Rama – Dr. Frederick Lenz taught that meditation practice was at the heart of American Buddhist identity, and he devoted much of his teaching career to giving meditation instructions to his students and promoting its benefits to audiences across the country. The Foundation expands upon this interest by supporting and funding organizations and programs designed to study and incorporate Buddhist contemplative disciplines in their respective fields.
In Dr. Lenz’s Words
“Meditation is concentration in the beginning. It’s a focus. Then, in the intermediate stage, it’s an opening, a deepening of one’s awareness but with a focus towards the planes of light. In intermediate meditation, you’re touching light more deeply than in introductory meditation. In advanced meditation, you become light. You transcend self, ego, time, space, dimensionality. You merge with the clear light of reality, and you go beyond this world.”
– The Enlightenment Cycle, “Intermediate Meditation”
What We Fund
We provide general-assistance and restricted grants and program-related investments to organizations and initiatives that are studying, applying, and disseminating Buddhist meditation and mindfulness practices in the fields of science, education, health care, and social services.
Sample Grantees
City of Hope (meditation retreat area in Los Angeles)
Insight Meditation Society (intensives offering meditation training for people of color in Massachusetts)
Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (meditation education)
Big Mind (awareness and personal growth)
Great Mountain Zen Center (meditation and psychology in Boulder area)
Rama Meditation Society (marketing campaign for free distribution of meditation materials)
Institute for Jewish Spirituality (creating a cadre of well-trained Jewish mindfulness teachers)
Friends of Zen ( Air Force Academy Zendo and promotion of meditation techniques)
Boulder Mountain Zendo (meditation and community center for Salt Lake)