Talks by Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, reads from renowned Zen teacher, Ikkyu: “If it rain, let it rain; If it rain not, let it not rain; But even should it not rain, You must travel with wet sleeves.” What is religion? It is an inquiry into yourself. The German theologian, Meister Eckhart, once wrote, “There is an agent in the soul, untouched by time. . . God Himself is that agent. Keep looking inside a s...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, relates the tale of the monk who questions Chuang Tzu. He begins: Monk: "Much of what you talk about is that which is not of use to us." Chuang-Tzu: "Most of the earth is no use to you." Yin and Yang. Two archetypical poles of Nature. Male and female. Yin is quiet, intuitive. Yang is strong, creative, active. We must come to know the other to be in balance. We constan...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, tells of the puzzled monk who visits Master Fuketsu. He asks, "How can Truth be expressed without speaking—and without being silent?" Lao Tzu said, he who speaks does not know. And he who knows does not speak. Then there is the Maha Mudra, or the great gesture. When you hear a word from a master, there is a silence in the word. A portion of the great poem by Sri Aurob...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, recounts the story of the family where every member was enlightened. A visitor asked the father, “Is Zen difficult?” The father answered, “Yes, very.” The visitor then asked the son the same question. “No, it’s not difficult at all,” the son said. Then he asked the daughter. She answered, “If you make it difficult, it is difficult. If you make it easy, it is easy.” Ac...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, interprets passages of Chuang Tzu, the great Taoist master. The greatest man is nobody. The man of Tao does not cultivate his manner. Nor does he try not to. Our mind moves in one direction—then swings the opposite way. The most difficult thing to do is to keep the mind in the middle. Non-discrimination. Even from waking state to sleeping state, we cross the middle. I...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explains how nature wants balance. If conditions swing one way, they eventually swing the other way. Human nature is the same. If you strive in one direction about something, then the other direction eventually swings back at you. For example, those who strive to be 100% moral often succumb to immorality. We see this often. As is human nature, we swing in a swirl of t...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explains how when you first meditate, thoughts of your day may fill your mind. But eventually, you will experience a silence. God isn’t going to talk to you in words. He has no mouth. Junaid, a Sufi Master, seemed an ordinary laborer. And one of his young apprentices often wanted to display his great knowledge of things. Junaid says, “I am not so young as to know so m...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, tells the story of when Master Hyakujo offered a test to his monks. The winner will be the abbot of the new monastery. He sets out a water jug and says, “Without using its name, what do you call it?” Without a word, without a thought, answer this question: Who are you? Without using a word, show what reality is. You can’t use a word or concept without using your mind....

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, discusses how words can’t teach how to practice or how to wake up. Just like the wheelwright can’t teach how to make a wheel. Too much force and it weakens. Too little and it weakens. But how does he teach that? One has to do it. Like swimming. To learn it you need to do it. Zen practice is the same way. Chuang Tzu, the master of the absurd’s mysterious tale of puttin...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explains how if we are ruled from without, we are slaves. If we are ruled from within, we are still enslaved. Short review of recent sesshin. Lola shares the amusing tale of the teacher's visit to an archery target practice. When you’re always doing, disciplining yourself, there is a conflict. Beyond discipline is stillness. We receive teachings at the level we need t...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, suggests you look at your life as a story. Is there anything you would change? Though this life is not perfect, you’re probably reasonably comfortable living on this shore. Change is scary. While many of us are part of a practice group, we really each travel alone on this path. The truth is inside of us. We can’t find it together outside somewhere. For your travel on...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explores the possible meanings of several Buddhist and Christian concepts: • Pranyaparamita, or “the perfection of transcendental wisdom.” • Sunyata, or the emptiness that emptiness constitutes ultimate reality. Not adding, but taking away. • Avataṃsaka Sūtra, which comprehensively describes the powers of meditation and emptiness. • Anapanasati - awareness of that bef...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, discusses the similarities between Hasidic Judaism and Buddhism. Many religions are more emotional. Zen practitioners are often intellectual. The similarities between Hasidic Judaism and Buddhism. Also, the tale of two men who travel during a dark night. Only one has a lantern. When their paths split, the man without the lantern must grope along in the darkness. That...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explores the notion of preferences. As the Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen put it: when love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold no opinions for, or against, anything. That is the choice-less reality, true stabil...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explains that when most of us listen to a teacher talk, what we hear is determined by our conditioning. When one talks to God in his thoughts, he is not talking to God. To truly practice, one must be wholly sincere and not deceive oneself. A monk came to a Zen Master and asked, ”What if you meet up with someone who is deaf, dumb, and blind?” Also, if the aim of a Zen...

During this talk, Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, has a bad cough, which she lightheartedly uses in her discussion about how to hear and how to listen. To listen like a tape recorder, without thinking. Lola walks us through a quick history of philosophical thinking, from the Ionians (Thales thought the basic entity was water) to Pythagoras to Aristotle and beyond. To discipline oneself in learning i...

You are born into pleasure and pain, and eventually emotions develop. Then centuries of conditioning. From your parents, from your culture. How many personalities and faces do you have? All creating contradictions in you. But if you dig down, there is unity—an undivided, centered individual. Most important: do not deceive yourself. Sit. Look into yourself and the truth will reveal itself to you. A...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, discusses Mystica Theologica by St Dionysias. He said religious experience can’t be described. Like music: as much as you might name notes, no description is adequate to explain what music really is. So it is with religious experience. Dionysias called it “agnosia” or unknowing. There is a depth in saying “I don’t know.” Even Socrates said the only thing he knows is t...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, recounts the tale of Zen Master Hogen who studied with Keishin Zenji. Once Keishin Zenji asked him, 'Joza, where do you go?' “Hogen answered, 'I am making pilgrimage aimlessly." Lola also shares the story of the non-believer who falls off a cliff and dangles by a small twig. He begs God to help him. "But I thought you didn’t believe in me,” says God. The non-believer...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explains how you can ask questions about the meaning of life all day long. But who is the questioner? Usually we take the wrong approach to these questions. The questions and the answers are thoughts—or objects. They are not reality. If you have a deluded mind, how are you supposed to use it in meditation? You must set it aside. When silence is present, where are you?...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, shares the teachings of Lao Tzu. He was not a brave man. Or a coward. Courage does not play a role in the sage. The mightiest fighting rooster does not crow about his might. True confidence does not brag. If you meet a sage on the road, how do you greet him? Meditation is like a coiled spring. You push, push, push it down… then release. Jun 24, 1984

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explains how a mirror reflects everything before it. It reflects young you when you’re young. It reflects old you when you’re old. But the mirror isn’t old or young. It is uncontaminated. The same consciousness is watching from inside you when you’re young, when you’re middle aged and when you’re old. But that Witness isn’t young or middle aged or old. Just like the m...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explains how when you’re happy, sad, pleased, unpleased—it’s all in your periphery. It is not really you. When you’re happy, sad, pleased, displeased—it’s all in your periphery. It is not really you. Do not deceive yourself with your own attitudes. Plastic flowers do not grow. Plastic personas do not grow. But you can. Your appearances give you respectability but they...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explores the wisdom of Zen Master Ikkyu. What must wake up in you for you to be awake? Where do you go when you’re in a deep sleep? Buddhism is a religion of the individual. We become individually free. Teaching about awakened self is like selling water by the river. We spend our lives trying to make our fantasies a reality. Assuming responsibility for one’s spiritual...

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, recounts tales of Master Fugai. Lola gives a detailed explanation of meditation. How the word meditation, historically, has been thought to mean thinking, pondering. But in Zen it’s just the opposite. In Zen meditation you sit, and can watch your thoughts go by, but you do not get swept up by them. If you observe closely you’ll start to see that your thoughts create a...