Frederick Philip Lenz, III, Ph.D., also known as Rama and Atmananda (February 9, 1950 in San Diego, California - April 12, 1998), was a spiritual teacher who propounded a syncretic blend of Tibetan Buddhism, Zen, Vedanta, and Mysticism which he called "American Buddhism". Lenz was also an author, software designer, businessman, and record producer.
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The body and focus of his life's work, including all his teaching and projects, was officially centered around conveying enlightenment to those who were interested. He based his teachings on ancient practices within a modern framework. He was considered to be a tough and demanding teacher by his students, who have compared him to the Tibetan Buddhist teachers Marpa and Padmasambhava. He reportedly did not have hard and fast rules, other than to meditate, to live with etiquette (having honor and reverence for life and others),[1] and to translate the enlightenment empowerments into a successful life, defined by him as a life of solitude, joy, oneness, and abundance.
Lenz remains a controversial figure. His behavior drew much criticism from the anti-cult movement, but thousands of people from all over the world were attracted by his teachings.
Lenz ultimately, though, drew criticism, not from the anti-cult movement, but from his inner circle of followers who spread his message and who claim to have been scarred from his increasingly abusive behavior. His admirers and detractors, particularly those who actually knew him early on in his career, seem to agree that he was a complex, brilliant, charismatic leader who tried to teach balance and compassion, but somehow found it difficult to maintain his own balance and compassion and the pain killers and other drugs eventually led to his tragic suicide.[2]
Frederick Lenz published eight books between 1981 and 1997.
Surfing the Himalayas has been published in 10 languages. The book also reached number eleven in the Publisher’s Weekly charts. [5]
From 1982 to 1992 over one hundred audio recordings were created by Rama - Frederick Lenz. The topics of the talks covered a wide range of titles, including: Meditation, Tantric Buddhism, Career Success, Women and Enlightenment, and Psychic Development. [6]
These talks were recorded as six audio sets, which were also published in book form:
Lenz was born February 9, 1950, at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California. He had an older brother and a sister. At the age of three, he and his family moved to Stamford, Connecticut. He spent the rest of his childhood and teenage years there, attending schools in the Stamford area.[7]
Lenz's father, Frederick Lenz Jr., worked as a marketing executive and later went on to become the Mayor of Stamford from 1973-1975. His mother, Dorothy Lenz, was a housewife, a student of astrology.[7] His mother and father divorced when he was five years old, his father remarried six years later. His mother died later on when he was fourteen years old.[8] He, therefore, spent his childhood living alternately with his father, aunt and uncle, and grandparents.
In his late teens, he often spoke of becoming so disgusted with his life that he became thoroughly committed to going beyond illusions forever. He states in his video "How to be a Straight-A Student" that his form of rebellion, as is the case with most teenagers, was self-destructive. He also states that there is an intelligent way to rebel against the boredom and grayness of the human condition through hard work, enthusiasm, curiosity and a continual progression into newness. After high school, according to The Hartford Courant[9] he spent "a short period of incarceration in a work camp near San Diego on a drug conviction." Psychology Today reports that "Lenz was busted for selling marijuana and sentenced to a year at a work camp. (The arrest was later expunged, allowing him to claim that he had no criminal record.)"[10]
Lenz attended schools in the Stamford area, graduating from Rippowam High School in 1967. He later attended the University of Connecticut, where he majored in English and minored in Philosophy. He supported himself through graduate school by building dulcimers. He was inducted as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and graduated Magna Cum Laude.[11]
After college, he won a competitive State of New York Graduate Council Fellowship enabling him to continue his studies. He earned a Master of Arts (M.A.) and a Doctor of Philosophy from State University of New York at Stony Brook. His doctoral dissertation was on "The Evolution of Matter and Spirit in the Poetry of Theodore Roethke".[12]
There were three members on the doctoral dissertation committee at Stony Brook: Lewis Simpson, Paul Dolan and Gerald Nelson.
Lenz was introduced to meditation in 1968. He then began to meditate for several years with the guidance of many teachers. According to his books, he first went into samadhi, or a state of spiritual absorption, at the age of 19.[15] In his autobiographical books Surfing the Himalayas and Snowboarding to Nirvana he claimed that traveling heightened his experiences in meditation.[16][17][18][19]
Beginning in 1972, he became a follower of Hindu guru Sri Chinmoy,[20] who gave him the name "Atmananda" meaning "one who Bliss is in the Self." In 1981, after moving back to San Diego, he broke with Chinmoy, allegedly telling the other students that, "Chinmoy has fallen." He took between 50 and 100 former Chinmoy students with him and formed the Lakshmi group.
Lenz has said to students,"It's necessary for you to have a strong base...the economic independence to live a life of beauty and meditative seclusion. The strength and freedom to live a life of oneness."[21] and that, "A great deal of the teaching that I do is about money."[22] In his estimation, money was a direct indicator of the student's level of success in his application of the teachings and usage of the energy received from empowerments.[23] During the first years of his teaching, he offered thousands of free public meditations where he introduced numerous people to meditation, some of whom became students.
By 1983, he had stopped calling himself Atmananda and began calling himself "Rama", which he interchanged with "Zen Master Rama" during a 1985 Zen seminar and tape series. The name Rama comes from the incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu of the Ramayana. Reports vary on whether he actually believed himself to be Rama/Vishnu, or merely considered it to be symbolic. He also claimed to be one of only twelve truly enlightened people on Earth.[24] The enlightened twelve supposedly included his dog "Vayu".[25] Lenz believed in reincarnation and suggested that through deeper awareness, one could remember past lives. He claimed to remember several of his previous reincarnations, including his life as a high priest at the Temple of Light in Atlantis, and a teacher/leader in ancient Egypt, India, Japan, and Tibet.[22] He often told his students that he was the reincarnation of Saint Thomas More, who coined the term "Utopia".[26]
Students of his claim to have watched him performing miracles, including levitation, teleportation, projecting light from his hands, and transforming into an old, bearded Asian man before their eyes.[27] He also claimed to have the ability to heal people by touching them, control the weather, uplift people by sending them light, and pass through alternate dimensions.[27] He told his followers that he "wielded the power to create and demolish the universes" and that "those criticizing him would invariably get hit by a car or contract cancer."[13]
He also began to speak of "negative force entities" and related ideas, which disgruntled followers say he borrowed from the work of Carlos Castaneda.[20] His supporters trace these ideas not to Castaneda, but Tibetan Buddhism's ritual of Chöd.[28] According to former student Mark Laxer, Lenz agreed with the basic idea of The Force from the Star Wars films, and described former students and others who disagreed with him as having "fallen to the Dark Side."[29] According to Laxer, Lenz told him that "Star Wars creator George Lucas was wrong to have Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) prematurely leave a mystical apprenticeship, wrong to have evil unmasked by good, and wrong to portray Yoda as being gay."[30]
At the height of his teachings in 1988 he was estimated to have between 400 and 1,000 followers.[22] In 1998, he offered monthly tuition options from $500 to $5,000 per person to attend his business seminars.[31][32] His supporters counter charges that he was interested primarily in money with two main arguments: first, that he regularly held free or low-cost classes for beginners, and second, that he dismissed hundreds of students from his classes, explaining that he didn't think they were a match for his teachings. He stated that his teaching priority was to promote independence, awareness, humor, and strength.[33]
His core teachings were related to the practice of meditation. He taught a form of chakra meditation originally created to help people gain greater happiness, achieve success in life, and attain Enlightenment. He recommended the use of music to assist in meditation, especially the bands Tangerine Dream and, later, Zazen (a group whose records he produced). He once said of meditation,
Beyond the core practice of meditation, he was said to place a great deal of emphasis on career, selfless giving, and martial arts or other athletic endeavors. He felt that being financially successful allowed students to build a buffer around themselves to protect them from what he termed the abrasive energies of the world, and hence to meditate more effectively. He recommended martial arts because of its strengthening effect on the body. He also placed focused on the enlightenment of women, saying that many spiritual faiths have traditionally discriminated against women, in many cases even denying the possibility of enlightenment for them.
The following quotes are taken from public talks he gave in the 80s and 90s:
He was the producer for the rock band, Zazen. The band gained success among electronic and new-age music audiences, often being compared to Tangerine Dream by critics.[40] During the life of the band, Zazen produced 21 albums (many of which were re-released/re-produced) in 13 years.[41] The group has also released several music videos.[42] Although some of Zazen's albums were simply intended to be fun, new-age music, a number of their albums, such as Enlightenment, Canyons of Light, Cayman Blue, Samurai, and Samadhi, were specifically for meditation. Correction: All albums produced by Rama were intended specifically for his students to meditate to at the time they were produced. Many of Lenz' teachings were meant to take effect on a non-verbal level and the music was intended to be a way of accessing those teachings.
The band's name is taken from the Zen Buddhism term Zazen, literally, "seated meditation." Zazen is a central concept of Zen Buddhism. It might be defined as "quieting the ego-mind to reveal the Buddha Nature/divine self within," but Zen Buddhists would use the literal translation.
Some incidents that occurred during the 1980s fueled negative publicity.
Donald Cole, 23, committed suicide in 1984 because he was disappointed at his progress in the program. He left a note that read, "Bye, Rama, see you next time." [43]
In 1989, Brenda Kerber moved from the San Francisco Bay Area (where she followed Lenz) out to New York to continue her work with him and subsequently vanished in early October, 1989. Also missing, and never recovered, was her Ford station wagon. She left behind all her personal possessions, cash, credit cards, bank book, driver's license, purse and personal diary. To date, her family believes Lenz was either aware of, or responsible for, her disappearance, since her diary showed an impending mental collapse brought about by what she reported as Lenz's disappointment in her spiritual progress. [44]
Some of his former students allege that he told his students (especially his male students) that they should abstain from sex, while at the same time using his position as a spiritual teacher to coerce female students into having sex with him, then telling them to keep quiet about it.[30] Allegations that he was a sexual predator are often the subject of Lenz news articles. By 1986 Lenz said he "needed to sleep with two or three women at a time". An individual, he maintained, had too little "energy" to stimulate him.[45] According to Newsweek, "a 36-year-old graduate student from Los Angeles named Anny Eastwood" claims that Lenz "allegedly waved a loaded pistol and forced her to have sex with him."[43]
Mark Laxer, a favored student of Lenz from 1978–1985, published a book in 1993 about his time with him called Take Me For A Ride; Coming Of Age In A Destructive Cult.[46] Laxer continues the critique in his second book, The Monkey Bible.
Those supportive of Lenz described him as an educator who held seminars in the same way a college professor would. They claim that he promoted total independence, strength and integrity of being, and continually encouraged people to leave and go out in the world to practice the teachings on their own. Some of his former students disagree, alleging that he ran his organizations in the typical manner of a cult. These students became involved with several cult watchdog groups, including the CAN (Cult Awareness Network) and deprogrammers (in particular, Joe Szimhart, who is accused of kidnapping and imprisoning Lenz' student Karen Lever).[47] Lenz and his supporters label the cult watchdog groups as "hate groups" and deprogrammers as "kidnappers."
Many former students did not become involved in so-called hate groups, did not shun meditation, did not disregard much of what Lenz taught, but discovered an aspect to Frederick Lenz that they found worthy of warning the public about.[48]
Lenz died on April 12, 1998. He drowned at his estate on Conscience Bay in Old Field, New York after taking a massive drug overdose. Reports differ on whether Lenz took phenobarbital[31] or 80–150 Valium tablets.[49] With him at the time of his death was 33-year-old model and devoted follower Brinn Lacey who, according the police report, was covered with bruises. Lacey contends that his death was part of a suicide pact.[50] Three terriers owned by Lenz were also found at the scene, drugged with phenobarbital.[24][51] According to Psychology Today, police found his body dressed in a suit and tie, with a dog collar around his neck.[51]
He left an $18 million fortune,[49] including several Learjets, mansions and luxury cars.[52] His will was a matter of dispute between the National Audubon Society[53] and his former accountant/executor Norman Marcus, who created the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism two months after Lenz died. This apparently fulfilled provisions of the will necessary for Marcus to retain control of the Lenz fortune.[54] According the New York Times, the will was also contested by Diana Jean Reynolds, who claimed to be Lenz' widow, and Deborah Lenz, whose claim to be Lenz' widow is based on her view that they had a common law marriage.[52]
His estate was eventually settled in 2002. The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism shows substantial grant making activity from 2003 onwards, as well as a substantial donation to the National Audubon Society.[15] As part of the settlement with Audubon, a gorge was named for Lenz at the Sharon Audubon Center in northwest Connecticut. Neither of the two women who alleged to have been wives of Lenz received anything in the settlement. The IRS 990 forms (available for free from Guidestar), show a substantial infusion of cash to the Foundation beginning in 2002. The Foundation is run by a Board of Directors on which Marcus and Norman Oberstein sit as lifetime members. Lenz' father Frederick P. Lenz Jr joined Marcus and Oberstein on the Board of Directors up until his death on September 17, 2009,[55] after which he was replaced by Lenz' former student Lisa Lewinson.[56] An Advisory Committee chaired by Lewinson and including former students Elizabeth Cecil, Dana Schwartz, Joaquin Lievano, and Walter Goodwin, as well as four leading Zen practitioners — George (Dai En) Burch, Fleet Maull, Dennis Genpo Merzel, and Gerry (Shishin) Wick — advises the Board of Directors but has no voting rights of its own.[56]
The Foundation, and not Audubon, appears to have rights to most of Lenz' intellectual property. In addition to selling CDs, books, and videos, the Foundation makes grants to non-profit organizations that it deems to be promoting activities consistent with American Buddhism as taught by Lenz. One of their major beneficiaries is Peacemaker Circle International, an outgrowth of the Zen Peacemaker Order founded by Roshi Bernie Glassman, a student of the well-known Zen teacher Taizan Hakuyu Maezumi Roshi. Norman Marcus, president and member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation, also serves on the Finance Committee of the Zen Peacemakers. Advisory Committee member Dennis Genpo Merzel is another student of Maezumi Roshi.