Rama
Dr. Frederick Lenz, known as “Rama” to his students and the general public, was an enlightened Buddhist teacher whose life was dedicated to teaching meditation and to transmitting the essence of Buddhism so that Western practitioners could achieve the highest state of Buddhist realization – enlightenment.
Rama – Dr. Frederick Lenz was born on February 9, 1950 in San Diego, California, and grew up in Connecticut. He had his first experience of samadhi, complete immersion in infinite planes of light with no sense of self, when he was only three years old. The experience returned when he was 19, leading him to his spiritual adventure and transformation in Nepal, described in his 1995 best-selling book, Surfing the Himalayas. There, he encountered a Tibetan Buddhist monk who predicted that Rama would revive an ancient lineage of knowledge and enlightenment and help thousands of people.
Frederick Lenz graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Connecticut and he received his MA and Ph.D. in English Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Throughout his twenties, Rama continued to deepen his experience of samadhi – no thought, endless light, infinite awareness. This continued until finally, at age 30, after countless hours of thought-free meditation, he became what is termed “enlightened,” meaning that the mind does not leave the state of infinite mind, yet one remains active and engaged in the world.
Rama the Mystic
Miracles make us wonder, they trigger our curiosity, they inspire us.The real miracle is the transformation of consciousness from limitation and pain to enlightenment and ecstasy.
Rama began teaching on his own in 1981. Meditation, living and working in the world, the empowerment of women, and focus on modern spiritual enlightenment through the application of Buddhist wisdom form the core of Dr. Lenz’s teachings (American Tantric Buddhism), which he shared and honed with boundless enthusiasm. Rama continually sought modern Western structures and understandings to help today’s spiritual seekers embark on the considerable transformation needed to reach enlightenment. He instructed students on methods for living more productive, fulfilled lives.
Along the way and accompanying the teachings were the miracles, or transformations of awareness. Hundreds of students have given vivid and detailed reports of witnessing Rama perform miracles, or siddha powers, including levitation, teleportation, disappearance, clairvoyance, healing, growing very tall, changing faces and shapes before their eyes, projecting light from his hands and around him, filling halls and auditoriums and desert landscapes with golden light, and even playfully rearranging stars. Rama himself referred to these phenomena as “Buddhist magic”; they are also known as “siddha powers” in the East (in the literature of Buddhism and Hinduism, a siddha is a magical or mystical power attained by an advanced practitioner of meditation). Rama enjoyed displaying the miracles, or siddha powers, in order to inspire belief in enlightenment.
Dozens of these accounts are recorded in Rama’s biography, a highly acclaimed and award-winning book by Liz Lewinson, “American Buddhist Rebel: The Story of Rama – Dr. Frederick Lenz”. Throughout the biography, many of the students’ most vivid recollections involve the siddhas – Rama’s playful displays of enlightenment. Rama stated that his teaching of enlightenment for the West would include displaying the siddhas because the times merited it. Witnessing a siddha power – or “miracle” or “Buddhist magic” – created an opening that allowed Western students to believe in the possibility of enlightenment.
“The Last Incarnation: Experiences with Rama in California”. (Lakshmi Publications, 1983) is a collection of over 130 stories written by 90-plus students about their unexpected, magical, mystical and timeless experiences with Rama – Dr. Frederick Lenz – in Southern California, in a variety of settings ranging from the desert, to university auditoriums, to Disneyland. The miracles, magic, healings – it was all there, with most reports sharing recurring descriptions of the presence of golden light.
Rama effortlessly exuded the Siddhas (powers) that are described in Buddhist and Hindu texts. For people attending Rama’s talks, witnessing levitation, disappearance, beautiful colors and waves of golden light all around Rama and spreading through the hall or room – was commonplace. Rama manifested a range of bright, unexpected, often humorous displays of higher awareness, gently nudging his audience into other dimensions of being. And then, when meditation was over, he matter-of-factly asked what people saw. Mirroring Rama’s tone, perceptions of profound spiritual phenomena were reported back in a matter-of-fact tone. His attitude towards such phenomena was pure and humble – he said that if people saw the reality of the Siddhas, they would also believe that enlightenment was real.
Sources
Further reading
Reprinted or included here with permission from The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism