Trust, emptiness, and the self in the practice of Soto Zen Buddhism: An exploration including the insights of self psychology, Erik Erikson, and D. W. Winnicott

The Mahayana teachings of emptiness lie at the heart of Soto Zen Buddhist practice. They require of the practitioner a letting go of the known self and a willingness to allow a new subjectivity to emerge, one expressive of the interrelationship of all being. This process leads the practitioner to the edge of the known and over. It deeply challenges assumptions about the nature of reality and the nature of the self.; Studying this process it becomes clear that it cannot occur without the presence of trust, trust that the self will not crumble or disintegrate, trust that the environment will provide adequate support, trust in the practice and ones ability to realize it, and ultimately trust as an expression of life itself. This trust is built and nurtured in early life, matured in adulthood, brought to the encounter with Soto Zen practice and transformed there. It is inseparable from the companion process of the formation, development and maturation of the self. The quality of this trust deeply influences the experience an individual will have with the practice.; In order to bring a greater understanding to this process I have introduced the language and concepts of psychoanalytic psychology, specifically the work of Erik Erikson on basic trust, D. W. Winnicott's description of transitional space and the language of Self psychology and intersubjective theorists with regards to self experience. After a building a substantive foundation of Soto teachings and practice I describe the specific aspects of psychoanalytic theory introduced and discuss how they can help us to understand factors that support practice. I then follow the two interrelated threads of self experience and trust as they influence and evolve within the context of Soto Zen practice---that is from an experience of the self as a separate entity to a subjective experience grounded in and expressive of all beings, and from basic trust to an absolute trust which is the activity of practice and life itself. Finally I discuss the role of the practice environment and present an understanding of the role of selfobject relationships in both supporting and transforming self experience.