Modern Culture, Ancient Practice
In these diverse talks, Rama draws from classical Tibetan Buddhism and numerous aspects of American culture to create a current version of Tantric Buddhism that is as solidly grounded in ancient practice as it is fully engaged in modern life.
This set of 27 talks, from 1989-1990, is the last set of live talks ever recorded, and a unique synthesis of the material he had been teaching for the preceding 10 years.
These powerful teachings of Tantric Buddhism is a complete course in how to become Enlightened.
In them Rama provides not only clear and precise presentations of spiritual practice, but the actual darshan too. Enlightenment is taught in words and gestures, but mostly it is transmitted inwardly, via the empowerments and initiations.
If you quiet your mind and clear your awareness you will find these too.
Download all talks in this series
Tantric Buddhism is a pathway to Enlightenment. In Tantra we do not avoid the world. We embrace it. We believe that God exists in everything. We focus on the clear light of reality in and through all experiences.
There is more than just this world and heaven and hell. In Buddhist cosmology we realize there are many worlds and that these worlds really exist inside our own mind. Everything exists within our own mind. How we navigate through these worlds and what the path is that leads beyond all worlds this talk addresses.
We do not need to shave our head and wear an ochre robe to meditate and progress on the path to enlightenment. No, we do not, and that is what is so exciting! We can meditate anywhere at any time. All we need to do is still our mind. Find out as a spiritual
aspirant what attitudes and actions can help us on our journey.
In Buddhism we call Enlightenment the natural state. But with billions of human beings on Earth thinking and acting, it is difficult for us to even quiet our mind. We are all incarnate Buddhas and we seek our own innocence. Find out how we can become more aware of our true nature and reside in the natural state.
It is not necessary to pretend you want to be a black belt when you just like to work out once in a while. Self-acceptance is necessary to make progress along the path. If you truly want to attain enlightenment there is no hardship in the practice.
This talk transmits the feeling of enlightenment or the timeless void, nirvana, ecstasy. God is in all things. You are God, and once you accept that with humility, you can transform.
Enlightenment is achieved through a great deal of self-effort. You must go through every step of the self-discovery process. You must win the ecstasy; you must win the freedom, through your self-effort.
The late 20th century was a determining time period for planet Earth. Did the people of the Earth choose freedom? Find out how the choices that were made during that time period might reflect in our world today.
In self-discovery we seek to go beyond the limited self and experience the clear light of reality. You do not need to know who or what you want to become. You simply need to dissolve. The clear light will take care of the rest.
Tantric Buddhism teaches us how to use the things that we must do in life to empower us rather than drain us. Tantra is a collection of things that work by doing them. It is a pathway of adventure and transformation that leads to Enlightenment.
In Buddhism we seek that which is ineffable – that which cannot be seen with the eyes or felt with the hands. We seek to find the still center in the middle of all the turning worlds, simply because we like that, we know that’s where we belong.
Computer programming is a field in which you use analytic techniques very similar to techniques that Buddhists have used for thousands of years to refine the mind. It is a wonderful career for people who are drawn to meditation.
Meditation is the science of stopping thought. When there is no thought, there is only pure mind – which is ecstasy. Meditation is perfect, qualityless, clear light perceiving itself as such.
All meditation involves focus until we enter into the quality-less, thoughtless essence. Detailed instructions for points of focus in meditation and for learning to re-focus the mind are discussed. As Rama says, “the practice of meditation is emptying the mind. When the mind is empty, completely empty, it’s perfect meditation. It’s really that simple.”
A professional in meditation is someone who is able, no matter what the state of their mind or life, to sit down, meditate, stop thought and enter the quiescent state. But realize that no matter how high you go, no matter how deeply you perceive, you are only touching the bare surface of infinity.
The Best Meditation I Ever Had
In advanced meditation we are trying to undo the most perfect perceptual states because we realize they are still limited. In advanced practice, we come back to all those things we set aside in earlier religious/spiritual practices – careers, relationships, etc. – to experience/see/know that God exist in all things.
What the teacher does is enable the being to compact their life, strengthen it, get all the junk out of it and to learn to be happy, free and strong. Then gradually the teacher guides the student to step into other dimensional realities to stand and gaze with awe and wonder at the universe.
Walden by Henry David Thoreau is an advertisement for the mind state of “keeping your room clean” or having an uncluttered life and mind. As Buddhists we seek to experience more life and less self.
The message of the Bhagavad Gita is to fight, to act, to play our part in life. If we work well then we discipline our mind and body and the strength that results stays with us and leaves the body with us. The Bhagavad Gita also urges us to seek enlightenment to go beyond the wheel of birth, death and rebirth.
Buddhism involves bringing your mind into clearer and clearer states. We completely purify the mind and then we go beyond all states of mind. When there is no self and therefore no one to perceive states of mind, there is only enlightenment.
In the path of affirmation (religion) we improve our lives. But after many lifetimes of religious practices, what’s next? The path of negation (Tantra) is a path where we go back through all the experiences we avoided in our religious lifetimes and in the process we negate the self. We come to see and experience that God is in everything.
Everything is transient – meaning it does not last. We are transient in this life. Everything and everyone we know will change their current form. This knowledge gives us the freedom to go and do what we truly want.
There is a science to making one’s life into a field of power. A prerequisite is for a person to have a peculiar power. Peak experiences are moments outside of time. Find out how we can groom our life so it becomes a field of power filled with peak experiences!
In occultism, we hook ourselves to powers, forces and energies (such as the solstices and equinoxes) to carry us along the way. We are given power by a teacher which if used properly can rapidly accelerate our progress. It is very bad karma not to use the energy from a teacher properly.
A real enlightened teacher is intense and they are not going to fit into Hollywood images of a teacher. To become enlightened, you need to do what no one does, transcend the self. The steps and maneuvers to become enlightened are learned inwardly from someone who is enlightened.
If the ups and downs of the transitory are bothering you, why not make so much happiness that nothing can affect you? Buddhist yoga teaches us how to remove the focus of our mind from the world and place it in a realm of pure light and ecstasy.
Beyond duality, there is no darkness, no evil. There is only light – white light and black light (like the light between the stars). If you focus on light exclusively, then you will experience and become ecstasy!
Quotes by Dr. Frederick Lenz, Rama, reprinted or included here with permission from The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism