Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz on Tantric Zen:
"What is Tantric Zen? Well, I don't think I can give you a straight answer, since I don’t happen to be a very straight Zen master.
In Tantric Zen you can be humorous and make fun of anything or you can be very serious.
Tantric Zen leads to illumination and fun right here and now, which is why I like it.
What I term Zen, old Zen, the original face of Zen, new Zen, pure Zen, or Tantric Zen is -- Zen in its essence.
In Tantric Zen there is no rule. There is only your immediate experience.
Tantric Zen is the exploration of everything, since everything is a part of enlightenment.
There's a place where everything comes together and where it's all the same. That state of mind, in which all things are the same, is the state of mind of Tantric Zen.
It is necessary to have a very liberal and simultaneously very conservative mentality to practice Tantric Zen.
Tantric Zen is the original Zen, Zen without rules, Zen without form. Zen can certainly take rules and form. So Tantric Zen might have some rules and form, but it would remain formless even though it had rules and form.
Tantric Zen is a state of mind
Tantric Zen is all about the practice of zazen meditation. If you meditate well, you'll be in very powerful states of mind and then it really doesn't matter what you do.
Tantric Zen is the awareness of the infinitude of all things. To gain that awareness, to be it, is enlightenment.
Tantric Zen, at first, does not appear to have a method. In Tantric Zen, you could meditate on a Brillo box or you could meditate on the clear light of reality.
I can go shopping and pick up some Bounty Towels, the three pack, I can go home and open those up and look at them and see more infinity than in the Buddha's best meditation. If I can't do that, that means I'm wrapped by the Buddha's best meditation.
Your immediate experience is Tantric Zen. How aware are you of your immediate experience? - Probably not that aware.
Tantric Zen is for the individual who is in love with both the finite and the infinite, who gets a kick out of this weird transitory world and at the same time, wants to step beyond it.
Tantric Zen is more suited for this age that we live in. It give you rules, but in a gentle way. It's not as demanding.
Tantric Zen is not being kinky; nor is it being conservative and austere. It is eclectic. It is a real mixture of all things.
Tantric Zen, and the people who practice it, of course, make some people feel extremely uncomfortable.
Tantric Zen is for someone who is really broad-minded. It is Bodhidharma's Zen, your Zen, my Zen. Which doesn’t mean I have a problem with Japanese Zen. Most Japanese Zen is minding your p's and q's. .
Don't be a prude. Don't be too strict in your observances; otherwise you are just stuck in it. There is no letter of the law to follow in Zen. There is a lot of etiquette, but there are no rules.
Don't worry about your future lives, past lives. Button up your shirt. Stand up straight. Go out and do something. Go out and have some fun. Be alive, change, dissolve, explode!
When I go visit my brother monks in Japan and sit down with other Zen Masters, they look at my crazy clothes and my strange expression, but they feel the power that emanates from my dedication to the practice. So they are comfortable with me, yet they're very uncomfortable.
Those who scorn and hate the world and hate themselves miss the point. The point was that there wasn't one. There was no place to go to.
In Tantric Zen, career, relationships, the type of insurance you have - all things are part of your evolution, your awareness, your experience of the suchness of existence.
In Zen there is a sense of blending, of stepping out of your body and mind and gaining access to powers and abilities that are far beyond the minds of mortal men.
Everything is dependent upon your state of mind. That is all there is, states of mind, ten thousand of them. Beyond all states of mind is nirvana.
Free yourself from happiness and unhappiness. Realize there is something beyond both and yet, revel in your time, revel in this world.
In Tantric Zen it doesn't matter but it does..."
- Zen Master Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz
