Tuesday, October 20, 2009

American Avatar - Rama Dr. Frederick Lenz



Written-- 9:a.m. Tuesday, January 26, 1982 in Del Mar, California 

By Atmananda

=========

Lakshmi

 

"Notes from Atmananda" The following was called "Beauty":

 

The name of our spiritual community is Lakshmi. Lakshmi represents beauty. Lakshmi is the consort of Vishnu. Together, Vishnu and Lakshmi

symbolize the two aspects of manifestation: beauty and eternality.

 

Vishnu represents the aspect of eternal manifestation.

 

Vishnu is seen as an embodiment of the comic vibration which holds all life in its form through the power of manifestation. Vishnu symbolizes life, health and properity. Lakshmi, the second side of Vishnu,

represents nature, light, mental, physical and spiritual perfection.

 

Your life will be dry and empty untill you accept both

the strength of the unity of manifestation and the perfect beauty of light into your being. Your acceptance of these qualities is a perfect understanding of your own human nature.

 

Light is the essence of existence. All things and all qualities and partialities are waveforms of light. Light is existence. In this relative world, things appear to be solid and have a definite physical form. But this is really an illusion. Everything is really a waveform of light.

 

When you go to a cinema and watch a movie, you are perceiving waveforms of light. The movie that you are watching--which appears to be a succession of solid images upon the screen--is composed of thousand

of flickering frames of existence. Each frame in the motion picture is a still second of eternity. Light pours through the frames as they rapidly pass before our eyes. If the projector were to slow down, you would perceive a succession of separate images. The apparant solidity of the images that you had been watching on the screen would suddenly dissolve.

 

Everything that exists is light. The images of this and all other worlds that greet your eyes appear to be solid and substantial.

This is not exactly so. When you meditate and slow your mind and outer

perceptions down, suddenly what appeared to be solid and firm becomes fluid. You see that life is actually a succession of images from the well of existence that are being projected against the screen of your consciousness and being sustained by the light of existence.

 

Images of light abound. Look at your hand for a moment. See its solidity. Next, close your eyes and meditate. As your mind becomes quiet you will enter into a deeper and quieter mode of perception. Now,

after several minutes of meditation, feel your hand without touching it. You will notice that it does not seem to be solid. It is more of an awareness then a soid expression of matter.

 

When I take you to the desert or when I present subtle physical Light Shows for you at our meditation meetings, I am demonstrating

the fluid nature of existence.

 

Recently we went on a desert journey where I played with the seemingly solid nature of existence. I causd a large cloud to dissolve, rearranged the patterns of the stars, and made the valleys and mountains light up.

 

The reason I do these sorts of things is to help you understand that the

world around you is not really physical, but subtle. It is a web of light.

 

People suffer and are unhappy because they are attached to the physical

world. If they understood that the nature of existence was light, they would realize the absurdity of their attachment. How can you

be attached to light? It has no form of its own, although it can assume any form.

 

Consciousness is the screen on which the light of existence appears.

Attachments are the images that the light of existence illuminines on the screen of consciousness. When you have no more attachments, the screen will disappear and the true nature of existence--light--will engulf you. Then you will realize that you are not separate from that

perfect light but that you are that light.

 

When you meditate try to focus more on light. When you meditate with me, I have you keep your eyes open so you can begin to see the fluid nature of existence. If you would like to speed up your own spiritual evolution, I suggest that you try to see light everywhere. The more

you see light, the less you will fool yourself with unhappy attachments.

 

Attachments do not go away because you suddenly decide you do not like what you were attached to. This is only away to trade off your attachments. If a person has a car that they love, and one day they sell

it and buy another car that they love more, they have not overcome their

attachment. They have simply transferred it from one object to another.

 

The real way that attachments are overcome forever is by realizing the true nature of existence. Someone can tell you all day long that a particular attachment is making you unhappy and causing you all kinds of problems in your life. You can listen, understand and agree. But

that does not mean that your attachment will go away.

 

In order to make attachment go away you must slow the "movie" of existence down so that you can see its actual nature. If you meditate on light each day,you will find that your attachments will slowly

but surely go away. Otherwise you will only frustrate yourself in your

attempts to get rid of your attachments. Meditate on Light. Then you will see for yourself what the true nature of existence is.

 

Now, to come back to Lakshmi for a moment. Lakshmi is light. When you

meditate on Lakshmi, all illusions will vanish and you will be liberated. There are two principle ways that you can meditate on

Lakshmi. You can meditate on Lakshmi with form, or you can meditate on

Lakshmi without form.

 

The Infinite has both form and formlessness. You can meditate on either aspect of consciousness and come to the root of reality. If you wish to

meditate on light with form then repeat the mantra "Sring." As you repeat this mantra, meditate on the goddess Lakshmi.

 

Far above this world is a plane of reality where the cosmic deities exist. They have form just as we have form. Their bodies,

however, are not physical. They are composed of subtle light.

 

You can meditate on these higher beings and receive spiritual help from them. They cannot give you liberation but they can help you a great deal in your spiritual evolution. As you know, our spiritual community is presided over by two of these advanced beings, Vishnu and Lakshmi. It

is virtually impossible to separate one from the other.

 

If you meditate on either Vishnu or Lakshmi they will help you to understand the nature of existence. When this knowledge comes, you will find your attachments falling away.

 

You can also meditate on my consciousness. My consciousness and the

consciousness of eternity are united. If you meditate either on Lakshmi or on the infinite consciousness that flows through me, you will come to understand the nature of light.

 

You can also approach light in its formless aspect. Without thinking at all, and without focusing your awareness on any person or personal aspect of God, allow yourself to be united with light. When you have

reached the point in your meditation where there is nothing but light, you will have apprehended the nature of existence.

 

Try to feel the presence of Lakshmi each day during your meditation and as you go through your daily routines. Try to feel the consciousness that flows through me and enters into your awareness. We are a team--you, Lakshmi and I. Together we are trying to establsh an awareness of

light in the physical world. This is our play.

 

Please do not think of Lakshmi as most unillumined people do. In India,

Lakshmi is thought of as the bringer of material wealth. While Lakshmi and Vishnu are connected with prosperity, it is a foolish mistake to approach her for material success.

 

Lakshmi is light. When you have become one with light you can cause it to manifest in any form. But to think that light is

limited to material fulfillment is only to short-change yourself. Do not

be too concerned with the images that appear on the screen of your

consciousness. Focus your awareness on that light which gives life to those images. Do not seek anything from the Infinite except liberation. When liberation comes, you will be fulfilled beyond all description.

 

Don't settle for a mere shadow when you can become the effulgence of light itself."

- Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz

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Quotes By Rama (Atmananda) - American Avatar

Notes from Atmananda

2:20 a.m., Tuesday, January 12, 1982

Del Mar, California

Issue No. 1

 

"Spending time alone is very important. When you are by yourself you are with yourself. When you are surrounded by the world of people, places and events, it is very easy to lose your center, to forget what really matters and to become caught up in the transitory.

 

The transitory world has its own special beauty. All of my life I have been in love with the transitory. But for me – since my earliest childhood – there has never been a separation between the transitory and the Eternal.

 

I can remember when I was three or four years old. My mother would play with me in her gardens. There were times when I would be looking at a rose or a marigold or daffodil when suddenly time would stop. I would become clearly and cleanly aware of the immortality of mortality. The rose garden became and endless eternity. I would wander alone.

 

I have been wandering alone as long as I can remember. Looking back at my previous births I see a constant wondering and wandering. I have always loved to make pilgrimages. In many of my lives I traveled thousands of miles on foot to visit holy places.

 

Now wherever I am is holy. I see the working of Eternity in all things. I see the good and the bad, the clever and the slow, and the stage that we walk upon is Eternity.

 

Eternity is alone. It has no one to watch it in its matchless silence. It rambles from here to there. How can we measure Eternity? Perhaps with our emotions – with our thoughts – with our endless lifetimes.

 

Eternity remains measureless because there is no one to measure it. We exist for a brief moment – we have our time of splendor in the grass and then all is the silence of Eternity again.

 

A spiritual seeker like yourself or myself is in love with Eternity and with eternality.

 

The two really cannot be separated.

 

When I say Eternity, I mean that which has always existed and that which will always exist. At the same time, Eternity has never existed nor could it ever exist, except within our own minds.

 

The question of Eternity is always with us. We spend our lives walking the earth trying to come to terms with it.

 

The easy way is not to try at all. Simply silence your mind and watch. Be like a child in a rose garden who has glimpses of Eternity in the flowers of the transitory.

 

Never forget your temporality.

 

It is your mutability that gives beauty to all that passes by you. Because you know that you are only here for a short time you can love the green hills of earth, the rivers, the seas, and the beings that make their homes here.

 

If you were eternal you would never take any interest in this or any other world.

 

Enjoy the transitory because it is Eternal. You are not, but the transitory is.

 

***

 

Human beings make such a fuss about life and death. They fail to understand that life is but a moment’s hesitation and death is the awareness of fullness.

 

Life is a meeting place. It is consciousness reflecting consciousness. What appears to be life is only a reflection in an endless mirror. The Mirror is the awareness of the Absolute Reality.

 

The Absolute Reality is God. That is, whatever is beyond measure is God. Eternity is beyond measure, therefore, Eternity is God. You are beyond measure, therefore you are God.

 

Try to remember that you are God all of the time. It will make your journey here on earth much more satisfactory.

 

***

 

When you are by yourself it is easier to hear the winds of Eternity. They whisper to you that there are countless worlds, both like and unlike our world, that stretch across the far-flung planes of existence.

 

Part of being Eternal means the awareness of these planes of existence.

 

It is only when you are alone that you come to realize that you can never be alone.

 

Try to always be alone. Even when you are surrounded by others. This “aloneness” is not lonely. It is the awareness of your own Infiniteness. When we lose this awareness we are caught in the grip of Maya.

 

Maya is clinging to the illusion that we are separate from Eternity.

 

Knowledge is not caring about anything. In absolute knowledge we cannot care for today or tomorrow, for the past, or what the passage of time will bring. In absolute knowledge we become one with the Void.

 

The Void is your natural character. If anyone ever asks you what you are really like, you can tell them that your true nature is the Void.

 

Void does not mean empty – nor is it full. The Void is that which is Eternal and measureless. We say “Void” because we are caught up in the web of Selfhood. When you are illumined you will see that the Void is all that exists, has never existed or could ever exist.

 

It is difficult for most persons to orient to the Void. They feel that the Void is empty, desolate, frightening, overwhelming and so on.

 

The Void is really none of these things. The void is nothing. How could anyone ever be afraid of nothing? It makes no sense. Neither does the Void.

 

To grasp onto these or any other ideas is a serious mistake.

 

Don’t hold onto them. Become them.

 

Illusion comes in many forms. If you want to escape from the Illusions that you are trapped in, you must become a Lover of Eternity and ruthlessly honest. It is only through a combination of absolute love and ruthless honesty that God Realization is attained.

 

God realization is the full awareness of Voidness. God realization is not the destruction of your human self. It has nothing to do with such things. God Realization is the complete awareness of Eternity through Infinity. It means that you have become the awareness that is the source of all.

 

Very few people seem to realize God in any particular incarnation. There are currently twelve persons in this world whom I would consider to be God Realized. In my vocabulary God Realization and Self Realization are the same thing.

 

I am one of these persons. There are eleven others. We share a common link through Eternal Awareness.

 

We are here on earth now – as are you – enjoy us while we last.

 

Fortunately this is not the first incarnation I have had in which I was Self Realized. I have been Self Realized for seven incarnations. This is the eighth. At the age of thirty-one my Self Realization returned.

 

I am happy that I am Self Realized because it gives me the ability to do more for the world.

 

It is my hope that you will take advantage of the Realization of Voidness that exists within me or any of the other eleven.

 

God Realization is not the monopoly of any individual or group of persons. You might say that it exists everywhere.

 

However, it is manifested through a person who – after lifetimes of spiritual practices – has merged their conscious awareness with Eternity.

 

Sometimes I wonder if you have know the resource that you have.

 

If you did, you would use it wisely.

 

In the “I Ching” there is a Hexagram for the “Ching,” it is symbolized by a well.

 

I and all Self Realized Spiritual Teachers are like wells. People come to us and they take as much as they need. If their need is great, they bring a large vessel to fill. If their need is mild then they bring a smaller vessel.

 

Don’t be fooled though. If you feel that you have gauged the depth of the well by the amount you have taken from it so far, then you have not understood the nature of the well. The well is Eternity. A Self Realized person has melded their conscious awareness with Eternity. When you reach into their awareness, you touch the wellspring of the Void. It is endless.

 

When you meditate on or with a person who is Self Realized, you draw from the well of Eternity.

 

The more that you take from the well, the more there is to take.

 

The well is indifferent. It sees great people come, honest and sincere people come, and dishonest and insincere people come. The well gives to all.

 

The well provides nourishment for all who find their way there. Some come and draw from the well only for a moment. Then they continue their endless journey.

 

Others build a home near the well and draw from it daily.

 

The well is indifferent.

 

It observes the comings and goings of existence, and smiles.

 

It sees the dreams, plans, desires and frustrations of humankind, and it smiles.

 

It sees it own creation, preservation and eventual end – and it smiles.

 

The well knows nothing and is aware of nothing except the passing of Eternity in and through itself.

 

Be as a well unto others. Give all that you have. Do not mind if people understand you, love you, or hate you. Compassionately give to others with no thought of your own preservation or destruction.

 

You has nothing to do with your entrance into this world, nor will you have anything to do with your stay here, or your exit.

 

All is All. Eternity is All. There is nothing here and nothing to do.

 

The awareness of Nothing is one side of the Void. The awareness of Everything is a second side of the Void. There is no end to the sides of the Void since the Void had no definite shape. It changes constantly, yet is always the same.

 

***

 

Brahmananda said that the spiritual life begins with Samadhi. I would agree with this. You can divide your spiritual practice into four stages.

 

The first stage of spiritual practice is unconsciousness. That stage lasts a long time. It is difficult to say when it begins. You become aware of it, however, only after it has ended.

 

The second stage of spiritual practice is self consciousness. In this stage you begin to pray, meditate and become aware of your own uniqueness. This stage also lasts a long time.

 

The third stage of spiritual practice is Cosmic Consciousness. This stage begins when you start to enter into Samadhi on a regular basis.

 

Your entrance into Samadhi does not in any way indicate that you have realized God. It means that you higher spiritual education has just begun. Now you must spend many years refining your consciousness through service to humanity. Then – when the time is right – all of your edges will be rounded and your personal consciousness will vanish. All that will exist is God.

 

The Fourth stage is unknown and unknowable. It has no name because nothing can describe it. We call it Self Realization or God Realization. But nothing can describe it. You have gone off the map into an uncharted region. There is nothing more to say.

 

Each time you ascend a step of the ladder of consciousness you are more fulfilled. Your mind becomes purer and your awareness greater.

 

There are many fleeting satisfactions in this world. They are neither good nor bad. They should be neither sought after nor shunned.

 

You should simply allow life to act for you in every situation. This is the acceptance of Life in its fullness.

 

Not getting in your own way.

 

Each time you meditate, each time you give in any way to aid others in their spiritual odyssey, you are climbing to a higher band on the spectrum of consciousness.

 

Enjoy the view and please be careful that you don’t slip and fall.

 

It’s a long way down."


- Zen Master Rama

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