RAMA FILES LENZISM AND THE EIGHTFOLD PATH OF BUDDHISM by Joe Szimhart February, 1994 Buddhism is violated when those who profess to be Buddhists violate the eightfold path proclaimed by their founder as the last of the four noble truths from which Buddhism emerges. The eightfold path as outlined in the Perennial Dictionary of World Religions ( Harper and Row, 1989) stresses: Right views or understanding Right thought Right speech Right action Right livelihood Right effort Right mindfulness Right concentration. These are simple, if profound, guidelines for the Buddhist monk or dedicated layman with every authentic branch or sect of Buddhism. Frederick Lenz, a 44 year old self-proclaimed "enlightened being" with a cult following of several hundred who call him "Rama," has described his teaching as "Tantric Buddhism" and "American Buddhism." Lenz encourages his followers to believe in his "miracles" which amount to little ore than hallucination, euphoric responses engendered by frequent meditation and suggestion, pretence, and imagination. His naively devoted students have claimed to "see" Lenz levitate, glow, transform himself into other beings, appear and disappear, and otherwise exercise his powers in an occult way. Former members who have recovered from his influence have all come to realize how these so-called miracles come about and why their reposes to his suggestions seem so extraordinary. Lenz implies that he can use his powers to harm as well as to help. In a promotional video displaying a highly redundant series of predictable testimonies by many older Lenz students, lenz himself appears at the end of the tape to demonstrate what he believes is his psychic power of ch'i. Ch'i is Chines for breath or vapor but indicates life force or the energy which permeates the universe. Lenz claims to be able to produce enough ch'i to stop six attackers with black belt level abilities cold in their tracks before they can strike him. In the video they feign a half hearted attack then fall away from Lenz as he moves his hands towards them. No one who saw this tape with me is convinced that anything more than compliance by Lenz devotees is being demonstrated. Lenz is clad in a starched, unused looking white martial arts uniform. He appears amateurish in his demonstrations. He claims that he could stop someone's heart with ch'i force. What is most bizarre is that Lenz expects the audience to take him seriously as if he actually demonstrated ch'i in action. Right livelihood in Buddhism forbids several type of improper behavior including practicing of any kind of "trickery, magical display, or other gimmick intended to gain food or gifts." This rule has encourage Buddhist monks to refrain from displays of magical powers or from boasting about their accomplishments. There is also a prohibition against earning a living by such means as palmistry or astrology. In another video released by Lenz in 1993 he lectures in a sophomorish way about tantra and Buddhism while posing in front of scenic Himalayan images or dressed casually in sunglasses, t-shirt, and leather vest and pants in a stark studio setting. One is hard put not to notice his narcissism and glib delivery. Lenz has been known to demand several thousand dollars per months from many of his students to remain in good standing with him as a teacher. Even his neophytes try their best to come up with hundreds of dollars per month in order to please him. Many women who have broken with him have complained to me of his coercive sexual advance toward them while they were in his private quarters. Why do his students comply with his wishes for money, gifts, and sexual favors? They believe he actually has the powers he pretends to have because they can not readily explain their experiences with him. Perhaps they desire to participate in his powers, have fun, make money, and gain the enlightenment that Lenz pretends to. That desire is precisely the flaw that true Buddhists would move to eradicate. Lenz has been notorious since the early 1980s for his violations of Buddhist codes even though he has never been legitimately a Buddhist in any healthy sense of the word. _____________ THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH The last of the Four Noble Truths, the practical discipline with eight parts taught by the Buddha as a way from ignorance to knowledge, from suffering to Nirvana. The idea of comparing a spiritual discipline to a road, way or path was not original with the Buddha. The spiritual masters of old India were expected to lay down a practical means to enlightenment, a path through Samsara to liberation. Distinctive of Buddhism is the teaching of a middle path with eight parts. 1. SETTING. The Eightfold Path was originally taught by the Buddha in his famous first sermon delivered in the deer park at Sarnath, near modern Benaras. There the newly enlightened one outlined a middle way to Nirvana. he told the five ascetics who constituted his first disciples that they should follow a path between two extremes. On the one hand they should not lead a worldly life of sensual indulgence, for such a life is low, base, unworthy and harmful. On the other hand they should avoid the opposite extreme of self-mortification, of extreme asceticism (tapas) as practiced by many spiritual questers of the day The Buddha had himself practiced asceticism to the extreme for six year, before nearly dying. Now he spoke with the authority of one who had found Nirvana, and from that perspective he argued that extreme asceticism is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable. His own success had come after he had ceased his severe fasting and begun to take food in moderation, so he taught that the middle way was the proper, productive path toward liberation. Having established that the extremes were to be avoided, the Buddha outlined his insights concerning the nature of reality in the form of Four Noble Truths. The first truth is was that human existence is characterized by suffering, by mental and physical distress (dukha). The second truth was that the underlying cause of such suffering is the world-centered craving (tanha) which inevitably binds persons to an impermanent, decaying world. The third truth was that it would be possible to bring about the cessation (nirodha) of suffering if craving itself could be stopped. The fourth truth was the path leading to the cessation of suffering by this method, and this path consisted of eight parts. 2. PARTS The eight parts of the path are not progressive stages to be undertaken successively, so their order is not as important as the nature of the parts themselves. a. RIGHT UNDERSTANDING or right views. This refers to holding a correct view of the nature of reality. Buddhism stressed the importance of experiencing the nature of reality for oneself, so right understanding is not to be seen as a matter of accepting a body of orthodox dogma. However, this is a specified content to Buddhist teachings and therefore there are certain insights that the disciple is expected to develop. For example, correct understanding involves gaining a deep realization of the four noble truths themselves. Besides right understanding of the four truths, there is a lower level of right understanding which concerns Karma. Disciples should understand that they are the owners of their good and bad moral actions (karma), and they should further understand the workings of karma; for example, that giving (dana) and offerings produce good karma, that taking care of one's aged parents brings good karma, and so on. b. RIGHT THOUGHT. This is understood to mean thoughts free from sensuous desire, from ill-will, and from cruelty. Often the meaning of right thought is said to embrace thoughts of renunciation, thoughts devoid of malice, and nonviolent (ahimsa) thoughts. Renunciation here means the renouncing of striving for gratification of the five senses, of the whole body, or of the mind. It means the state of mind that is devoid of greed. Thoughts devoid of malice refer to a state of mind characterized by lovingkindness, goodwill and benevolence rather than by hatred, ill-will and aversion. Nonviolent thoughts mean that feelings of gentleness and compassion toward humans and animals have replaced cruelty and unconcern. c. RIGHT SPEECH, which includes the following four categories. One's speech should not be false in any sense of the word. One should not be the bearer of any tales that might lead to the breakdown of friendships or other problems. One should also abstain from harsh speech, which includes words delivered in anger, abusive words, vulgar, "animal-like" speech, or slurs against someone's family, race, occupation, etc. Finally, one is to avoid useless chatter, whether one's own (e.g. gossip) or others' (e.g. public entertainment that has no educational or spiritual value). d. RIGHT ACTION. While there are numerous wrong actions to be avoided and right ones to be followed, three categories of actions to be avoided are usually specified under this heading. First, one should refrain from killing (ahimsa) any living creature. (Buddhist laymen are not enjoined to adhere to this law very strictly with regard to small animals such as insects, but monks ideally practice nonviolence as far as humanly possible.) Second, one should refrain from all forms of stealing. Third, one must avoid wrong conduct in matters of bodily pleasures (especially wrong sexual practices), intoxicants, and gambling. Wrong sexual practices include adultery, rape, incest, intercourse with a juvenile, and the like. For monks and nuns who are under a rule of celibacy, all forms of sexual contact are forbidden. e. RIGHT LIVELIHOOD is closely related to right action. It forbids four types of behavior. The disciple may not earn a living by any conduct that is contrary to the spirit of right speech and right action. This means that occupations that involve killing, such as hunting or fishing, are to be avoided. (Plowing is accepted reluctantly, for it involves unintentional killing of creatures in the soil.) The second improper means of livelihood (applying mainly to monks and nuns) is engaging in any form of commerce or performing any service for hire. Instead the ordained Buddhists are to live on alms, or (in some Buddhist countries) food they have grown themselves. The third type of wrong means of livelihood also applies mainly to ordained Buddhists, who are not allowed to practice any form of trickery, magical display, or other gimmick intended to gain food or gifts. This has been an important rule, for it has tended to keep Buddhist monks from engaging in displays of magical powers and from boasting about their accomplishments in meditation or wisdom. The prohibition against earning a living by such means as palmistry or astrology is the fourth rule. f. RIGHT MINDFULNESS is especially important. It is the heart of Buddhist meditation, known as sati (Pali) or smrti (Skt.). In contrast to the practice of Yoga, in which the mind is stilled, in the practice of this meditation the disciples become more alert, more aware or mindful of themselves. In canonical passages such as the Mahasatipatthana Sutta, mindfulness of four sets of objects is urged. First is contemplation of the body, typically begun by practicing mindfulness of breathing; that is, fixing one's attention upon one's own breathing, thinking "now I am breathing out" and "now I am breathing in." In this manner all the body parts and functions are considered until awareness of the body's transiency is fully experienced. One extreme of this contemplation, which is a corrective to personal vanity and attachment to one's own body, is the disciples consideration of corpses in various states of decay and dismemberment. The skillful monk will be mindful when he sits, walks, stands or sleeps. The second classification is the contemplation of feelings, which involves becoming aware of one's own feelings, of how they originated and of how they will subside. Third is the contemplation of the mind and its activity, which involves an awareness of the moments of consciousness. Here the disciples realize the nature and products of a greedy mind, a hateful mind, etc. Fourth is the contemplation of mental objects. These mental objects include the "five hindrances" (lust, anger, sloth, restlessness, and doubt), the five aspects of psychosomatic existence (material nature and four mental factors), the nature of sensing, the seven factors of enlightenment (mindfulness, investigation of doctrine, energy, enthusiasm, tranquility, concentration and equanimity), and the four noble truths. In these four contemplations and their many facets the disciples aim to become more aware of the nature of all reality, especially of their own mental and physical constitutions. h. RIGHT CONCENTRATION (Samadhi). The essence of concentration is a unification of the mind, a "one-pointedness." The Buddha taught that the four contemplations of right mindfulness are the marks of concentration, and the four aspects of right effort are prerequisite to concentration. Thus, right effort and mindfulness work together to develop right concentration, and the reverse is true as well. There are various meditation-objects recommended for the cultivation of right concentration. Contemplation should be focused upon ten positive objects (four colors, four elements, space, and light), ten kinds of corpses, the parts of the body, one's breathing, and the three divine virtues (lovingkindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy). The practice of concentration upon some or all of these twenty-five subjects should lead to one-pointedness of mind and, it is hoped, to Nirvana. 3. THREE INSTRUCTIONS. Within Buddhist thought the question arises as to how the eight parts of the path correspond to the three instructions; namely, the instructions in morality, concentration and wisdom. The Thereavada tradition understood mortality (Sila) to include right speech, action and livelihood; concentration (Samadhi) to include right effort, mindfulness and concentration; and wisdom (Prajna) to include right understanding and though. Progress on the parts of the path are interconnected, yet perfect morality is usually achieved before concentration techniques are fully effectual, and wisdom clearly depends fully upon success on the two previous levels. Thus, although right understanding is listed first and in a lesser form is prerequisite to the other seven, the perfection of understanding is the final and highest achievement. With this in mind, some Mahayana schools of Buddhism emphasized the perfection of wisdom in their versions of the path to enlightenment.