There is an old Sufi story that goes like this:
The lover comes to knock on the door of the beloved; the voice from within asks, “Who is it?” The lover answers, “It is I, so-and-so.” The beloved answers, “I do not know you, go away.”
The second time the lover comes and knocks, the same procedure happens.
The third time the lover answers, “It is you!” Immediately the door opens and the beloved calls, “Enter now!”
“Awakening is more a realisation than an experience. It is dying to the dualistic, narcissistic self and being reborn as the Self that is No-Self; when one lets go and falls into the void, the void turns into boundless openness and ineffable mystery.
Zen practice is the practice of letting go of attachments and self-images and fantasies; It is not only by letting go and self-emptying, but in the radical openness to the Other and the world, in a leaf, a flower, a sound, a gesture or a word, that one comes to Awakening.
A flower blooms, it is the blooming of the Self of No-Self; a bird chirps, it is the chirping of the Self of No-Self. It is to realise the heart-mind of oneself is Emptiness and boundless openness, and to realise the world as Self and Self as the world. It is Emptiness Awakening to Emptiness.
The sage has no Self: the world is her/his Self, her/his Self is the world.”
Words by Father Ama Samy (A living Master) ‘Zen: Awakening to your Original Face’
Photo ‘Minerva is a Diva’ by Kristian Schuller