Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz (1982):
"The name of our spiritual community is Lakshmi. Lakshmi represents beauty. Lakshmi is the consort of Vishnu. Together, Vishnu and Lakshmi symbolize the two aspects of manifestation: beauty and eternality. Vishnu represents the aspect of eternal manifestation.
Vishnu is seen as an embodiment of the comic vibration which holds all life in its form through the power of manifestation. Vishnu symbolizes life, health and propriety. Lakshmi, the second side of Vishnu, represents nature, light, mental, physical and spiritual perfection.
Your life will be dry and empty until you accept both the strength of the unity of manifestation and the perfect beauty of light into your being. Your acceptance of these qualities is a perfect understanding of your own human nature.
Light is the essence of existence. All things and all qualities and partialities are waveforms of light. Light is existence. In this relative world, things appear to be solid and have a definite physical form. But this is really an illusion. Everything is really a waveform of light.
When you go to a cinema and watch a movie, you are perceiving waveforms of light. The movie that you are watching--which appears to be a succession of solid images upon the screen--is composed of thousand of flickering frames of existence. Each frame in the motion picture is a still second of eternity. Light pours through the frames as they rapidly pass before our eyes. If the projector were to slow down, you would perceive a succession of separate images. The apparent solidity of the images that you had been watching on the screen would suddenly dissolve.
Everything that exists is light. The images of this and all other worlds that greet your eyes appear to be solid and substantial. This is not exactly so. When you meditate and slow your mind and outer perceptions down, suddenly what appeared to be solid and firm becomes fluid. You see that life is actually a succession of images from the well of existence that are being projected against the screen of your consciousness and being sustained by the light of existence.
Images of light abound. Look at your hand for a moment. See its solidity. Next, close your eyes and meditate. As your mind becomes quiet you will enter into a deeper and quieter mode of perception. Now, after several minutes of meditation, feel your hand without touching it. You will notice that it does not seem to be solid. It is more of an awareness then a solid expression of matter.
When I take you to the desert or when I present subtle physical Light Shows for you at our meditation meetings, I am demonstrating the fluid nature of existence.
Recently we went on a desert journey where I played with the seemingly solid nature of existence. I caused a large cloud to dissolve, rearranged the patterns of the stars, and made the valleys and mountains light up.
The reason I do these sorts of things is to help you understand that the world around you is not really physical, but subtle. It is a web of light.
People suffer and are unhappy because they are attached to the physical world. If they understood that the nature of existence was light, they would realize the absurdity of their attachment. How can you be attached to light? It has no form of its own, although it can assume any form.
Consciousness is the screen on which the light of existence appears. Attachments are the images that the light of existence illuminines on the screen of consciousness. When you have no more attachments, the screen will disappear and the true nature of existence--light--will engulf you. Then you will realize that you are not separate from that perfect light but that you are that light.
When you meditate try to focus more on light. When you meditate with me, I have you keep your eyes open so you can begin to see the fluid nature of existence. If you would like to speed up your own spiritual evolution, I suggest that you try to see light everywhere. The more you see light, the less you will fool yourself with unhappy attachments.
Attachments do not go away because you suddenly decide you do not like what you were attached to. This is only away to trade off your attachments. If a person has a car that they love, and one day they sell it and buy another car that they love more, they have not overcome their attachment. They have simply transferred it from one object to another.
The real way that attachments are overcome forever is by realizing the true nature of existence. Someone can tell you all day long that a particular attachment is making you unhappy and causing you all kinds of problems in your
life. You can listen, understand and agree. But that does not mean that your attachment will go away.
In order to make attachment go away you must slow the "movie" of existence down so that you can see its actual nature. If you meditate on light each day, you will find that your attachments will slowly but surely go away. Otherwise you will only frustrate yourself in your attempts to get rid of your attachments. Meditate on Light. Then you will see for yourself what the true nature of existence is.
Now, to come back to Lakshmi for a moment, Lakshmi is light. When you meditate on Lakshmi, all illusions will vanish and you will be liberated. There are two principle ways that you can meditate on Lakshmi. You can meditate on Lakshmi with form, or you can meditate on Lakshmi without form.
The Infinite has both form and formlessness. You can meditate on either aspect of consciousness and come to the root of reality. If you wish to meditate on light with form then repeat the mantra "Sring." As you repeat this mantra, meditate on the goddess Lakshmi.
Far above this world is a plane of reality where the cosmic deities exist. They have form just as we have form. Their bodies, however, are not physical. They are composed of subtle light.
You can meditate on these higher beings and receive spiritual help from them. They cannot give you liberation but they can help you a great deal in your spiritual evolution. As you know, our spiritual community is presided over by two of these advanced beings, Vishnu and Lakshmi. It is virtually impossible to separate one from the other.
If you meditate on either Vishnu or Lakshmi they will help you to understand the nature of existence. When this knowledge comes, you will find your attachments falling away.
You can also meditate on my consciousness. My consciousness and the consciousness of eternity are united. If you meditate either on Lakshmi or on the infinite consciousness that flows through me, you will come to understand the nature of light.
You can also approach light in its formless aspect. Without thinking at all, and without focusing your awareness on any person or personal aspect of God, allow yourself to be united with light. When you have reached the point in your meditation where there is nothing but light, you will have apprehended the nature of existence.
Try to feel the presence of Lakshmi each day during your meditation and as you go through your daily routines. Try to feel the consciousness that flows through me and enters into your awareness. We are a team--you, Lakshmi and I. Together we are trying to establish an awareness of light in the physical world. This is our play.
Please do not think of Lakshmi as most unillumined people do. In
Lakshmi is light. When you have become one with light you can cause it to manifest in any form. But to think that light is limited to material fulfillment is only to short-change yourself. Do not be too concerned with the images that appear on the screen of your consciousness. Focus your awareness on that light which gives life to those images. Do not seek anything from the Infinite except liberation. When liberation comes, you will be fulfilled beyond all description.
Don't settle for a mere shadow when you can become the effulgence of light itself."
- Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz (1982)
