Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, continues her discussion of the Dhammapada . She warns us against mistaking the false for the true, urging us to look into our hearts and follow our true natures. Spiritual texts are meaningless without direct action. Lola discusses the seeming conflict of seeking external rewards while professing detachment from the fruit of action. Truth simply is . It is the truth of being, which human effort must uncover. Our chief obstacle is the web of conditioning. To find truth, one must deliberately extract oneself from this accidental conditioning of our societal pressures, and even our religious background. The price of truth is rigorous personal effort. That is our payment. Lola presents the story of the Siddhartha Gautama as the ultimate example of dedicated effort. His great renunciation, his adoption of the ascetic path, and his eventual realization that extreme mortification weakened his concentration. This led him to the “Middle Way." The climax of his journey was under the fig tree where he vowed to remain until he found the way beyond death and decay. The key to liberation is inwardness. The ancient Greeks believed the heart was the seat of wisdom and intuition. The heart is always pulsing in the present moment, unlike the mind, which is trapped in the past and future. The question, "How do you go in?" is answered simply: "You simply stop going out." Inwardness is achieved by stopping the mind’s outward movement toward thoughts and desires. Lee says to abandon the ways of the "lazy cowherd" who spends his time counting others' cows by merely reading the interpretations of the actual scripture instead of investigating the scripture itself—and seeking direct experience. Aug 2, 1987
