Frederick Lenz - Evolution As A Spiritual Teacher

Evolution As A Spiritual Teacher

According to his books, Lenz studied meditation for several years a number of teachers. He wrote he first went into samadhi, or a state of spiritual absorption, at the age of 19. In his books Surfing the Himalayas and Snowboarding to Nirvana he claimed that traveling heightened his experiences in meditation.

Beginning in 1972, he became a follower of Hindu guru Sri Chinmoy, who gave him the name "Atmananda" meaning "one who Bliss is in the Self." In 1981, after moving back to San Diego, he broke with Chinmoy, allegedly telling the other students that, "Chinmoy has fallen." He took between 50 and 100 former Chinmoy students with him and formed a new group he called "Lakshmi", after the Indian goddess.

Lenz has said to students,"It's necessary for you to have a strong base...the economic independence to live a life of beauty and meditative seclusion. The strength and freedom to live a life of oneness." and that, "A great deal of the teaching that I do is about money." In his estimation, money was could be a direct indicator of the student's level of success in his application of the teachings and usage of the energy received from empowerments. He also taught that having money is one of the best ways to help others. With money, you can do a lot to aid people in need. During the first years of his teaching, he offered thousands of free public meditations where he introduced numerous people to meditation, some of whom became students.

By 1983, he had stopped calling himself Atmananda and began calling himself "Rama", which he interchanged with "Zen Master Rama" during a 1985 seminar and tape series ("Rama" is the name of an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.) He claimed to be one of only twelve truly enlightened people on Earth. He claimed the enlightened twelve included his dog "Vayu". Lenz believed in reincarnation and suggested that through deeper awareness, one could remember past lives. He claimed to remember several of his previous reincarnations, including his life as a high priest at the Temple of Light in Atlantis, and a teacher/leader in ancient Egypt, India, Japan, and Tibet. He often told his students that he was the reincarnation of Saint Thomas More.

Hundreds of his students claimed to have watched him performing miracles, including levitation, teleportation, projecting light from his hands, and transforming into an old, bearded Asian man before their eyes. Many students also claim he had the ability to heal people by touching them, create magical clouds in the sky, uplift people by sending them light, and pass through alternate dimensions.

At one point, Rama spoke of "negative force entities" and related ideas, which disgruntled followers say he borrowed from the work of Carlos Castaneda. His supporters trace these ideas not to Castaneda, but Tibetan Buddhism's ritual of Chöd. According to former student Mark Laxer, Lenz agreed with the basic idea of The Force from the Star Wars films, and described former students and others who disagreed with him as having "fallen to the Dark Side." According to Laxer, Lenz told him that "Star Wars creator George Lucas was wrong to have Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) prematurely leave a mystical apprenticeship, wrong to have evil unmasked by good, and wrong to portray Yoda as being gay."

At the height of his teachings in 1988 he was estimated to have between 400 and 1,000 followers. In 1998, he offered monthly tuition options from $500 to $5,000 per person to attend his business seminars. As a result of his seminars, Rama's students saw phenomenal increases in salary of 800% in 4 years. This level of income allowed students to easily pay the tuition, lead a very comfortable life, and also contribute heavily to charity. Some say that he was interested primarily in money with two main arguments: first, that he regularly held free or low-cost classes for beginners, and second, that he dismissed hundreds of students from his classes, explaining that he didn't think they were a match for his teachings. He stated that his teaching priority was to promote independence, awareness, humor, and strength.

Prior to his death, Lenz directed his students to study with Namkha Drimed Rinpoche.