Talks by Lola McDowell Lee

About Talks by Lola McDowell Lee

This is a series of newly digitized talks by spiritual teacher, Lola McDowell Lee, spanning two decades—from the early Seventies through the Nineties. Lola was a Zen Roshi whose Rinzai lineage included Doctor Henry Platov and renowned Zen master, Shigetsu Sasaki. Lola was a religious scholar as well as an ordained Christian minister. While the talks are focused mainly on Zen and Buddhism, Lola drew on many spiritual traditions—including those of Jesus, Plato, Lao-Tzu, the Hindu Vedas, Meister Eckhart and Gurdjieff. If you find Lola’s talks valuable, more will be posted in days to come. RSSVERIFY

Publisher

I & A Publishing

Category

education · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 Aug 2023

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

148 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Comparing the Isha Upanishad with other esoteric traditions.  Delivered May 10, 1987

   Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, explores foundational metaphysical concepts of the Isha Upanishad, comparing Eastern philosophy with other esoteric traditions. She begins by examining the imagery of the "golden lid" that conceals ultimate truth from ordinary perception. The divine Purusha is omnipresent and identical to the true self. Shakti is the Great Mother and primeval energy behind all manifested forms. Lola traces historical threads from ancient Aryan migrations and Dravidian Brahmanism to global archetypes of the Divine Feminine like Isis and Mary. Lola explains how material nature functions as the manifestation of divine creativity. She contrasts this with Samkhya Yoga. Disciplined internal observation allows human consciousness to awaken from objective illusions. Lola describes consciousness as a continuous spectrum of energy, ranging from fine spiritual frequencies down to massed physical matter, which she characterizes as crystallized light. Humanity occupies a unique middle ground of objective self-consciousness, bridging our physical dependency on the maternal realm with the vertical aspiration toward the paternal spirit. The complementary forces of Surya (the supreme truth of gnosis and seeing) and Agni (the divine will that purifies action). True spiritual realization is validated not merely through intellectual exercises, but through direct inner experience and transformation. We must move beyond conceptual delusions and mental chatter and ground ourselves in the joyous realization of Sat-chit-ananda — pure existence, awareness, and divine delight. Delivered May 10, 1987

2. 

   27 Sept 2026

   The path from warrior to king. Delivered Nov 23, 1986

   Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, contrasts two fundamental inner orientations: the path of the warrior and the path of the king. Lola shares Tilopa's poem to Naropa about transcending dualities, dissolving distractions, and abiding effortlessly in the natural state. She notes that while spiritual traditions are numerous, every individual ultimately carves out a unique path based on their own inner focus. Lola categorizes human approaches into two basic stances: the aggressive, conflict-driven warrior and the dispassionate, observing king. The history and philosophy of Gnosticism. The warrior mindset. How early Egyptian monotheism blended with Greek and Jewish traditions, eventually producing a gloomy worldview dominated by dualistic conflict between an unknown, otherworldly God and a flawed material creator known as the Demi-urge. This duality manifested in early Christian history through two extreme reactions: asceticism, which viewed the physical body and matter as inherently evil and forbade procreation, and libertinism, which attempted to exhaust sensual appetites through indulgence. The concept of the "Stranger God" -- a framework where humans are trapped between eternal forces of light and dark. Lola critiques this constant battle, arguing that we perpetually judge nature and itself through a rigid, fault-finding framework without recognizing the underlying unity of existence. It is the mentality of a soldier versus the mentality of a monarch. A soldier is perpetually in the trenches, fighting enemies, obeying orders, and engaging in internal conflict to eradicate perceived flaws. Conversely, a king does not battle; a king sits above the fray, observing calmly and overseeing the entire domain. To illustrate this transition from warrior to king, Lola recounts the famous Zen encounter between Bodhidharma and an anxious Chinese emperor. When the emperor asked Bodhidharma to cure his mental disturbances, the master tells him to bring his anxieties to him at their next meeting so they could be healed. Upon sitting in deep meditation to locate and confront his troubled thoughts, the emperor realizes that the anxieties had no independent substance—they existed only because he was not truly present as a witness. Lola applies this insight directly to modern meditation practice, emphasizing the crucial importance of unshakeable attention and bare awareness. When distracting thoughts arise during meditation, practitioners typically make the mistake of either clinging to them, fighting them, or projecting blame outward. The ego tends to disown negative thoughts while inflating the ego around positive thoughts. True spiritual practice requires dropping this emotional reactivity and simply remaining the impartial witness. By observing thoughts as they come and go without attachment or aversion, the practitioner steps onto the royal road. Ultimately, this leads to the realization of the non-attainable—resting in the silent, luminous space of the true, otherworldly self beyond all conceptual dualities. Delivered Nov 23, 1986

3. 

   12 Sept 2026

   How to master attention. Delivered Nov 2, 1986

   Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, discusses the importance of mastering attention—to uncover the silent inner ground of being. Lola recounts a tale about Master Shoju, who calmly sat in a graveyard amidst howling wolves without fear. He had an unshakeable state of mind, invulnerable to the external turmoil of life and death. Most people operate through the thinking mind, engaged in chores, conversations, with their attention scattered across "ten thousand things." People also talk to themselves endlessly about weather, politics, and trivialities—out of touch with their inner core. When individuals first approach meditation in search of self-knowledge, they frequently bring the same habits of "doing" to their practice. They treat meditation as another technique to master, constantly evaluating their performance, worrying whether they are doing it right, or trying out various mental methods and mantras. True meditation has nothing to do with mental gymnastics. Meditation is a state of penetration into the deepest ground of one's being. The mind cannot find stillness through surface thinking and methods. True meditation requires letting go of mental effort, ignoring passing thoughts, allowing attention to rest in the subtle gaps and intervals between thoughts. Lola addresses common misconceptions about meditation. Many mistakenly believe that sitting quietly in a physical posture is sufficient, or that meditation requires a gloomy, pious demeanor. The divine is reflected in the vibrant beauty of nature—sparkling oceans, green grass, and blooming flowers—and that true spiritual practice should awaken greater intelligence, aliveness, and joyful zest for living. The thinking mind is cunning. It rationalizes physical paralysis as spiritual depth, mental dullness as transcendence, and emotional deadness as renunciation. Citing Thomas Merton and D.T. Suzuki, Lola explains that Zen does not seek to explain reality through complex verbal formulas or emotional excitement. It requires pure, unshakeable attention. Lola examines the pitfalls of self-deception and the scattered energy that plagues human life. We easily fool ourselves through egotism, greed, and what Saint Paul termed the "law of my parts"—conflicting internal drives that push us hither and thither without our conscious consent. Without self-observation and disciplined attention, people remain utterly blind to the inner energies driving them. “Not even God himself can help a man who pays no attention." Without inner attention, a person is like someone fighting blindfolded in a dark room against unseen enemies. Lola traces the practice of mindfulness and self-observation to ancient traditions. She discusses practical exercise used with her students—asking them to visualize the color blue and notice how quickly the mind wanders, revealing how undisciplined human attention truly is. When individuals learn to direct their attention inward, moving past surface desires and mental chatter, they tap into the infinite silence and emptiness that they possessed at birth before collecting the noises of the world. Ultimately, Lola frames the journey of meditation as the ultimate monastery of the mind, accessible anywhere and at any time. One can transform ordinary movements such as the Tai Chi or the watchful waiting of the psalmist into acts of deep prayer and self-inquiry, bridging the gap between ego and no-mind. Delivered Nov 2, 1986

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