The True Path Zen Story
- Dec 11, 2025
- 2 min read
Today we enter… The True Path. A story that looks like guidance, but is actually a dismantling. A koan that removes more than it gives.
Let’s walk in together.
Let the Story Unfold
A monk asked his master:
“What is the True Path?”
The master replied:
“The path is not difficult. Only avoid picking and choosing.”
The monk pressed on.
“But how do I walk it?”
The master said:
“If you try to walk it, you walk away from it.”
The monk fell silent.
Sit With the Meaning
The monk wants direction. The master offers disappearance.
We want paths to be things we do —steps, practices, behaviors, virtues, accomplishments.
Zen says the opposite:
Every attempt to “walk the path” is another attempt to improve the self that does not actually exist.
Picking and choosing is the root of suffering. This I want, this I reject. This is spiritual, this is not. This is progress, this is failure.
The True Path is not a location, not a method, not an achievement.
It is what remains when preference drops its grip.
A path without walking. A clarity without effort. A being without becoming.
To grasp for it is to lose it. To stop grasping is to discover you never left.
Turn Inward With Your Parts
Is there a part of you that believes spiritual growth must be earned through effort?
What happens inside when you imagine not striving for improvement?
Which protector sorts your inner world into good and bad, worthy and unworthy?
Can you sense a younger part afraid that stopping effort means losing safety or value?
Let Expression Rise
IFS Journaling
Write from the part that believes it must walk correctly. Let it tell you what picking and choosing protects it from.
IFS Parts Art
On one side of the page, draw your system “sorting” —what you grasp for, what you avoid. On the other side, draw what your inner world feels like when nothing needs to be preferred or rejected.
Somatic IFS
Stand still.
Let your body lean slightly forward, as if trying to follow a path.
Feel the tension of forward-reaching.
Then let your body return to center.
Notice the difference when nothing pulls you ahead —when presence is enough.
And if none of these feel right… let the koan sit in you like a question without teeth. Let the silence walk for you.
Stay here with your parts as long as you like, and we’ll meet again in the next story.
Continue Exploring the Zen Stories
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