Dr. Frederick Lenz, known as “Rama” to his students and the general public, was an enlightened Buddhist teacher who dedicated his life to teaching meditation and transmitting the essence of Buddhism so that Western practitioners could achieve the highest state of Buddhist realization—enlightenment.
Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz was born on February 9, 1950 in San Diego, California, and grew up in Connecticut. He had his first experience of samadhi—complete immersion in infinite planes of light with no sense of self—when he was only three years old. The experience returned when he was 19, leading him to his spiritual adventure and transformation in Nepal, described in his 1995 best-selling book Surfing the Himalayas. There, he encountered a Tibetan Buddhist monk who predicted that Rama would revive an ancient lineage of knowledge and enlightenment and help thousands of people.
Frederick Lenz graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Connecticut and he received his MA and Ph.D. in English Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Throughout his twenties, Rama continued to deepen his experience of samadhi–no thought, endless light, infinite awareness. This continued until finally, at age 30, after countless hours of thought-free meditation, he became what is termed “enlightened,” meaning that the mind does not leave the state of infinite mind, yet one remains active and engaged in the world.