Dharma Talks by Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz

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.

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.

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.

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

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 t

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.

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.

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 visi

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 enlightenm

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. Ple

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 balanc

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.

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

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. A

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 ba

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.

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 i

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.

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 o

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.