Zen Master Rama
An american enlightened teacher of zen, self discovery and the art of meditation
Meet Zen Master Rama
Rama – Dr. Frederick P. Lenz (1950 – 1998)
Dr. Frederick Lenz, known as ‘Rama’ or ‘Zen Master Rama’ to his students and the general public, was an enlightened spiritual teacher. His life was dedicated to teaching true zen and the art of meditation and to transmitting the essence of Buddhism so that Western practitioners could achieve the highest state of Buddhist realization – enlightenment.
First spiritual awakening experiences
Zen Master Rama 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. He sat in his mother’s garden and the world dissolved into eternal bliss and awareness. The experience returned when he was 19, leading him to go on a spiritual adventure in Nepal, described in his best-selling books, Surfing the Himalayas and Snowboarding to Nirvana.
Dr. Frederick Lenz, scholar & author
During his twenties, Zen Master Rama became a Phi Beta Kappa scholar at the University of Connecticut and received a Fellowship to attend the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he received a Masters and Ph.D. degree in English Literature and Philosophy. He traveled around the world teaching meditation on behalf of the Indian teacher he studied with and wrote his first two books Lifetimes – True Accounts of Reincarnation and Total Relaxation.
Experience of Spiritual Enlightenment
Also, throughout his twenties, Zen Master Rama continued to deepen his experience of samadhi – no thought, endless light, infinite awareness. This continued until 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.
Spiritual Teacher & American Zen School
In 1980, at age 30, he began teaching on his own. Beginning with a core group of 20 students, within two years he gained close to 1,000 enrolled students, a number he cut back to 400. Zen Master Rama taught tens of thousands of people in public lectures. People reported seeing beautiful phenomena around him — golden light, effortless meditation, direct experiences of timelessness. For the next 18 years, from classroom lectures to Caribbean diving trips, no matter what the setting, he was always teaching.
“This physical world that we live in is just one small portion of reality. There are countless dimensions to be explored. Beyond all of that, of course, there’s Nirvana, the absorption in the light of perfection which exists everywhere. You can live and work in the world and practice meditation. You can have relationships, careers, it really doesn’t matter. There are no rules, but there are techniques that can be learned and people you can meditate with who can help you. Try to loosen up a little bit in your approach to self-discovery. Please don’t feel that there’s one person or one philosophy or one way that will answer all your questions or solve your life.”
Zen Master Rama
Practical spiritual enlightenment
Zen Master Rama frequently taught and spoke in very practical terms about the journey to spiritual enlightenment. “The pathway to enlightenment,” he said, “doesn’t come to a person through rules. There’s a great deal of spiritual etiquette along the pathway. But just by following rules, by rote, by repetition, nothing happens. You need to learn to meditate. When you meditate and you can stop all thoughts in your mind, a doorway opens and you can walk into another world. Into life. There you can experience, in altered states of attention what life really is. Dive into its depths. Experience it. Then you change quickly. At the same time it’s important to learn how to deal with the contemporary civilization — with billions of people on the earth. Each person is like a radio transmitter. They’re broadcasting energy, ideas, information, all of the time, on a subtle-physical level, on an astral level. And everyone is affected by it, we all are”.
Who is Zen Master Rama?
“Who is Rama? Well, he’s essentially, I suppose, a free spirit. Someone who’s around to remind you that the spirit of life is wonderful and that you should dance with life. I’m essentially a radical, a revolutionary in my approach to self-discovery. Not necessarily revolutionary. I just think that I’m saying the same things that have been said for a long time in a contemporary language. They’re not my discoveries, they’re yours. I help people along the pathway to enlightenment because that’s my particular ability: to communicate enthusiasm and inspiration and to teach advanced methods for becoming aware, for playing with consciousness and with life.” —Zen Master Rama
Zen Master Rama’s journey to enlightenment is described further in the award-winning biography, American Buddhist Rebel.
Zen Master Rama is a powerful spiritual presence for thousands throughout the world. With the help of his recorded dharma talks (lectures about spirituality and meditation), spiritual books and relaxing meditation music, everyone has the opportunity to experience the essence of zen—satori (instant realization of truth), deep meditation, and samadhi. His clear teachings point to the highest truths which are presented in ways that work for seekers living in today’s world.
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