Dharma Talks by Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz

What causes us to change? Sometimes a piece of music causes us to change. Sometimes the way the light falls on a particular day. Someone says something - it opens a doorway for us. We find it happening without knowing why. Very often we try and reason existence. We try and calculate it; to discover it. And while we can certainly discuss portions of existence and we can discover layers of reality, yet we find ourselves straying very far from existence itself in its absolute form. We're out playing in the world of self-discovery. We're looking at different pictures in the gallery. Very rarely do we look in the mirror of the self. In the practice of mysticism there are four stages. The first stage is gaining power. The second stage is avoiding the loss of power. The third stage is storing power. And the fourth stage is giving power. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

What causes us to change? Sometimes a piece of music causes us to change. Sometimes the way the light falls on a particular day. Someone says something - it opens a doorway for us. We find it happening without knowing why. Very often we try and reason existence. We try and calculate it; to discover it. And while we can certainly discuss portions of existence and we can discover layers of reality, yet we find ourselves straying very far from existence itself in its absolute form. We're out playing in the world of self-discovery. We're looking at different pictures in the gallery. Very rarely do we look in the mirror of the self. In the practice of mysticism there are four stages. The first stage is gaining power. The second stage is avoiding the loss of power. The third stage is storing power. And the fourth stage is giving power. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

Tantra is a reconciliation, a joining together. In this universe there appears to be opposition. Opposition is a point of view. Everything is one. There's only one eternal reality. Yet there are two. Man and woman, sun and moon, dark and light, morning and evening, day and night, forward and back, in and out. Tantra is the reconciliation of opposites. Seeing that opposites are complements. Mysticism is the experience of eternity. Beyond the body, in mysticism, a person experiences the spirit world, the alternate planes of reality. Mysticism also is the study of the physical world, but not from the physical perspective. The study is inside out. Everything is viewed from within. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

Tantra is a reconciliation, a joining together. In this universe there appears to be opposition. Opposition is a point of view. Everything is one. There's only one eternal reality. Yet there are two. Man and woman, sun and moon, dark and light, morning and evening, day and night, forward and back, in and out. Tantra is the reconciliation of opposites. Seeing that opposites are complements. Mysticism is the experience of eternity. Beyond the body, in mysticism, a person experiences the spirit world, the alternate planes of reality. Mysticism also is the study of the physical world, but not from the physical perspective. The study is inside out. Everything is viewed from within. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

The awareness of liberation is not liberation. The awareness of time is not liberation. The awareness of place, space or condition is not liberation. The smoke from the fire passes through the building and the soot affixes itself to the walls. The smoke passes through the air and keeps going. Liberation. You can't say what it is, but you can sure say what it isn't. And yet everything is in it. If you choose to be free, if you choose to be liberated, if you choose to be what I am, then you've chosen freedom. You can do this. That's my sole purpose in life, just to sit here today and tell you that you can do this. In any life. You can do this in one of your past lives, in a future life, or right now. I prefer now. You have to refine your being. You have to go through all the stages and steps of erasing yourself. Through service to others, with purity, humility, integrity, by going through the things that life gives you to go through, happily. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

The awareness of liberation is not liberation. The awareness of time is not liberation. The awareness of place, space or condition is not liberation. The smoke from the fire passes through the building and the soot affixes itself to the walls. The smoke passes through the air and keeps going. Liberation. You can't say what it is, but you can sure say what it isn't. And yet everything is in it. If you choose to be free, if you choose to be liberated, if you choose to be what I am, then you've chosen freedom. You can do this. That's my sole purpose in life, just to sit here today and tell you that you can do this. In any life. You can do this in one of your past lives, in a future life, or right now. I prefer now. You have to refine your being. You have to go through all the stages and steps of erasing yourself. Through service to others, with purity, humility, integrity, by going through the things that life gives you to go through, happily. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

What can you do when all the remedies fail, both spiritual and worldly? What can you do? Well, at such a time, there is a form of yoga you can practice that will enable you to destroy everything, including yourself and your conceptions. And from this destruction will arise a creation, a new force; an energy will enter your life. This yoga is, I suppose, the most dangerous of the yogas. But then again, you get to a point where it really doesn't matter. One can get to a point where nothing is working. We're headed off the cliff, plummeting to the bottom, so why not try one last thing? When you've sunk as low as you can get--or so you think because there's no end to the depths to which you can fall as there is no end to the heights to which you can rise--when you feel, as my grandfather used to say, "lower than a snake's ass,' at such a moment, when everything and nothing works, it's time to practice tantra. Tantra is the left-handed path, meaning it is the road less taken. Tantra comes from the Far East. And it has to do with the pairs of opposites and oppositions. It is a difficult yoga to practice in the sense that when you practice tantra, it's very easy to not practice tantra and think you're practicing tantra. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

What can you do when all the remedies fail, both spiritual and worldly? What can you do? Well, at such a time, there is a form of yoga you can practice that will enable you to destroy everything, including yourself and your conceptions. And from this destruction will arise a creation, a new force; an energy will enter your life. This yoga is, I suppose, the most dangerous of the yogas. But then again, you get to a point where it really doesn't matter. One can get to a point where nothing is working. We're headed off the cliff, plummeting to the bottom, so why not try one last thing? When you've sunk as low as you can get--or so you think because there's no end to the depths to which you can fall as there is no end to the heights to which you can rise--when you feel, as my grandfather used to say, "lower than a snake's ass,' at such a moment, when everything and nothing works, it's time to practice tantra. Tantra is the left-handed path, meaning it is the road less taken. Tantra comes from the Far East. And it has to do with the pairs of opposites and oppositions. It is a difficult yoga to practice in the sense that when you practice tantra, it's very easy to not practice tantra and think you're practicing tantra. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

Dharma is the truth. And there are three types of truth. There's the truth of the physical world; there's the truth of the subtle physical world, the astral world; and there's the truth of the superconscious. Truth means everything is in place. Everything fits. In meditation we clean the mirror of the self. The mirror of the self has been covered up with layer after layer of dust. And almost nothing reflects. The mirror in the physical world is not as delicate as the mirror in the subtle physical world. In order to perceive that which lies beyond the physical, we must first understand the physical. Then we can move into the subtle physical. As long as the first mirror is obscured, we will never see the second mirror, let alone the third mirror, which is eternity itself, which is both the mirror and that which we see in the mirror. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

Dharma is the truth. And there are three types of truth. There's the truth of the physical world; there's the truth of the subtle physical world, the astral world; and there's the truth of the superconscious. Truth means everything is in place. Everything fits. In meditation we clean the mirror of the self. The mirror of the self has been covered up with layer after layer of dust. And almost nothing reflects. The mirror in the physical world is not as delicate as the mirror in the subtle physical world. In order to perceive that which lies beyond the physical, we must first understand the physical. Then we can move into the subtle physical. As long as the first mirror is obscured, we will never see the second mirror, let alone the third mirror, which is eternity itself, which is both the mirror and that which we see in the mirror. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

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.

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.

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.