Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Buddhist
History and Religion
When You Come to a Fork in the Road: A Zen Meditation

When You Come to a Fork in the Road: A Zen Meditation

Last updated on: April 20, 2024 at 2:13 pm by James Ford

0 Comments

When You Come to a Fork in the Road: A Zen Meditation 2024-04-20T14:13:05-07:00 James Ford

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Fork in the road
Ballylaghnan, Co. Clare

What follows is a Dharma talk delivered by Sensei Edward Sanshin Oberholtzer at the regular Saturday morning gathering of the Empty Moon Zen sangha on the 20th of April, 2024.

I’m sure that one of those gateway drugs that nudged me in the direction of Zen practice was a PBS series of Japanese films, introduced by Edward O. Reischower, and broadcast in the mid 1970’s on the Boston station, WGBH. It featured films by Ozu and Ichikawa, including that Buddhist classic, the Harp of Burma, and, of course, many of the films had been directed by Akira Kurasawa. His samurai films, The Seven Samurai, the Hidden Fortrous, Rashomon, Sanjuro and Yojimbo were a major draw. I was particularly taken by the characters played by Toshiro Mufuni. During the opening credits of Yojimbo, Mufuni is seen walking down a dusty trail to where the road splits. He contemplates this for a moment, reaches down, picks up a stick, tosses it in the air where it lands on one of the two paths. The samurai shrugs and saunters off in that direction and my mind saunters off to the couplet:

The Great Way is not difficult

For those who do not pick and choose

Sengcan, the legendary third Chinese patriarch of Zen, is credited with writing those words, the beginning of the poem we know as Trust in Mind, and he could have been speaking to Mufuni’s character in that moment. Buddhism, classic Indian Buddhism, gives us the eightfold path, a road map with steps and stations for those of us with an inclination to follow a map. The Great Way is more an invitation to a long and dusty road. Both have their sets of travellers, both are invitations to seekers of the Dharma.

Little is known of Sengcan. The enlightenment story told by our ancestor Keizan Jokin in his collection the Denko Roku seems a pale echo of the enlightenment story of Sengcan’s immediate ancestor Huike, substituting Sengcan’s leprosy for the severed arm of Huike and Sengcan’s sins for Huike’s mind, neither of which could be found, both of which are resolved by their very unknowability. Little else is known of Sengcan except for the poem Trust in Mind, a collection heavily influenced by Daoism and consisting of 146 lines arranged in couplets and urging us to, as the poem goes:

When pref’rences are cast aside the Way stands clear and undisguised.

But even slight distinctions made set earth and heaven far apart.

If you would clearly see the truth, discard opinions pro and con.

But it’s the words of that New York Yankees worthy Yogi Berra which provide, to my mind, perhaps the best and most succient summation of the poem, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Words duly followed by Mufuni’s character.

Certainly, both Sengcan and Yogi Berra continued to speak through that grandmotherly Zen teacher Zhaozhou as we hear in the koan entitled Zhaozhou’s Country Bumpkin, case 57 in the Blue Cliff Record

A monk asked Zhaozhou, “‘The supreme way is not difficult; it simply dislikes choosing.’ What is non-choosing?”

Zhaozhou said, “‘Above the heavens, beneath the heavens, I am alone and the honored one.’”

“Isn’t that still choosing?” returned the monk, to which Zhaozhou said,

“You country bumpkin! Where is the choosing?” The monk said nothing.

A fork in the road, a stick tossed in the air, a weary samurai trudges down a country road alone towards an unknown and troubled village, and again, we hear from another curious monk in Case 58: Zhaozhou’s Non-Vindication

A monk asked Zhaozhou, “You say ‘The supreme way is not difficult; it simply dislikes choosing.’ Isn’t that a pit into which we’ve have fallen?”

Zhaozhou said, “Once someone asked me about that. For the five years since then, I haven’t been able to apologize for it.”

Koun Yamada once asked Anne Aitken what she thought of death. “When the bus stops, you get on-board”’ she said. Standing at a bus stop, hearing the hiss of the bus’s brakes, the sound of the door sliding open, the hooded bus driver offering with a soectral hand, not a ferry crossing of the river Styx but a simple, almost mundane ride off into eternity, the old women needs no thought, not even a stick tossed in the air. She simply boards the bus, pays her fare, and takes a seat. And there, on the side of that dusty road, the bus passes a dusty, grizzled samurai and a series of old Burma Shave signs on which appears yet another question from yet another monk in:

Case 59: Zhaozhou’s Simply the Way

A monk asked Zhaozhou, “‘The supreme way is not difficult; it simply dislikes choosing.’ If there are words at all, that is choosing. How then can you teach others?”

Zhaozhou said, “Why don’t you complete the quotation?”

“I just wish to know about this.”said the monk.

“Only this, ‘the supreme way is not difficult; it simply dislikes choosing.’” returned Zhaozhou

One wonders, does the samurai ever regret following the stick’s path down to that Japanese town riven with stife? Does Anne Aitken regret the bus’s destination? I think not. I think regret did not enter their minds. But here, traveling down that roadway, the bus passes first the samurai, then a an ancient, though more recent poet, perhaps a country bumpkin, though born in San Francisco, who, having set off down the road himself wonders about:

The Road Not Taken

By, of course, Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

A good choice, perhaps, but a choice nonetheless.

Frost may not be alone, for as the poet Kobayashi Issa wrote:

This world of dew

is just this world of dew-

and yet……

Choices made or not made, we step onto the dusty path and place one foot in front of the other. Sengcan encourages us on our way. That grizzled samurai turns and gazes us as we travel, Anne Aitchen waves from her bus as she passes, Zhaozhou, ever the grandmother, finishes with “The supreme way is not difficult; it simply dislikes choosing.”

New Visions

History and Religion

Previous Post

April 17, 2024

Swami Vivekananda on the Buddha's Message

Next Post

April 21, 2024 Noting a step toward a coherent theology of a natural Jesus

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Allowing anger to contaminate one's hard disk can be detrimental to one's holistic well being. ..."

Dr.Cajetan Coelho

Hot Anger: Meeting Anger in Zen ..."

"I love this koan. every which way you turn it bites you, Thirty years on ..."

Mark Strathern

Nanquan Cuts the Cat: A Jesuit ..."

"As a substitute for religion, Zen is probably better than taking drugs. However, it can ..."

Theodore Brandley

The Selling of Zen at the ..."

"Craving and aversion are detrimental to one's peace and happiness. Easter is a wake up ..."

Dr.Cajetan Coelho

Easter: A Zen Buddhist Appreciation

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Christmas Carol Abolitionist African-American Ahmadiyya Alan Watts Aldous Huxley Allen Ginsberg Amedkar Jayanti American politics American Zen Anaheim Zen Sangha Anglican Annie Besant April Fool Armageddon Art and Religion artificial intellegence Atheist Awakening B R Ambedkar Barlaam & Josaphat Beatnik Between Bhagavad Gita Bible biography birthday bodhisattva Bodhisattva Precepts Book burning Book of Common Prayer Book of Mormon Brahmo Samaj Buddha Buddhism Buddhist Buddhist Lord's Prayer Butterflies Calendars cartoons cat ChatGPT Chicken Tortilla Soup choices Christian atheism Christian mysticism Christian origins Christian Science Christian Zen Christianity Christianity and Buddhism christmas Christmas Truce Christopher Isherwood Church of Later Day Saints Cinco de Mayo circus covenant critical thinking culture D. T. Suzuki Dalit Buddhism Daniel Defoe Desert Fathers and Mothers dharma talk Dogen Donald Trump Dongshan's Five Ranks Dorothy Day dream Duty Easter ecology Edwin Arnold emptiness Empty Moon Zen Network Episcopal Church Eternal Now Ethics evolution existentialism Faith fantasy Fathers Day film film review fire Five Ranks Folk music food Form and emptiness Four Seals Francis of Assisi Francis Xavier Free thinker friendship George MacDonald Gerald Heard Glenn Taylor Webb God Good Friday Gospel of Gospel of Mark Gospel of Thomas grace Graduate Theological Unioin Graduate Theological Union Guanyin H R Blyth Hakuin Ekaku Hanamatsuri Hanukkah Harada Yasutani Zen Heart Sutra Henry David Thoreau Hermann Hesse Hinduism History and Religion history of religion Holy Spirit home Hospitality Icon Ides of March Isaac Newton Islam Islamic mysticism Jack Kerouac James Luther Adams Jiddu Krishnamurti Joan of Arc Johannes Gutenberg John Donne joke Judaism justice karma kensho King James Bible koan Koun Yamada Kyoto School Lewis Carrol Liberal Christianity Liberal Religion Life Plan Community Liminal literature Literature and Religion Liturgy Lord's Prayer Love Mahatma Gandhi Mahayana Martin Luther King Jr Mary Baker Eddy Mary Magdelene Mary Oliver Mayflower Compact Meditation memories memory metaphor money money and religioin Mormons Mother's Day movie review mysticism mythic Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church New Thought Nichiren Buddhism Nonduality not knowing Omar Khayyam Pacific School of Religion pagan Palm Sunday Passover peace Pentecost perennialism Phantastes Philip Kapleau philosophy Pilgrimage poetry Poetry and Religion politics Prayer Precepts Printing Press prophecy prophetic spirituality psychology Pure Land Queer religion queering religion Quietism Ram Mohan Roy rebirth recipe Relationships and religion religion religion and history Religious syncretism Resistance Retirement Retreat review Rissho Kosei Kai Ritual Robert Aitken Roshi Robert Ingersoll Rohatsu Romani religion Rosie the Riveter saints samadhi SanboZen Sangha Satyagraha science science and reigion science and religion science fiction seminary sermon Sesshin Sex and Religion Shinran Sikh Sikh tradition silence Social Justice Socially Engaged Buddhism Society and religion Soto Zen soul spiritual community spiritual practice Spirituality Sufism Suicide superstition Taoism Television Teresa of Avila Thanksgiving theological schools Theosophy Thomas Merton Time Transcendentalism Transcendentalist Trinitarian Trinity Uncategorized unitarian Unitarian Christianity Unitarian Universalist Universalism Vajrayana Vedanta Walking war Willa Cather William Ellery Channing wisdom women and religion women in religion World Teacher Writing zazen Zen Zen Center Zen inspired retriement zen meditation Zen Precepts Zen women

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

John Thomas Peter Andrew