Walking Koan

   Two prophets gazed down from the top of a hill at a crowd of people that had gathered to listen to them speak. The first prophet shouted, "Follow me, and you will achieve enlightenment!" and walked away. The second prophet then shouted, "Follow me, and you will achieve enlightenment!" and walked away in the opposite direction.

   Some of the people immediately followed the first prophet, and some followed the second. Some decided they were both wrong and chose to walk in a different direction. The others argued with each other, trying to convince their friends and family to go one way or another, until they could no longer see the footprints of either prophet. They then argued about which direction the prophets had actually gone in, and in the end they seperated into many different directions, each certain that theirs was the one true path.

   Eventually the two prophets met on the opposite side of the earth, where their paths naturally crossed since they had both traveled in a straight line. There they sat and waited, as people began to arrive in ones and twos from different directions. These people looked around at the prophets and each other in confusion; they had all taken different paths, yet somehow reached the same destination! They asked the prophets how this was so.

   "Each of you was certain that your path was the right one," the prophets said. "You never strayed from what you believed was right, and so you reached this place regardless of the path you took." And the people were enlightened.