The author left Canada as a twenty-one-year-old university student in 1971, intending to search for the truth of life in India. His travels took him across Europe and Asia and around the Indian heartland but eventually led to Kyoto, where he became the first foreigner to enter Myoshinji, one of Japan's oldest and strictest Zen monasteries. The dialogue includes a description of his struggle to solve the Zen koan "the sound of one hand" and his decision after nine years of training to leave the monastery for a new life in Nagasaki, where he continues to reside today. The chapters are organized according to the Ten Ox Herding Pictures. Quote from A Journey to the East: "Life is just like walking backwards: you can see the path already taken, but you have no idea what telephone pole or garbage can you might crash into next."