Dharma Talks by Rama ~ Dr. Frederick Lenz

The school of awareness is the school of mysticism. Mysticism is the experience of eternity, of that which lies beyond the physical phenomenal experience. Not that that is even what it appears to be. Taking a walk isn't really taking a walk, taking a shower isn't taking a shower, living isn't living, dying isn't dying. It only appears to be that way because of the centering of our awareness. So the school of awareness is really perception. Everything is perception. And perception, as you know, is limited by the way that you think. When I say 'think,' I don't simply mean word thoughts -- ideas that come through your mind in terms of language -- I am speaking, and you're hearing my voice. But there's also a language that takes place not only in the conscious mind but in the subconscious. It is a language of categorization -- always trying to fit your experiences into a little box to make everything work out, to make everything seem uniform. Now, magic is not categorical. It is not really uniform. That is what makes it interesting. It is beyond logic. It is beyond time and space. And in order to practice magic, of course, you need only one thing -- awareness, what we might call power. Now, everybody has a certain degree of awareness. Everyone is awareness. But people are aware of so little. Within you there are thousands of rings of luminosity, bands, and each one is a universe of perception. In the average person's lifetime, they might just open up two or three, maybe only four of those bands. Those bands are keys to doorways that lead to other universes, other understandings of life, other experiences, other selves; we have other selves. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

The school of awareness is the school of mysticism. Mysticism is the experience of eternity, of that which lies beyond the physical phenomenal experience. Not that that is even what it appears to be. Taking a walk isn't really taking a walk, taking a shower isn't taking a shower, living isn't living, dying isn't dying. It only appears to be that way because of the centering of our awareness. So the school of awareness is really perception. Everything is perception. And perception, as you know, is limited by the way that you think. When I say 'think,' I don't simply mean word thoughts -- ideas that come through your mind in terms of language -- I am speaking, and you're hearing my voice. But there's also a language that takes place not only in the conscious mind but in the subconscious. It is a language of categorization -- always trying to fit your experiences into a little box to make everything work out, to make everything seem uniform. Now, magic is not categorical. It is not really uniform. That is what makes it interesting. It is beyond logic. It is beyond time and space. And in order to practice magic, of course, you need only one thing -- awareness, what we might call power. Now, everybody has a certain degree of awareness. Everyone is awareness. But people are aware of so little. Within you there are thousands of rings of luminosity, bands, and each one is a universe of perception. In the average person's lifetime, they might just open up two or three, maybe only four of those bands. Those bands are keys to doorways that lead to other universes, other understandings of life, other experiences, other selves; we have other selves. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

Now, here's an interesting point. Awareness becomes aware of itself. Awareness perceives itself, but not always completely. Awareness can think of itself, feel itself, speculate about itself, correctly or incorrectly. It depends on what level or gradient of awareness we're dealing with. You're aware. You're aware that you're seeking power, you're seeking energy. And it's been my experience as one who has sought awareness and continues to do so, that in the beginning, at least, awareness is something that appears to be outside of us. We have the sense that we will be aware when we have traveled, when we have experienced something, when we've met someone, when we've interacted with something or someone. But awareness really is within. Not within the body, certainly -- it's within itself. Awareness is itself. And the way into awareness, well, it's the way into anything and everything, since anything and everything is awareness. Did you know that everything has awareness? Rocks have awareness. Plants have awareness. Both sentient and insentient forms of beings, both living and what we would call non-living -- everything is pulsing energy, pulsing life. But what we see is not all there is. There's a curtain that needs to be parted, and that is the curtain of temporal awareness. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

Now, here's an interesting point. Awareness becomes aware of itself. Awareness perceives itself, but not always completely. Awareness can think of itself, feel itself, speculate about itself, correctly or incorrectly. It depends on what level or gradient of awareness we're dealing with. You're aware. You're aware that you're seeking power, you're seeking energy. And it's been my experience as one who has sought awareness and continues to do so, that in the beginning, at least, awareness is something that appears to be outside of us. We have the sense that we will be aware when we have traveled, when we have experienced something, when we've met someone, when we've interacted with something or someone. But awareness really is within. Not within the body, certainly -- it's within itself. Awareness is itself. And the way into awareness, well, it's the way into anything and everything, since anything and everything is awareness. Did you know that everything has awareness? Rocks have awareness. Plants have awareness. Both sentient and insentient forms of beings, both living and what we would call non-living -- everything is pulsing energy, pulsing life. But what we see is not all there is. There's a curtain that needs to be parted, and that is the curtain of temporal awareness. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

There's no sense as you walk along this road of going anyplace or having been anyplace because this road changes constantly. It's not a road that leads through the hills and you can walk on the road today and tomorrow you'll walk on it and see the same things. It's simply not like that. This is a road that changes every moment. Thousands of realities come in and out of it. In one step you can go through a thousand shifts of attention. And you can't ever take that step again. You can turn around and what you saw behind you before is gone; now turn back to where you just were and there's something else there. You look at yourself and it's someone else -- continuous permutations of the self -- not one ring but many. Now of course, inside the ring there's nothing, and outside the ring there's nothing. The ring is the idea that you hold of yourself. So the thought then, oh nobly born, is to be very, very careful of not being who you are. And the litmus test, the way you can tell that it's happening to you, is very simple. If after you've been meditating for a year or two or more you begin to find that you're not quite having as much fun with your meditation -- your life does not seem to be quite as revolutionary. The Che Guevara element is lacking, you're not taking your machete of discrimination and hacking down the weeds of knowledge and logic, the should be, have been, was, I will be, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, grammatical forms slashed away; pronouns, pronomeal adverbs slashed away until there's nothing left -- no language, no form, no description, no discussion, no sanity, no insanity -- alive, feeling, wondering, shifting, changing, lost, found. If it's not like that, it's getting dull. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

There's no sense as you walk along this road of going anyplace or having been anyplace because this road changes constantly. It's not a road that leads through the hills and you can walk on the road today and tomorrow you'll walk on it and see the same things. It's simply not like that. This is a road that changes every moment. Thousands of realities come in and out of it. In one step you can go through a thousand shifts of attention. And you can't ever take that step again. You can turn around and what you saw behind you before is gone; now turn back to where you just were and there's something else there. You look at yourself and it's someone else -- continuous permutations of the self -- not one ring but many. Now of course, inside the ring there's nothing, and outside the ring there's nothing. The ring is the idea that you hold of yourself. So the thought then, oh nobly born, is to be very, very careful of not being who you are. And the litmus test, the way you can tell that it's happening to you, is very simple. If after you've been meditating for a year or two or more you begin to find that you're not quite having as much fun with your meditation -- your life does not seem to be quite as revolutionary. The Che Guevara element is lacking, you're not taking your machete of discrimination and hacking down the weeds of knowledge and logic, the should be, have been, was, I will be, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, grammatical forms slashed away; pronouns, pronomeal adverbs slashed away until there's nothing left -- no language, no form, no description, no discussion, no sanity, no insanity -- alive, feeling, wondering, shifting, changing, lost, found. If it's not like that, it's getting dull. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

A person is made up of awarenesses. These awarenesses all exist in the unknown. Now, of course, we're moving to what don Juan calls 'the sorcerer's explanation,' or it's the explanation of life. All of the awarenesses that have ever been or will ever be exist, he says, like barges floating in the ocean. It's a nice analogy. They're all just floating out there, the only difference is they're not solid barges, and as they're floating in that ocean out there they can actually pass through each other. So you can have 20 barges and they're floating along, but they're so light and so fluid that they can actually go through each other. They are all the time, but they're not in any fixed order. There is no order, it just is, and that's what reality is. It's just infinite awareness, infinite consciousness. At the time of birth, an ordering takes place. Those awarenesses come together. They join and they become specific. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

A person is made up of awarenesses. These awarenesses all exist in the unknown. Now, of course, we're moving to what don Juan calls 'the sorcerer's explanation,' or it's the explanation of life. All of the awarenesses that have ever been or will ever be exist, he says, like barges floating in the ocean. It's a nice analogy. They're all just floating out there, the only difference is they're not solid barges, and as they're floating in that ocean out there they can actually pass through each other. So you can have 20 barges and they're floating along, but they're so light and so fluid that they can actually go through each other. They are all the time, but they're not in any fixed order. There is no order, it just is, and that's what reality is. It's just infinite awareness, infinite consciousness. At the time of birth, an ordering takes place. Those awarenesses come together. They join and they become specific. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

Tonight I would like to talk to you a little bit about spiritual metamorphosis or transformation. Self-discovery is a process of dissolution and creation. We're dissolving what we know to create what we don't know. Dissolution means envelopment in eternity. Creation is bringing into focus new awareness. In self-discovery, as in life itself, we believe that we know who we are. This knowledge changes as we change and develop. One day we think that we're one type of person with certain tendencies, feelings, very emotional perhaps. Another day we feel that we're very cold and aloof. But as we meditate and we go within and still the mind, stop the subterfuge of thought, we become aware of awareness. We see that we're really not one component being, but we're really composed of bodies of awareness, distinct selves. The surface personality, in other words, is only the beginning of what we are. So as we meditate and we still that surface personality, we can see beyond it, and we see that we encompass multitudes Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

Tonight I would like to talk to you a little bit about spiritual metamorphosis or transformation. Self-discovery is a process of dissolution and creation. We're dissolving what we know to create what we don't know. Dissolution means envelopment in eternity. Creation is bringing into focus new awareness. In self-discovery, as in life itself, we believe that we know who we are. This knowledge changes as we change and develop. One day we think that we're one type of person with certain tendencies, feelings, very emotional perhaps. Another day we feel that we're very cold and aloof. But as we meditate and we go within and still the mind, stop the subterfuge of thought, we become aware of awareness. We see that we're really not one component being, but we're really composed of bodies of awareness, distinct selves. The surface personality, in other words, is only the beginning of what we are. So as we meditate and we still that surface personality, we can see beyond it, and we see that we encompass multitudes Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

When you meditate, always try and be hopeful, it's very important. It's necessary to realize the infinite possibilities that life offers you at any moment. Most people are engaged in a limited dharma. They are traversing in a given lifetime through a sequence of possible events, but the events are not too widely chartered in the sense that the possible variations within that sequence are limited. Meditation offers us the prospect of changing that. The suggestion is that instead of staying with the destiny that you have now, that you've incurred through previous karmas, actions in this life, and other lives, family, social position, economic or religious background, racial background, it's possible to transcend all of that and within the structure of a lifetime to be born again many times. The Tibetan doctrines are far reaching. They are really very similar in essence, I think, to the doctrines of yoga, Buddhism of different types, Taoism, the very early American Indian religions. There seems to be a common thread that unites them all which is the perception of that which is truth. The Tibetan versions, with an 's,' of paradise are many. Tibetan mysticism is a mixture of many forms -- of tantra, of the Bon religion, of Buddhism, of course, as brought by Padmasambhava. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

When you meditate, always try and be hopeful, it's very important. It's necessary to realize the infinite possibilities that life offers you at any moment. Most people are engaged in a limited dharma. They are traversing in a given lifetime through a sequence of possible events, but the events are not too widely chartered in the sense that the possible variations within that sequence are limited. Meditation offers us the prospect of changing that. The suggestion is that instead of staying with the destiny that you have now, that you've incurred through previous karmas, actions in this life, and other lives, family, social position, economic or religious background, racial background, it's possible to transcend all of that and within the structure of a lifetime to be born again many times. The Tibetan doctrines are far reaching. They are really very similar in essence, I think, to the doctrines of yoga, Buddhism of different types, Taoism, the very early American Indian religions. There seems to be a common thread that unites them all which is the perception of that which is truth. The Tibetan versions, with an 's,' of paradise are many. Tibetan mysticism is a mixture of many forms -- of tantra, of the Bon religion, of Buddhism, of course, as brought by Padmasambhava. Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.

All of the various forms of self-discovery, ranging from Zen and Tibetan tantra on through Christianity, Buddhism, whatever it may be, all of them are based on love. While in some forms of self-discovery, love may not be discussed a lot, it's understood to be the basis of all spiritual and religious practice. It is the essence of being and living. When a civilization, a race, a people, a society, when they lack love, they are soon destroyed. Gandhi realized this. Love makes you immortal because it connects the world of mortality that we live in now to the immortal kingdoms of higher existence. Love comes in two forms -- higher love and lower love, or let us say advanced love and the beginning of love.

All of the various forms of self-discovery, ranging from Zen and Tibetan tantra on through Christianity, Buddhism, whatever it may be, all of them are based on love. While in some forms of self-discovery, love may not be discussed a lot, it's understood to be the basis of all spiritual and religious practice. It is the essence of being and living. When a civilization, a race, a people, a society, when they lack love, they are soon destroyed. Gandhi realized this. Love makes you immortal because it connects the world of mortality that we live in now to the immortal kingdoms of higher existence. Love comes in two forms -- higher love and lower love, or let us say advanced love and the beginning of love.

In addressing this particular topic tonight, you might say I'm addressing all topics because I feel that all topics are found in any singular topic. Once you've learned the art of problem solving, for example, you can solve any problem. The method is transferable. So I feel if we can correctly understand this one subject, we will understand all subjects, whereas if we fail to understand this one subject, we will fail to understand any subject because I feel all subjects in our world are predicated upon this subject. I feel it is that important. Why don't more women attain enlightenment? Why don't more men attain enlightenment? More men than women attain enlightenment. This suggests an imbalance. I would like to address the question-why don't more women attain enlightenment-this evening. But in addressing that question, I'm also addressing the question, why don't more men attain enlightenment? Why don't we live in an enlightened and happy world? Because I feel one is wrapped up in the other and one cannot be separated from the other, but there is a greater imbalance reflected on one side of the question than on the other. I'd like to look at that side. Why don't more women attain enlightenment? Please visit http://fredericklenzfoundation.org for more information.