NOTES ON RAMA'S TEACHING By Josh In mathematics, we learn that "equals" is a more subtle concept that we might have thought. Of course we know the 6 = 6 and 1 + 3 = 4, but when we want to compare objects which are not numbers, we can run into more difficulty. What does it mean for two number systems to be equal? What does it mean for two proofs to be equal? Choosing the lines along which to compare things can sometimes be difficult. For most of last year, I have been involved with a radical religious group. Though the group claims to teach a new form of Tantric Buddhism, I am not so sure that it does. But how can we compare it to older, more traditional forms? For one thing, how much license can be allowed for innovation? And how is it that we can measure how similar the essential principles of this new form are to the essential principles of the old form? I know what it was like to live as an eager member of this new form. I altered my daily routine, went on trips, and attended initiations. I can't say that I have a similar depth of experience with any of the traditional forms of Buddhism. How can I compare these other forms, which I have only read about in books and heard about second hand, with a program that I spent a year living under. In order to codify what I have learned in Dr. Lenz's group, I have organized his system into three categories. They are World View, Etiquette and Practice. World View refers to our intellectual view of how the world around us works. World view is the "physics" of whatever worlds we believe in. Is there fate? Are there worlds around us that we cannot see? Are there beings who watch over us? Can we make things happen through mystical means? These are all questions which are answered, or at least addressed, by our world view. Before describing what I learned, I need to make a disclaimer. What I will represent is the "idealized version" of Lenz' system. I will represent the system as disseminated, directly and indirectly, by Lenz. I will not address realities about the group that students and former students have come to believe. I will not address the psychological abuse, sexual abuse, and drug abuse attributed to Lenz. Nor will I address the concern (which I feel is valid) that the group is a destructive cult. While these issue are obviously relevant to the group, they are not necessarily relevant to this paper. This paper is about the "idealized version" of Lenz' system. Specifically, I raise the question of whether even this "idealized version" may be called a new version of Tantric Buddhism. In "Dr. Lenz Buddhism", reality is manifest in three types of dimensions. These are the physical, astral and causal dimensions. Beyond all dimensionality is Nirvana. The grossest dimensions are the physical dimensions. Physically, we are manifest as bodies; bones, skin, tissue, et. Not much need be said about the physical dimension because it is pretty real to us already. We have a pretty good idea of how it works. In fact, one limitation that most people are seen as having is that they are so tied into the physical world that they cannot let go and perceive the other worlds. More subtle than the physical dimensions are the astral dimensions. We exist in the astral dimensions in our astral bodies. Our astral bodies are made up of fibers of light, like nerve fibers, that encase a bipedal shape. As we have nerve plexes in our physical bodies, we have chakras in our astral bodies. We have major chakras around the area of the navel, heart, and forehead. There are also large pathways in our astral bodies that connect some of the major chakras. Basically, the Dr. Lenz Buddhism" conception of the astral body is similar to the classical yogic conception. Our thoughts and emotions are considered to be based in the astral. Each person is seen as a "radio transmitter" in the astral, projecting out his/her thoughts and feelings. Those who are close to us emotionally, as well as those in our physical proximity "pick up" our thoughts and emotions. If we think about someone, we touch them astrally. Because the world has so many people on it, we each pick up a tremendous number of these vibrations from others. In fact, Dr. Lenz explains that "Ninety Per cent of what you think and feel is not your own thoughts and feelings." In addition to picking up these "vibes" directly from other people, it is believed that we pick them up from physical objects. If you handle something, you will probably leave a little bit of your astral vibrations on it. The next person to handle that object will pick up whatever you left there, anger, happiness, whatever. More subtle than the astral dimensions are the causal dimensions. We are manifest in the causal dimensions in our causal bodies. Our causal bodies consist of all the karma we have accumulated. We have accumulated karma in this life, as well in the thousands or millions of lives that we have already lived. Spiritual practice is devoted to burning off old karmas as well as creating good karma to aid us in the future. Our causal bodies indicate how evolved we are, spiritually. Everyone involved in the Lenz program is considered to be in the "enlightenment cycle." This cycle is the one in which the person reconnects her awareness with Nirvana, if she sticks with it. This cycle, even for those on the "short path", is seen to take thousands of lifetimes. The people in the Lenz program are in the intermediate stages of the enlightenment cycle. They still have thousands of lifetimes to go. Lenz is considered by his students to be fully enlightened. He is actually considered to have attained enlightenment thousands of lifetimes ago. According to him, there are only four other fully enlightened beings on earth right now. There are so few enlightened beings incarnate on the earth because most people have no interest in enlightenment. We do not need many teachers. There are only a very few people on earth who are even in the "enlightenment cycle", according to Lenz. Most are still stumbling through samsara (the world of illusion) with no direction. They do not vibrate with the life and brightness of those on the short path. Based on these views, a system of etiquette is developed. The purpose of the etiquette is to allow the student to interact cleanly with the world. By "interact cleanly", I mean interact in such a way that the student's progress through the enlightenment cycle is not slowed down. The etiquette prescribes a methodology for dealing with people, with culture, and with day to day organizational affairs. The prescribed tactic in dealing with people is to remain "inaccessible". The student is advised not to open up psychologically or emotionally to anyone except her teacher (i.e. Lenz). Furthermore, the student is advised not to share personal information like stories from her past, details from day to day life or even her home phone number. "Don't have friends, have associates," is the buzz phrase for this principle. The reason that the student plays her life close to her vest is that it prevents others from developing astral connections to her. These psychic connections can cause a few different problems: They cause her to experience the thoughts and feelings of the person she's connected to, which makes it psychically difficult to change; and they can allow the person she's connected to to drain her when she is in a high state of energy. The student supposedly avoids these problems in her connection with Lenz because of his highly evolved nature. Many of Lenz' students, following this dictum, cut themselves off from family and friends. One's immediate family members, or whomever one is closest to, become the most dangerous impediment to one's growth. Of course, it would be counter-productive to just come out and explain that to them. The key is to develop a smooth, yet superficial, relationship with one's family. Non-group friends, on the other hand, can just be dropped. Another principal of etiquette concerns the student's pre-group identity. It suggests that the pre-group identity should be done away with. Old possessions should be thrown away and old routines should be changed. There are also many aspects to joining the group that aid in destroying one's old identity. As will be explained below, a number of new practices are begun by the new student. The new student usually drops old activities, and the old profession. These changes remove him from old circumstances and help him form new routines. Also, as was mentioned above, the student is encouraged not to talk about his life before joining the group. He is thus not identified by the activities and circumstances of his old life. One's old identity impedes growth because it is not suited for the short path. One's karma (past life profile) runs over one's dogma (pre-group views). The student needs to melt down his identity and become more flexible in order to progress quickly. There are many other principles of etiquette, but they are irrelevant to our purpose. There are ways to carry oneself when one is out in public, ways to keep one's possessions, ways to keep ones affairs, and ways to decided what to buy, for example. Instead of discussing etiquette further, we will move on to look at the practices involved in "Lenz Buddhism". Practices are those activities that the student organizes her life around. They are designed to propel the student quickly through the "enlightenment cycle." Etiquette, on the other hand, addresses a slightly different issue. It helps make a smooth interface between one's inner life and the outside world. The practices for new students in Lenz' program are: meditation, mindfulness, martial arts, computer science, career, attending seminars, reading, seeing movies, and possibly running. Needless to say, Lenz's students are quite busy. Meditation is the core of Lenz' program. The new student meditates fifteen to thirty minutes in the morning, and fifteen to thirty minutes in the evening. More experienced students, or students with prior experience in meditation, meditate an hour each morning and each evening. While I was involved with the group, the practice was chakra meditation. In this practice the student spends one-third of his time focusing on each of the three primary chakras: the navel chakra, the heart chakra and the third eye chakra. While the student is meditating he listens to music composed and played by Lenz and three of his students. This music is supposed to be phased with the causal dimensions and imbued with Lenz' enlightened aura, which make it a helpful aid to meditation. The student is advised to move his attention periodically -- from the chakra to the music, to Lenz himself, or to an image light. In the past different meditation techniques have been used. I had heard about some of these: meditating on yantras (geometrical designs) and meditation on pebbles. I am sure there have been many others. While not meditating, the student practices mindfulness. She monitors the thoughts that go through her mind as she goes through her day. She tries, as much as possible, to weed out "negative" thoughts and emotions: thoughts and emotions of anger, sadness, or hatred, for example. She also tries to weed out thoughts of other people. This is because she is trying to connect, astrally, with as few people as possible. Mindfulness also involves observing one's daily routine. The student tries to notice the people, times, or places in which she loses the most psychic energy. Then she can re-plan her day to avoid those losses. Lenz students are advised to practice martial arts so they can become tough. The students are advised to practice at least one of three styles: karate, judo, or aikido. Specifically, they are advised to join a martial arts school in which one of these styles is taught. The students need to be tough so they can harden themselves to negative psychic radiation. After all, these is so much dark aura on the planet and so few people like themselves who are in the "enlightenment cycle." Lenz also warns them that their continued practice will only make them more sensitive to the psychic worlds around them. Lenz advises his students to go into the computer field. Nearly all of his 200 long time student are programmers, database consultants, or software product designers. Very few of them did computers before they met him. Computers, Lenz claims, develop one's mind in the same way that mandala meditation (a technique of Tantric Buddhist meditation) does. he claims that visualizing complicated relational structures is the key element in both. Therefore, instead of the traditional tantric studies, his students study computers. Lenz explains that he has the authority to make this switch because he has been a tantric master in past lives. So that his students can learn computers, Lenz has organized a series of computer courses. These cover programming languages, a number of different database packages, graphics, expert systems, and other related subjects. The courses that I have heard about are three hours each per week, plus homework. Students may take two or more courses simultaneously, on top of their full time job. Lenz himself teaches some of these classes, and his students teach the rest. A clear path through the computer profession is laid out for the student. The four steps of this "short path" to success are: Computer school, "C" language programming, database consulting, and (software) product design. The student is continually taking classes which will help him prepare for the next stage. I will not go into the details of what each of these stages entails. It is up to the student's hustling and Lenz' enlightened aura to make the student's computer career happen. On one hand, the student is supposed to study hard, do good work, and push herself along the career track. On the other hand, Lenz' aura is supposed to set up the opportunities, make the student look good in interviews, and keep her energy level up as she works. Increasing one's salary is an absolutely essential part of the career track. Lenz encourages the view that cash flow equals energy flow. The student is supposed to go from being a 30k per year programmer to being a 100k per year database consultant to being a million dollar per year product designer. The process is supposed to take about six year. The first wave of students are taking a little longer, however, because they are pioneering the program. Lenz insures that his students progress in their careers by regularly upping tuition. His student pay him tuition every month to be allowed to study with him. When I left the group, for example, the tuition for new students was between about fifty and two hundred dollars per month. The tuition for more experienced students, however, was between three and five thousand dollars per month. Needless to say, one upshot of having high tuition is that Lenz makes a lot of money. In addition to computer classes, Lenz' students attend Lenz' lectures on Buddhism and Enlightenment. There were given anywhere from one to five nights per month when I was in the group. I would guess that they are given more often now. These lectures usually begin around eight in the evening and can last as late as two or three in the morning. The lectures on Buddhism and Enlightenment are considered to be empowerments. Though Lenz lectures or answers questions, the idea is that what goes on "behind the scenes" is what's really important. He claims that during the lectures, he is washing his students auras with his own enlightened aura. He claims to be giving off so much energy that it melts down his students internal psychic structures. After each lecture his students can begin afresh, purified. Lenz also claims to demonstrate "siddhas", or magical powers that advance yogic adepts can perform. Students say, at times, that they see different colors of light emanating from him, they see him levitate, they see him vanish, or they see other special effects. Lenz says that one reason he demonstrates these magical powers is to prove to newcomers that he really is enlightened. He claims that these power are not the focus of his teaching, but that, after seeing them, students may be more encouraged to listen to what he says. One of the main things that Lenz is saying at his seminars is that his system is a new form of Tantric Buddhism. The connection to Tantra give his teaching its authority and a lot of its mystique. It justified the "yogic" world view, the "Buddhist" etiquette, and the "short path" practices - including the marriage of spiritual and career advancement. The rest of this paper explores whether Lenz' system is Tantric or not. We begin by considering his claim. Then we will look more closely at Tantra. We will compare some of its beliefs and practices to those in Lenz' system. Certainly, Lenz' system appears to have a lot of the trappings of an eastern mystical tradition. It involves meditation, belief in enlightenment, "siddhas", kundalini energy, karma, past live, martial arts, a lush but ascetic lifestyle, a "path" and a guru. Also Lenz' program is exciting, even romantic. This description fits with the romantic view of tantra that the West has inherited. Lenz' students act according to one tantric principle that we may have heard about, which says that one should use the energies of daily life to advance spiritually. Lenz' students engage in the world around them instead of rejecting it, as other seekers sometimes do. They build careers, they learn to dress fashionably, they go to the movies, and they have parties. They try to make fun and exciting outward lives a boon to their spiritual practice. They actually try to make their outward lives a part of their spiritual practice. How are most of us, as far from enlightened Westerners, supposed to know whether all of this is Tantra or not? What we really need is to know more about Tantra. Where does this tradition come from? How does one gain the authority to teach it? What are the traditional Tantric teachings and practices? Tantra is a type of Buddhism that is based on a collection of texts called the "Tantras." It is also based on foundational Buddhist beliefs. The tantras were sermons supposedly given by Shakyamuni Buddha to his advanced disciples. Unlike the sutras, the tantras are not considered to be appropriate for everyone. The tantras are only appropriate for advanced practitioners. The tantras are notoriously difficult, obscure, texts. To read them, one really requires the guidance of someone who knows them. Therefore, very close student/teach relationships form in the study of tantra. One inherits views and interpretations from a whole line of teachers. This line of teachers makes up one's lineage. Obviously, lineage is very important in tantra. Right away, Lenz system is called into question. For one thing, Lenz has no lineage. As far as I know, even the most respected reincarnated Lamas have teachers to re-introduce them to the tantras and other subjects. Yet Lenz claims that just having the past lives he has had is enough. A second problem we see right away is that Lenz's system does not involve studying the tantras themselves. He claims that studying computer science is an adequate replacement. I am skeptical. Perhaps there is an emphasis on studying abstract structures and relations in the tantras, as there is in computer science. However, I would guess that the tantras contain a lot of "domain specific" information, information that is not found in the world of computer science. Clearly, we need to know more about Tantra. We can refer to "Tantra: A Vision of totality", by Lama Yeshe. This is an introductory book about Tantra which is designed for the Western reader. In it, Lama Yeshe descries fundamental ideas of Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism. He describes the prerequisites for practicing Tantra, and he also describes some basic Tantric practices. Who was Lama Yeshe? Lama yeshe was a Tibetan who was given a traditional monastic upbringing (as much as was possible after the Chinese invasion of Tibet, anyway). His lineage and his experience with tantric texts are well established. He has also been recognized by many other Tantric teachers, including the Dalai Lama. Will one introductory book give us all the information we need about Tantra? Yes. We will see that there are fundamental differences between Lenz' system and real Tantric Buddhism. Differences that won't even require us to examine subtleties of doctrine. It is important to note that these differences cannot be accounted for by claims that Lenz' audience is more "advanced" and should be taught differently. One question that Lama Yeshe asks in his book is "Why do we seek enlightenment, what is our motivation?" He explains that if we have a selfish motivation, we cannot progress much. In fact, he correlates our motivation with how much we can progress: "If we seek to reach the highest destination, we must cultivate the highest possible motivation." Lama Yeshe explains that the highest motivation is "the impulse to achieve enlightenment in order to be of the most benefit to others." He also explains that we should not put off helping others. We should not wait until some distant day when we become enlightened. We should help others now. Part of helping others means sharing emotionally with them. Lama Yeshe explains: "...having created a certain atmosphere of positive energy without yourself, you determine to share this happiness with others as much as possible.. (this highest motivation) is like a huge selfish attitude: when you dedicate yourself to others with loving kindness, you get back far more happiness than you could ever experience otherwise." Conversely, Lama Yeshe explains that if the practitioner does not act in this way he will not be happy. He quotes a text by the Panchen Lama: "Self-Cherishing is the cause of all misery and dissatisfaction, while holding all mother sentient beings dearer than oneself is the foundation of all realization and knowledge." Lama Yeshe's teaching obviously leads to different behavior than Dr. Lenz' teaching. For example, how could Lenz' students cut off their families, knowing it hurts them, if they held their families dearer than themselves? Or, how could Dr. Lenz' students remain emotionally aloof if they were supposed to share their happiness? Yet how could Dr. Lenz' students progress along the Tantric path if they do not hold others dearer, and if they do not share their happiness. According the Lama Yeshe (and the Panchen Lama) these things are necessary. The issue at hand is more than just how to behave toward others. We have discovered a rift in how these two teachers see things. The rift exists between Lama Yeshe and Dr. Lenz' world views. If Lama Yeshe believed the same things about astral connections that Dr. Lenz does, how could he recommend sharing emotionally with others? If Dr. Lenz believes in considering others dearer than oneself, as Lama Yeshe does, how could he condone cutting off one's family and friends in the name of spiritual advancement? Yet, Lama Yeshe is a representative of Tantric tradition. His ideas have come out of years of traditional study and practice. they are corroborated by other well established members of Tantric tradition. The real rift, then, is between Tantra and Dr. Lenz. There are other indications of this rift. Consider the realm of practice. It was mentioned above that Lenz emphasizes computer science. He claims that by working with computers, the student can grow rapidly. Working with computers, he says, is just like doing mandala meditation, a traditional form of Tantric meditation. By examining mandala meditation, we will see that it is quite different than working with computers. Mandala meditation is a form of Tantric meditation that focuses on Tantric deities. Lama Yeshe described the basics of this practice. He explains that the deities inhabit special environments. Each environment has been transformed by the perfect consciousness of the deity inhabiting it. Visually, mandalas are represented as deities within complex geometric patterns. As part of the mandala meditation, the meditator visualizes herself as actually being the deity. She inherits the perfect qualities of that deity, the wisdom, the compassion, etc... These qualities are not seen to arise out of imagination or some external source. They are seen as qualities latent in the meditator herself. Lenz claims than in mandala meditation, the student is visualizing a complex relational structure. He claims that such visualization strengthens the mind. In fact, he says that the very purpose of mandala meditation is to strengthen the mind in this way. With a strong mind, he says, the student can enter the higher dimensions at will. Lenz claims that studying computers strengthens the mind in a similar way. he explains that computer systems, programs and databases are large relational structures, just like mandalas. Thus working all day with computers can be just like doing a full day of mandala meditation. But mandalas are more than just abstract relational structures. They contain deities which represent different aspects of enlightened mind. the student learns to realize these latent qualities in herself by "becoming" the deity. Mandalas, viewed this way, are really depictions of compassion, wisdom and emptiness. In visualizing mandalas, the student is doing more than just mental push-ups. The student is getting in touch with her enlightened mind. She is doing this through visualizing a representation of an enlightened mind. The difference between mandala meditation and computer science represents more than just a difference between two practices. As before, it indicates a difference in the way Lenz views things. In this case the discrepancy is about how to transform the mind. Are mental push-ups enough? Or, is it helpful to have a representation of an enlightened mind to emulate. Again, Lenz' view differs from Lama Yeshe's view, and by extension, from the Tantric view. We can establish a trend in the way that Lenz' system differs from Tantra. We can do this by noting some words that he often uses. Anyone who studied with Lenz has probably noticed his frequent use of the words like "system", "structure", and "network": Advance Systems (his computer company), computer systems, systems analysis, mental system, religious system, political system, structures of awareness, causal structure, dimensional structure, relational structure, astral network... Nearly everything inside us and outside is characterized by Lenz as a system or structure. This is a hyper-rational way of looking at things. In fact, the social, emotional, professional and mental world that Lenz describes, and that his students live in, are really hyper-rational "systems". By contracts, the world Lama Yeshe describes is warmer, more subjective, and more "human". For example, in Lama Yeshe's world, human beings are not "astral radio transmitters" from whom we must remain aloof. Human beings are whom we must work to save in order to save ourselves. In Lama Yeshe's world, mandalas are more than just weight machines for the mind. They are representations of an enlightened nature that we each have We can say that Dr. Lenz' viewpoint is fundamentally different from lama Yeshe's. By extension, we can also say that Dr. Lenz' viewpoint is different from the Tantric viewpoint. We can say that his systems of etiquette and practice is different in important ways from those found in Tantra. Therefore, what Dr. Lenz is teaching is not Tantra. He has no right to associate his system with Tantra. By doing so, he is playing on people's ignorance to give his system authority and mystique it shouldn't have. Is this something a real spiritual teacher would do?