Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, discusses various texts about the notion of God — from the biblical book of Genesis to Mystica Theologica to the sutras of Patanjali. Dionysus was a disciple of St. Paul and one-time mayor of Athens. We eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil… but we must return to the Tree of Life. Buddhism did not identify God. Or a self. So for a Buddhist, what is there? Perhaps a Buddhist might say there is a Power greater than himself. Why did God create the world as it is? How do you answer the question, “Why do you love the person you love?” The wisdom of Patanjali, the author of many Sanskrit works including the Yoga Sutras. Yoga is the restraining from taking the many forms. Like a sculptor who removes parts of the stone to find the creation within. We have blind spots in our seeing, and in our hearing. We also have blind spots in our thinking… caused by the many patterns we identify with. Like a sculptor, we must learn to identify these patterns to find what remains within us. Darwin traveled the world in a big ship… and he came upon islanders who could not see his boat. It was too big. If these islanders could not see a boat because it was too big, then how do we expect to see God? That is why we meditate. To enter an area beyond our patterns, beyond our knowledge—to experience a kind of not knowing. We must give up our thoughts and identifications to experience this not-seeing. Then we can see the Truth of what we are. Lola discusses the creation of the world in the biblical chapter of Genesis. What is the Light at the beginning? And what is the Light again on the fourth day? Genesis 1:1-4 (King James version) - “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” How this relate to Aurobindo’s poem, Savitri, that begins “"It was the hour before the Gods awake.” The tale of a man of Athos who spoke to an apricot tree and it blossomed. Jan 31, 1987
