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| Who Is Rama, Dr Frederick Lenz |  |
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Frederick P Lenz III was born on February 9th, 1950 in San Diego, California. His family moved to Stamford, Connecticut when he was four years old. Like many people growing up in the late 1950's and 1960's he found many conflicts between the liberal and conservative ideas of society. But he found that he could not accept the description of himself that he was given by his family and society. In 1967, when he graduated from high school the hippie movement was in full swing so he headed to California to be a part of it. There he was arrested for possession of an ounce of "weed" and sentenced to nine months in a minimum security work camp in the California hills. While serving his time in the camp he began teaching English to the hispanic inmates and he found that he loved teaching. And, having a lot of free time, he also began to regularily practice meditation. These things gave Rama a new focus on life. He decided that he wanted to go to college. So he returned to Conneticut, took part time jobs to earn the money that he needed and began attending the University of Connecticut at Storrs where he received his BA degree and later the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he received his Phd. Early during this time he travelled to Nepal where he encountered a Buddhist Monk who further interested him in meditation and mindfullness and upon his return from Nepal Rama began studying with Sri Chinmoy. Love would be a major factor in Rama's life. He spoke about how he would go to see a professor prior to enrolling in a class and that he would only take a class if he found the professor to be fascinating. He felt that the professor was more important then the subject matter. He would then fall in love with the professor (I'm not talking about romantic love here) and that love would extend to the material that the professor was teaching. He also found love through poetry and literature. And at age 22 he was married for six months but quickly learned that he was too restless and drawn to light to stay in one relationship. Through all of these things he came to realize that it was not the earthly things that interested him, it was a love of light that he was really interested in. And he found that he was drawn to helping others. Rama was very active in Sri Chinmoy's group, attending all of his teachers gatherings and soon he found himself teaching. By 1977 he began teaching medition at the New School for Social Research in Greenwich Village. He would continue to teach until his death in 1998. Rama was a fully enlightened teacher who could remember his past lives. He taught Buddhism, which he had also taught in prior lives, but he modified his teaching methods to better work with students in our western societies. He recommended using tools such as electronic music to help his students meditation practice. And he recommended utilizing everything in our lives, from relationships to careers as part of our mindfullness practice. For a more complete biography, we recommend the book: American Buddhist Rebel by Liz Lewinson. For more information on Rama's teachings we recommend the Resource Library at The Rama Meditation Society.
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