Here is one of a series of talks by spiritual
leader Lola McDowell Lee, spanning two decades
from the early 70s through the 90s. Lola was
a Zen Roshi, whose Rinzai lineage included Dr.
Henry Plutov 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 spiritual traditions, including
those of Jesus, Plato, Lao Tzu, the Hindu Vedas,
Meister Eckhart, and Gurdjieff. And you all remember
what the word means and where it came from and
all those things, the history of it that we went
into. Because I can't repeat that every time.
I would just be repeating that every time. Anyway,
we come to this now where it says, the fool is
careless, but the master guards his watching.
It is his most precious treasure. He never gives
in to desire. He meditates. And in the strength
of his resolve, he discovers true happiness.
He overcomes desire. And from the tower of wisdom,
he looks down with dispassion upon the sorrowing
crowd. From the mountaintop, he looks down on
those who live close to the ground. Mindful among
the mindless, awake while others dream. Swift
as a racehorse, he outstrips the field. By watching,
Indra became king of the gods. How wonderful
it is to watch. How foolish it is to sleep. The
bhikshu, now that's a monk. The bhikshu who guards
his mind and fears the waywardness of his thoughts
burns through every bond with the fire of his
vigilance. The bhikshu who guards his mind and
fears his own confusion cannot fail. He has found
the way to peace. Well, I guess that's one thing
that could be said for living in a monastery
as a monk. You know, you are so constantly in
the surround, in the environment that it is a
little easier to practice mindfulness and to
watch. Of course, they're watching the same things
as we're watching out here. They've got their
emotions to deal with just as much. But anyway,
they... And we know that man... generic man,
you know, man and women. Man is the only creature
on this planet who has the ability to choose.
The birds and the animals and the insects and
the plants and all that we find out there, they
have no choice. They don't have mind. with which
to choose for one thing. They're so encompassed
in their state, in nature, that their lives are
what we could call predetermined. Nature takes
care of them. Of course, nature takes care of
us, too. The body keeps functioning. You don't
have to tell the heart, now beat. You don't have
to get up every morning and say, now breathe,
now heartbeat. And stomach, you know, and I digest
your food and all that. It's all taken care of
for us, every bit of it. But other than that,
we've got a choice. The choice is limited by
our abilities. But we can choose to go against
nature, and we very often do. And we must also
keep in mind that man is not born a being, not
yet a being, not in the true sense. He is a becoming.
He's on the way to be sure. Every human being
is on the way. But it is still a becoming. We
are becoming sad and we are becoming happy and
we are becoming first a child, and then we're
becoming a teenager, and then we're becoming
an adult, and then we're becoming mature, and
then we're becoming old. We're along that line.
Always we're becoming something. If you watch,
you know, you can count how many times a day
you move. So you become something else. You have
a different attitude. You see things in a different
light. And you can switch, you know, like that,
from this point to this point. And we don't seem
to find that odd, you know. And so man is, in
his way, searching, and he's seeking, and he's
groping, and this is called, in some areas, faith
without an object. This is the search. The searching.
Faith without an object. There is something somewhere.
There is something greater than I am. Searching.
And we keep with this question, you know, philosophy,
old time philosophy. Had it, you know, who are
you? And I keep drumming at it. Who are you?
Difficult for man to know who he is because he
is not yet the being he is supposed to be. But
he can certainly perceive whatever state he is,
who he is. He can perceive something about that
state. Being has to happen in here somewhere.
And the being comes about through the searching
and the seeking and the groping. And also through
a choice. We have the ability to make a conscious
choice. To have an awareness of the choices that
we make. But how often do we do that? This seems
to be easy, so I'll go this way. To make a choice
in awareness of what it is that you are doing.
And it was Jean -Paul Sartre, I think it was,
who said that man is a project. You know, he
creates himself by his own effort. He is born
as an opportunity. He is born as a possibility.
And he must become actual. And of course it is
within the realm of possibility that he misses.
He misses the mark. Millions of people have missed.
And some never find. Of course, they probably
never did anything about it either. Some do find.
Because they made a choice. This is what they
wanted to do. And then out of that finding, then
beingness is the state. and they can say, I am
awake. Those, the many that miss, miss the mark.
Maybe only because they don't choose, or they
choose an incorrect way. Many of them are just
sit down and wait. They just wait. They just
have this hope that somewhere in here something's
going to happen and it's going to change them.
And not much ever really happens that way, you
know. Why should it? If we can't make any effort
to further ourselves, well then this hope, you
know, that something, maybe like a Great light
descending or whatever it is that people dream
up about things, you know How can it happen?
Well, maybe that I like this in great light descends,
but it's also hallucination We create a context
within ourselves for a transformation for a waking
up we create the space in ourselves for something
valuable and something viable, you know, lots
of life, for the something essential which is
going to happen. And we're not free in the sense
that if you don't choose, you will be allowed
not to choose, you know, because simply not choosing
is a choice. The whole point of choosing something,
you know, is to be able to make an aware choice.
A choice in awareness. Not just, oh yeah, I guess
I'll do this, or I guess I'll do that. Just willy
-nilly. And then you don't do it out of a desire,
and you don't make the choice out of loneliness,
or because somebody else wants you to. You choose
your life. That's what it's all about. And you're
doing it all the time, every minute of the day.
So, but let's make the choice with some awareness.
You choose your life. Now, in this world in which
we find ourselves, there are many schools of
thought. One of which is that Man believes that
we are born as an essence, and it's called the
essence -central school. That is, man is born
ready -made. He's all ready, so to speak. And
the other school is that of existentialism. And
they believe that man is born as an existence.
So we got two things here now. First, the essence
is you bring it with you when you arrive and
you carry it all of your life. And the only job,
the only job you have to do is to do something
so that it will unfold. because it is now as
it is the essence is in a seed and in this seed
is in the tree seed an acorn is the oak tree
it is in the essence now in the essence of a
human being is this one body we have to unfold.
You don't have to create yourself, you already
are. Now to be born as an existence, the other
side of the fence, even the essence has to be
created. It is not already present. Both ways,
both of these schools You have to find the ways
and the means to be. You have to become a womb
to your own being. This body is a womb for a
being. You have to give birth to yourself, as
it were, which is very poorly put. Physical birth
is not the true birth, it's first birth. So out
of the first birth you have to be born again.
So these two, out of many, these two schools
of thought, and I bring it up only because I
want to ask you, which way does the wind blow
for you? If you have to choose between these
schools of thought, Which one would you choose?
And why? And if you choose a neither, then what?
And why? You know, this is how we come little
by little to look at what we think. And this
is very essential. And it is to look at the choices
that we make. When the Buddha began his teaching
pilgrimage after he had sat under the tree and
had arrived at this state of being awake, becoming
the Buddha, and he went through the temptations
of Mara, which is like Jesus going through the
temptations of Satan. And people, he went to
the Deer Park near Benares from the little place
where he was sitting. And the people began to
gather around him because his face was so radiant.
And they asked him, you know, are you a god?
And he'd say no, no. Are you an angel? No. No.
Well, what are you then? And he smiled and he
said, I'm awake. Hmm? Yeah. Simple answers put
by these people, you know, when they asked Jesus
who he was. You know, he said, I am. This one
says, I'm awake. And the five disciples who left
him when he became so emaciated that he couldn't
keep on with his meditation and everything, they
were there and they saw him. And they decided
that they would keep their distance and they
wouldn't shun him, but they weren't going to
give him any special attention either. But somehow
they kept getting closer and closer to him because
they wanted to see this You see somebody like
that who's that radiant, you want to get close
to him. And so like a magnet draws, you're drawn.
And the next thing you know, they're going up
for a better look at what happened to this man
because the last time they saw him he was at
death's door. And here he is. And they found
all of a sudden to their surprise that they were
preparing a place for him. And then they sat
at his feet. They're these same flies. So they
said to him, please teach us what you have found.
And so it was to these five students, these five
disciples, who had at one time deserted him,
now come back. That's where he began his work.
And he began by teaching the Dharma, the path
that leads finally to the end of sorrow. And
his teaching to these five went like this. The
first truth is the fact of suffering, anguish.
All of us want happiness. All of us want what
is good, what is pleasant, what is right, what
is permanent, what is joyful, what is harmonious.
satisfying and puts us at ease. And yet we all
find that life usually brings the opposite. It
brings frustration, dissatisfaction, incompleteness,
suffering, and sorrow. Because life is change.
And change can never satisfy desire. Therefore,
everything that changes brings suffering. It
is so easy to see this. I mean, if we see something
that we like, that we think is compatible with
us, or to us, or anything along that line, we
immediately think we have to possess it. We should
own this. It should be in our lives all the time.
We can't just say, oh yeah, I like it now, and
so I'll like it again. But no, we have to make
something permanent out of it. And because we
cannot make something permanent out of it, it's
sorrow. We have anguish. Oh, look what I lost.
I didn't lose anything. The second truth is the
cause of suffering. It isn't life that brings
so much sorrow. It is the demands that we make
on life. The cause of sorrow is selfish desire.
It is there's a kind of a thirst in us, you know,
to have what we want and to get our own way.
And so thinking that life, just by being, we're
here living, you know? We're supposed to be happy
just because we're here. Where this fallacy came
from, I'll never know, but it's here. And I'm
living, so I'm supposed to have what I want.
And so people are running all the time after
their desires. They never stand still, they just
run. And all they get is unhappiness. Because
this kind of selfishness only brings sorrow.
And they say, you know, there's no fire like
a selfish desire. And not a hundred years of
experience can really extinguish it. For the
more you feed it, the more it burns. And we can
see it in the eyes of people, you know, burning
with desire. Yeah. What we want, you know, it's
very simple. It's something that experience simply
can't give us. We want permanent pleasure mixed,
unmixed, totally unmixed, permanent pleasure
unmixed with anything unpleasant. Always the
pleasant. And there is no end, you know, to such
kind of wanting, because this is the nature of
the ego. Suffering because life isn't satisfying,
you know, our every selfish desire, and this
is really like suffering because a banana tree
doesn't bear mangoes. Hmm? Yeah, silly, isn't
it? Now the third truth, and you know Buddha
in his teaching as a teacher was called the great
physician, the great eater, the physician. The
third truth, any ailment that can be understood
can be cured. And suffering that has a cause
also has an end. When this fire of selfishness
has been extinguished, when the mind is free
of all our selfish desires, what remains then
is a state of wakefulness. It's a state of joy.
And it is called, you know, that which has been
extinguished, that state where the desires have
been extinguished, that which has been extinguished.
And the name of that, of course, is nirvana.
Yeah. The fourth truth is that selfishness can
be extinguished. by following the eightfold path,
which is the right understanding or correct understanding,
the right purpose, you can put correct in here
and incorrect purpose, right speech, right conduct,
right occupation, right effort, right attention,
and right meditation. See, so they speak, you
know, of Dharma as the wheel. The dharma of your
life is this wheel going around, and the spokes
are this eight -fold path where you find yourself
in the dharma. So that the right understanding
begins with seeing life as it is. In the midst
of all the change, this wheel is going around
all the time. And in the midst of that, in the
midst of all of your activities, do you see a
place where you can firmly stand? Firmly stand
in all the changes that take place. Where do
you stand firm? Where on this wheel is there
really anything that you can hang onto, that
you can hold? And to understand that happiness
doesn't come from out there. I am the cause of
my own unhappiness. If I just stop causing myself
unhappiness, I'll be happy. To understand that.
And to understand also that all things that come
into existence Pass away again And that's right
understanding and that is the beginning of wisdom
Now right purpose or correct purpose follows
from right understanding So that the thinking
you know falls in line with life as it is And
they say, you know, as a flood sweeps over a
slumbering village, so death sweeps away those
who are not prepared. Well, you know that every
10 days or so there's something that comes by
that sweeps away, if you're not prepared, the
ground on which you stand. So one begins to have
a purpose of ordering one's life. in learning
how to live. And that's right purpose. V is a
very poor way, learning, understanding. That's
the purpose, to live so that one can understand.
Now, the right speech and the right action and
the right occupation They all follow this. This
consists of living in harmony with oneself and
with others, living in harmony in a unity of
life. It is speaking kindly. It is acting kindly.
It is living not just for yourself, but for the
welfare of all. It's easy to live for oneself.
Just get out of my way and let me have mine.
And it is somewhat easy to live for one's family,
you know, one's friends and dear ones and so
on. But living for the good of all, that's difficult.
It takes some doing, because it is always putting
somebody else's feelings ahead of yours. And
this is something we don't like to do. But you
know, if you read the Tao Te Ging, Lao Tzu, you
will see the same thing in there. Now as far
as right occupation or right livelihood are concerned,
I read a little thing not too long ago by a man
named Schumacher and he presented two points
of view as far as occupation is concerned of
right livelihood. And he says, the modern, that
is today's, the modern economist has been brought
up to consider labor or work as a little more
than a necessary evil. From the point of view
of the employer, it is in any case simply an
item of cost. to be reduced to a minimum if it
cannot be eliminated altogether, say by automation.
So from the point of view of the workman, working
or labor, you know, is a disutility. To work
is to make a sacrifice of one's leisure and one's
comfort. and the wages are a kind of a compensation
for that sacrifice. And you'd be surprised at
the people that hold that attitude. Now, they
go to work and because I've got a job they owe
me. They've got to pay me my wages because I'm
putting in my time, where I could be enjoying
myself. Anyway, hence the ideal from the point
of view of the employer is to have output Without
employees and the ideal from the point of view
of the employee is to have income from unemployment
Okay, that's one point of view and it's quite
prevalent Then we come to the Buddha and his
contrasting way of thinking and in Buddhism they
take the function of work to be threefold. One,
it gives a man a chance to use and develop his
faculties. Where else are you going to develop
them? Playing around? Sitting under a tree? You
have an opportunity to use your talents, to develop
your talents. by doing as good a work as you
possibly can. And it also helps him to overcome
his ego centeredness by joining with other people
in a common task. Working together and so that
everybody is the same together. And to bring
forth, to help to bring forth goods and services
that are needed for our becoming existence. Now
there's a great deal of difference between those
two points of view. The first, that of the materialist,
is very imprisoning. We don't have much latitude
in there. And the second is simply a way of looking
for liberation. Anyway, these spokes of the wheel,
they sound very simple. And to some people, they're
very boring. You know, there's something that
you drag them through. Who bothers to plumb the
depths to see maybe what he really meant? You
know, the simple little thing in the... precepts,
you know, or even the Ten Commandments, let's
say. Thou shalt have no other God before me.
Then why do you keep putting your head above
God's? See, it's not just a matter of projecting
out there that, oh, somebody's got an idol or
an icon there, and they're worshiping that, so
they've got somebody ahead of God. As the Senate
say, why keep putting your head above God's?
Thou shalt not kill. And yet we gossip all the
time. We're killing reputations left and right.
And killing something in ourselves when we do
it. So these eight spokes, you know, one can
go over them and all the time see more and more
and more. Because as we look around now, who
acts in accordance with them? Who keeps them
in mind? Do you even keep them in mind? Even
one -tenth of the time? All creatures in this
world love life. All of them. And they all fear
of pain. And so we should treat them all as ourselves.
Be kind, be considerate, and be courteous. Now,
the last three spokes, you know, they deal with
the mind. Our mind, on which so very much depends.
You know, because, you know, they start out with
this whole thing with, our life is shaped by
our mind. So, if you don't like the shape of
your life, you look to your mind. See, our mind
is conditioned. And it is so conditioned. We
see nothing wrong with the way we think. We can't.
And we see nothing wrong with what we do and
therefore what we say and so on. But just watch
what's going on. Do not be deceived. Just watch
what is going on with you. Be watchful. Right
effort. is an endeavor, is this trying to train
oneself in thought, so therefore in word and
in action. You know, a gymnast trains the body
day in and day out, day in and day out, eight
hours a day. They train and train, and that body
is like this, like an instrument, you know. Those
who want to know, Those who want to be aware,
they train the mind. See, then one is mindful.
This is what they mean by mindful. It is difficult,
as Buddha said, to reach beyond the clutches
of Mara. It is so easy to have a partnership
with him. You know, let him have a little and
I can have a little, you know, and so on and
so on. But he says, don't do that. He says, be
vigilant. Be vigilant among those who slumber.
Right attention follows from right effort, keeping
the mind where it should be. The wise, he says,
train the mind to give complete attention to
one thing at a time, to what one is doing, what
one is about, here and now. You give that complete
attention. The mind which wants to go where it
likes and do what it likes, it is this unruly
mind that suffers and it causes suffering. Those
who want to follow the Dharma should always be
mindful. That is attentive. Always attentive.
And then of course we come to this right meditation.
Because that's the means of training the mind.
You know, and as they said, as rain sweeps, seeps
through an ill -thatched hut, selfish passion
seeps through an untrained mind. So train your
mind to be attentive through your meditation.
And I put before you another point of view, and
this is by a Rabbi Dressler. He's a catalyst,
I am given to understand. He says, man's continued
existence is by no means guaranteed. There is
no stability or certainty to man's existence.
One keeps oneself on one's toes if has this sort
of in the back of one's mind because this is
true You don't know how long you're going to
exist here however He goes on because he's gathering
things out of the Old Testament and he says the
angels opposed the creation of man The forces
of truth and just did oppose the creation of
man The creation of man was opposed because the
evil that would come forth from him was foreseen.
The creation of man was opposed because man's
power to hurt he will destroy, and this was foreseen.
Notwithstanding all this opposition, God created
man, now this is according to this rabbi, in
the hope that the good would conquer the evil,
that the power to love would conquer the power
to hurt, and the will to obey. His will should
conquer the will to destroy. The history of man,
however, has been the history of God's disappointment
with man. What the prophets feared most was God's
abandonment of man, the silencing of his voice
and the withdrawal of his presence. Perhaps this
is the meaning of our time. If man wants to destroy
himself, God seems to say, let him. I've had
enough. I shall try it again. elsewhere. It's
a very limiting picture, but it also shows how
little we have considered others, how little
we have loved others, how little we have put
somebody before us. It's a very anthropomorphic
picture. And it's very dismal picture that God
just gives up on us because we've made such a
mess out of things. And at the same time, you
see, how many men and women really try to study
themselves, to be watchful of themselves, to
become mindful. People are afraid of death. And
you know this fear of death that we have can
be met with the wish to understand life and death.
And that wish to understand can be so strong
that it is the same strength as our fear of death.
And that then is the bridge between man and immortality.
to understand. You want to understand? You watch.
You guard your thoughts. You watch. And there
is a story in connection with this of al -Hawaj.
He was a 10th century sage. He was a Sufi. He
lived in Persia. and he was sentenced to die
for heresy. And they scorched him and they mutilated
him and his skin was very slowly stripped from
his body. Then he was hung on a cross to wait
for his death. That's historical fact. You see,
make it bad enough and I'll get your attention.
This al -Halaj had a song that he sung, you know,
and it was a song of his identity with God. And
this is heretical to the Muslims. And then the
story goes that, you know, he's hanging there
on the cross on his last day, and his pupils
they come to see him, if he will say one last
word of instruction, what would you expect him
to say? Would you expect him to say, be faithful?
Would he, like Jesus, give a command of forgiveness?
Would he maybe describe a vision of God that
he was having what do you think would be his
last words? You know as he was dying He said
one thing to these his disciples One thing what
do you think it was do you think it was a blessing
you think he said to them peace be with you?
Love be with you What do you think he said? One
thing, study yourself. It's something we hear
from everywhere. You know, the Oracle at Delphi,
know thyself in true proportion. Study yourself.
Now, the Buddhist disciples, they came from many
walks of life, just as Jesus' disciples came
from many walks of life. Ananda and Devadattu,
they were his cousins, and they left wealth and
social position to be with him. Shariputra, the
great scholar, and Madhagalyayana and Keshapa.
They, all three of them were scholars, great
scholars, knew tremendous amounts already. Came
from other teachings and other teachers. Upali
had been a barber in Kapilavastu, which is the
same town where Buddha had lived. And Sona, he
was also from a very wealthy family. But, you
know, he had become so enamored of the Buddha.
that he had, at one time he'd had great hopes
of becoming a musician, really a musician, you
know, and his heart, you know, was with this
vina, what they play in India. But anyway, he
met the Buddha and so he became a disciple and
he embraced the spiritual life and I mean he
was out to swallow it, you know, he went into
a hook line and sinker. He threw everything else
away. Everything else was to be thrown overboard.
So in the forest around there, where they had
the camp, there were wild animals. There were
lions and there were tigers and there were elephants
and also there were lots of poisonous snakes.
So this little guy goes out into the forest every
day to practice his meditation. He goes as deep
as he can in the forest. And not only that, he
insisted on going barefoot, which, you know,
his pampered feet, you know, from his past, he
had been a very pampered young man. You know,
his feet rebelled and they bled and they got
sore and he was in a mess. But every day he went
out there anyway, blisters on his feet from stumbling
around. And after a time of this, one day the
Buddha followed him. And he carried with him,
the Buddha did, as always, his begging bowl.
He always carried the begging bowl with him.
But he also had a vina. And he had loosened the
strings on this instrument until they were limp
like spaghetti. So finally he gets to the place
where Sona is. He sees Sona meditating under
the banyan tree. And the boy sees him and he
limps over to him and the Buddha didn't notice
at all that he was limping or didn't seem to
it anyway. All he said to him was, Sona, can
you show me how to make music with this? And
so Sona took the instrument, very respectfully,
because you know this was his tremendous desire
at one time. He fingered a few notes. And then
he laughed and he said, blessed one, you can't
produce music when the strings are so loose.
Oh, I see, said the Buddha, you know, let me
try it again. And he proceeds to wind the strings
so tight that Sona winced. And then when the
Buddha tested them, they produced nothing but
high -pitched squeaks. Blessed one, that won't
work either. You'll break the strings. Here let
me tune it for you. So he took the instrument
and he loosened the strings gently and then he
played a little of a very haunting melody. And
then abruptly he stopped and he gave the thing
back to Buddha, you know, because the melody
was bringing back memories, you know, and he
didn't want to arouse these memories. He was
so immersed. in what he was going to do and to
be, that he wanted to trample everything else
underfoot. Even his ability to make music. And
he gives the thing back to him, he says, the
Buddha, it has to be tuned just right to make
music. Neither too tight nor too loose. It has
to be just right. And the Buddha turns to him
and says, Sona, it is the same for those who
seek enlightenment. Don't let yourself be slack,
but don't stretch yourself to a breaking point
either. You choose the middle way. You choose
the middle way between too much and too little.
And this is the whole way. of the Eightfold Pound.
Now it was this what he called the Middle Way,
onto which the Avatamsaka Sutra is based, and
it is this on which Nagyuna wrote, you know,
this man of this tremendous wisdom who went into
this Middle Way. And so we do not stop with just
choosing, I won't go too far this way and I won't
go too far this way, I'm going to stay in the
middle. That's very surface. There is a middle
way. There is a middle way. Here on this, where
we find ourselves, we have this world of appearance.
That's one aspect. Then we have another world,
which we sometimes call an inner world, in which
we perceive some things about ourselves, other
states of consciousness. So when people talk
about having visions or whatever, you know, of
seeing states. Okay, so you've got states of
consciousness on one side, and here is this world
of appearance. These two aspects. Now there's
a middle way. That's something else again. And
this is Nagarjuna. You know, Henry said, you
know, he was the greatest genius who ever lived.
And there are, with this Avatamsaka Sutra, There
are maybe five, maybe seven people in the whole
world who really understand it. So, that's what
you're going after. That's what you're going
after. Anyway, back to this Dhammapada. The fool
is careless, but the master guards his watching.
It is his most precious treasure. A fool remains
a slave. He is a slave of his instincts, of his
unconscious desires, of all kinds of whims that
blow through. He's a slave of anything and everything
that happens around him. What happens around
him, no matter what kind of an appearance it
is, he just picks it up and tosses it in his
little bag and carries on in his pack. You don't
want to do that. A watchful man becomes the master
of his life. He lives according to that light
And he has a simple contended life no matter
what comes Guarding the watching The meditation
the meditation some people say meditation is
an escape mechanism We shouldn't be doing it
That's kind of the view that some people have
in this country. Meditation is something very
new in the Western culture, actually. But a meditation
is an escape from the unreal, from the delusions,
from the deluded mind. It is an escape from desire,
and it is an escape from our thoughts, and it
is an escape from everything in us that creates
our confusion, if you're sitting right. because
it is simply moving into the mind so that one
is mindful. Now, somehow in our everyday life
we manage to keep ourselves together. We have
here a semblance of togetherness. This togetherness
is a facade. It is something, it's our face that
we present to the world. And we keep, we're very
busy all the time. We have to keep adjusting
this facade so that we can make it more appealing
to the people, to others out there. Now, we're
very busy doing this. While we are so busy creating
this facade and presenting it, what is going
on behind it? What is this facade covering? Well,
there are some people who think that this facade
is covering a clamoring crowd. You know, we have
what we have acquired from our relatives. And
the things we have read and the things we have
seen, you know, all this what we see on television,
and there are all these great contradictions.
So that it's like a civil war going on within
us. But some thoughts are fighting other thoughts.
And thoughts want to be fulfilled, you know,
their desires. And they confuse us. And they
look, you know. There's a desire in us. It looks
to you to fulfill the desire that's running around
in here is looking to you to do something about
it See no other people don't want to look If
you are somewhat aware of this confusion. All
it takes is just to be aware of it. And you're
no longer identified with it. As soon as you
are no longer identified and clutched to and
clinging to this confusion, you're on your way
home. See? Make it sound very simple. And it
really is in its way. You're watching. And when
you're watching, you're no longer aiding and
abetting the confusion. So that very slowly,
you can withdraw your energies from all the strife.
And the energies that are withdrawn, will go
to feed the new man. You know, the new man that
is born of the old man, which is the way Saint
Paul puts it. So again and again and again and
again, with a watchful mind, the wise man brings
himself back to the present. See, back either
from the future or from the past, you know, he
brings himself now. And always now. He brings
himself back to it every moment that he possibly
can and slowly it begins to happen. Slowly a
window opens and suddenly you're touching life.
There's the wind and the rain and there's a leaf
swirling and there's the earth as a witness to
it all. And so that life It becomes not just
a word. The word life represents something. And
there is this very tangible quality. And love
is not just a word. It is this tremendously overflowing
energy. And a blessing then is no more just a
hope of some grace. You are it. Because meditation
is a state of non -asking, of non -questioning,
of non -thinking. And in the Pali they call it
samasin or samasati. And we call it samasamati.
Right mindfulness, right awareness, consciousness,
alertness, watchfulness. witnessing all -encompassing
consciousness is with no content. The mind is
empty and it is a pure presence with nowhere
to go. It is at home. So that is Samma Samadhi.
More will be posted in weeks to come.