2009 Frederick Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism Dharma Talks by Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Dharma Talks on a variety of topics in Buddhism by Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz. They were recorded from 1982 through 1992, and cover a wide variety of topics across meditation, Tantric Mysticism, Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, and Vadrayana Buddhism. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. Rama,Frederick Lenz,Buddhism,Zen,Tantra,Nirvana,Vajrayana,Tantric Frederick Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism info@fredericklenzfoundation.org http://www.fredericklenzfoundation.org/Assets/iTunes/DharmaTalks_itunesLogo.jpg http://fredericklenzfoundation.org 300 300 no Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Meditation is a process of expanding your awareness. When you meditate you get in touch with the deepest part of yourself. Meditation is a process of expanding your awareness. When you meditate you get in touch with the deepest part of yourself. You know from your own point of view, what's right, what's wrong, what you should do and shouldn't, in any situation. Meditation makes you tough, makes you strong, conscious, happy, and eventually enlightened. Meditation is a process of silencing your thoughts. Beyond the world of thought and sensorial impressions, there are planes and dimensions of perfect light, knowledge, and radiant perfection. Meditation is simply a process of moving your awareness field from the awareness of this world, from the awareness of time and space, into eternity; into the eternal dimensions. The world you see around you is largely physical. It's perceived through seeing, tasting, smelling, touching, and feeling. It's also analyzed through thought, it's felt through emotion, it's remembered through memory, anticipated through projection, and experienced as now. But there are different modes and levels of perception which most people are not familiar with. And there are different universes - astral universes and above the astral universes, the planes of light, beyond the planes of light, nirvana itself, perfect Enlightenment -- the essence, the nexus of all things. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 30:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:00 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The essential premise of Buddhism is that there is enlightenment, there is nirvana. Beyond this world, beyond all worlds, there is something radiant, perfect, and eternal. Buddhism. It's presumptuous for me or anyone to talk about Buddhism. 'Cause it's so vast and so complete and there are so many aspects of it. So without being presumptuous, I will talk about Buddhism. I'm an Enlightened teacher and my name is Rama. I've been teaching Buddhism for lots of incarnations. And I teach it in this incarnation. But none of us really teach Buddhism. Buddhism is a way of life. It's Yoga and we practice it. People can watch us practice it. They can learn how to practice it by watching, by observing, by listening, by becoming sensitive. But I think it's something that life teaches us. We are teachers, we are necessary, but life is the real teacher and always remember that. Buddhism is the Enlightenment Cycle and there are different types of it. Principally, there is short path and long path Buddhism. The long path is more the religious aspect, that is to say, the church aspect. The practice of reading sutras, healthy ways of living, things like that. A certain amount of prayer, a little meditation. The esoteric aspect of Buddhism, which is short path Buddhism, is meditation. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 29:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:01 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Power is the active force in life. It is the force of life that makes awareness. Power is seen in the wind, in fire, in movement, physical movement, emotional movement, mental movement. Power. Power is the active force in life. It is the force of life that makes awareness. Power is seen in the wind, in fire, in movement, physical movement, emotional movement, mental movement. Power is awareness. Power in Buddhism is defined, very precisely, in many different ways. There is no singular word that can encompass all the different aspects of power. The general term for power, spiritual power, the power of awareness, is Kundalini. Kundalini is the energy of life that creates life. Life is awareness. It's movement, it's sentient. Life is the power to perceive. Without perception, there is no life. Types of perception certainly vary. Plants have one kind of perception, amoebas another, birds another, human beings another, astral beings another. The universe itself is a giant perceptual matrix. It perceives itself in essence and through its substance. Buddhism, Yoga, is the study of perception and what is most endemic to perception is power. The power to exist, to perceive, and the power to change perception. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 59:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:02 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Spiritual balance is the ability to be happy in spite of circumstances. Balance. Spiritual balance is the ability to be happy in spite of circumstances. Spiritual balance is the obvious answer to the obsession that sometimes accompanies religious practice, occult practice, philosophical understanding. The obsession, the assertion that one is right. That something you're doing is better than something someone else is doing. The way you're doing it is better than the way someone else does it. Spiritual balance is how you deal with opposition. Opposition outside yourself and opposition within yourself. Spiritual balance is Tai Chi. It's the center of things. It's the place where yin and yang meet, where all things come together. In chakras, it's considered the heart chakra, Anahata, the central chakra, three above, three below, which symbolizes happiness and love, psychic oneness, spiritual understanding. So, pure and simple, balance is happiness. Happiness in spiritual practice, happiness while meditating, happiness while working, while playing, in pleasure and pain, in sickness and health, in life and in death. In all circumstances, that's balance. How do you do that? How can you be balanced in a world like this. You've got to be kidding, right? Well, the world has always been this way. At least in one form or another. I mean, I'm sure in the Middle Ages and the ancient Chinese civilizations or the mystery schools of Egypt, ancient Atlantis, you pick a universe, a cosmos, it doesn't matter. There's always something going on, there is always somebody on your case. Dogs have fleas, people have each other. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 30:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:03 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Wisdom is the ability to do two things at once. To be in the world and of it and enjoy it, participate in it fully and successfully, and at the same time to not be here at all. To be in realms of light. Wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to do two things at once. To be in the world and of it and enjoy it, participate in it fully and successfully, and at the same time to not be here at all. To be in realms of light. To be in the superconscious state, to be in samadhi, beyond all this, that true wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to take care of your life properly, to know what's right for you. To have assessed what is the right path and follow it with heart, with your full spirit and your full mind and your full body. To not have reservations. When you do something halfheartedly, you don't get much of a result. When you do it fully, you get a great result. So wisdom is the ability to let go. Children are wise in a funny kind of a way. Perhaps their interests aren't as vested. They haven't developed so many vested interests of self. So they just kind of let go. They go from one neighborhood to another, one school to another, fairly easily. As they get older it becomes more difficult. There's a wisdom, a lack of self consciousness, that is innocence. I think innocence is the greatest wisdom. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 30:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:04 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Enlightenment is the complete awareness of life without mental modification. Enlightenment is the complete awareness of life without mental modification. enlightenment is a state of awareness we reach when our consciousness is one with infinity with the infinite consciousness of life itself. Enlightenment is not a state of mind. Although all states of mind are contained within it. It is the best of all things, the brightest of all lights, it is union with immortality. Timelessness and with the temporal. Of all the myriad worlds, planes, and things that simply can't be put into words. Enlightenment exists within everything. There is nothing that can be separate enlightenment. But when I talk about enlightenment, when I discuss it with my students, I am referring to an experience, a journey, journey to light. Enlightenment in this sense is a journey into cosmic consciousness. To be completely aware of eternity. To be aware not of just this moment, or this world, but of timelessness of space, of organic life, and where lie's beyond it. Think of enlightenment as a journey. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 30:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:05 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz What makes us happy and what increases is contact with light. The experience of light in a very pure form, if not the purest form, always creates happiness. Happiness is the most elusive thing, it seems, for human beings to find. Happiness is something that everybody wants, or professes to want, so it must be a very difficult thing since so few people, relatively few people, seem to ever experience it. And if they do experience it, they sure don't seem to experience it for long. I'm the happiest person I've ever met. Plain and simple. The reason I'm happy is because I have a very good relationship with life. My happiness is not dependent upon what happens to me, today or tomorrow or what happened yesterday. My happiness is dependent upon light. And since light is endless, since light is infinite, since light, the inner light, of course, of self discovery, of enlightenment, is happiness in itself, then if I can make myself available to light, which I certainly do, then I'm bound to be happy, always. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 30:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:06 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz What's interesting about reincarnation from the point of view of the more advanced soul is how the process works. Reincarnation is a dance. Its a movement of life to the rhythm of the universe. The idea is simple. There is spirit and there is matter. And they join together; one as one dancing partner and one as the other. The two together make a partner. They're together for a time while they're on the dance floor and then they separate and go their individual ways for a while and then they come together once again. And it goes on forever. Spirit, the eternal part of our being is indescribable and limitless. We are eternal spirits. As spirits, we have always existed and in a generalized form, since we are all part of the universe, the spirit of the universe. As individual spirits, we have existed for a timeless time. And in that time, we have participated in the dance of reincarnation. Reincarnation means simply that we have lived before, we live now, we'll live again. That there is no end to life. That death is only a brief pause in our journey. It's a rest. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 30:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:07 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Miracles. I like miracles. They inspire me. Miracles cause you to believe, to have faith in the unseen, to look further into things, deeper into things. Enlightenment initially appears to be subtle, it's just out of your field of vision. If you're meditating, if you're practicing every day, you don't necessarily see the changes that are taking place in your life because you're so close to them. You don't remember how limited your awareness field was 6 months ago or a year ago, let alone yesterday, before this mornings meditation. The real miracle, obviously, is the transformation of consciousness from limitation and pain to enlightenment and ecstasy. But in order to get to a appreciation, a belief, in order to inspire practice, teachers sometimes do miracles, or sometimes they just enjoy doing them. A miracle, a siddha power, is part and parcel of infinity and I suppose you can use them to be egotistical and show off, but somebody enlightened wouldn't do that. They just have fun with it, an innocent play. An Enlightened person lacks self consciousness, in the sense that there's no ego valuation for what they do. They just do things because it's fun, because it's beautiful, or because that's how life flows through them. So it's inspiring when you see a miracle. Miracles cause you to believe. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 30:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:09 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Then, in the intermediate stage, it's an opening, a deepening of one's awareness but with a focus towards the planes of light. Meditation is concentration in the beginning. It's a focus. Then, in the intermediate stage, it's an opening, a deepening of one's awareness but with a focus towards the planes of light. In intermediate meditation, you're touching light more deeply than in introductory meditation. In advanced meditation, you become light. You transcend self, ego, time, space, dimensionality. You merge with the clear light of reality or return to samadhi, and you go beyond this world. Your ideas, your feelings, your needs, your wants, your loves, your hates, your ups, your downs-you go beyond it all and you become God. You become nirvana. You become enlightenment, for a while, for a timeless time. You merge with the ecstasy of the clear light of reality. And it changes you. It remakes you. It reforms you. It shifts you, and then you're that. Your awareness returns to the world brighter, different, less solidified. And repeating this process endlessly or in many years and many lifetimes eventually will culminate in the experience of enlightenment where you will always be in a state of light, in a condition of limitless awareness. It goes on forever. As Bilbo tells us in his story in The Hobbit, in his little song he sings, the road leads on forever. That's the good news. There's no end to enlightenment. There's no end to incarnation. There's no end to infinity. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:00:00 Buddhism Sun, 21 Jun 1992 12:00:10 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Enlightenment is the complete awareness of life without any mental modifications. It is perfect light, light that has always existed, exists now and will always exist. Enlightenment is the complete awareness of life without any mental modifications. It is perfect light, light that has always existed, exists now and will always exist. It's the light that exists beyond darkness. It's the core and the center of all things, and it's in all things and beyond all things. Enlightenment is a state of consciousness, I suppose. It's a way of talking about it. It's something that we attain -- if we attain things. There's a mountain. I'd like to climb to the top of it. There's something very beautiful, very wonderful on top of it -- so I hope. So I climb up the mountain and when I reach the top, I have a view. If there's something wonderful there, I've found it -- if that's what attainment is. The mountain of enlightenment, of course, is inside of us. It's inside of our mind. And we're climbing that mountain every day. Our life is that mountain. The mountain is complicated. It has a lot of sides, a lot of paths. We can traverse them. We can go up the mountain, down the mountain, around the mountain forever and never reach the top. The top is enlightenment -- the complete awareness of life without any mental modifications, the highest viewpoint--not the best, but the highest unobstructed view. And if that's your interest, if you seek enlightenment, then the practice of meditation is the pathway to enlightenment, along with the practice of mindfulness. These are the two things that we do in Buddhism to become enlightened. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 32:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Jun 1994 12:00:11 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz So what is Tantric Zen? It's inside your mind. Everything is inside your mind. Even you are inside your own mind. What I term Tantric Zen, I could also refer to as old Zen, the original face of Zen, or new Zen, contemporary Zen practice -- no mind, the mirror of existence. Tantric Zen is Zen in its essence. Bodhidharma, who brought Zen from India to the Orient, taught a very pure type of Zen, in that it was -- pure Zen. Zen is meditation, the actual experience of life -- directly, immediately, with no buffers. Over the course of time, different schools of Zen have evolved, principally the Rinzai and Soto orders of Zen. There have been lots of Zen teachers, Zen masters. Books have been written about Zen, commentaries on sutras. A whole hierarchy has developed for the teaching and practice of Zen. And Zen has become, to a certain degree, institutionalized. Tantric Zen is the original Zen -- Zen without rules, Zen without form. Zen can certainly take rules and form. So Tantric Zen might have some rules and form, but it would also remain formless, even though it has rules and form. Tantric Zen is the awareness of the infinitude of all things. To gain that awareness, to be it, is enlightenment. Enlightenment frees you from the pain and suffering of limited states of mind. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 47:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:10 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Zen -- which means meditation, stopping thought -- is about going beyond ideas to direct and immediate experiences. Concentration and meditation are practices that enable you to alter your state of mind. Within a state of mind, the state of mind you're in now, there are different possibilities. There's a higher end to the state of mind and a lower end. The higher end -- let's call it the right side of that state of mind, which leads or borders the next state of mind that has a better view -- has more light in it. The lower end has less light. If you spend enough time at the lower end of a state of mind and if you lose enough energy, you can drop to the next state of mind down. You might drop from 100 down to 99. If you spend enough time on the right hand side and you accumulate power and energy, you can kick up -- maybe to 101. When you change a state of mind, your whole life changes. Nothing remains the same. Nothing looks the same because you have changed. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:03:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:09 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz There is another possibility. One can become limitless, enlightened, aware, awakened, knowledgeable and powerful in ways that the human beings who traverse this earth cannot yet fathom. Willpower. You have two choices, and only two that I'm aware of. One choice is to be a human being. To be a human being is to be frustrated, unfulfilled, and there are lots of them around. A human being is someone who's bound by emotion, as opposed to reason -- a person who is enslaved by their desires, a person who is never really at peace with themselves or fulfilled or happy because they live in the spectrum of the human consciousness, which is endless craving, endless desire. Pleasure is followed by pain, loss by gain, love by the loss of love, joy by sorrow. That is the life of a human being. There is another possibility. One can be something other than human -- human in the sense that I've just defined it. One can become limitless, enlightened, aware, awakened, knowledgeable and powerful in ways that the human beings who traverse this earth cannot yet fathom. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 54:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:11 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Stress elimination. The koan is: Life doesn't change, but you do. The world is the world. It's different than you suppose. How do you cope with stress? Well, from my point of view, from the point of view of Zen, of course, it's good to understand what it is you're dealing with. We want answers. We want quick relief. That's why we take the quick relief pills. The quick relief pills may give us some quick relief, but when the little pill goes away, the relief is gone because we didn't take a larger look at what it was we were dealing with and try to understand it. Zen is the study of mind in all of its manifestations and permutations. And the power of mind directed at any problem will eventually overcome the problem. But it's necessary for you to bring the full power of your mind to bear in an unhurried way, and then you can easily overcome stress. Why does a person experience stress? Well, to begin with, there is really no such thing as stress. In other words, stress is a popular word that indicates a condition of mind, not something that really exists in the world by itself. Oh, I'm familiar with all the popular theories, the fight or flight response, and all that sort of stuff. But that really has very little to do with stress. Stress is a state of mind. It doesn't exist independently of itself. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 56:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:04 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz We're taught how to live. We're given tasks, but no one ever really teaches us how to be a successful student. What is it to be a student, albeit a successful student? A student is someone who looks at life with curiosity. There's a sense of eagerness and particularly, I might add, a sense of newness. You see, when you're a student you're always learning something. Therefore, you have to be new at it. There's always something new to learn. You're learning a new language, you're learning a new type of mathematics, you're learning a new way to meditate. You're learning how to ski for the first time. You're learning martial arts. You're learning how to sail, how to dance, whatever it might be. You're a student of an art. There has to be a sense of anticipation, coupled with newness, hope, confidence. There's always a degree of a -- or a lack of -- surety. You're not exactly sure what it's going to be like. That's what makes it fun. But what makes it most interesting is not simply what you're learning, but how well you do with it. Now this is a secret, if you're a very successful student, that you learn -- otherwise I couldn't say that you were a very successful student. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 59:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:17 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Preparation of the mind. All athletics, and success in sports and athletics, from the Zen point of view, comes from the mind. Zen of sports and athletics. How to make the body and soul one. Running those miles, shooting those arrows, working out, getting strong, getting stronger. That point of intersection when there's no separation between the dancer and the dance. Between the ball and the player. Sports. Teamwork. One unit, one mind, one body out there on the court. Preparation of the mind. All athletics, and success in sports and athletics, from the Zen point of view, comes from the mind. If your mind isn't disciplined, integrated, free and one-pointed, how can you possibly do well in athletics? No matter what kind of shape your body is in, if your mind is out of shape, there's disharmony in the being. So in Zen we strive to bring both the mind and the body into perfect condition and integrate the two, so that there is no intrinsic difference between 'em. That's right -- Zen. Sports and athletics are zazen, they're meditation -- moving meditation. As you are running down that field or shooting that basket, putting that golf ball, taking down your opponent in martial arts or just competing with yourself, there are moments of timelessness and ecstasy and challenge and emptiness. Zen is the way of emptiness and fullness. So for the next little while, we're going to discuss the Zen of sports and athletics, emptiness and fullness, beginning and ending. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 44:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:16 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz I'd like to talk with you about overcoming your fears, whether they're small fears or large fears, fears that you're aware of or subconscious fears, fears that you don't know you have. This morning I'd like to talk with you about overcoming your fears, whether they're small fears or large fears, fears that you're aware of or subconscious fears, fears that you don't know you have. What is fear anyway? It's a feeling that we feel in the pit of our stomach, in our body. It's very physical, isn't it? And when we experience that feeling, it really cuts us off from our strength, our power. It cuts us off from knowledge and experience. It's a guillotine that falls and separates. Fear is an interruption in the normal flow or routine of life. Some fears appear to be more sensible than others, in a way. There are programmed biological fears. The fear of falling is there so that we're careful not to fall, so that we don't suffer bodily harm. Fear of pain is a very good fear, in a sense, in that it helps protect us -- until we understand that we don't need to have a fear of something in order to avoid it. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 43:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:13 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Karma is your own energy -- the energy patterns that emanate from your life, from your actions, from your thoughts, feelings and desires, your attractions and aversions, hopes, dreams, plans and schemes -- karma. Hi there. Zen Master Rama here, talking with you about karma and reincarnation today. The poignancy of life. Incarnation. The intersection of different spheres of existence in time and space, matter and energy -- life. We are alive, for a brief moment. And there are many, many wonders to see. And sometimes we think that life is random. We just go through life without a plan, without a direction. Things seem chaotic. Chance. Is there chance? No. There's karma. Karma causes all things to happen. It makes the sun come up every day; the moon go through its 28 phases; it causes your birth, your death. It's what makes your days and nights, days and nights. Karma. Why do you meet someone? Karma. Why don't you meet someone else? Karma. Why do you love one person more than another? Karma. Why are you in the career you're now in? Karma. There is only one thing that karma can't decide, and that's how far you will evolve in this lifetime. How much you'll wake up. How much you'll come to see and know before you leave this place again. That is up to you. The rest is karma. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:05:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:07 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Reincarnation. Past lives. Future lives. Immortality. Your purpose in this lifetime. Twin souls, soul mates and karmic connections. Past life remembrances in waking states, dreams, during meditation. Well, what it means is that you are experiencing right now -- I mean right now -- your past. Everything that you have done has led up to what you are now. That's the theory of reincarnation. Everything you do now will lead up to what you will be. That's the theory of reincarnation. The wave that's moving along the top of the ocean has a certain formation. The reason it has that formation is because of what it has been through up until this moment. What it will go through will cause it to change form. So you are a wave of awareness and you are in this world and you are aware of a certain amount of stuff (Rama laughs), of consciousness. If you wish to become more aware, then it's necessary to do something that you haven't done. Because everything that you've done, if you just continue to do it, will only make you as aware as you are now. If you don't do as much as you have been doing, you will become less aware. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:25:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:06 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Next to meditation itself, I really can't think of anything more important than the development of your career -- because nothing has a greater effect on your awareness level. Next to meditation itself, next to the practice of zazen, I really can't think of anything more important than the development of your career -- because nothing has a greater effect on your awareness level. Whether your career is in the work force or your career is retirement and hobbies, looking after a family, a nation, a universe, it's all the same. We're talking about the major focus of your life, your time. Whether it's 40 hours a week, 60 hours, 80, 20, your career affects your awareness far more than you realize. It is very important to be successful, successful in the sense that your career raises your awareness. It adds energy and power, clarity, beauty and stillness to your life. And it's not a distraction from your enlightenment. If your career is lowering your personal power or your approach to it, then it's got to change. Let's face it, you just can't go on like that. It doesn't make any sense. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 45:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:02 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The study of Zen is the study of energy, power, knowledge and balance. It's the science of energy conservation and control. Managing and increasing your energy. Everything that we do involves energy, personal power. The more energy we have, the more we can accomplish, whether it's things that you wish to accomplish physically - career-related, athletic things -- or whether your goal is to enlighten your mind, to raise your awareness, to become conscious of God, of eternity, of everythingness and nothingness. Life is wonder. Endless, ceaseless wonder. When you're in a high state of attention, you see that. Now naturally, if your energy level is low, then everything is gray, two-dimensional, boring, frustrating, unhappy. Happy people, enlightened people, successful people, inspired people -- they all share something in common. They've learned how to manage and increase their energy. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 39:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:12 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Today our subject is winning -- the Zen of winning. Now that may seem to some like a contradictory term, which is appropriate. How do you become a winner? What is the Zen of winning? Well, the Zen of winning starts out, of course, as all Zen practice does, with a central idea or reality, if you prefer, of nothing. Everything is nothing. The way of nothingness is the way of Zen, or we could say the way of everythingness is the way of Zen. It's just a term. The contemplation of nothingness or everythingness is where everything starts. There's a still center to the universe. Within that still center are all things, all achievements, all losses, all gains, all states of mind. Everything and nothing exist there. When you place yourself in harmony with that, that is to say, when you become aware, consciously, of the still center of being, you've won. All that stands between you and that are your uncontrolled thoughts, uncontrolled desires, attachments, aversions, your conceptions, your sense of a past, ideations of the future, your sense of self, tendencies from this and other lives. When all those things are erased, there is nothing but eternity. It's impossible to distinguish you from the still center of perfect being. So winning and gaining power has to do with addressing these subjects with patience, with clarity, with tremendous willpower. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 46:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:18 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz What is power anyway? Power, as I define it -- personal power -- is something that's not necessarily visible. What is power anyway? Power, as I define it -- personal power -- is something that's not necessarily visible. We can see its effects, but we cannot see power itself in the same way that the wind blows, and we can see the effect of the wind. We can see it moving a wind turbine or perhaps blowing the trees. If it's strong enough, a tornado or hurricane can blow a house over, capsize a ship. We can feel the wind against our bodies and in our hair. But we can't actually see the wind. We see its effect. Because we can't see it, that doesn't imply that it's not there. Of course it's there. So power is very much like the wind. It comes and goes; no one really owns it. Some people are foolish enough to think that they possess power. You don't possess power; power possesses you. Power uses you. And you can't exactly see, unless, of course, you have very advanced inner seeing, if a person is powerful. A person can seem to be not powerful and be quite powerful. Oh, there's physical power and the ability to lift large amounts of weight. There's mental power, the ability to get an A on an examination or to give an examination. There's political power, power to make decisions that affect the lives of other transient beings. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 59:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:01 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Beyond mind, beyond time, beyond space, there's immortal awareness. The universe is a giant mind. Some people have the ability to tap into that mind. We call them psychic. Everyone is psychic. You are psychic. Psychic is not a particular talent; it is an ability that we all have. Everybody has a left foot. Some people may just walk with that foot, some people may drag it, some may learn to dance with it. Everyone is innately psychic. It's a part of your mind. What does it mean to be psychic? Essentially it means to feel, rather than to think all the time. There are two general modes of perception. There are many, but there are two that we see most frequently in this world, and that's thinking and feeling. Feeling, not in the sense of the senses -- hot, cold, pleasant, unpleasant, pain, pleasure -- but feeling in a more intuitive sense. Feeling love from someone, feeling anger from someone, that kind of feeling -- a non-sensorial feeling having to do with the emotional body and the psychic body. Thinking is analysis, perception, measurement, random association. It's a way of figuring something out. But to be honest, most decisions are not made through analysis. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 48:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:08 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz What do I mean by rapid mental development? Well, rapid mental development is the escalation of consciousness. What do I mean by rapid mental development? Well, rapid mental development is the escalation of consciousness. Mental development is not really IQ, per se. IQ is based upon a series of tests that are given to a person, really not to evaluate their intelligence but their ability to learn certain socially endorsed skills -- reading, writing, grammar and so on. Intelligence is not limited to one's ability to function in a predefined world, in my opinion. Plants are very intelligent; I don't think they'd do very well on an IQ test. So are porpoises. Intelligence is something that's not just thinking, it's feeling. Ultimately, in my opinion, the highest reflection of intelligence is intelligent life, cooperative life in which all benefit. A life, a planet, a society that destroys its own environment that supports it, I would not consider to be intelligent life. It's like the cancer that ultimately kills itself by destroying the host it feeds on. Symbiosis is certainly a much higher reflection of intelligent life. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 43:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:14 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Happiness is your life, when you let go of it a little bit more. Happiness is everything in the whole universe. It's a state of mind. Our subject today is happiness. And the koan is, happiness is a warm puppy. As opposed to a cold duck? You're in the magical world of Zen, where anything can happen and usually does because it's your life! And in your life, just about everything happens all the time. So sit back if you're driving in your car, or your car's driving you, or your mother's hitting you on your head, or, just about anything could be happening, I mean it usually is. Your wife left you, your kid just went to jail, you went to jail, they smuggled you in a Zen Tape. The Russian missiles are on the way and you haven't finished dinner. You're lying in the hospital and you've got two days to live. You've just made your first successful movie and everybody wants a part of the action, which is you. Your team just lost, and you missed the shot and the papers said it was your fault -- and it was. Happiness. How can you be happy in a world like this? Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 47:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:03 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz What do I have to say about advanced meditation? It's a feeling. It's beyond the body and beyond the mind. In advanced meditation, you're going to step beyond your role as perceiver of the view, perceiver of your life, perceiver of your death. That's just a way of looking at things in duality. Instead, you are going to merge everything into the flux. You're going to go to stillness. When that happens, the world collapses. There's no time, no space, no viewer, no viewing, no object in view. Beyond the ten thousand states of mind is the still point. It exists within them all -- this is the riddle -- yet it's beyond them. It's not affected by them. It gives birth to them. You came forth from the still point that is reality. That's where I come from, that world. There are different worlds, endless worlds, and different beings come from different worlds. Some people are born in Africa, some in Australia, some in America. Some beings begin in a world, this world or that world. In my particular case, I come from the stillness, that world. We call it the dharmakaya, the clear light of reality. I know it quite well. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 59:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:15 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The most noble of all pursuits is to be enlightened, to know truth, to have knowledge and yet be beyond even truth and knowledge, to be God. The most noble of all pursuits -- to become all that you are, all that you have ever been -- is to be enlightened, to know truth, to have knowledge and yet be beyond even truth and knowledge, to be God. You are God. To be conscious of that, not from just the point of view of the human form. To be endless and beginningless, perfect being. Infinite awareness, beyond pain, beyond frustration, beyond birth and death -- that's enlightenment. A part of it, anyway. And we call the study of enlightenment, self realization or self-discovery. There are many paths that lead to enlightenment. There are lesser enlightenments along the way to a larger enlightenment, which is referred to sometimes as liberation -- the larger enlightenment, that is. Not just being happy, not just having a peaceful mind or coming to a good understanding, which can change, but being perfect. Perfect mind, the diamond mind. Radiating all universes through your being. Each pulse beat is the universe. Each breath, eternity. Enlightenment. Try it. You'll like it. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:18:00 Buddhism Thu, 21 Jun 1986 12:00:05 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz In the practice of mysticism there are four stages. What causes us to change? Sometimes a piece of music causes us to change. Sometimes the way the light falls on a particular day. Someone says something - it opens a doorway for us. We find it happening without knowing why. Very often we try and reason existence. We try and calculate it; to discover it. And while we can certainly discuss portions of existence and we can discover layers of reality, yet we find ourselves straying very far from existence itself in its absolute form. We're out playing in the world of self-discovery. We're looking at different pictures in the gallery. Very rarely do we look in the mirror of the self. In the practice of mysticism there are four stages. The first stage is gaining power. The second stage is avoiding the loss of power. The third stage is storing power. And the fourth stage is giving power. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 43:00 Buddhism Thur, 26 May 1983 12:00:00 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Seeing is the ability to tell what really is. This evening I'd like to talk to you about seeing. Seeing is the ability to tell what really is. There are many different forms of seeing. Some forms of seeing involve apprehending that which is occurring in the world. Other forms of seeing are more esoteric, and they involve the perception of perception itself. Without seeing, it's very difficult to practice self-discovery. You're quite blind. Most people of course, think of seeing as the thing that we do with our eyesight. We're using the word 'seeing' not in that sense at all, but as a metaphor, almost a mixed metaphor, for knowing. Perhaps 'knowing' is a better word. It's a little bit of both. Conditioning is responsible for what our life is. The totality of your life at this time is dependent upon what's happened to you. What's happened to you is your awareness now. Your current awareness is a reflection of everything that has occurred to you since the time you were born. Your awareness is a reflection of the people you've known; the experiences your body has undergone; the language and structure of the language or languages that you speak; the way others have treated you; the way you've been accepted by others; the exposure you've had to media, be it print or television or radio; the recollections of others because the experience that others have had upon you is formed largely from the recollection of others. Your parents, in other words, treated you growing up as their parents treated them, as their parents treated them, and so on and so forth. So what we have are reflections of reflections of reflections. These images are literally programmed into us from the time we were born. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 44:00 Buddhism Tue, 31 May 1983 12:00:01 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz How can you tell when you're enlightened? Enlightenment, from my point of view, does not involve going into samadhi a few times or having a few satori experiences. Over a period of years of going into samadhi day after day, night after night, for hundreds and thousands of hours, enlightenment takes place. The way I define it is self realization. That is to say, enlightenment doesn't simply mean that you've gone up a few times and seen the white light of eternity and merged with the all. I would say that's a basic level of samadhi. Enlightenment has to do with the erasure of the samskaras, the past life tendencies, after you've gone into samadhi for hundreds and thousands of hours, many, many times over a period of years. This described, let's say, in the biography of Ramakrishna. You know, Ramakrishna didn't suddenly become enlightened. We had years of him meditating, seeking, crying to Mother Kali, going in and out of samadhi, and he would never have referred to himself as enlightened, certainly, in those early stages. But after many years of this process, he was enlightened. He was no longer a finite individual. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 44:00 Buddhism Tue, 14 Jun 1983 12:00:02 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Today is eternity. In eternity there is only awareness. I found that the breakthroughs for me, as I went through school, junior high school and high school, came through sexuality, came through explorations of consciousness, in reading, and loving, through friends. Through time alone in nature, through yogurt (laughter) and through psychedelic experiences. I had been pretty well made a prisoner by school, by society. I had been given this description which I couldn't accept and it's projected from the televisions, the radios. The images of the world, the teachers. Now, I must say, I've been very fortunate, and I can only thank all of those who I have known, because many of the teachers I had were exceptional. All of the teachers, it seems, were exceptional. But I didn't realize that at the time. I didn't realize that all teachers were not like the teachers that I had known. In reading, in literature and poetry, I found an artistic freedom which I didn't see at Woolworths. And so I was drawn to the arts. Because I sensed that I was by nature Bohemian, and yet, very conservative. How strange to have two natures. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:13:00 Buddhism Wed, 22 Jun 1983 12:00:03 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The way you dress is extremely important because it demonstrates the impeccability of your spirit. One's progression along the spiritual path is a very, very intricate matter. This evening I'd like to talk to you a little bit about the structure of your being and how this process actually works, with specific recommendations as to what you can do to radically alter your current state of knowledge and awareness. In essence, then, this is a technique-oriented presentation, but I'd like to begin with a consideration of the dynamics of this process. To begin with, the process of self-discovery normally involves, in mysticism, a teacher and a student. In some forms of mysticism, there are two teachers for a student. One is referred to as the teacher, one is the benefactor. The idea is that the teacher prepares the tonal being, the conscious being, whereas the benefactor prepares the superconscious side of one's being, or the nagual. In your case, you have one teacher who does both. There are teachers who teach both sides. Some only teach one. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 46:00 Buddhism Tue, 28 Jun 1983 12:00:04 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Tonight my interest specifically is the crossroads that we come to once one has reached the point where there is no other alternative but self-discovery. The spiritual process is not at all arbitrary. It's not necessarily sensible, from a structured point of view. But it's not at all arbitrary. A lot of people in self-discovery have this sense that they're involved in some process that they don't understand. That one can't understand. They feel that they're climbing a mountain that never ends. That self realization and liberation is something that will never occur to them, it's some mysterious process. They don't know quite what to do. This is not a helpful way to think or see. Because really, quite the contrary is true. Self-discovery to a certain point is very understandable. Beyond that point it's not understandable, it's knowable. And beyond that point it's something that you become, to the point of dissolution and back again. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:09:00 Buddhism Tue, 5 Jul 1983 12:00:05 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz God doesn't speak through words or thoughts, God doesn't speak. God is silent. God is limitless awareness. There. Now I just told you everything I know about God. A lot of good it did you. You probably knew that already. But do you really know what limitless awareness is? Oh, sure, you can hear me say, "God is limitless awareness." But immediately when you think of God, you have a preconceived cultural notion of who and what God is. Since the time you were born, you were taught about God. If you were taught to believe in God, you were taught what to believe, that God is a certain way and not another way. If you were taught that God doesn't exist, then you were taught about God. Our society dwells on God. God is mentioned on our currency, on the money that we carry in our wallets. God is everywhere, but no one knows about God. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 43:00 Buddhism Wed, 13 Jul 1983 12:00:06 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Consider what it is that you're trying to do. Not so much why, because I think the why eludes us all. I think it would be a good idea, as you're setting your sails for the land of meditation, to consider wisely, o nobly born, before you venture forth into the bardo of experience, what it is that you're trying to do. Not so much why, because I think the why eludes us all. We may come up with reasons as to why we meditate, why we live, why we die. But ultimately those reasons will not effect what occurs. Those are just panaceas, things that perhaps make us feel better, inspire us. They're neither good nor bad, it depends on their usage. Think of meditation as a summer night. The crickets are chirping, life is going on, with or without us, within or without us. Life is going on, on the stage of life in front of our eyes and senses. In the house next door that we may not be aware of, life is going on-in countries other than our own, in worlds other than ours, distant galaxies. Life exists in the sub-atomic regions, in the quasars. Life is all there is. That's meditation. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 45:00 Buddhism Tue, 2 Aug 1983 12:00:07 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz I feel if we can correctly understand this one subject, we will understand all subjects, whereas if we fail to understand this one subject, we will fail to understand any subject. I feel it is that important. In addressing this particular topic tonight, you might say I'm addressing all topics because I feel that all topics are found in any singular topic. Once you've learned the art of problem solving, for example, you can solve any problem. The method is transferable. So I feel if we can correctly understand this one subject, we will understand all subjects, whereas if we fail to understand this one subject, we will fail to understand any subject because I feel all subjects in our world are predicated upon this subject. I feel it is that important. Why don't more women attain enlightenment? Why don't more men attain enlightenment? More men than women attain enlightenment. This suggests an imbalance. I would like to address the question-why don't more women attain enlightenment-this evening. But in addressing that question, I'm also addressing the question, why don't more men attain enlightenment? Why don't we live in an enlightened and happy world? Because I feel one is wrapped up in the other and one cannot be separated from the other, but there is a greater imbalance reflected on one side of the question than on the other. I'd like to look at that side. Why don't more women attain enlightenment? Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:12:00 Buddhism Tue, 9 Aug 1983 12:00:08 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz In self-discovery what we do is go inside someone and actually change their structure many, many, many times. A person is made up of awarenesses. These awarenesses all exist in the unknown. Now, of course, we're moving to what don Juan calls 'the sorcerer's explanation,' or it's the explanation of life. All of the awarenesses that have ever been or will ever be exist, he says, like barges floating in the ocean. It's a nice analogy. They're all just floating out there, the only difference is they're not solid barges, and as they're floating in that ocean out there they can actually pass through each other. So you can have 20 barges and they're floating along, but they're so light and so fluid that they can actually go through each other. They are all the time, but they're not in any fixed order. There is no order, it just is, and that's what reality is. It's just infinite awareness, infinite consciousness. At the time of birth, an ordering takes place. Those awarenesses come together. They join and they become specific. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:35:00 Buddhism Wed, 21 Dec 1983 12:00:12 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz I have spent my whole life studying love. Love has been the only thing that's ever really excited me in this world. All of the various forms of self-discovery, ranging from Zen and Tibetan tantra on through Christianity, Buddhism, whatever it may be, all of them are based on love. While in some forms of self-discovery, love may not be discussed a lot, it's understood to be the basis of all spiritual and religious practice. It is the essence of being and living. When a civilization, a race, a people, a society, when they lack love, they are soon destroyed. Gandhi realized this. Love makes you immortal because it connects the world of mortality that we live in now to the immortal kingdoms of higher existence. Love comes in two forms -- higher love and lower love, or let us say advanced love and the beginning of love. 1:56:00 Buddhism Tue, 1 Nov 1983 12:00:09 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The suggestion is that instead of staying with the destiny that you have now, it's possible to transcend all of that and within the structure of a lifetime to be born again many times. When you meditate, always try and be hopeful, it's very important. It's necessary to realize the infinite possibilities that life offers you at any moment. Most people are engaged in a limited dharma. They are traversing in a given lifetime through a sequence of possible events, but the events are not too widely chartered in the sense that the possible variations within that sequence are limited. Meditation offers us the prospect of changing that. The suggestion is that instead of staying with the destiny that you have now, that you've incurred through previous karmas, actions in this life, and other lives, family, social position, economic or religious background, racial background, it's possible to transcend all of that and within the structure of a lifetime to be born again many times. The Tibetan doctrines are far reaching. They are really very similar in essence, I think, to the doctrines of yoga, Buddhism of different types, Taoism, the very early American Indian religions. There seems to be a common thread that unites them all which is the perception of that which is truth. The Tibetan versions, with an 's,' of paradise are many. Tibetan mysticism is a mixture of many forms -- of tantra, of the Bon religion, of Buddhism, of course, as brought by Padmasambhava. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:44:00 Buddhism Mon, 14 Nov 1983 12:00:10 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Tonight I would like to talk to you a little bit about spiritual metamorphosis or transformation. Tonight I would like to talk to you a little bit about spiritual metamorphosis or transformation. Self-discovery is a process of dissolution and creation. We're dissolving what we know to create what we don't know. Dissolution means envelopment in eternity. Creation is bringing into focus new awareness. In self-discovery, as in life itself, we believe that we know who we are. This knowledge changes as we change and develop. One day we think that we're one type of person with certain tendencies, feelings, very emotional perhaps. Another day we feel that we're very cold and aloof. But as we meditate and we go within and still the mind, stop the subterfuge of thought, we become aware of awareness. We see that we're really not one component being, but we're really composed of bodies of awareness, distinct selves. The surface personality, in other words, is only the beginning of what we are. So as we meditate and we still that surface personality, we can see beyond it, and we see that we encompass multitudes Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:15:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Nov 1983 12:00:11 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Continental Divide, Colorado Today I'd like to talk to you about neutral density -- the neutral density of perpetual being -- being awareness without being aware of yourself as such. There's no sense as you walk along this road of going anyplace or having been anyplace because this road changes constantly. It's not a road that leads through the hills and you can walk on the road today and tomorrow you'll walk on it and see the same things. It's simply not like that. This is a road that changes every moment. Thousands of realities come in and out of it. In one step you can go through a thousand shifts of attention. And you can't ever take that step again. You can turn around and what you saw behind you before is gone; now turn back to where you just were and there's something else there. You look at yourself and it's someone else -- continuous permutations of the self -- not one ring but many. Now of course, inside the ring there's nothing, and outside the ring there's nothing. The ring is the idea that you hold of yourself. So the thought then, oh nobly born, is to be very, very careful of not being who you are. And the litmus test, the way you can tell that it's happening to you, is very simple. If after you've been meditating for a year or two or more you begin to find that you're not quite having as much fun with your meditation -- your life does not seem to be quite as revolutionary. The Che Guevara element is lacking, you're not taking your machete of discrimination and hacking down the weeds of knowledge and logic, the should be, have been, was, I will be, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, grammatical forms slashed away; pronouns, pronomeal adverbs slashed away until there's nothing left -- no language, no form, no description, no discussion, no sanity, no insanity -- alive, feeling, wondering, shifting, changing, lost, found. If it's not like that, it's getting dull. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 46:00 Buddhism Wed, 6 Feb 1985 12:00:00 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The Big Island of Hawaii I'm facing the direction of the volcano Mauna Kea. It's obscured by a heavy cloud cover. Behind me is Mauna Loa -- the twin peaks of the Big Island. And today I'd like to talk to you about making yourself available to energy, to power. Now, here's an interesting point. Awareness becomes aware of itself. Awareness perceives itself, but not always completely. Awareness can think of itself, feel itself, speculate about itself, correctly or incorrectly. It depends on what level or gradient of awareness we're dealing with. You're aware. You're aware that you're seeking power, you're seeking energy. And it's been my experience as one who has sought awareness and continues to do so, that in the beginning, at least, awareness is something that appears to be outside of us. We have the sense that we will be aware when we have traveled, when we have experienced something, when we've met someone, when we've interacted with something or someone. But awareness really is within. Not within the body, certainly -- it's within itself. Awareness is itself. And the way into awareness, well, it's the way into anything and everything, since anything and everything is awareness. Did you know that everything has awareness? Rocks have awareness. Plants have awareness. Both sentient and insentient forms of beings, both living and what we would call non-living -- everything is pulsing energy, pulsing life. But what we see is not all there is. There's a curtain that needs to be parted, and that is the curtain of temporal awareness. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 46:00 Buddhism Sat, 30 Mar 1985 12:00:01 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Lake Tahoe, Nevada The school of awareness is the school of mysticism. Mysticism is the experience of eternity, of that which lies beyond the physical phenomenal experience. The school of awareness is the school of mysticism. Mysticism is the experience of eternity, of that which lies beyond the physical phenomenal experience. Not that that is even what it appears to be. Taking a walk isn't really taking a walk, taking a shower isn't taking a shower, living isn't living, dying isn't dying. It only appears to be that way because of the centering of our awareness. So the school of awareness is really perception. Everything is perception. And perception, as you know, is limited by the way that you think. When I say 'think,' I don't simply mean word thoughts -- ideas that come through your mind in terms of language -- I am speaking, and you're hearing my voice. But there's also a language that takes place not only in the conscious mind but in the subconscious. It is a language of categorization -- always trying to fit your experiences into a little box to make everything work out, to make everything seem uniform. Now, magic is not categorical. It is not really uniform. That is what makes it interesting. It is beyond logic. It is beyond time and space. And in order to practice magic, of course, you need only one thing -- awareness, what we might call power. Now, everybody has a certain degree of awareness. Everyone is awareness. But people are aware of so little. Within you there are thousands of rings of luminosity, bands, and each one is a universe of perception. In the average person's lifetime, they might just open up two or three, maybe only four of those bands. Those bands are keys to doorways that lead to other universes, other understandings of life, other experiences, other selves; we have other selves. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 47:00 Buddhism Thu, 25 Apr 1985 12:00:02 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Nantucket, Massachusetts I'm pulled off by the side of the road at a place of power, thinking about the future, which occurred a long, long time ago, long before any of us can remember. It's windy out -- the winds of time are blowing, the winds of change. A network is a tribe. And a tribe, as I mentioned before, is connected by its secrets. A tribe is not a loose collaboration of beings who just get together in a powwow, who live together or work together. A nation is not a tribe. A family is not a tribe. A racial or ethnic group is not a tribe. Ancestry does not create a tribe, at least not bloodline. What creates a tribe is a bond, a sharing of secrets. Not a secret that could ever be told in any words, but a secret that's much too wonderful for that -- a secret that can only be told by the unfolding of one's life, specifically, your life. This message is addressed to those of you who are part of the network, the tribe of awareness. Those of you who seek to find yourselves. You lie in other dimensions. You live there. This is only a small fraction of your being that's here in this body, in this time and space, on this planet. There are different members of the tribe. The tribe is, of course, divided into male and female in this world. What is male and female? Is it just a physical condition, hormones? No. The energy runs very, very differently in a woman than in a man. What is a woman? A woman is chaos. Complete chaos. Chaos is the naturally perfect state of all things. A man, as we see a man in this age, in this world, is chaos, but he doesn't recognize that fact, so he tries to bring order into everything. And order is disorder. Order creates disorder. Chaos is not disorder. Chaos is the totality of existence. You could call it God. You could use the term, the Tao. I like chaos. It means more to us in English. Chaos is all things -- wild and wonderful, connected perfectly by the life force. And a woman is more in touch with that chaos because of the way her being is. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 45:00 Buddhism Wed, 29 May 1985 12:00:03 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Haleakala, Maui It's the first day of August in 1985, and I'm somewhere here in the middle of eternity. I'd like to talk to you today about kundalini yoga, the yoga of power and energy. Kundalini yoga is the yoga of transmutation. The principles are simple. At the base of the spine there's an access point that leads into another world, another plane of attention, another dimension. It's possible to access the energy through that secret doorway, that lowest chakra, and bring that energy and power up through yourself into your being. And as you bring it into your being, it will spread and radiate throughout your entire body. There is a particular path that the kundalini follows -- the shushumna. The shushumna, as I mentioned before, is an astral nerve tube. It's the central nerve tube. There are two others, the ida and the pingala, on either side of it. In most persons, the shushumna is closed. It's a highway that's been shut down. The continuous energy flow that gives us life, that sustains the subtle physical body, takes place in the ida and the pingala. Just as the blood is constantly flowing through your veins through capillaries -- bringing oxygen to the cells, moving nutrients and wastes around -- so the kundalini energy is constantly flowing through our subtle physical body, our etheric body. It sustains it, heals it. Without that energy, the subtle body grows ill, gets injured or it dies. And when it dies, the physical body dies. We are completely dependent upon the subtle physical body in this world. The more energy that we have in the subtle physical body, the higher our psychic receptivity is. So kundalini yoga is, in many ways, the study of energy -- its management, its flow, its highs and its lows. But specifically, kundalini is a flow of power. And when we diagram it, we say that it runs from the base of the spine up to the top of the head. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 46:00 Buddhism Thu, 1 Aug 1985 12:00:04 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Continental Divide, Colorado You were born with a specific amount of energy. That energy came from the totality. It came from your other lives. In this lifetime, you can increase your energy or you can decrease it. Power. Power is what's required to change the universe -- to change yourself into what you might like to be. If a rocket seeks to put a space ship, a satellite, whatever it may be, into orbit, it has to have power. The more velocity it has, the higher the orbit will be of the satellite or the space station or the space ship. A great deal of power is required to go above the earth's gravitational field. If there's enough power, then an orbit is gained above the earth, above the world. Eventually gravity will pull the object back down. The higher the orbit, the longer it will take. If there's enough power, then one can break free of the earth's gravity field. But then again, one can get trapped in the field of another heavenly body, so to speak. So it's necessary then to store power to be free. Right now you're in the gravity field of many different people who are in your life. Each person you feel attached to is a planetary body -- perhaps a heavenly body -- that is exerting a certain force in your life, and in order to be free you need not attraction or repulsion -- you need power. That way, you can pass through this world, through the cosmos, and enjoy the universe but not be trapped by the gravity fields of others. Power. Unadulterated pure power. There's an art, naturally, or a science, or both -- maybe it's the same -- to gaining power. And to be honest with you, there's a natural force or inclination in all of our beings to accumulate power. The problem that we come into is conditioning -- our own conditioning and the conditioning of others. Now listen carefully. This sounds simple but it's very complex. It runs deep into the psyche. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 45:00 Buddhism Wed, 7 Aug 1985 12:00:05 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Walden Pond, Massachusetts Transcendentalism answers these and other questions, not so much with verbal answers or with a singular philosophy, but by suggesting that there are layers of reality, and that the average individual only sees one or two of these layers perhaps in an entire lifetime. The initial step that a person must make in transcendentalism is to come to realize that the perceptions that they're having at this time are not so much created by choice as by a field of attention, a room that we've walked in. In other words, we're very happy, we're bright, we're in a good mood, and we walk into a room that's kind of dirty -- it's got a lot of rubbish around it, the curtains are old, the couch is faded and maybe a lot of unhappy people have been there and we can feel their energy. The room just does not feel perky and happy at all. When we sit in that room over a period of time, we will begin to feel those feelings -- they'll begin to saturate our consciousness and that original happy mood that we had will begin to mutate a little bit, it will begin to transform, transmogrify, and we will begin to absorb some of those feelings, and soon those feelings will take a place in our being. While we might have been very happy or perky, suddenly we'll find ourselves getting a little bit discouraged. Naturally, we will attribute that feeling, or those feelings and the thoughts that would generate from those feelings. So for example, if you're feeling discouraged, a project you might have been very jazzed about and excited about might now seem difficult or impossible. While it seemed relatively easy when you were in a more open and enthusiastic state, now you might not even do it. Choices we might make, feelings we might have, a whole list of activities in our life may or may not occur according to the attention fields that we're in. In other words, our own volition is not ultimately important, but it's the sphere of attention that colors all of our perceptions. Well, the earth consists of a variety of different spheres of attention. Each physical location has one or more different spheres of attention. Transcendentalism seeks to see the individual sphere of attention and to note it as a part of reality, as a part of creation. That is to say, we can see that -- well, OK, this is one part of life or God, this is another part of life or God, this is another part of life or God. But then there's something that is beyond all of these individualized spheres of attention which, you might say, is their authority. It is the kind of divine ground that they come forth from. And that's what we would refer to as transcendental -- that is to say, not limited to any singular interpretation, not limited to the physical world but not necessarily excluding the physical. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 46:00 Buddhism Thu, 15 Aug 1985 12:00:06 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz We don't believe in sin. Stupidity, yes, meaning we make ourselves or others suffer. Intelligence, yes, meaning we go beyond suffering personally or we assist others in that process. When you look into a pond or a lake, if there's no wind, then it's a mirror. It's perfectly still. If we throw a rock in, then ripples in concentric circles extend outward. The image changes. Enlightened mind is often compared to a lake, a pond without ripples. But I don't think that that's completely correct. Because I think enlightened mind also is a lake or a pond with ripples. We throw a rock into a lake and the pure serenity is disturbed. The ripples cascade; they come and go and then everything becomes still again. I think that's better. It's more like enlightened mind. Enlightened mind is not just serenity. Serenity is an idea. Enlightened mind is beyond ideas. No matter what we think about or how we conceptualize enlightened mind, we're always going to be looking at an image or a picture, not enlightened mind. In all the scriptures it says that enlightened mind is beyond the mind's knowledge. You can't know intellectually what it is. You can't imagine what it is. It's beyond knowing, beyond imagination. It's not sensorial. You can't taste it, smell it, touch it, hear it, feel it. Yet it's there. It's eternal. It's what is. We look at the world around us filled with cars and jets and people and activities, and it's hard to understand that there could be anything else than this. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 37:00 Buddhism Wed, 1 Nov 1989 12:00:00 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz There are six worlds. There are countless subdivisions of the six, but there are six. There are six worlds. There's the world of enlightenment, the world of the unmanifest, the world of good intentions, the world of desire -- that's this world, the human world. There's a world of astral spirits and beings that are very, very unhappy, and then there's a world of such complete nescience, of such complete darkness, that one doesn't even recognize that it's a world. The world of enlightenment is not a world per se in that, obviously, we're discussing nirvana. It's nonstructural, nonbonding, noncausal, nonatomic -- no chemical makeup. It's the extant portion of that which is. That's where I happen to reside and come from. I've come from there to here, into a physical formation. But where I come from, there are no sunrises and sunsets, there are no todays and tomorrows and yesterdays. There's none of this. There's no duality. There are no other worlds. It's a timeless, perfect, extant, non-bonding reality. Non-bonding means non-karmic. No cause and effect. No structural basis for anything. Buddhist tech talk -- you understand. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 42:00 Buddhism Wed, 1 Nov 1989 12:00:01 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The perfect view of existence comes from an unclouded, uncluttered life and mind whereby the radiance of perfect attention of the mind of the universe floods us at every moment. There's no end to enlightenment. That's the good news, of course. We call the Buddha someone whose mind has become so integrated with the deeper levels and structures of infinite mind and infinite being that there is only reality for them. There is no delusion of any type. Yet they come into a body, take on an incarnate form, experience the joys, the sufferings, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, all that sort of thing. In Buddhism we like to talk about our Buddhas. We've named our 'ism' after one. But the theory is that we are all incarnate Buddhas. We just have not realized deeply, not simply philosophically or in thought, we have not moved the mind, what our friend Don Juan calls the assemblage point, to that deep a level. The idea is that you can move the assemblage point, where the mind joins together and creates life, to deeper and ever deeper points of understanding and perception. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 46:00 Buddhism Wed, 1 Nov 1989 12:00:03 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Our subject is freedom. It's always the same. How do we become free, free from the limitations of dimensionality? Our subject is freedom. It's always the same. How do we become free, free from the limitations of dimensionality? The way we become free is simple, and it's complicated. It's simple in theory, that is to say, all we have to do is stop our thoughts. When thought stops, a doorway opens into dimensions that are pure and unassociated. They're nonbinding realities. They're non-samskaric, which simply means that they're beautiful, they're ecstatic. The consciousness of the worlds that we can get to through thought-those dimensions are very limited. They're limited by time and space, a sense of past, present and future. We seek a freedom we haven't experienced yet, and we seek an ecstasy we haven't known. Mostly, I think, we seek our own innocence, a state of joy in which we don't feel age, a body, desires or aversions. There's a very pure feeling of beingness, of aliveness that's always there. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:17:00 Buddhism Fri, 1 Dec 1989 12:00:04 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz I've read a lot about enlightenment and thought about it quite a bit, and I find that it doesn't have much to do with enlightenment. I've read a lot about enlightenment and thought about it quite a bit, and I find that it doesn't have much to do with enlightenment. Now fortunately, I can see both sides of the coin since I happen to be enlightened and I've gone through that training process that culminates in the dissolution of the finite self in the white light of eternity. But at the same time, I'm an avid reader and I like to ponder things, so it's kind of fun to step in and out. And I notice that the two are not really the same. The description and the reality are very different. Enlightenment is a timeless void. It's an emptiness that's filled with the most excellent light. That light is suffused through every part of your being. It is your being. There's no sense of separation between yourself and the light. There's no self but the light. That's enlightenment -- timeless, stillness, perfection. It's not in the words, it's in my voice. It's in the voice of anyone who has crossed that frontier of self, taken a big machete and gone after the illusions and the desires, even the spiritual hopes and aspirations that can bind one to a spiritual, more refined self -- hacked through the Amazon jungle of hope and fear and desperation, always in search of perpetual brightness. What I seek, what we all seek, is something we can't define -- because if it's definable, it's limited. And if it's limited, we grow tired and bored with it, with ourselves. Beyond the parameters of the self are an ocean -- it goes on forever. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 27:00 Buddhism Fri, 1 Dec 1989 12:00:05 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Astrology is the science of time and space. It is the science of karma. Astrology is the science of time and space. It is the science of karma. It has to do with places in which you locate your body and energy fields that affect you. What we seek to do is push all energy fields away from our bodies so that we can perceive life perfectly and clearly. Astrology is an indicator of karma. You're born in a certain geographic place, in a certain dimension. At the moment of your birth, a variety of energies are present and they lock at the moment of birth for you. From that moment on, there are only the various choices one can make from that location, from those energies, with whatever you enter an incarnation with, which is karma--with the knowledge you have, with the knowledge you don't have, with the tendencies you have and the tendencies you don't have. Astrology offers us the possibilities. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 26:00 Buddhism Fri, 1 Dec 1989 12:00:07 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Being on the circle of yin or yang does not necessarily mean that you will ever go beyond the circle because the source of the circle is not necessarily connected to it. There are two ways to become enlightened -- the easy way and the hard way. I suppose that could be true of anything. The easy way is through a complete focus on that which is most positive. The hard way is through a focus on that which is negative. Both positive and negative come from the same source. So if you follow either path, the path of affirmation or negation, eventually you'll come to the source, if you follow them to the source. But positive and negative, what we call yin and yang, light and dark, are circles. In the Far East, we look at life in terms of circles. In the West, they look at life more in terms of squares and rectangles. We look at life more as circles. In the West when you talk about yin and yang, people normally think of yin and yang as something that's linear. There's a single line, which is yin, and juxtaposed to it is a single line, which is yang. But in the East we tend to think of yin and yang as circles. They're two circles that actually can lie on top of each other, yet they remain separate. Now, yang, which is positive, affirmative, and so on, is a circle, and you can come into it at any point of the circle and go around the circle. When you've gone around the circle, at the end you'll come back to the beginning of the circle. And then you'll go around the circle again and again, forever. The same is true of yin. Being on the circle of yin or yang does not necessarily mean that you will ever go beyond the circle because the source of the circle is not necessarily connected to it. To reach the source of the circle, you have to get off the circle. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 55:00 Buddhism Mon, 1 Jan 1990 12:00:08 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Why do we meditate? Why do we engage in practices? Why bother? There's a feeling that occurs sometimes when you're standing at sunset looking out into the horizon, where you just slip away from all of this and all of that. You're at a party. It's Christmas. Everybody's busy, everybody's having a good time and they're celebrating. For a moment you go out on the balcony and the sun is setting and you just look at the sky. You slip away from all the noise, all the good times, all the beautiful men and women. You just go outside by yourself and you slide the glass door behind you and you just look outside, and for a moment, the noise, the excitement, the hubbub vanishes, and there's a stillness. The stillness isn't the end of things, it's the beginning. It's always the beginning. You step into that stillness and you just go away. There's a feeling that comes up which cannot be expressed in words, and that feeling transports you beyond this world to other worlds, other realms, to different places inside your mind, maybe. And that feeling is so perfect and so complete, it's beyond all other experiences. We could take all the pleasures that have ever been and will ever be in all of the universes that have ever been, are now or will ever be, and add them up into one experience. And if you were absorbed in nirvana, it would not be noticed. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 39:00 Buddhism Mon, 1 Jan 1990 12:00:09 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Buddhism is essentially the establishment of one's mind in that which is ineffable. The thing about Buddhism is that it stresses attainment of something ineffable, and I think this is where it differs from other religions in that it's more correct. We live in a world with promises of paradise. Everyone is telling us that if we will only have a certain experience, amass a certain amount of belongings, become rich and famous, whatever it is, we will be happy. And there are people who tell us that just the opposite is true -- if we give up all that and we live a life of chastity, simplicity, poverty -- sort of doing penance -- that creates happiness. Those two schools of thought are very prevalent. But Buddhism endorses both of those schools and says, sure, you can go through that path of giving things up, and it will create a certain momentum and discipline for you to go beyond the limited perceptions that you currently have or, you can have it all and go beyond the limited perceptions that you now have. Buddhism's focus, in other words, if it's advanced Buddhism, is really not on how to live. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 31:00 Buddhism Mon, 1 Jan 1990 12:00:10 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Meditation is the art of breathing-breathing out and breathing in. Meditation is the art of breathing-breathing out and breathing in. The universe, which is beyond understanding and description, is always breathing out and breathing in. It breathes in our lives and then it breathes them out. It breathes in dimensions, beings, feelings, understandings, mind itself. It breathes it in and breathes it out. We could say that life is a cycle, but that implies there's something that is observing it or that's outside of the cycle. There's really only breathing. It's very simple, really. Meditation is a process in which we're essentially, at first, breathing out. We're exhaling. We're taking all the thoughts, impressions, feelings, vibrations, understandings, all the self-importance, attitudes, desires, loves, hates, passions, dispassions, meanings, lack of meanings, confused states, illumined states, bored states-we're taking everything-the concept of everything, that which perceives everything, that which is beyond perception, that which is beyond perceiving-everything must go. We're exhaling existence, taking it out of the mind, and the mind out of the mind. After meditation, we inhale. We experience life, but we've changed. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 33:00 Buddhism Thu, 1 Feb 1990 12:00:12 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz When a person has become used to meditating on a regular basis and the practice has become a part of your life, we reach a kind of threshold that some people don't cross. When a person has become used to meditating on a regular basis and the practice has become a part of your life, we reach a kind of threshold that some people don't cross. Initially, when you begin to meditate, it's challenging, it's difficult just to get yourself to sit down once or twice a day to do it. Then you begin to see results. There's more energy in your life, your mind works better, your body feels better, things appear to be brighter, you have more enthusiasm, your awareness shifts, you start to become a little bit clairvoyant, you can see inside people, see inside yourself and you just see there's a rise of your power. Everything in your life begins to come together. Then what happens is the practice becomes a practice. It becomes something that is a routine, and each meditation may be fulfilling and you don't stop because if you did, you'll notice the days are not as bright. So meditation becomes something that we have to do because the loss of it reduces our energy level. But it's not something that we do because we are making continuous breakthroughs. It develops a kind of functional autonomy. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 26:00 Buddhism Thu, 1 Feb 1990 12:00:14 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The reason that you're engaged in metaphysics is -- there's no reason, you just don't have any choice. You couldn't stop, no matter what you did. We have a sense that we are participating in metaphysics and the metaphysical experience voluntarily. We're doing it because we're doing it. We've chosen to do it. As you go much further in metaphysics, you discover that that's not true at all. The reason that you're engaged in metaphysics is -- there's no reason, you just don't have any choice. You couldn't stop, no matter what you did. You're held by power. Now, this is a very different view of life. In other words, we believe that we are all people are created equal and we have free choice and all that sort of thing. I like independence and I like that idea, but to be honest with you, in metaphysics, we see as metaphysicians, we perceive that it isn't really we who ever decide anything. It's power that decides things. It's power, if I can enter into the world of the American Indians for just a little bit here, who believe that there's a force that binds life together. There's something that makes everything what it is, and we call it power. In Buddhism, I guess we'd call it karma. But let's be American Indians for a minute, since we're in America. They were here first. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 40:00 Buddhism Thu, 1 Mar 1990 12:00:16 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The way you keep your room clean, the way you keep your life clean, is by not letting a lot of clutter in. You keep it simple. The answer is to clean your room. And if your room is clean, that's about that. We seek to do that as Buddhists when we meditate and when we breathe and when we live and when we talk and when we interact and when we're alone. Because we like the way it feels when the room is very simple and very clean because there's no clutter. It isn't that we appreciate that there's no clutter. No clutter opens the window so we can see outside and see eternity, which is very full and very beautiful. But if there's too much clutter in your room, you can't see the room anymore. You see the clutter, you see. If you've ever seen the mind in its immaculate state, in its perfect state, you really don't want to have it all cluttered up because you just see all the clutter. Now, I ask you, do you see your minds? Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 25:00 Buddhism Thu, 1 Mar 1990 12:00:17 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The essence of Buddhism is simply that the mind is forever, and that there are endless states of mind. The essence of Buddhism is simply that the mind is forever. And that there are endless states of mind. And that we are always experiencing different states of mind in one form or another, in one body or another, in one life or another, forever. And that there are states of mind that are painful and unpleasant, there are states of mind that are wonderful and ecstatic. But there are only endless states of mind -- viewpoints, plateaus of seeing life.. Most people exist in very clouded states of mind. That is to say, their minds are very clouded. It's sort of like when you're underwater in a big swimming pool and you open your eyes, and you can't see very far and everything you see is distorted. That's how most people perceive reality. They're under a great deal of water and everything is very distorted. They assume that is what life is, that what they perceive is real. But of course, there are states of mind that are not clouded at all, that are perfect, immaculate, vacuous and clear. Void of illusions. Void of things that make those states of mind cloudy and make them antithetical to reality, to the clear seeing of reality. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 19:00 Buddhism Sun, 1 Apr 1990 12:00:19 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Everything is transient and it's a good thing, as I said. I celebrate the transient constantly. I don't find that sorrowful in any way. Meditation is different. It has nothing to do with reincarnation. Meditation is when we go beyond incarnation, beyond all cycles, to immortality, to something that is not transient, to that which is eternal. When we meditate we stop our thought. When your thought stops, the mind is perfect. There is no transience. No thought, no transience. That's what is eternal -- when there is no thought, no sense of self and no impressions. That's eternity -- what you feel, that reality that you are. That's eternal. That's beyond transience. That's what we really are, of course. Yet, surprise -- we get to have two bodies, a transient body and an eternal body. We forget about the eternal body when we're real caught up in the transient body, and things appear very frightening from the transient body's point of view because it knows it's going to die, it knows it's going to dissolve and it's afraid of that. But if we switch to the eternal body, if we bring up and wake up our eternal awareness, then there's nothing very frightening about being transient because we realize it's only a part of us that is transient. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 20:00 Buddhism Sun, 1 Apr 1990 12:00:21 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz What I'm teaching you is how to experience the manifold realities of mind, how to go places that very few people ever go, and you come back from those places different. I am a seeker of what I call perfect moments. I'm not going to define that because, why? There are all kinds. Perfect moments are moments when we, as I said, go beyond ourselves and we touch something immortal. And there are many ways to do it. They involve pretty much the same structural approach, though. These moments don't occur particularly rhapsodically. They occur from a lot of discipline, a lot of pragmatic approach, through building up our power. And if you know how to do it in one place, you can apply that structural knowledge to doing it in any place. In other words, it really isn't a certain thing that brings us those moments. It isn't mountain climbing. It isn't hang gliding. It isn't bungee jumping. It isn't meditation. It isn't business. It isn't athletics. It's an approach whereby we use something to catapult ourselves into infinity. And once we've done it, the tendency is to want to repeat exactly what we did again and again. We've baked a great cake, so now we're going to write down the recipe. But it doesn't work that way. It has to be new. It has to be uncertain. If there's no uncertainty, your power doesn't rise. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 32:00 Buddhism Tue, 1 May 1990 12:00:22 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz There are four times of tremendous power that occur every year, and those are the solstices and the equinoxes. We're coming into a very interesting time. The summer solstice is approaching, and I'd like to talk to you a little bit about the summer solstice. There are four times of tremendous power that occur every year. There are others that occur at different times, but there are four that you can count on, and those are the solstices and the equinoxes. Without going into the structures of why that is so -- it just is -- I'd rather look at what it means. The summer solstice is the time in the physical world of greatest light. The winter solstice is the time of the greatest darkness, if you will. The equinoxes are equal day and equal night in the fall and spring. But while this is occurring in a physical sense, in the physical universe, in the inner universe, meaning in other dimensional planes, something else is happening at that time also. The manifestation may be more sunlight or less sunlight or half and half in the physical world, but in the subtle planes there are doorways and powers that open and come into view. And if we can hook ourselves onto those powers, they can carry us a long way. Occultists are intrinsically lazy like everyone else. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:03:00 Buddhism Tue, 1 May 1990 12:00:23 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz An individual has to be tenacious enough to become enlightened. Naturally, people who are involved in peak experiences are not what you might think. In other words, the way of humanity is to turn everything into a marketable product, and religion and enlightenment are no exceptions. But when we turn something into a marketable product, it loses something. Christianity is a marketable product. It has very little to do with Jesus Christ. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ at all, what that experience was like to be around the guy when he was walking around, for the three years he was teaching. This has nothing to do with it -- these churches, edifices, robes, cardinals, Vaticans, popes. It is whatever it is, but it has nothing to do with any of that. I mean that was a bunch of wild-eyed guys who were just walking around with the guy. He was doing miracles, talking to them, telling them about other ways to live and be. That was very different than the well-ordered, 'Let's go to church on Sunday.' He didn't say anything about going to church on Sunday. They all gave up everything and just roamed around with the guy while he did what he did. See? That's what the study of enlightenment is like. Enlightened teachers are not logical. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 33:00 Buddhism Fri, 1 Jun 1990 12:00:24 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Nothing lasts. Consider everything that you've gone through and experienced thus far. The essence of all practice is to be cool. Life is not worth getting excited about because whatever you perceive is an illusion. If you like getting excited, then you can get excited. But if your excitement is anything more than enjoyable, then you're making a mistake. The essence of all practice is to be relaxed, to be at peace with yourself. Now, you can't really be at peace with yourself if you're trying to hold onto things that are illusions. Think about it for a second. Nothing lasts. Consider everything that you've gone through and experienced thus far. How many things did you really get upset about in your life thus far? How many things have you freaked out about? A lot of things--that are completely gone now. The amount of emotional trauma that you've gone through over things that today have no importance -- and they didn't have any importance then, except that you gave them importance by magnifying situations and giving them a power over you. It's understood that nothing lasts. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 38:00 Buddhism Fri, 1 Jun 1990 12:00:25 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The eye of God is inside us. It's looking through us and it sees whatever we look at. Sometimes I think we could give God better things to look at than the things we focus on, don't you? The universe is in your hands. It's in your hands, it's in your eyes, it's in your feet, it's in your breasts, it's in your back, it's in your body. There's a wonderful scene in 'The Last Temptation of Christ' where Christ is on the ground and he's writhing and God is inside him. And it's not pleasant; it hurts. This is a very different point of view than we get in the usual stories about Jesus in the Bible. It has upset some people, but there's some truth to it. Spiritual growth and development is at times very painful. At times it's difficult, like any growth and development. But there needs to be a recognition of who we are and what we are and what the truth is. The truth is that the universe is in our hands and it's in our body. Self-discovery and enlightenment is not something that is outside of us physically. It's here. We are it, and it's in everything. Everything is the eye of God. God is in everything, and God is everything. To not see that is to be blind. There's a resonance inside us, a sense of who we are. We're a multi-bodied traveler. We're an essence. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 31:00 Buddhism Wed, 1 Nov 1989 12:00:02 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Divinity does not require humanity's understanding. It exists because it exists because it exists. Spirituality is breaking the link between the mortal and the immortal consciousness. The mortal consciousness is the awareness of time and space through a body and a perceptual sensorial field. The immortal consciousness is nothing that can be described in words. Divinity does not require humanity's understanding. It exists because it exists because it exists. Humanity is terribly limited in its understanding of anything and everything. As long as humanity chooses to avoid divinity, it suffers. But divinity does not. Since it is immortal, pure and perfect, it is beyond suffering. Its self-luminescent light propels itself through infinity without any abrasion. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 24:00 Buddhism Fri, 1 Dec 1989 12:00:06 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Some people are connoisseurs of states of mind, just as some people are connoisseurs of wine, food, countries, lovers. I like computers. I've got a few of them, and I keep them around the house. Sometimes they're turned on, sometimes they're turned off. I like them as much when they're off as when they're on. I just like computers. They're like pets -- but you don't have to feed them too much, a little electricity once in a while. But they're nice. Sometimes I get different ones just because I like the way they look. They're just fun to have around the house. I like their aura. I like their energy. I like the energy of computers. Computer science is very interesting from an occultist's point of view because it has to do with zeros and ones -- it has to do with analysis. In order to experience enlightenment, in order to be enlightened, to be enlightenment, in order to raise into upper gradients of pure celestial light, it is necessary to refine the mind completely. The issue is style. There is style in fashion, but there is style in states of mind. Some people are connoisseurs of states of mind, just as some people are connoisseurs of wine, food, countries, lovers. Buddhists are connoisseurs of states of mind. We savor certain states of mind. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 19:00 Buddhism Mon, 1 Jan 1990 12:00:11 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The practice of meditation is emptying the mind. When the mind is empty, completely empty, it's perfect meditation. The practice of meditation is emptying the mind. When the mind is empty, completely empty, it's perfect meditation. It's really that simple. There are a variety of different approaches to emptying the mind. All of them work equally well. We can just stay with one; we can use a number of them. It really doesn't matter; it's a question of personal choice. What we're doing is stopping thought. But really, before that, we're learning to control thought. And really, before that, we're learning just to sit down and focus on something. I have a simple prescription method for learning how to meditate, which, if you do it, works very, very well. The main thing that you need is not really creativity but consistency. Creativity is a nice quality but it doesn't have much to do with learning to stop thought. Consistency does. Consistency really involves just doing something once, each time, and not thinking about time or space or repetition. You just live it once. Forever. And that's consistency. That's perfect consistency. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 25:00 Buddhism Thu, 1 Feb 1990 12:00:13 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The best meditation I ever had, I haven't had yet. The best meditation I ever had, I haven't had yet. It's in the future, which as anyone knows doesn't exist -- anyone who meditates knows. But yet, I'll have it some day. The best lifetime I've ever experienced hasn't occurred yet. I've had billions of lives. I've been around the universe almost as long as the universe, I think. I remember my lives; you don't. Or you remember a few. I remember a billion. And I've had wonderful lives. I've had wonderful lives, beautiful lives, lives of struggle, lives of battle, lives of ecstasy. I've had beautiful lives, and this is a beautiful life I'm in now. It's a hard life, as they go, but it's a beautiful life. But I haven't had the best lifetime yet. It's around the corner, I know it is. It hasn't occurred yet because things get better in infinity as we get better. And in each lifetime we get better. The universe is always ecstasy and it's always perfect. But we don't perceive it that well. And if we keep doing our yoga in every lifetime, we perceive it more correctly. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 20:00 Buddhism Thu, 1 Feb 1990 12:00:15 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between enlightenment and that which unknowingly seeks enlightenment. In the Bhagavad Gita is a discussion-conversation between enlightenment and that which unknowingly seeks enlightenment. Enlightenment is represented by Sri Krishna who is said to be an avatar, which is a human way of trying to define 'very big.' That is to say that Sri Krishna is not from the local area network, but he has come from a world that is different because his mind is different. He glows. He doesn't experience the normal round of circumstances inwardly that most people do. He doesn't experience depression. He doesn't really experience elation as human beings would know it. He doesn't experience the kind of grayness and deadness of the human condition. Instead he lives in a perpetual sunrise. He's self-effulgent. The light that he seeks is not external. He doesn't have to turn to the sun for light, or towards another being or towards a God, because he is self-effulgent radiance. Arjuna, who is the fearless warrior in the story, on the other hand is a very worldly individual, we assume with high past lives, who's engaged in a battle, a kind of a civil war, the battle of Kurukshetra. And a conversation, a dialogue, ensues in the middle of a battlefield, symbolizing the battlefield of life in which we are fighting through our illusions. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 44:00 Buddhism Thu, 1 Mar 1990 12:00:18 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz But the path of negation, which is the esoteric or more advanced part of the enlightenment process, is the path of understanding. It's the path of knowledge. The path of negation is the path of understanding. The path of affirmation, which is the first portion of the self-discovery path, is a path in which we don't seek to understand, we seek to escape. We want to escape the pain of life, the pain of our minds, the pain of our bodies, the pain of the world. We don't really want to ask a lot of questions; we just want to know a way out-and the way out is through avoidance. We don't eat meat, we don't have sex, we don't deal with money, we don't deal with things that we know have caused us pain. The great teachers explain why these things cause us pain-attachment, desire, having a self, you know, all the different things. But-we just escape. We don't really care. You go to the doctor and you hurt. You're not really interested in knowing how the medicine works, you just want it to. But the path of negation, which is the esoteric or more advanced part of the enlightenment process, is the path of understanding. It's the path of knowledge. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 33:00 Buddhism Sun, 1 Apr 1990 12:00:20 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz There is only black light, between the stars. It may seem that it's darkness, but it's really black light. There is only black light, between the stars. It may seem that it's darkness, but it's really black light. There's no such thing as darkness. Darkness is a human concept. There's only black light between the stars. There is no evil, there's no bad, there's no good. These are human ideas. There's no creator, there's no creation, there's no God, there's no nirvana, there's no perfection. These are ideas. Everything is transient. That's an idea. Everything is perfect. That's an idea. Everything is imperfect. That's an idea. Beyond ideas there's reality. That's not an idea-that's real. There's no way to talk about it, there's no way to describe it. But there's a way to get to it, a series of ways. The pathways to enlightenment are numerous and they're all in front of you. If we stand back with wide eyes and look, we'll see some of them. Our life is a pathway to enlightenment, every moment, every experience. Everything is a pathway to enlightenment. But if we think that there is good and evil, if we think that there is blackness and we don't see that it's black light, then we see ourselves that way. We see life that way. To go to that place that's beyond all this-all these ideas, all these abstractions-that's what I chose to do. You can do that. Beyond perfection-you could be there-beyond both truth and illusion. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 14:00 Buddhism Fri, 1 Jun 1990 12:00:26 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Now, in meditation what we do is something original. We experience God. That is to say, we experience that essence of existence from which we have come forth, which sustains us and to which we will eventually return. Meditation is the art of life. All of life is meditation. Meditation is not simply a practice. It is an experience, an awareness, a way of perceiving and also a way of life. All of life, from the personal point of view, is dependent upon our perception. When we can perceive life as it really is, then no emotional cloud or discordant melody from the world can distract us from our own original, perfect being. If we trace life back to its source, we find perfection. Life itself, in essence, is light and consciousness. Beyond this world and other worlds, beyond time and space and dimension, beyond what we call duality, is God. God is not a person. God does not have a history. God does not have a future. God is beyond definition. We can say that your perception of this world is God. We can say that this world is God, that perception, this world, and you who are having the perception are all part of God. As a matter of fact, there's nothing that isn't God. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:01:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:00 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Purity is light. Not just an ordinary light that we see in the physical universe, but a transcendental light. Without purity it's impossible to realize God. Tonight I'd like to talk to you just a little bit about purity and its importance in the inner life. Purity is meditation. When you meditate, purity radiates through you. Purity is light. Not just an ordinary light that we see in the physical universe, but a transcendental light. Without purity it's impossible to realize God. To realize God means to see your own eternality in all things, in all places, at all times. We have a lot of different ideas about what self realization is, what God consciousness is, but in order to go beyond ideas to direct realization of that which is and will always be, it's essential to have a great deal of purity. The easiest place to see purity at work is in nature. When you go for a walk in the woods or out to the desert or by the ocean, when you look at flowers, it's very easy to get a sense of that which is pure. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 31:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:01 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Humility is the conscious awareness and acceptance of eternity as your own body. Humility is the time that you spend in love-in love with existence itself. Humility is the conscious awareness and acceptance of eternity as your own body. Humility is the time that you spend in love-in love with existence itself. When you don't love existence, you feel that you're separate from existence, you're separate from this world and you stand back from it. You hide. Humility is courage in that it's the open acceptance of your own perfection. Humility is the ability to see through darkness and perceive light, not only on the other side of darkness but in darkness itself. Humility means that we're willing to take tremendous chances with our life, with our death and that which lies beyond. Humility in its simple form is an image that is applied in the I Ching-a mountain within the earth, the hexagram of modesty or humility. The mountain exists within the earth. We don't see it, but its strength and power are there. So humility is something that exists and has a strength and power but is unseen. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 30:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:02 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Love is the easiest and most effective way to begin our search for self realization, for our selves. There are four principle pathways that lead to enlightenment: the yoga of love, the yoga of service, the yoga of knowledge and the yoga of mysticism. Each of the yogas is a way to eternity, to eternal realization. In the course of an individual being's evolution we will practice each of these yogas. In one incarnation, in one lifetime, we may just focus on the path of love, in another the path of service, perhaps in another knowledge or mysticism. One path is not superior to another. Each path has something special to offer. It is a way, a bridge between the finite and the infinite, between here and eternity. The path that is followed by most persons in the beginning of their spiritual search is the path of love. Love is the easiest and most effective way to begin our search for self realization, for our selves. Love is the highest of all qualities that we can experience. The more we know about love, the more we experience love, the happier and more complete we are. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:01:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:03 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The reason you're not happy, the reason the world lacks peace, is that we lack the happiness that comes from self-giving. Why aren't you happy? Why aren't all of you happy when there's so much to have and so much to be? The reason is very simple. At the root of all problems we find one causal answer-self-giving. The reason you're not happy, the reason the world lacks peace, the reason that we cannot find ourselves, is that we lack happiness-happiness that comes from self-giving. We have two choices in life. These are the north and south poles of our existence. One choice in life is to fulfill ourselves, the limited self, to do things that make us feel better, to do things that give us pleasure and not pain, to fulfill our desires, to get the things that we want each day, each year, to make ourselves happy. The other alternative is to make others happy, to forget ourselves, to ignore our wants, to not be concerned with whether we're happy or not, but rather to take the time and energy that we would utilize in fulfilling ourselves and use it to make others happy. These are our two choices. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:03:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:04 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz There are four major paths to self realization. Jnana yoga is the graduate school of self-discovery. There are four major paths to self realization. Of the four, jnana yoga, from the point of view of the beginner, is the most difficult. Jnana yoga is the graduate school of self-discovery. Discrimination means seeing that which is real and knowing that which is unreal. That which is real is that which is eternal, that which lasts forever. That which is unreal, or less real we might say, is that which is transitory, temporal, that which does not last, but erodes in time. The yoga of knowledge is a way of reflection. The central question that we ask ourselves again and again is: "Who am I?' To find this out it is necessary to meditate, to still our thoughts and to go within. We discover, ultimately, that we are the self, we are eternity. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:02:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:05 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Mysticism is the hidden way. The mystic practices the art of intentionality. There are four principal pathways that lead to self realization. Mysticism is the hidden way. The mystic practices the art of intentionality. Intentionality is the awareness of being in all of its profundity and a gentle humor, a not-so-serious view of our existence, a pure love of life in both its finiteness and its infiniteness. Mysticism uses power to unite us with our eternal self. When we practice mysticism, we deal with two sides of ourselves: that which is seen and that which is unseen. The part of our being that we see is the island of the first attention. The part of ourself that we're not conscious of is the ocean of our second attention. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:02:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:06 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The purpose of life is to be absorbed in spirit. Spirit is an undefinable reality that exists within us, around us and beyond us. The purpose of life is to be absorbed in spirit. Spirit is an undefinable reality that exists within us, around us and beyond us. Spirit is the essence of all existence. When we see life or the world, time, matter and experience, we feel that life is solid, that it's visceral, that it has meaning. In the world of matter we're born, we grow, develop, decay, decline and die. In this world that's all there is-growth, maturation, decay and death. We are all on the wheel of time. Time gives us birth, time gives us death and time gives us rebirth. There is a way beyond time, beyond birth, beyond death and rebirth. The way is not to avoid birth, death and rebirth. The way is not to avoid pleasure and pain, hope and sorrow, sadness and frustration. The way is not to accept nor is it to reject. The way is to become without becoming, to act without reason, without hope, without disbelief, without antagonism. The way is to be absorbed, to be absorbed in eternity itself. Not just to think of God or see God or feel God or even to be God, but to be absorbed, to enter into that endless ocean we call nirvana, to be absorbed, to return to the source, to become immortality itself. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 31:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:07 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Nirvana is not a time or a place or a dimension, although it includes times and dimensions and places. Nirvana is an endless expanse of unused consciousness and awareness. Nirvana is something that we eternally are. Nirvana is reality. Nirvana is not a time or a place or a dimension, although it includes times and dimensions and places. Nirvana is beyond the ocean, beyond the sky, beyond eternity itself. We are alive, we believe, we think, act, conceive, rebel, oppress, liberate. We are alive. We do things without knowing why, inventing answers that satisfy our minds, projecting reasons into the sun and the sky. Long before we came into this world, long before this world, nirvana existed, empty of thought waves, permanent, eternal, everlasting, brighter than ten billion suns, without shape or form yet giving all things shape and form. When this world has gone away, when all the people we know, all the beings who have ever been have said their last, done their last, nirvana will remain. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 29:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:08 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Today I would like to share with you a few thoughts on the subject of your death and the experience of death and rebirth. Death is like the ocean. We stand on the shore of life looking out into something that we cannot see the end of. Death appears to be endless. We see its vague beginnings as a person leaves this world, as their consciousness leaves the body at the time of death. They enter into the ocean; they go beyond the horizon. We see them not. We know not where they have gone. Strain our eyes though we may, we cannot see beyond the horizon of this life. Death is a hidden country, It is a land beyond sight, beyond sound, beyond the conditions, laws and limitations of this world. Today I would like to share with you a few thoughts on the subject of your death and the experience of death and rebirth. The horizon is not endless, nor is the ocean endless. On the other side of the ocean there is land, on this side of the ocean there is land. The ocean is that body of flux in between the land. While first appearing to be endless, when we journey in our boat into the ocean of existence we find that while the ocean is vast, it is not endless, death is not endless, nor is life. Life and death are two states of awareness. Really there is no life and there is no death. The idea that there is life, the idea that there is death, these are apprehensions that our mind presents to us. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:01:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:09 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz I'd like to consider with you what the nature of samadhi is, and try and gain an understanding of not only why an individual seeks to go into samadhi, and how that occurs, but what the result of this process is. According to Brahmananda, one of the advanced students of Sri Ramakrishna, the spiritual life can be divided into two phases. The first section or phase is separated from the second section or phase by a person's entrance into samadhi. So the second phase of self-discovery begins with the entrance into samadhi. I'd like to consider with you for a few minutes what the nature of samadhi is, examine the concept behind the samadhis, and try and gain an understanding of not only why an individual seeks to go into samadhi, and how that occurs, but what the result of this process is. There are four basic states of awareness that a human being experiences. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:08:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:10 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz In the process of meditation, we find that we are not one continuous personality, we are not a body, that what our real being is, is light. The caretaker personality is a way that has been evolved whereby you can deal with the world, your families, friends, your own emotions, while you exist in the world. When it's not necessary for you to use the personality form, you can put it on the shelf and let it rest and you can just be absorbed in the all-blissful light. You can be in complete awareness, in other words, using every part of your mind, every part of your being, absorbed in its ultimate purpose. The caretaker personality is a way of choosing what you wear, not simply in terms of clothing but in terms of personality. As you meditate and go more deeply within yourself, you come to see that you don't have one personality, you have many, many personalities. 'Know thyself' is a splendid idea because it is that absolute self that we come to know, that timeless reality. But at the same time it's also apropos to know thy selves, because you have many, many selves. There are many, many personality forms that operate through you, and as you peel back the layers of your outer being you come to see that many selves are what you are, and that these selves all speak, they all have different voices; they talk through you. Of course, beyond these many selves is that one immutable, perfect light. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 53:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:11 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz So what I would like to attempt to do in the next hour is to talk with you about Tibetan yoga, as it was practiced hundreds of years ago. The Book of the Dead was intended as an advanced spiritual guidebook for persons who had reached the end of their evolutionary cycle and who were ready to make the jump to light speed; who had practiced spiritual disciplines in hundreds and thousands of lifetimes and now they were learning the very, very fine points of the rebirth process; who had spent their lives studying, their current life, with an enlightened teacher who would teach them these fine points. The Book of the Dead at that time was not a book of the dead. They were the secret oral teachings that were transmitted from enlightened teacher to student. They were only written down when it was feared that the way would be lost, and so as a kind of gift to mankind they were written down with the thought that those who read them might never understand them. They might take them on the wrong level, in other words, but there might be someone out there who did or it might help reawaken one who had traversed these higher ranges in a previous lifetime. And when that person reincarnated, even though there might not be an enlightened teacher for them, if there was not one on the planet at the time, if they were drawn to The Book of the Dead, reading it over, it would bring back or help jar their past life realizations and awarenesses. This was the intent of the author. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:04:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:12 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The greatest challenge awaiting you is living and working in the world. The greatest challenge awaiting you is living and working in the world. Traditionally, seekers of the infinite light have renounced society and gone into places of solitude to meditate, pray, fast, practice various spiritual arts and to gain a sense of community, a fellowship with others who speak a kindred language. If we look back at the history of spirituality, we see that the great, enlightened souls were often very reclusive. They lived on top of the high Himalayas, in caves and forests. Very few of them really entered into the world, or if they did live in somewhat of a societal setting, they had their students build monasteries, convents, ashrams-places where the students and the teacher could live together and associate with each other without having to deal with the world. This earth itself is nothing but beauty. But human beings have been a disease, from a certain point of view, a kind of a bacteria that has infected the earth, that has destroyed the forests, the rivers, polluted the oceans, that is currently destroying the ozone layer. Human beings have not taken very good care of the resource that sustains them. They don't seem to realize that if they destroy it, they destroy themselves. A most unusual species. Yet taken individually, human beings are incredibly beautiful. If we look at any person, they have sensitivities, inner light. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 1:10:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:13 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Our journey today concerns illusion, the nature of illusion and the way out of illusion. Our journey today concerns illusion, the nature of illusion and the way out of illusion. Illusion is a state of mind. It's a way of seeing things that is not exactly correct. Everything that we see with our eyes, feel with our bodies, taste, touch, hear, everything that we think, everything that we feel with our emotions, all things that we are drawn to because we consider them to be pleasurable, all things that we seek to avoid because we consider them to be painful, these are all a product of illusion. Illusion comes in many different forms. Illusion means to not see things exactly as they really are. If you're depressed you can walk through a field of flowers and see nothing to make you happy. If you're joyful, if you're elated, you can walk through a dark and desolate area and feel nothing but joy. While perception on the physical level certainly colors our experiences, perception on the mental level or on the emotional level has even a greater effect upon our awareness. But let's begin at the beginning. Let's begin with pleasure, pain and the senses. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 57:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:14 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The way to achieve spiritual balance is without trying. Spiritual balance is something that all of us innately are. When you enter into the spiritual process, you change. Your rough edges are sanded away, your outer covering falls away, and you find that you're not exactly a person any more. After many years of meditation and spiritual practice, you will discover, rather, that you are a field of light, that you have no definite form, shape or color. While you can remember a past history of yourself to some extent-you can remember what you did when you were in the fourth grade, or when you were 15 or you were 20-while there are certain recurrent memories, there is little or no association with that which you are now and those memories. Just as the butterfly, as it flits from flower to flower, may dimly remember its days as a caterpillar, still there appears to be no relation, except through the function of memory, between that which the butterfly is and that which the butterfly was as a caterpillar. All time is eternally present. The timeless lies just around the corner. We experience the timeless in time. Spiritual balance cannot really occur in the world of time without an understanding of timelessness because it is timelessness that gives meaning to time. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 44:00 Buddhism Tue, 21 Sep 1982 12:00:15 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The subtle physical body is composed of strands or luminous fibers of energy that interconnect different planes and times. The subtle physical body is a body of light. It is a much truer body, it is closer to what we are really like than our physical bodies are. The subtle physical body is composed of strands or luminous fibers of energy that interconnect different planes and times. The times are what we would refer to as the past, the present and the future. And the planes of consciousness are the seven principal planes of awareness, of existence. They're all interconnected through the chakras or gateways that are in the subtle physical body along the spine. From the base of the spine to the crown of the head there's an astral tube which is called the shushumna. It has two lesser tubes on both sides, the ida and the pingala. The kundalini energy, which is the basic life principle or life energy that works through the subtle physical body, moves normally up and down the ida and the pingala. It does not move too much through the shushumna. The shushumna, you might say, is not accessible to the kundalini in most human beings. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 56:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:16 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz It is much easier for women to attain spiritual liberation than it is for men to do so. It is much easier for women to attain spiritual liberation than it is for men to do so. A woman's subtle physical body accepts light in this world much more readily than does a man's. It seems a curious fact then that throughout the short-lived history of spirituality in this world there have been very few self realized, enlightened women. There are a number of reasons for this, and whether you are a man or a woman it is essential that you understand these reasons, accept them and utilize them. As a man you can further the realization of all women when you understand these basic principles. As a woman you can, of course, advance yourself and all other women when you understand these basic principles. I'd really like to divide this discussion into two sections. The first section will be, I suppose, more historical in the sense that we'll be considering why women have not attained enlightenment, and then in the second section we will perhaps look at some things that women can do to foster and attain enlightenment. Also there will be some consideration as to what men can do to foster the enlightenment of women. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 54:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:17 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Attachment creates pain and frustration. Attachment is the thing that we seek to overcome in self-discovery. Attachment creates pain and frustration. Attachment is the thing that we seek to overcome in self-discovery. Attachment creates pain, and if you don't like pain and suffering, frustration and misery, you must overcome attachment. Attachment on a basic level means not getting caught up in desires. Desires pass through us like the wind passes through the leaves on a tree. The wind moves the leaves to and fro. So desire passes through us and can create movement, a stirring, a rustling within the self. Desire is neither good nor bad. It just has a simple result. Some people feel in spiritual practice that in order to attain higher states of consciousness, to lead a happier life, they have to overcome desire. It's impossible to overcome desire. It's like trying to overcome the earth or the solar system or God. It's not necessary to overcome anything in order to attain liberation. Enlightenment and liberation have nothing to do with overcoming anything. Rather, they involve acceptance and dissolution. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 44:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:18 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The most common type of spiritual experience is the one that you're having at the moment. We call it life. The pathway to enlightenment is for most of us very experiential. While you may accept the philosophical concepts that are handed down with meditation-a belief in the reincarnation of the soul; the stateless state of nirvana; a sense of dharma, that there is a code of right and that when we follow the highest good we become the highest good; cycles and theories of cosmic evolution; the different lokas and planes of reality-while we may acknowledge that all of these things exist to some extent, what really brings us forward on the pathway to enlightenment is the need for spiritual experiences and visions. Spiritual experiences fall into many different classifications. The most common type of spiritual experience is the one that you're having at the moment. We call it life. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 56:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:19 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Today I'd like to talk to you about these ways, not so much from an historical perspective, but from the perspective of one who, in other lifetimes, has practiced and taught these three ways. There are many different pathways that lead to spiritual awareness, consciousness and perfection. Certainly three of the most frequently traveled pathways are the pathways of Zen, Buddhism and Taoism. Today I'd like to talk to you a little bit about these ways, not so much from a historical perspective but from the perspective of one who, in other lifetimes, has practiced and taught these three ways. If you'd like historical information on the evolution of Zen, Buddhism or Taoism, there's a wealth of information at your local library or in a metaphysical bookstore. But my interest is the essence of these teachings, not so much what's happened with them historically or the books that have been written about them, detailing them, or the descriptions of people who have had experiences in the monasteries or living a more secular life. Rather, my interest is the essence of the teaching-the way, as it were. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 42:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:20 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz The occult body is a field of attention. It's an avenue of awareness. It's a wind tunnel that connects the different realities. The occult body is a field of attention. A human being is composed of various parts: the physical body; the subtle physical body or the etheric body; the occult body; the psychic body; the mind; the ego; the life force; and of course the jiva or the soul or what they call in Buddhism the anatman, that eternal spark which is the ultimate perceiver or non-doer. The occult body is not a body in the sense that it has a shape. It's shapeless. The occult body is a field of attention. It's an avenue of awareness. It's a wind tunnel that connects the different realities. Now certainly there are what we call 'occult bodies.' It is possible to create these occult bodies. They're extensions of your own bodies; we call them allies or helpers. An advanced spiritual aspirant is capable of creating many different bodies and can utilize these bodies to help aid others in their liberation. But the occult body, more than anything, is a field of awareness. You might say it's a way of being. The occult body is power but power that is not directed in an obvious manner. The word 'occult' means hidden, that which is unseen. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 47:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:21 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz I would like to address what I consider to be the most difficult topic for a person who seeks enlightenment to deal with. I would like to address what I consider to be the most difficult topic for a person who seeks enlightenment to deal with. There are different types of spiritual teachers. The ultimate spiritual teacher is life. Life is constantly teaching us, if we'll only open our eyes and observe. Because we have so much, such a large self, such developed personality and persona, we don't really see. We see ourselves. We're always basing everything that we see in life on a comparison with our own views, our feelings, our ideas. It's only after the self has been swept away that we can really see. Otherwise, everything is colored by our own perceptions. But when we are no longer a separate finite individual, then all there is is the universal real - perfect sight, perfect seeing, perfect perception, untainted by personal want, desire, gain, past recollection, sorrows, hopes, ambitions. Life is the teacher. We are part of life. We are the teacher. Our own body, our mind, the aging process, all of these things are teaching us. We learn to listen to the wind. The wind is a wonderful teacher. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 56:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:22 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz In advanced meditation we not only pass through other planes of consciousness or awareness but we become them. You can't really go into advanced states of meditation if you're holding a lot of baggage in your hands. You're too heavy. So over the period of years that you've been meditating and studying and practicing, you've let go of your attachments. You can live in the world and have friends and family and possessions if you like. But you don't take them all too seriously because you know that death removes everything. And you feel that death is every moment, as life is every moment. You enjoy, but you don't fixate. If it all goes away tomorrow, that's OK, you trust God implicitly. The universe will always do what's right for you. You have this feeling. Emotional storms may pass through your being, upsets; the sea of life is not always smooth. But these things don't affect the deeper you. You have a link, you've established contact with your deeper self. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 56:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:23 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz You are a dream. You are a dream of eternal consciousness in the waking state. Then as you meditate, the more deeply you meditate, the longer you can stop your thoughts or detach yourself from them, the larger the range of new dreams you have. The important point in meditating in the advanced states and dreaming is not going up. Going up is easy. But it's coming back and choosing the right dream. That's what we call the rebirth process. I did a tape about that, 'The Tibetan Rebirth Process.' That's the art of dreaming. And of course, the art itself is a dream, which you can step into or out of, as you see fit. God is dreaming all of this. God is the dream of nirvana. Nirvana is the dream of God. Beyond the dream, there's waking, the dream of waking, and beyond the dream of waking, there's something that's even beyond dreams. Our special catalog under the counter. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 58:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:24 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Today I'd like to talk with you about some of the different types of beings that you as a spiritual seeker will encounter on your journey to enlightenment. The universe has many stages. This is one small stage we're upon now. There are countless worlds. Not just worlds in a sense of material planets like our own, but there are planes of existence, dimensions. Each dimension contains billions of galaxies. They're endless because existence is eternal and infinite and the infinite has no end. There are different planes of being. We can say that God has different dreams and in each dream there's something else. In other planes of being there are other evolved forms of life. Many of these forms of life are not physical, they're etheric. And there are different types of beings who have etheric bodies. Most commonly we talk about the gods and goddesses, very advanced beings with superhuman powers, who live far beyond our earth and who human beings occasionally have interaction with. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 51:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:25 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Dharma is the truth. Dharma is the truth throughout the ages. Dharma is the truth. And there are three types of truth. There's the truth of the physical world; there's the truth of the subtle physical world, the astral world; and there's the truth of the superconscious. Truth means everything is in place. Everything fits. In meditation we clean the mirror of the self. The mirror of the self has been covered up with layer after layer of dust. And almost nothing reflects. The mirror in the physical world is not as delicate as the mirror in the subtle physical world. In order to perceive that which lies beyond the physical, we must first understand the physical. Then we can move into the subtle physical. As long as the first mirror is obscured, we will never see the second mirror, let alone the third mirror, which is eternity itself, which is both the mirror and that which we see in the mirror. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 54:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:26 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz There are dark and gloomy days in the path to self-discovery. There are days when it seems that we'll never be able to see the truth. What can you do when all the remedies fail, both spiritual and worldly? What can you do? Well, at such a time, there is a form of yoga you can practice that will enable you to destroy everything, including yourself and your conceptions. And from this destruction will arise a creation, a new force; an energy will enter your life. This yoga is, I suppose, the most dangerous of the yogas. But then again, you get to a point where it really doesn't matter. One can get to a point where nothing is working. We're headed off the cliff, plummeting to the bottom, so why not try one last thing? When you've sunk as low as you can get--or so you think because there's no end to the depths to which you can fall as there is no end to the heights to which you can rise--when you feel, as my grandfather used to say, "lower than a snake's ass,' at such a moment, when everything and nothing works, it's time to practice tantra. Tantra is the left-handed path, meaning it is the road less taken. Tantra comes from the Far East. And it has to do with the pairs of opposites and oppositions. It is a difficult yoga to practice in the sense that when you practice tantra, it's very easy to not practice tantra and think you're practicing tantra. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 44:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:27 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Self realization is liberation. Liberation is self realization. There is no beginning and there is no end. The awareness of liberation is not liberation. The awareness of time is not liberation. The awareness of place, space or condition is not liberation. The smoke from the fire passes through the building and the soot affixes itself to the walls. The smoke passes through the air and keeps going. Liberation. You can't say what it is, but you can sure say what it isn't. And yet everything is in it. If you choose to be free, if you choose 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, just 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. You have to refine your being. You have to go through all the stages and steps of erasing yourself. Through service to others, with purity, humility, integrity, by going through the things that life gives you to go through, happily. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 46:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:28 Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz Everything is one. There's only one eternal reality. Yet there are two. Tantra is a reconciliation, a joining together. In this universe there appears to be opposition. Opposition is a point of view. Everything is one. There's only one eternal reality. Yet there are two. Man and woman, sun and moon, dark and light, morning and evening, day and night, forward and back, in and out. Tantra is the reconciliation of opposites. Seeing that opposites are complements. Mysticism is the experience of eternity. Beyond the body, in mysticism, a person experiences the spirit world, the alternate planes of reality. Mysticism also is the study of the physical world, but not from the physical perspective. The study is inside out. Everything is viewed from within. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information. 47:00 Buddhism Mon, 21 Mar 1983 12:00:29