Lineage

Sunyata

Sunyata is a meditation teacher whose practice began more than forty years ago. She spent many years studying with Rama—Dr. Frederick Lenz, whose teachings drew from Vajrayana Buddhism, Zen and the direct experience of enlightenment. Her own training included intensive meditation, retreats, study and the ongoing work of bringing spiritual practice into ordinary life.

Today, Sunyata teaches meditation and self-discovery with an emphasis on direct experience. Her teaching explores awareness, attachment, fear, ego, energy, compassion and the states of consciousness that become accessible as the mind grows quieter. Students are encouraged to question, to pay attention to what actually happens in their own practice, and to learn the difference between an idea about awareness and experiencing it for themselves.

Her approach has always included the rest of life. Career, relationships, independence, difficult choices, humor, friendship and learning how to move through the world well are all part of the path. She teaches from the premise that spiritual practice should make us more capable of living, not less engaged with life. After decades of practice, what she passes on is the path as she has lived it: meditation at its center, awakening as its purpose, and everyday life as the place where the teachings are tested and integrated.

Rama

Rama, also known as Dr. Frederick Lenz, was an American Buddhist teacher and the teacher of Sunyata. He taught meditation and self-discovery to thousands of students, drawing particularly from Vajrayana Buddhism and Zen while presenting the teachings in a form intended for people living contemporary Western lives. His students had careers, relationships and ordinary responsibilities. The practice was meant to happen in the midst of all of it.

For Sunyata, Rama was far more than an influence or a source of teachings. He was her teacher. Through years of studying and meditating with him, she learned that enlightenment was not simply a philosophy to understand, but something that could be directly experienced. His teaching emphasized meditation, attention, impeccability, humor, independence, the development of personal power and the continual movement beyond the limitations of the ego. He expected students to build strong lives while pursuing the deepest possibilities of consciousness.

Rama remains at the heart of our lineage. We study his talks and books, meditate with the practices he taught, and continue to explore the path he opened for his students. That does not mean trying to recreate another time or becoming copies of a teacher. A living lineage has to be lived again by each generation. What we carry forward from Rama is the invitation at the center of his teaching: practice deeply, discover for yourself what is true, and bring what you discover fully into your life.