If I ever write an autobiography about teaching meditation in the West, I'll call it "Pissing In the Wind - Teaching Buddhism in America".
It's very funny. People do not want to achieve liberation or be happy. This is the basic guideline they teach you in Spiritual Training School.
People love misery, they love to feel sorry for themselves, and they definitely don't want to be enlightened. That's the first thing they tell you at boot camp in the higher worlds.
Don Juan, in the teacings of Carlos Castaneda, makes the same point. You have to fool people into seeking knowlege. People will not do it of their own volition.
There are some great stories in The Second Ring of Power about how Don Juan and Don Genaro found their apprentices and what they went through to fool their students into seeking light.
I've never met anyone who's serious about enlightenment.
The next best thing is to work with those who are not quite there yet to bring them up to that level.
If you want to be liberated, if you choose to be what I am, then you've chosen freedom. You can do this.
That's my sole purpose in life is to sit here today and tell you that you can do this, in any life. You can do this in one of your past lives, in a future life, or right now. I prefer now.
I select people to work more closely when they are prepared to and I see that. They don't have to tell me. I know. I will give them a task of some type, and that task becomes the koan between us.
A teacher had two types of students. One type of student is a close student. The other is also a close student, but not in the sense of physical proximity. The close students rotate a lot.
Most of the teaching I do is not verbal. It's in every movement of my body. It's in my dance. It's in the way I lift a glass of water. It's in my voice tone. It's in every aspect of my life - because it isn't my life anymore.
When I sit with my students and meditate with them, I channel the kundalini directly into them. I bring them to plane after plane of consciousness. What they would do in 100 years of meditation, I can do in an hour with them.
I know some teachers say that you shouldn't display the psychic powers and other powers referred to as the siddhas, but as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't really matter. There are no absolute rights or wrongs in spiritual practice
I like Miracles. They inspire me. Miracles are the fun of enlightenment. When a teacher does a miracle, and everyone sees it, they have faith in what the teacher has to say about self-discovery.
The vast majority of the students I have taught have become self-sufficient and confident individuals who enjoy their lives.
Every day I get letters from people thanking me for helping them to become successful, whether because of their personal growth or because of economic rewards. A few of my former students have even become millionaires.
Naturally, the Zen Master Rama philosophy is to have a high state of awareness and material success.
Of course, there are the old hardcore teacher types like me who sit around and tell jokes, realizing, what's the difference anyway - it's all timeless.
How do you become enlightened? I don't know: Luck, karma, skill, friends in high places, friends in low places.
The word "Guru", as it is used in the contemporary American scene, is someone who takes all your money and tells you what to do with your life. You assume no responsibility. A lot of people want that free ride.
I don't think of myself as a guru but as a teacher. If one means 'guru' in the original sense a 'dispeller of darkness' then that certainly is my purpose.
It really doesn't matter to me whether a person has a lot of money or a little bit of money.
The cult phenomenon is definitely journalistically 'in'. But if we were to apply for a financial aid grant as a cult, I'm afraid we would be turned down for lack of proper qualifications.
I don't engage in brainwashing, I don't dictate forms of lifestyle, I don't perform mass marriages or even singular marriages. I don't tell people what to believe.
