Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explains that when you sit properly in meditation, your world is gone. You are alone. Absolutely alone. And when you learn to accept this alone , it builds a great strength. Find that alone—and accept it. She asks: you know all about your history, your friends, your work… but do you know you? Without that light within you—that forgotten light—there would be no you. It is the reason you exist. Many of us—at 40, or 50, or 60—hold the same image of God that we developed at age 5 or 10. Childish beliefs. Philosophies and beliefs make you feel better. But they are avoidances. During troubling times—like during war—people start believing. God is an escape for them. Master Ummon is asked about the four virtues of the Nirvana Sutra: Immutability, Joy, Personal Existence and Purity. Ummon picked up a cup and asked, “How many virtues has this?” “None at all,” the monk answered. Ummon suggested the monk best go on with his lectures about the Sutra. Ummon practices only one virtue: existence value. The garden of your mind is full of beautiful flowers—and weeds. We need to explore it all. But that takes time. We have time for movies and gossip and football—but not to meditate. If you stop puffing up your ego, it will shrink. Which is good, because eventually death will destroy it. This causes us anguish. But with practice, it doesn’t need to. Nov 5, 1984
