93. The practice of Zen is very much a practice of letting-go. Thus Master AMA Samy would have us let go of our 'attachment to attachments'. In a similar vein Master Dogen Kigen insists on the importance of forgetting 'all attachments steadfastly'. This practice of letting-go can best be thought of as a process of self-emptying, self-forgetting. Consequently, our first step in the practice of Zen is not towards getting something. Rather, it is directed towards losing something. This something that must be lost is none other than ourself, ourself with its attachments, self-images, fantasies. Only through this process of self-emptying can we uncover in ourselves a 'radical openness to the other ... in a leaf, a flower, a sound, a gesture' that, says AMA Samy, 'brings us to awakening'.
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