This is a series of newly digitized talks by spiritual teacher, Lola McDowell Lee, spanning two decades—from the early Seventies through the Nineties.
Lola was a Zen Roshi whose Rinzai lineage included Doctor Henry Platov and renowned Zen master, Shigetsu Sasaki. Lola was a religious scholar as well as an ordained Christian minister.
While the talks are focused mainly on Zen and Buddhism, Lola drew on many spirit ...
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Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, continues her exploration of the Tao Te Ching. Today, Chapter 15: The ancient masters were subtle, mysterious, profound, responsive. The depth of their knowledge is unfathomable. Because it is unfathomable, All we can do is describe their appearance. Watchful, like men crossing a winter stream. Alert, like men aware of danger. Courteous, like visiting guests. Yielding, like ice about to melt. Simple, like uncarved blocks of wood. Hollow, like caves. Opaque, like muddy pools. Who can wait quietly while the mud settles? Who can remain still until the moment of action? Observers of the Tao do not seek fulfilment. Not seeking fulfillment, they are not swayed by desire for change. — How many of our daily acts are done with awareness? We have the tendencies we were born with and the conditioning established through our lives. How we walk across the icy stream of life—our methods and tendencies are less important than our alertness. How does a Holy Man walk? We can see that each walks differently. Yet their awareness, which we cannot see, is the same. People recognize us by how we act. So often we choose to act so that we look good to others. We act like Jesus. Or the Buddha. But we have it backwards. When we find a depth of awareness, right actions will follow. We must learn ignore our concepts, our ideas, to be free. Including the ones you know about and those you are unconscious of. Does your True Self know how hard you work to be good? We all want to find heaven and bring our best qualities along with us. We must drop our luggage—and concentrate on an inner awareness. When you make a resolution—who do you make it to? Many develop a rigidity—in order to adhere to their resolutions. And when we fail, guilt develops. Learn to vacillate, be flexible. Then there is no need for guilt. If you are not naturally kind, or generous, then rigid vows to be so will not help. If you need vows, look within to discover why. We seek security--safety, a home, etc. But animals in the wild are not secure. They must be alert at all times. Their lives depend on it. Learn about death while you’re still alive. The tale of the Emperor who, looking for a Holy Man, finds a beggar. May 28, 1988
Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, provides a detailed exploration of Chapter 14 of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, “Praising The Mysterious.” In it Lao Tzu calls Reason the form of the formless. Reason’s clue. But if we can’t touch it or see it, how are we to understand it? Don’t to endow it with qualities. Don’t describe it. It may appear bright, but it is simply reflecting our brightness. But that is only what we perceive. It is, itself, not bright. Our perception is limited. We perceive in twos. But the Tao is one. So how do we see it? To understand the world with the intellect…we compare, etc. But that is all abstraction. Light is limited. But darkness has no boundaries. When light hits a prism, it becomes a rainbow of colors. Take the prism away and the colors disappear. But we love colors and are captivated by them. They say, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” That’s because if you see him, it is not him. You can’t see him. Like the Neti Neti approach, when we sit we discard all we hear. Until we reach the inaudible. Lola recounts a tale from the Upanishad of a father who instructs his son to visit a guru and find the inaudible. The son goes to the guru and asks to know the inaudible. The guru sends him into the forest with 400 cows. “Return when they become 1000.” The son goes off into the forest and spends all his time serving the needs of the cows. Eventually, he returns to his father… to remarkable result. Jesus said: If you have eyes, then see. Lola asks: what do you think you are looking at? May 8, 1988
Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, gives a detailed explanation of Lao Tzu’s notion that there are two basic types of meditation one should practice. One of emptiness only, and one of concentration. Sitting with pure, empty mind: The first he described as meditating without desire. Chuang-Tzu called it “just sitting and forgetting” meditation. During this practice, we empty the mind of all impediments and sit with only pure mind. Easier said than done. Most of us sit, and only once in a while do e actually meditate. Most of us don’t want to really sit because we don’t want to give up anything. To sit this way, just empty, it does not mean to blank out, or be unconscious. Just be quiet, still, every day. In the Pure Mind. When the mind is empty, Lao Tzu says it is like still water. It can then reflect. Without thoughts, which are activity, disturbances in the water. The clearness of the mind already exists. It is this we often call the mirror mind, that mind which is clear, empty, and able to reflect. Then we can become that mirror. 2. Using the Pure Mind to concentrate on something—a word, a sound, a question. Lao Tzu suggests also using a second method where we focus, and develop our concentration. He says we should use both methods of meditation. Learn to find the Pure Mind. And use it to focus. Plotinus, a Neo-platonist, had similar thinking to Lao Tzu in 250 A.D. “The perfect and unchangeable life of the Divine Spirit overflows in an incessant stream of creative activity, which spends itself only when it has reached the lowest confines of being, so that every possible manifestation of Divine energy, every hue of the Divine radiance, every variety in degree as well as in kind, is realized somewhere and somehow. And by the side of this outward flow of creative energy there is another current which carries all the creatures back toward the source of their being. It is this centripetal movement that directs the active life of all creatures endowed with Soul. They were created and sent into the world that they might be moulded a little nearer to the Divine image by yearning for the home which they have left. This aspiration, which slumbers even in unconscious beings, is the mainspring of the moral, intellectual, and aesthetic life of mankind. Lola explains that many look to our outward life to find fulfillment. In creating, achieving, jobs, creating families. But ultimately, fulfillment, she says, is found within. But life should not be just one or the other. We should find fulfillment in both the outer and the inner. How does an oyster know to open itself in order to eat? It doesn’t think. What about the oyster knows to do that? When we look in the eyes of a cat or dog, or bird, we can, if we know how to look, see that divine miracle within them too. We should be in awe of life. But we’re usually not. Our pure intelligence is clouded by our thoughts. As Jesus said, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man. The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” Allow your intelligence to become wisdom. May 1, 1988
Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, who is also an ordained Christian minister, continues her exploration of Christian parables and how they might apply for Zen practitioners. Jesus spoke, in the book of Luke 5:36-39: “And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.” Your life can be life-denying or life-affirming. You can be religious without being part of any organized religion. Being truly religious is an internal practice. Meister Eckhart’s mystical interpretation of the Biblical parables of the Virgin and the Christ. Whatever you do in work, do it with love. It’s easy to swing between love and hate. You become what you love, but you also become what you hate. Lola explores the meaning of Matthew 25:13 - “...always stay awake and be alert, because you don't know the day or the hour when the Bridegroom will appear.” Lola Dec 12, 1984
Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, who is also an ordained Christian minister, discusses parables from the Bible and how they can help Zen practitioners. Understanding Jesus’ parables is like puzzling with Zen koans. We reach a point with the puzzles and allows them, like a diamond cutter, to work on us. And eventually, in a new state, we begin to understand. We are free. Yet we have no freedom. It’s a paradox. The freedom within, unforced, allows us to mature. But we can choose to ignore the within. We are also free to choose the adventure within. Your choices in this world create your personality. What you become by the end of your life—that you have chosen. Yet, what we are born with affects our choices. We are seeds. How we live that growth is our destiny. Lola discusses the historical meanings of the word sin from the Egyptian and the Greek. From the Greek, to miss. A parable, and a koan, is like a bridge between the Truth and our unconscious selves. We call ourselves human beings. But we are not yet. We are seeds. To illustrate, Lola presents Jesus’ parable of the weeds: “Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” How are we to interpret this? asks Lola. Lola say to look within—and wait. But don’t wait with the old you. That’s your ego waiting. Let go of your attitudes. They’re not important during meditation. Only when a cup is empty can it be filled. Let gratitude well up in you. Sit, and eventually the door opens and light comes in. You don’t bring it in. Lola Dec 9, 1984