A spirited young man dropped out of school and left his parents to go into the wide world and attain enlightenment with a wise teacher who lived behind the mountains. He packed his belongings and began e distant journey, until he ran into a storm in the foothills of the mountains. From a shack in the distance he saw smoke billowing up, and the young man headed for it. Near the hut, he saw a pious hermit sitting in a tree.
“What are you looking for?" Asked the hermit.
'I want to learn to understand the mind of Buddha,' replied the boy. '
Then why waste your time with a famous teacher when I can put you in touch with a real Buddha - a truly enlightened person?' Asked the hermit.
'Would you be willing to do that?'
'I will tell you what to do. Tomorrow morning you go back, and you follow exactly the road back by which you came. If on the way you meet someone with a blanket over his shoulders, carrying a lamp and wearing his shoes the other way, then the know that this is the Buddha you are looking for. And then you can gain the wisdom you seek from this enlightened person.
Even before the sun rose, the boy began the return journey. Where he had stopped on the outward journey, he stopped again. He gazed at all the people he met along the way, looked carefully at their feet and at what they were wearing. No Buddha.
He traveled two full days and one night, so that in the middle of the night under the full moon he arrived back at his own house and knocked on the door.
'Let me in,' he cried, 'it's me.'
'Oh, dear, I'm so glad you're here again,' said a voice on the other side of the door.
You can imagine how surprised the boy was to see his mother with a lamp in her hand and a blanket over nightgown. In the rush, she had put on her shoes the other way around.
Like in a rewind movie, this spirited young man indeed found his “Buddha". Without having to travel to a Japanese monastery, we often find our own “buddhas” closer to home than we think.
From the book: 'Zen fables for a modern age' by Richard McLean
