First let me apologize for asking something that I view as irrelevant and inconsequential. I just cannot resist the intellectual curiosity. While a historic zen master could show me the finger (not necessarily the index), I'm kind of hoping that you could help me approach this question: is the theory that everything disappears and reappears every instant just a metaphor, a sort of allegory? If the point of such theory is just that each instant is in some form separate from each other and that we are free to act in each instant, I get it. If the explanation is just something closer to reality than our cultural concept of time, I get it. I just can't buy that anything disappears and then pops up every moment; and I believe that any belief in such thing is just a belief, and that we could not possibly know that for sure.

I think it's abusive to burden a teacher with questions that have no real impact on practice/life itself, but maybe I'm wrong and my curiosity is indeed a manifestation of bodhicitta and understanding such a far fetched theory could help my practice. After all, you helped me understand how I've always believed in Santa Claus, even though I couldn't explain it. Thanks

Gassho