291. The Zen practitioner, vividly aware of being somewhat less than perfect, nevertheless vows on a daily basis to do the seemingly impossible. For how can someone who is weak, fallible, and burdened with a history of bad choices, sincerely vow 'to save the many beings', or 'to abandon delusive passions and thoughts', or 'to fully realize the vast and fathomless Dharma', or 'to walk to the very end the endless Way of the Awakened One'? Here such a one must meet the challenge of the koan: 'walk straight on a narrow mountain path with ninety nine bends'.
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