Deshi:  Sensei, I have noticed that some people have moved to this area just to practice here; some travel great distances just to practice here; some make great life-decisions just to practice here; and others go through great hardship just to practice here. 

Sensei:  And why should they not?

Deshi:  Well, others drift by, in and out.  Others find all kinds of reasons to leave or even to never enter.

Sensei:  And why should they not?

Deshi:  I do not understand.

Sensei:  One must do what one must do.  One can do only what one is capable of doing.  One is capable of doing only what one wants to do.  People make choices according to these three interdependent variables.

Deshi:  What choices have those made that are in the first group I mentioned?

Sensei:  They are people who place the spirit above all else. 

Deshi:  Is that not a strange thing to do in this day and age?  I mean, can we not do that anywhere, in almost every way today?

Sensei:  Strange?  No.  Rare?  Yes.  Nevertheless, it is the healthiest thing one can do.  And yes, you would think it would be something not so restricted to place, but in my life, while I have made money in many cities, while I have been culturally satisfied in many countries, while I have been educated in many schools, while I have had intimate ties in many places, while I have raised my family in many homes, only this place has been capable of remaining central.  Therefore, it is a place from which I may leave, but one to which I must always return.  It marks periphery and the direction of leaving because it is center.  It is center now, because the cultivation of the spirit is central to my life now.

Deshi:  Well I believe that the cultivation of the spirit is central to my life now as well.  It is just that I do not hold that I cannot carry this belief with me as I leave.

Sensei:  Then perhaps it will be different for you.  It seems that what you must do is connected to what you are capable of doing and what you want. And it seems that these things are connected differently in you from how these things are in connected in me. 

Deshi:  Perhaps.

Sensei:  Now, you are not so sure?

Deshi:  Through this talk, I can see that my reason for moving is to take on a new job.  I am not moving to cultivate my spirit more.  I mean, I did not say to myself, “I am moving to cultivate my spirit further.”  I simply said, “I’m moving to take on this new job.”  I only hold that I can cultivate my spirit anywhere.  Already, in that understanding, such cultivation has become periphery.  What is primary is the new job.  Now I am haunted by the simultaneity of two questions: “Can I not find such a job anywhere?” “Can I not cultivate my spirit anywhere?”  At one time, I could think of these two questions independently.  Now I can only see them side-by-side.  I feel my ego wanting to again think of them one at a time, but that is an option no longer open to me.

Sensei:  Such is life.  Who can say where and what we will be?

Deshi:  Is it not ourselves?

Sensei:  One would hope so.