Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, further explores the Mystica Theoligica . NOTE: LOLA HAS A BAD COLD TODAY AND A PERSISTENT COUGH. If that bothers you, please skip. But the content of the talk is worth the discomfort, in my opinion. Religious life is like a sculpture… best to take away from life that which is not Him rather than ascribe characteristics to Him. Most of our thoughts and emotions are unconscious. And people think: Oh, how life without emotions and desire would be so colorless. But is that true? Heraclitus preferred what he called “the dry soul.” Gurdjieff once told Ouspensky that, for the most part, no one self-remembers. If you can do that, he said, you’re most of the way toward Being. The ordinary want to be extraordinary. But the truly extraordinary appreciate the ordinary. Looking at a bird. A plant. Ordinary life. If you feel pain during sitting, keep watching your body. You’ll learn things. Instead of trying to be a better man, try to be a new man. You have a stance in this world. What is it you are standing on? How many of your concepts and emotions are you clinging to? How much are you understanding correctly? If you pay only lip service to the practice, it will not suffice. If you pay “hard sitting,” the True Self will know what you’re doing. Dec 11, 1988
