HIS BODY TURNED GOLD . ... he began to shrink, then grow to tremendous heights. He raised his arms and a shower of energy rushed down onto us while lines of power pushed up through my spine. His body turned gold, then it turned into a doorway. It became an absence. I felt myself drawn into it and through it into other realities. I felt myself spinning, floating, turning in various directions, then expanding and contracting. Then, gradually, I found myself back on the beach in a peaceful, calm, yet very electric state. Rama then stood in front of each of us and meditated on us. I felt myself merge with him. The level of energy in my being began to rise in inten- sity — I knew he was dissolving my human form. I felt that I had no boundaries. My mind was not able to conceive of myself as a fixed being in a solid body. BOOKS BY RAMA MEDITATION: The Bridge Is Flowing But The River Is Not THE WHEEL OF DHARMA WHY DON'T MORE WOMEN ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMENT? OLD ZEN INSIGHTS: Talks By Rama On The Nature Of Existence THE SPIRITUAL TEACHER'S HANDBOOK THE LAST INCARNATION EXPERIENCES WITH RAMA IN CALIFORNIA THE LAST INCARNATION PUBLISHED BY THE FREDERICK P. LENZ FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN BUDDHISM WWW.FREDERICKLENZFOUNDATION.ORG COPYRIGHT © 1983 BY RAMA-DR. FREDERICK LENZ COPYRIGHT 2013 BY THE FREDERICK P. LENZ FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN BUDDHISM ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPYING, RECORDING OR BY ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER. MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 82-83869 ISBN: 0-941868-02-8 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... ii FIRST MEETINGS....................................................................................................2 DESERT EXPERIENCES.......................................................................................39 AT HOME WITH RAMA .......................................................................................76 PUBLIC MEDITATIONS .......................................................................................96 UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTERS......................................................................... 106 CENTER MEETINGS.......................................................................................... 114 NONPHYSICAL EXPERIENCES....................................................................... 144 JOURNEYS .......................................................................................................... 162 THE LAST INCARNATION............................................................................... 189 EPILOGUE ........................................................................................................... 202 FOR VISHNU INTRODUCTION The following pages are filled with stories, accounts, reflections and statements about Rama. They were written by persons who have had personal contact with him for periods of time ranging from a few months to six or seven years. Together they create a catalogue of spiritual experiences that retells an ancient story: the search for God and Truth in human experience. Rama is, and probably will remain, an enigma. He changes so quickly that you are never quite sure who he is or what he will do next. At times he appears to be hundreds of different persons and at other times he is no one at all. This book presents a few of his ten thousand faces. The accounts, stories and reflections presented in The Last Incarnation are a catalogue of spiritual growth and development. They reflect the experiences of over one hundred persons who have come into contact with something that far transcends the boundaries of what most of us would refer to as human consciousness and experience. These accounts do not, in my estimation, fully reflect all of Rama's many sides; they present the aspects of Rama which are most readily accessible. Trying to describe what it is like to be in the presence of an enlightened person is one of the most challenging assignments any author could have. Few of us have the insight or patience of an “M,” who so faithfully recorded the words of the Indian saint Sri Ramakrishna in his voluminous The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The following collection of accounts is not an attempt to provide a definitive understanding of Rama's life or teachings; it is instead a reflection of the experiences of persons who have crossed beyond the borderline of the known and the familiar. The accounts in this book are a journey into consciousness. They have been arranged in chapters by theme. Many of the stories overlap and retell the same experiences. This enables the reader to see and gain insights into a desert journey or other event that might be lacking in a single narration. The editing of each story has been kept to a minimum. Common mistakes in conventional usage and grammar have been admitted in the interest of preserving the unique “voice” of each writer. Many of the accounts in this book were written by persons who have had little or no writing experience, but what they may lack in literary style or pretense is counterbalanced by the simplicity and sincerity with which they are written. They are told as you would tell an experience to friends sitting together. They are frank, contradictory, emotional, turbulent and honest. The Last Incarnation is not an attempt to prove the validity of Rama's spiritual prowess. If someone is interested in personally encountering Rama they can do so at one of his seasonal public meditations and determine for themselves who or what Rama is. The Last Incarnation is a group journal, a variety of shared and individual experiences along the path to spiritual knowledge. While at first reading the focus of this volume appears to be Rama, on closer analysis we soon discover that very little of who Rama is, what he believes in, what motivates him, or how he sees life, is revealed. The Last Incarnation is more accurately a reflection of the consciousness of the individuals who have written it. Rama seems to serve as a catalyst for the experiences and reflections hi this volume; he is the ever-present backdrop or unifying theme for these individual explorations of the nature of consciousness and reality. The Last Incarnation is not a narrative with a point of origin or destination. You may choose to read the stories in their order of appearance or simply dip in and out of the chapters as you see fit. The raison d’être of the book is the book itself. I hope it will bring you to a greater awareness of the limitlessness of ii INTRODUCTION your own being. — Dr. Margaret Greenwald NOTE: The names of persons whose accounts appear in this volume have been changed to protect their privacy, with the exception of Mark, Neil, John, Gerry, Lakshmana and a few other characters in the drama who said that it didn't really matter. iii CHAPTER ONE FIRST MEETINGS “There is no life and there is no death. Life and death are moving shadows cast upon the Ground by clouds that sweep across the sky.” — Rama THE LAST INCARNATION CHAPTER ONE FIRST MEETINGS BOB Here I am in 1982, on the planet Earth, studying with a spiritual teacher. This may not sound like such a strange occurrence to you, but in my opinion, it is. I will be thirty-two years old this year, and I have done my very best to live these years in the fast lane. I have developed and own a million dollar business, I have eaten repeatedly at the finest restaurants, and I have traveled over much of the world, including remote areas accessible only by helicopter where I have skied virgin snows. I have chartered boats to fish and among my catches is a 500-pound world class marlin. I have experienced the finest in drugs from all over the world and drive whatever car I choose. The list goes on and on. Nothing was handed to me on a silver platter. I began chasing these dreams when I was twelve years old, putting away empty pop bottles for fifty cents an hour. I admit that I was probably in the right places at the right times, just as I was in October of 1981 when I first met Rama, my spiritual teacher. Being in the right place at the right time is not always by one's own choice. I know that this meeting with Rama was not because of an independent decision of my own. I had seen spiritual teachers before with my sister, and I was frankly unimpressed. I have given you some of my personal background to give you some idea of what it might take to impress me. The spiritual teachers I'd seen appeared to me to be persons educated to help lost souls. You know the types, with problems at home, who just lost their job. These spiritual teachers seemed to be group counselors with only a slight insight into life in general. My sister, whom I love dearly, seemed to get involved with this sort of person on a regular basis. I have always been interested in spiritual teachings. I meditated for a period of time once and experimented with some spiritual theories. I was a vegetarian when most people here thought that you would die if you didn't eat meat. I had pretty much led my life being my own spiritual teacher, believing that the human race had not yet produced a spiritual teacher real enough to teach me. What the heck! I didn't think I needed a spiritual teacher. Everything seemed to be going fine for me. One day my mother called and asked me if we could have lunch together. As we were dining, she began to tell me about my sister's new teacher. She said that even she felt drawn to him in a very magical way. She asked me if I would go see Rama. Knowing that I had been to a number of spiritual meetings and had been unimpressed, she made it sound pretty interesting to secure my attendance. She finally convinced me, and I made the drive to the Los Angeles Convention Center.