Same Road Different Tracks

Into a colourful description of a modern-day trip by car from Vancouver to Toronto—exploring themes such as Canadian history and Aboriginal culture, visiting former childhood haunts, and letting Beatles songs evoke personal memories—the author inserts a series of flashbacks telling a parallel story about his journey from Canada to India and arrival in Japan in 1972 and his nine-year stint as an ordained Zen monk. The only foreigner in history to train at Myoshinji Monastery, he describes his struggle to solve the Zen ko‐an “the sound of one hand” and the revelation that compelled him to depart again, alone and unaligned.

The title is derived from a Chinese axiom suggesting that people travel the same road to the truth but each in his or her own unique way; the chapters follow the progress of the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures, an ancient analogy for the human endeavour to overcome adversities and achieve enlightenment.

A reflection on the spirit of our times, Same Road Different Tracks amalgamates an engaging account of a search for the heart of Canada with the dramatic tale of a youthful quest for truth and fulfillment.