What Are The Zen Tapes?

The Zen Tapes are a collection of 18 talks recorded by Zen Master Rama (Dr. Frederick P. Lenz) in 1986. These have been digitally remastered and are now available as a set on CD with an accompanying book of transcripts (sold separately) from the  Frederick Lenz Foundation web site .

The Zen Tapes are:

1	Tantric Zen	2	Concentration and Meditation
3	Developing Willpower	4	Overcomming Stress
5	How To Be a Successful Student	6	The Zen of Sports and Athletics
7	Overcoming Fears	8	Karma
9	Reincarnation	10	Career Success
11	Managing and Increasing Your Energy	12	Winning
13	Personal Power	14	Psychic Development
15	Rapid Mental Development	16	Happiness
17	Advanced Meditation	18	Enlightenment

Origin of the Zen Tapes

While preparing for a major series of public lectures in 1986, Rama - Dr. Frederick P. Lenz strived to present a path to enlightenment that would be accessible to the largest audience. He chose the framework of Zen as the vehicle to transmit his teachings to current and future students, calling his teachings "Tantric Zen".

Are they Still Relevant?

Absolutely! Enlightenment is about the eternal moment. Practices may be refined and/or modified to accommodate the state of the world as we now find it, but the fundamentals remain ... and these are covered on the Zen Tapes.

Accessibility

There have been many teachers of enlightenment over the ages of human history. Many of their works are only now being translated into the English language. There are difficulties with this process based on the simple fact that often there is no direct correlation between words in the language of origin and modern English. The Zen Tapes avoid this difficulty because the concepts transmitted require no further translation, just our attention and the will to attain enlightenment.

   

 A Short Personal Note: 

Some people, on hearing the tapes, have commented that Rama's American accent is a distraction. This usually brings a smile to my face as I wonder how these good folk would have understood Guatama Buddha or perhaps a Japanese Zen Master who didn't speak English at all. We now have so many options that perhaps we easily forget just how lucky we are.

My first encounter with the teachings of Rama - Dr. Frederick P. Lenz, was through the Zen Tapes. I fondly remember listening to these tapes, which at that time were noisy copies of copies obtained from Rama's seminars, that had somehow traveled to the opposite side of the planet to reach me. It was at times both humorous and confronting, but ultimately, a life changing experience ... for the better!

Now the Zen Tapes are digitally remastered on CD, and there is even a book (for those xenophobes amongst us who have a problem with accents :-) ... all thanks to the efforts of the students that Rama has helped to achieve a better life. We may be biased of course, but we still think the Zenmeister is one mighty cool dude. But of course, as Rama would say: "there's really only one way to find out ... right?"

- Nexus