“Abandon concepts, realize all. Encompass Emptiness, and dissolve all duality.” That was the message at the end of the 2nd edition of the System Guide and placed at the start of the 3rd edition of the System Guide.
It was also a subject of discussion on one of the recent Instructors’ zoom session (26 February 2022). Instructors shared some of their interpretations of the message and its intent. There seems to still be some confusion. Some said it is part of our philosophy and some said it’s a mental state—part of the process of our training. Others brought up that the message is like the Buddha’s raft parable. While these ideas are not wrong, they are incomplete.
Zhong Xin Dao transcends that very message: it is the HOW of our Approach. The ever-changing present moment, the balancing moment, IS the abandoning moment. The action of balancing itself will solve this puzzle!
Reflection—the direct experience of the changing moment, or seeing what is happening as it happens—IS the kind of “knowing” that in our art we call Being WITH. This kind of ‘being’ IS the ‘action’ of the moment—it is the very process of abandoning.
So, ‘knowing the moment’ is through direct experiencing of it, In CONNECTING (meeting and matching, linking), there is no more ‘conceptualizing,’ no naming, labeling, thinking. Connecting, meeting, matching, linking are all aspects of being with.
“Abandoning,” in Eastern philosophy, doesn’t mean like dumping something away (it’s not that you don’t like it and get rid of it); and “embracing” doesn’t mean you grab it and hug it because you like it—that’s still the 2 dualities. *You can only abandon by balancing, using the neutral approach from within— by connecting, linking, stretching you are encompassing.
This is our APPROACH—the foundation of Zhong Xin Dao—Being with the balancing point, the present point, means encompassing and seeing/sensing the conditions as One.
— Transcribed by Dr. Nancy Watterson
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