The unconscious is the gateway to reality. July 18, 1981

Zen Roshi, Lola McDowell Lee, discusses the meaning of the Zen saying, “Joy in the morning. Sleep at night. What else?”

When we “do not know,” then we don’t concern ourselves with obsessions about outcomes. That is the meaning of “no mind.”

Start by discovering what “no mind” is not.

Is there a gradual acquisition of “no mind?”

Is there an enduring entity called self? Is there a self to improve? Do not accept of reject an answer without learning for yourself directly.

Is the thinker different than his thoughts?

Just like we have frames of images in our vision, which are just a series of flashes which we might think are continuous… so do we have a series of thoughts, a thinking mind, that we might think are continuous… but they are not.

How do we use the mind to study the mind? A knife cannot cut itself. How can you, living in time, know what time is?

The “I” that develops as one grows in childhood grasps at immediate wants. Then, eventually, it also wants to be socially accepted. Those two wishes cause conflict in us.

Your knowledge and memories are held in your subconscious. Your instincts, heart beats, etc, are held in your unconscious.

It is this unconscious that is the gateway to reality.

There is a method to examine your self moment by moment—called Prajahara.

July 18, 1981