The Road Outside the Wall

Tonight, take the long way to somewhere small. To the kitchen, around the block, up the stairs. One walk you would normally rush.

Someone once asked an old teacher about the Way — the big one, the real one, how to live. The teacher pointed at the road running past the wall. The man said no, I mean the great Way. The teacher said: that one runs all the way to the capital.

He was not being difficult. He meant that the road people actually walk on and the road you are looking for are the same road.

Where are you already going, without calling it a direction?

There is no separate road for the important part of your life. It is this one.

大丈夫