Description

Winner of the Eric Hoffer and Benjamin Franklin literary awards this biography tells the story of Rama Dr Frederick P Lenz 19501998 an enlightened spiritual teacher who taught a brilliant boundarybreaking form of American Buddhism to tens of thousands of people
Rama could heal people whom he never met He naturally filled large auditoriums with sparkling rays of golden lightthe essence of his being He made huge audiences shake with laughter as he filled them with luminosity and joy Omens of an unusual not special life began in 1953 when as a toddler he slipped into samadhia timeless state of immersion in infinite lightin his mothers garden His journey continued after high school when he flew from Connecticut to Kathmandu Nepal with a homemade snowboard seeking to snowsurf the highest mountains he could find On his first downhill run he plowed into an aged Buddhist monk who told the incredulous teen their meeting was destined that his past life enlightenment would return and he would help millions of people Upon his return to the US he earned his PhD and began to teach on his own and implemented new ways of placing independent and skeptical Westerners on the path to enlightenment beginning with higher and happier states of mind As his own realization deepened the energy he emanated was like a huge timeless force of pure love
This biography includes interviews and stories from over 100 students and colleagues each with a different perspective Rama did not just speak about enlightenment he modeled it Compassionate controversial wise honest prescient reverent irreverent he was always teaching and still is