The Business Of Dying To The Isness.

Anytime one thinks of adding something to one's life it seems to be a requirement that some room be made available for that addition. It is kind of an addition by subtraction. And if Nature truly does abhor a vacuum then we cane be rest assured that any loss, opening, absence will be filled in due time.

There is also that widely recited tale of the encounter between the Zen Master and a visiting Professor; one whose cup had indeed runneth over. The Zen Master could not possibly add anything to the Professor's existence in terms of knowledge, insight, realization, or understanding. The Professor was already too full--too full of himself! There was no opening. There was no absence. There was no emptiness. The Professor had not yet sufficiently died to the known. And a 'death to the known' was what was necessary before the Zen Master would even be willing to impart anything of substance to the Professor. Aside from such a dying to the known there was no use in the Zen Master transmitting anything in the direction of the Professor.

So a prerequisite in terms of psycho-spiritual discplines such as Zen is a literal death. And much time is spent initially in breaking down the known. All of those preconceptions and assumptions and taken-for-granted assertions are eroded through hours upon hours of 'just sitting.' In the process we are not 'building,' but dismantling. A dismantling of psychological structures and conceptual systems that must be made to give way so that there is a Space for Transmission of the Dharma.

That dismantling seems to happen to seem for some in an explosive, earth-shattering way. For others it is more like the rain gently eroding a crusty hillside to reveal a treasure long buried, and just as long forgotten. In either case, there is need for emptying and eroding; there is need for a clearing to be made; there is need for Space in which Transmission can occur.

The dying to the Isness--What Is Now--opens us up for... ?

Which is where our faith and trust come in.