Note: Generally, this talk is more lighthearted than most that Lola gives. It’s nice to see that side of her personality.

Lola begins with a comical tale about a man and a priest he asks for advice.

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, discusses Lao Tzu concept of how the hole in the wheel’s knave makes its utility. How the emptiness of a vessel creates its utility.

Lola asks, “Who would you rather be: a victim or a perpetrator?”

It is in the world of the Relative that we can discover the Absolute.

How freedom relates to relativity. Some people don’t want freedom. They’d rather follow directions.

The world is like a schoolroom where the teacher is absent. It is chaotic. Where is God?

She tells the story of Swami Vivekananda, who, during his first visit to the United States in 1893, was shunned for his skin color. Eventually his speech at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago brought him recognition in the US.

Lola explains how many spiritual seekers seek after miracles. But the world is full of miracles. A seed dies and falls into the ground and a tree grows from it. Grass grows. Look at man? He’s a miracle. The world is a manifestation of God.

Feb 28, 1987

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, discusses various texts about the notion of God — from the biblical book of Genesis to Mystica Theologica to the sutras of Patanjali.

Dionysus was a disciple of St. Paul and one-time mayor of Athens.

We eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil… but we must return to the Tree of Life.

Buddhism did not identify God. Or a self. So for a Buddhist, what is there? Perhaps a Buddhist might say there is a Power greater than himself.

Why did God create the world as it is? How do you answer the question, “Why do you love the person you love?”

The wisdom of Patanjali, the author of many Sanskrit works including the Yoga Sutras. Yoga is the restraining from taking the many forms. Like a sculptor who removes parts of the stone to find the creation within.

We have blind spots in our seeing, and in our hearing. We also have blind spots in our thinking… caused by the many patterns we identify with. Like a sculptor, we must learn to identify these patterns to find what remains within us.

Darwin traveled the world in a big ship… and he came upon islanders who could not see his boat. It was too big. If these islanders could not see a boat because it was too big, then how do we expect to see God?

That is why we meditate. To enter an area beyond our patterns, beyond our knowledge—to experience a kind of not knowing. We must give up our thoughts and identifications to experience this not-seeing. Then we can see the Truth of what we are.

Lola discusses the creation of the world in the biblical chapter of Genesis. What is the Light at the beginning? And what is the Light again on the fourth day?

Genesis 1:1-4 (King James version) - “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

How this relate to Aurobindo’s poem, Savitri, that begins “"It was the hour before the Gods awake.”

The tale of a man of Athos who spoke to an apricot tree and it blossomed.

Jan 31, 1987

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, (who is also an ordained Christian minister) explores issues that are common to both Christian and Eastern thought to illustrate the difference between theology/philosophy and religious practice.

She explains that it is easier to join a religious group and hang around it than it is to truly struggle with oneself. There are many who participate in religions just so they can tell themselves they are doing their religious duty. They learn a religious system or structure and think they have learned some truth. Not so.

Simply wishing will not change you. It requires effort. We must work to be sufficiently free of delusion—which makes us more pliable and receptive continue learning.

We live like a child in our father’s house—with little probing. We live under great, powerful laws of God’s will… but have we ever seen or truly understood these laws?

When is the last time you were in awe of nature?

The word “awful” used to mean being in awe. Now we think of it as something bad, to be feared. Feeling awe — of this mysterious thing we call life—to some it is joyful. To some it creates fear.

It can be your rock, your faith.

Philosophy rises from wonder. True religion arrives from awe.

Lola recounts the tale of the general who visits a teacher. His question for the teacher: What is it we use every day and don’t know? The teacher served him muffins and tea.

Try to stay in this awe—don’t rationalize it away. Jut remain in awe.

Jesus said, ““If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (King James, Matthew 16:24).

This is conversion.

Lola tells a metaphorical story of God and an Old Man. God says to him that he receives nothing but endless requests for favors and things, so he wants to hide. He asks an old man, where can he hide? The old man tells him the perfect place to hide—is inside of man. Then those that seek him will only be able to succeed after a sincere investigation within themselves.

If someone asks you if God exists, what is your answer? Do most who say they are believers know it for a fact that He exists? Do atheists know for a fact He doesn’t? So what is one’s answer to be? It depends.

Lola tells a tale about a woman in India who clutched her baby during a flood and is saved from the flood.

Sep 20, 1987

Note: Unfortunately these talks about the Bauls were posted out of order. But the sound quality is much better on this one, which is also the most detailed in its explanation of who the Bauls were. And this talk develops into a wonderful, rich discussion of consciousness.

Lola says that not many people have heard of the Bauls because they had no organization or dogma or scripture. They were freewheeling practitioners who loved dance, music and poetry—and looked within.

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explains how the Indian Bauls were a group of Hindus also were joined by a sect of Sufis when the Muslims invaded India.

The Bauls did not use the term “God.” They focused mainly on the “essential man within you.”

Baul literally means “affected by the winds.”

The doctrine of Shakti and the follower, or Shakta.

Shakti refers to the divine feminine cosmic energy and creative power that underlies all existence. It's the active principle of the Godhead, responsible for creating, sustaining, and dissolving the universe.

Shaktas, or believers in Shakti, felt that the ultimate divine being is best understood and worshipped as the feminine principle, and manifests in countless forms as different goddesses.

Lola recounts the story of Krishna’s origins, per the Bhagavad Gita.

Bhakti Yoga, the practice of devotion thru submission to find the secret knowledge.

Lola explains that Being and Awareness is like love. Love can only be known by loving. It can’t be described or taught, it needs to be experienced.

She extends the metaphor to swimming. You can’t be taught how to swim outside the water. But if you go into the water and can’t swim, you fear you’ll drown. So it seems like an impossible, paradoxical situation. Spiritual practice carries with it a similar paradox.

Lola discusses Ramana Maharshi.

She talks about how, when we sit in silence, one puts a downward pressure into that which is within us. Eventually that pressure releases something inside that allows one to become “a man of the heart.” The pressure allows the Being to overcome the Ego.

What is consciousness? That is, Lola says, the primary question of all religion. The search, in consciousness, to grow in consciousness.

Through observation and alertness… of all the activity within and without—we can stir a moment of clarity, of insight. In that flash of perception consciousness sees, and knows instantly what comes from within and what comes from without.

Sep 13, 1987

Note: this talk has some sound issues, but I found it valuable enough to include the bulk of it anyway. It’s about 8 minutes shorter because the cassette player apparently started warbling and slowing down badly at the end—during the discussion of Prakrit and Parusha. There is another talk on this subject available here if you are interested. It’s a fascinating doctrine.

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explores the accounts of the Indian Bauls - a religious group that included members of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims.

They had a freewheeling spirit. And worshipped the Hindu goddess, Kali, the Divine Mother.

The Bauls sought after the meaning of the Novel Man, a concept not unlike the True Man of St. Paul.

Kali and Krishna. While many saw them as opposing forces, the Bauls worshipped them together, as complementary aspects of the divine.

We think we own our possessions, our thoughts, our beliefs--the more the better… but in reality they own us.

Our daily life and our Being coexist. But first comes Being.

Lola recounts the tale of the King and the Nun… the King makes her a queen, but even as queen, she continues to secretly pray to God.

The notion of the downward movement of Prakrit into the unconscious. Some people are afraid to push downward. But they need not be.

Like a scientist, we should see what we can discover inside—including our sensations and our feelings.

Zen’s goal is much like that of the Bauls, but Zen is more direct.

Prakrit and Purusha are two fundamental and distinct principles that explain the nature of reality. All of nature comes about and is moved by the non-moving—like a magnet moves magnetized items on a board with an unseen power. While it appears the items on the board are active, they are not moving under their own power.

The entire universe is the unfolding — as the interaction between Prakrit and Parusha.

When you become unattached from Prakrit—then everything follows you. Like your shadow cast ahead of you when the is sun behind you—you try but cannot follow your shadow as it moves. But turn toward the sun — the Truth — and your shadow follows you.

Oct 18, 1987

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, gives a talk themed on Easter. (While Lola was primarily a Zen teacher, she was also an ordained Christian minister).

Lola reads from the Gospels exploring the meaning of Jesus asking, “Why have you forsaken me?”

Symbols of Easter include a baby chick, pecking its way out of an egg to become that which he was destined to be. That is also a good metaphor for the human situation.

Lola discusses various religious traditions, including that of the Mayans of Central America and Jewish Mysticism.

Nothing is taken away from the outer. And nothing is added to the inner. It is a union of the two.

Nirvana is Samsara — and Samsara is Nirvana.

The history of Constantine, the Roman emperor who became a Christian—and changed the world.

No one becomes truly religious on the order of another. We must see to it ourselves.

The story of Adam and the tree of good and evil—as well as the tree of life.

Who is the True Man that goes in and out of the gates of your face?

Jewish mysticism describes the Heart of Hearts, and the Heart of Stone. The internal battle. Our will can cut through the heart of stone… with a sword of truth. It takes a self-emptying of one’s self aggrandizement.

The meaning of Passover.

You have to empty yourself of your miseries… as well as your best parts.

Many of us pray for things, and removal of miseries… without praying (or meditating) to know God himself. It’s Spiritual Hedonism.

Apr 19, 1987

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explores the meaning of Verse 15 of the Isha Upanishad:

"The face of Truth is covered with a brilliant golden lid; that do thou remove, O Fosterer, for the law of the Truth, for sight."

Lola discusses the prevalence of guilt in Puritanical America. How some of us feel guilt our entire lives, and how many, sometimes because of religious traditions, feel they shouldn’t enjoy life. We should look at this guilt, and try to understand it.

Meditation should not be an escape mechanism.

Buddha taught that it is not life that brings sorrow—but our demands on life that causes suffering.

Becoming Being… that is the end of desire and suffering. The more one feeds desire, the more it burns.

Lola discusses a poem byRabindranath when he was dying.

What is it in you that knows?

Lola discusses sex and celibacy and its relationship to religiosity.

She recounts the tale of two monks who encountered a young woman unable to cross a river. In spite of their vows, the monks carry the woman across the river and set her down. The younger monk later confronts the elder, troubled by having touched a woman in violation of their vows. The elder responds with the question, "I set her down on the other side of the river. Why are you still carrying her?"

Some people mistake the rejection of life as a sign of religiosity. When Siddhartha was fasting and emaciated, he had a few followers. When he finally asked to be fed, his followers abandoned him. When he wasn’t emaciated, they no longer found him an acceptable master.

We should look at the things we desire in life, our attachments, and see what we identify with.

The notions of Birth and Non-Birth.

The ego is very interested in one’s karma. When the actions of the mind are exhausted, then transcendence is possible. But we need the dissolution of the ego, and instead to identify with the Divine Being in us. Then that is liberation.

Lola May 3, 1987

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, gives a detailed discussion of the philosophical and historical backgrounds of religious traditions as they developed in India—Vedas, Brahmanism and Hinduism.

Lola explains the meaning of many of the Hindu terms and explores the Isha Upanishad.

Shakti, the Great Mother or feminine energy of the universe. We all have in us a power. That is shake.

Hindu Tantra versus Buddhist Tantra.

Prakriti and Purusha.

Maya.

As mentioned in the Bible, your actions in this world show your faith.

A medicine is true if it cures. Your experience, not words, is what matters. Consciousness does not evolve without effort.

Everything in your body is used material, recycled from the past.

Surya (the sun god) and Agni (the fire god). Surya is knowledge. Agni is action. The combination leads to the truth, to the Supreme Vision and Divine Bliss.

We all have the same name: “I.”

May 10, 1987