Note: this talk has some sound issues, but I found it valuable enough to include the bulk of it anyway. It’s about 8 minutes shorter because the cassette player apparently started warbling and slowing down badly at the end—during the discussion of Prakrit and Parusha . There is another talk on this subject available here if you are interested. It’s a fascinating doctrine. Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explores the accounts of the Indian Bauls - a religious group that included members of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims. They had a freewheeling spirit. And worshipped the Hindu goddess, Kali, the Divine Mother. The Bauls sought after the meaning of the Novel Man, a concept not unlike the True Man of St. Paul. Kali and Krishna. While many saw them as opposing forces, the Bauls worshipped them together, as complementary aspects of the divine. We think we own our possessions, our thoughts, our beliefs--the more the better… but in reality they own us. Our daily life and our Being coexist. But first comes Being. Lola recounts the tale of the King and the Nun… the King makes her a queen, but even as queen, she continues to secretly pray to God. The notion of the downward movement of Prakrit into the unconscious. Some people are afraid to push downward. But they need not be. Like a scientist, we should see what we can discover inside—including our sensations and our feelings. Zen’s goal is much like that of the Bauls, but Zen is more direct. Prakrit and Purusha are two fundamental and distinct principles that explain the nature of reality. All of nature comes about and is moved by the non-moving—like a magnet moves magnetized items on a board with an unseen power. While it appears the items on the board are active, they are not moving under their own power. The entire universe is the unfolding — as the interaction between Prakrit and Parusha . When you become unattached from Prakrit —then everything follows you. Like your shadow cast ahead of you when the is sun behind you—you try but cannot follow your shadow as it moves. But turn toward the sun — the Truth — and your shadow follows you. Oct 18, 1987
