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| Frederic Lenz was not a Zen master. he himself had used this etiquette.
he did not belong any Traditional Zen sect.. Lenz was a cult leader he
was not a Zen master nor a Buddhist Monk he actually trying to mix
Buddhism with Hinduism thats is why he was talking about Reincarnation.
In Buddhism there is no reincarnation There is actually REBIRTH. But
Rebirth is not a personal rebirth... So it takes to be a real Budhist
to realize these facts..A cult leader can not be a ZEN MASTER.and a
meater does not take barbiters And see the article below to know him
better:
(guru) Research our free archive of 2 million free full-text articles.
Skeptical Inquirer Skeptical Inquirer; 7/1/1998; Szimhart, Joe
Controversial guru Frederick Lenz III, also known as 'Rama,' died from
drug overdose on Easter Sunday, Apr 14, 1998. Lenz's first foray into
the New Age movement began in the 1970s as Atmananda, a recruiter for
Indian guru Sri Chinmoy. As Rama, he formed his own cult, Lakshmi, in
the early 1980s. The New Age practitioner also claimed to be one of 12
enlightened beings who practice non-traditional Zen Buddhism. He became
reclusive when the media reported on complaints of sex and drug abuse
from his former students. Prior to his death, Lenz was reported to be
suffering from liver cancer.
On April 14, 1998, headlines in the New York area papers announced that
Frederick Lenz, the controversial guru known as Rama, was dead. His
body was pulled by police from Conscience Bay in twenty feet of water
behind his mansion on Long Island. Lenz apparently died on Easter
Sunday after allegedly taking "150 phenobarbital tablets."
Police found an incoherent woman identified by police as model "Brin
Lacy," 33, of Manhattan, inside the $2 million mansion soon after
midnight on April 13. Lacy reportedly said she saw Lenz fall in the bay
and float away on his back on Easter morning while they were out on a
floating pier sixty feet from shore. The model was reported as "being
all bruised up" when the police found her. Toxicology reports could
take as long as two months. Lenz's three terriers were also drugged,
according to the New York Post report on April 16.
I learned from a reliable source that Lenz was suffering from painful
liver cancer, which may account for his use of "pain pills." There are
some strange parallels to the Heavens Gate mass suicide last year: The
leader, Marshall Applewhite, also overdosed on barbiturates around
Easter Sunday, and he also suffered from cancer.
In 1983 Frederick Lenz III declared to his devotees that he was "Rama,"
an incarnation of a Hindu deity. For the decade prior to that Lenz had
been Atmananda, his name as a recruiter for the controversial Indian
guru, Sri Chinmoy. Lenz broke with Chinmoy to start his own cult in the
early eighties - a group then called Lakshmi after the Hindu goddess of
wealth. By design nearly all of Lenz's "students" entered the computer
programming field and nearly all of them were young, bright seekers
with a college education.
Lenz attracted national attention in the mid-eighties through slick
full-page ads promoting his "free" seminars in New Age magazines. He
claimed to be one of "twelve" enlightened beings living then. The
number shrunk to three or four by the early nineties, but he would not
name the others. As many as a thousand would attend to learn his
idiosyncratic brand of Zen Buddhism.
Controversy soon attended him as former students complained of mind
control, sex, and drug abuse when the guru offered them private
sessions. National media criticism from Newsweek, A Current Affair, New
Age Journal and many other sources in the late eighties caused Lenz to
become more reclusive and paranoid. Lenz also upped the "tuition" for
full-time students to thousands of dollars a month by the late
eighties. Many dozens paid that and more to afford Lenz a lavish
lifestyle. His devoted students believed that Rama was their psychic
protector as well as the reason they were making money - he encouraged
them to believe they owed it to him.
Lenz wrote and published several books, including an early one on
reincarnation that he dedicated to Sri Chinmoy. Lately, he was known
for two autobiographic fantasies, Surfing the Himalayas (1995) and
Snowboarding to Nirvana (1997), both published by St. Martin's Press.
(I reviewed both novels for SKEPTICAL INQUIRER). At this writing it is
unknown what his devotees might do; they have been silent for weeks.
Some experts fear that members will contemplate suicide. Dateline NBC
ran an in-depth expose of Lenz as a "cult leader" in August of 1996.
The show indicated how deeply Lenz influenced the hopes and dreams of
his devotees.
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