Dharma Talks by Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz

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 co

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 ba

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. Ple

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 infi

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.

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 ht

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

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.

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. Tr

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 f

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.

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.

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 a

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 discourage

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

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 wa